Mira Sorvino’s Advice to New Romy & Michele Stars: 'Build It Off a True Friendship'

As Romy to Lisa Kudrow’s Michele, Oscar winner Mira Sorvino made Hollywood cult comedy history in the 1997 film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. Now, the actress, gearing up for her Broadway debut in Chicago, has some heartfelt advice for the performers about to bring best friends Romy and Michele to the stage.

“Have fun with it and really build it off of a true friendship,” Sorvino told Broadway.com when asked what she’d tell stars Laura Bell Bundy (Romy) and Kara Lindsay (Michele). “Lisa and I bonded right away and Lisa makes me funnier—I just get tickled pink by her. It was so easy to play Romy to her Michele because I just loved her. That real bond is the important part.”

She also encouraged Bundy to dig beneath Romy’s comic bravado. “She swaggers around like she’s Captain Kirk walking into the deck of the Enterprise, but actually underneath it she’s very, very vulnerable. Vulnerable to what people think of her, vulnerable to not being enough. A lot of her talk is kind of overcompensation. But they have to remember that vulnerability and that connection with each other.”

Sorvino will start her run as Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre on September 15. Romy & Michele: The Musical begins performances at off-Broadway’s Stage 42 on October 14.