Smash’s Bella Coppola on Channeling Her Star Power, Staying Centered and Holding Space for Marilyn

Age: 26

Hometown: Sacramento, California

Current Role: Bella Coppola plays Chloe Zervoulian, the associate director-choreographer of Bombshell—a Marilyn Monroe meta-musical-in-the-making dramatized in Smash on Broadway and based on the 2012 NBC television series of the same name. Smash will play its final performance June 22.

Credits: Coppola made her Broadway debut as Jane Seymour in SIX in 2022. She also briefly reprised her role in the Toronto production. Her other credits include Kinky Boots off-Broadway and the regional world premiere of Other World. A singer-songwriter in her free time, she released her first EP “I Regret Nothing” in 2019 along with singles “Vodka Lemonade” and “Forbidden Fruit.” She plans to release a new album and single this summer.

Hope Is the Thing With Feathers…and Rhinestones
Coppola took to the stage early on, reportedly finding her light even before her lines. “My mom always says that I started to sing the moment I could speak,” she recalled. “I got bit by the bug super young.” In high school, she landed at St. Francis, the Sacramento all-girls Catholic school that served as the basis for alumna Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. She was stunned by the level of talent on display her freshman year during an audition for Into the Woods. “I was with these incredible women. I mean, really crazy talented girls,” Coppola said. Her classmates’ prowess ultimately helped push her to the next level. She began taking dance classes and voice lessons with her beloved instructor Sam Schieber, whom she still works with to this day. And of course, every aspiring actor needs a role model, and Coppola felt drawn to a certain blonde bombshell. “I definitely had a Marilyn Monroe phase,” she said. “I had her posters on my wall. She really was this beautiful person on screen, so funny and so gifted.”

Not A Lone Star, But A Soulful System
When it came time for college, Coppola headed to Texas State University, where she earned her BFA in musical theater. “It was never really a place that I would’ve envisioned to go to school for musical theater,” she admitted, but added, “I had a great experience.” The highly selective program, helmed by Kaitlin Hopkins, admits only 12 to 14 students each year and places an emphasis on balance, “because the industry we’re going into is so tough,” Coppola explained. The curriculum included meditation workshops and even a mental wellness course for first-year students. The lesson: “Your entire life can’t be theater because it’s so fickle and we can’t control it.” She appreciates that her fellow graduates are not just artistically ambitious creatives, but grounded collaborators and cherished friends.

If the Crown Fits, Wear It
Conquering a queendom is no small feat. By December 2022, the West End company of SIX had traded crowns a few times. But it was different for New York royalty. When Coppola took over the role of Adele-coded queen Jane Seymour, it was the first time that a new group of actresses would replace all of Henry VIII’s wives at once.“ Our cast was kind of the guinea pigs,” she said. “On Broadway, you don't replace an entire principal company. It's usually a couple people or one person. But this was an entire cast changeover.” She described the rehearsal process as a crash course in stamina, as well as a rewarding bonding experience for her and castmates Hailee Kaleem Wright, Leandra Ellis-Gaston, Nasia Thomas, Zoe Jensen and Taylor Iman Jones. “It was wild,” Coppola said. “But it was so fun getting to do it with them. We were all in it together. We only had maybe two runthroughs on stage with costumes, in-ears, the mics, all of the elements before we were thrown in front of an audience.”

Smash Comes Full Circle
Coppola’s Smash story appears to be written in the stars. She and her mom were devoted fans of the Smash TV series, which would become the basis for the musical. “Oh yeah, I was watching,” Coppola said of the 2012 NBC show that starred Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee. She wasn’t just watching, she was rehearsing. There are home videos of Bella performing “Second Hand White Baby Grand” and belting out “Let Me Be Your Star.” “I grew up singing those songs,” she said. “It’s really full circle to now get to sing that on a Broadway stage eight shows a week with this dream team. It’s truly insane.” Coppola relishes the opportunity to lean on, laugh with and learn from castmates like Robyn Hurder, Caroline Bowman, Krysta Rodriguez and Brooks Ashmanskas. Smash also provides an opportunity to honor the legacy of Marilyn Monroe. Coppola shared that there was a special energy in the air during the cast’s performance on June 1, what would’ve been Marilyn’s 99th birthday. “This one goes out to her,” she said.

Taking Charge, Aiming for Change
Chloe is described as “not your typical leading lady,” having faced an unfair share of body-shaming as a full-figured performer. Her place on the Bombshell creative team gives the character a chance to rewrite her own ending. “I always thought growing up that that would be the case,” she said of being defined by her body type. “I feel like most of the examples we see of people doing theater are really fit, really skinny, really small people. I'm always going to be a curvy girl. So I think growing up, I was kind of like, ‘Is there gonna be a space for me?’” Those doubts did not deter her passion. “Thankfully, I moved to New York and have been working since I got here,” Coppola said, adding, “There is space for everyone. There are stories for everybody. There are characters for everybody to play.”

Sing Your Own Song
Without giving away too many Smash spoilers, director-mentor Nigel (Ashmanskas) gives Chloe a rousing pep talk at the end of Act One that encourages her to grab hold of the opportunity in front of her. Coppola recalled being on the receiving end of a similar speech not too long ago. It was her first job since moving to New York, understudying Bonnie Milligan’s character in a workshop of the musical Other World. They were doing a full runthrough when Milligan called out sick. That’s when composer Hunter Bell told Coppola, “‘Just go up there and be the star that you are. Don't let anything get in your way,’” she recalled. “In the Smash way, he was like, ‘Own it. It's yours to own. Don't worry about anything else.' As an understudy, that was really nice to hear.” Though there’s fierce competition between Bombshell Marilyns Karen (Bowman) and Ivy (Hurder) in Smash, that’s not how the real Broadway beauties behave. To Coppola, the women in the cast are more like sisters than divas. As Bella’s time with Smash comes to an end, she’s reflecting on a piece of wisdom she learned during her time in Texas. “Someone's win is not your loss,” she said. “Someone booking a job has nothing to do with you. It's their win. You're gonna win next time.”