To Kill a Mockingbird's Will Pullen on His Emotional Response to Jem Finch & Playing 'Lava Monster' Onstage

Will Pullen can currently be found bringing 10-year-old Jem Finch to life in Aaron Sorkin's acclaimed stage adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. With a star-studded cast led by Tony nominee Jeff Daniels and Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger, Pullen still can't believe he gets to have a seat at the table. "It's such a joy. I have so much gratitude to be included in the group of artists that went into the making of this," he told Ryan Lee Gilbert in a recent interview on Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. "Hopefully Broadway starts bringing back the ideas of having these great American plays, written by great American playwrights, with these big, strong casts of great New York actors. It's such an honor."

Pullen, like so many others, read To Kill a Mockingbird in school, but it wasn't until he was in Jem's shoes that he found a new way to connect to the literary classic. "Before we did the first reading, coming back to the book, it really felt like the first time I was reading it," he said. "That's what makes it such incredible work. It stood the test of time. I was reading that last page where Atticus sat and read to Jem and I got super emotional. I was living with two other guys at the time and one of them came into my room and asked to borrow some eggs and he was like, 'What's going on?' and I was like, 'No, no. It's the air in here causing this.'"

The emotional response to Jem's character followed Pullen into the table reading. "We were told there was no way we were going to get the job. We were just placeholders for the children they would eventually find," he said. "Every actor at that table I admired so much, particularly Celia Keenan-Bolger. I saw Glass Menagerie when I had first come to New York and that performance was one of the reasons I wanted to move to New York and leave my family in Chicago. I remember seeing her two seats away from me at the table, and I was like, 'Oh my god, that's Celia Keenan-Bolger. What am I going to say?'"

Of course, Pullen and Keenan-Bolger, along with Gideon Glick, ended up not being 'just placeholders' and landed the roles of the three rebellious youngsters. "We're this unit in the play. So much of it is the three of us," he said. "That stage is our jungle gym. We're playing lava monster every night. I cling to every second I get with Celia and Gideon. Also, you know, another person sitting at the table is Jeff f**king Daniels. I've learned so much from him, just knowing who he is as a man."

Although he is a Drama Desk Award winner and appearing in a huge Broadway show, Pullen first had his eyes on the field rather than the stage. "I wanted to do tennis but my mom said I was too crazy for that," he said. "She put me in this acting class because I'd go around the house doing these voices and getting swept away in stories like Matilda. What I wanted most was to be an athlete. I wanted to play for the Bears in the fall, the Cubs in the spring and then maybe squeeze the hockey season in and be this star winger for the Blackhawks. But when I did play sports, I didn't want the ball to be hit to me because I didn't want to be the guy to screw it up. When I was in a theater, all I wanted was to be onstage and be a part of it all. I never would've found it on my own. It took so much of family and amazing teachers to pull me into it, and I'm so grateful."

Catch Pullen in To Kill a Mockingbird, playing at the Shubert Theater.

Watch the full #LiveAtFive episode below!