Tagged : interview

in Cast, Featured, Interviews, Smash

Have A Question For Megan Hilty?

Have A Question For Megan Hilty? Megan Hilty Holding a Phone 269x300We are now taking questions for Smash cast member Megan Hilty, also known as Ivy Lynn on Smash.

Megan Hilty has kindly agreed to answer some of your questions while the cast is still filming! So send in anything you may want to know, so long as it isn’t a request for spoilers.  Once all the questions are submitted, I’ll be sending her the best ones, so please have your questions in by11:59pm EST on Friday, February 24th.

You can submit your questions here as a comment below.  Remember to include your first name and optionally your last initial, as well as where you are from. If you would like, you can also include your age. For example, if I were to ask a question, at the end I would say, “Helga O. (92, Los Angeles, CA).”

Also, please use your real email address if you are leaving a comment, because I will be sending out a reminder email to the people whose questions were selected.  We’ll probably be picking around 20 questions, but feel free to submit as many as you’d like. (Note: Try to put your questions in the same comment if possible.)

Good luck, and I can’t wait to read through all your questions!

in Cast, Interviews, Smash

Raza Jaffrey Has a Few Words to Say About Smash

In almost every ad for Smash, NBC “introduces” viewers to Katharine McPhee. But what about the man fortunate enough to be holding the hand of this actress on the new musical-based drama?

Raza Jaffrey Has a Few Words to Say About Smash Raza Jaffrey as Dev Sundaram 224x300

Raza Jaffrey as Dev Sundaram

We’re excited to introduce you here to Raza Jaffrey,who portrays Dev Sundaram on Smash, the serious boyfriend of McPhee’s Karen Cartwright.

“They’re in a caring, charming relationship,” Jaffrey told me of Dev and Karen. “He’s behind her all the way.”

But will things remain that stable? Not exactly, the actor teases, but the relationship troubles that befall Dev and Karen might not be your typical television fare. Don’t expect any cheating or even any jealousy.

“Bigger things are in store, but not obvious stuff that viewers might expect,” Jaffrey said. “Issues will come up that involve both Karen’s career and mine.”

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in Articles, Cast, Interviews, Smash

TeenTV Interviews Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty

“Smash”, the new Broadway hopeful show on NBC was the brainchild of mega-director/producer Steven Spielberg. If you’ve ever wanted to sing and wow an audience you can identify with Karen (McPhee) and Ivy (Hilty), two talented girls; one a newbie from Iowa, the other already experienced on Broadway but, never the “star”.  Both these gals want to play Marilyn Monroe in a new musical. There will be drama!… and some great established and original music starting on NBC February 6th.

Spielberg recently told press, “I have always had this interest in theater. But what goes on behind all of that, before the curtain even goes up, is something that’s altogether different, and it’s that creative process that really fascinated me; the competition, the creativity, the fights, the dreams, the egos, disappointments, the energy, would make a very, very compelling story”.

TeenTV: Katharine, as a current artist, what do you get out of performing cover songs versus original songs? This show will have both.

TeenTV Interviews Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty Katharine McPhee as Karen Cartwright 150x150

Katharine McPhee as Karen Cartwright

Katharine: It’s something I really enjoy. I thought since I’ve spent a lot of time in the recording studios in the last five years that the recording part process of the show would be my least favorite, but I’m not picking favorites of what I do. I would say that the recording process for me is actually really rewarding because it’s such a different pace from the set and we’re really on the set a lot every day so I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I actually would. I also love singing original songs.

It’s definitely different because I’m usually singing songs that I’m hearing for the first time, and it’s such a fast pace that we’re on so you don’t get a whole lot of time to sit with the songs and perfect them. It is different because I think of myself as more of a pop artist, and Megan here has got the big Broadway voice, so I’m always trying to balance the two so that they are cohesive together so that it makes sense in terms of the show.

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in Articles, Cast, Interviews, Smash

Megan Hilty and the Road to Fame

Megan Hilty and the Road to Fame Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn Smash Promo Season 1 213x300

Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn

An interview with the Bellevue-born star of NBC’s upcoming backstage-musical series, “Smash.” Megan Hilty attended Sammamish High School and went on to play Glinda on Broadway in “Wicked.”

Growing up in Bellevue, Megan Hilty knew from a young age she wanted a career in the spotlight.

“I decided I was going to be an opera star. I was about 12,” she recalled, noting her first stage role was Bet in a Catholic-school program her great aunt signed her up for. “I had one line: ‘Nancy, he killed Nancy!’ and I had to kiss a boy on the cheek and it was scandalous.”

Hilty, 30, may get into more scandalous situations as Ivy, the desperate-for-success rising Broadway star in NBC’s “Smash.” Ivy is one of two actresses — the other, a less experienced and more naive ingénue, is played by “American Idol” vet Katharine McPhee — up for the leading role in a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe.

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in Cast, Interviews

Katharine McPhee After Idol & Life As Marilyn

By now you’ve probably seen either a commerical or a billboard for NBC’s highly anticipated (and hugely publicized) new musical drama Smash, which premieres on the network Feb. 6 at 10pm. Former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee stars as struggling actress Karen Carpenter, competing for the leading role in a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It’s an incredibly ambitious series (hatched by an idea from none other than Steven Spielberg) that mixes backstage drama with elaborate musical numbers. And McPhee has already drawn buzz for this star-making role. “I think that’s a nice way of looking at it,” says the actress of this beingKatharine McPhee 2.0. “I was really surprised in the trailers when they said, ‘And introducing…Katharine McPhee.’ But it is a new introduction because people don’t know me as an actress.” EW chatted with McPhee on the Smash set and talked about meeting Spielberg for the first time and her fight to get roles after American Idol.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So I heard you actually met Steven Spielberg after Idol?
KATHARINE MCPHEE: Yeah I did. He brought me in. It was the most bizarre thing. I  remember just being obviously elated about meeting him. It was just a general meeting. They said just go to his offices at Dreamworks at Universal Studios. He had me in his office and I met Stacey Snider. They were just the most lovely, sweet people. I was just so excited. He was asking me questions about what I wanted to do and my aspirations. I told him I wanted to act and I had been acting and before Idol that was sort of my dream.

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