Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. has said that he wasn’t aware that a part he auditioned for was for The Many Saints Of Newark, the upcoming The Sopranos sequel.
The star revealed that he was not considered for the first round of auditions for his role in the film, and when he was approached, details of the project were kept strictly under wraps.
“There came a point where they needed someone quickly, and I got the call,” Odom Jr. said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
“I don’t even know that I knew I was auditioning for The Sopranos [movie]. They keep things very tight to the vest,” he added.
Odom Jr. went on to liken the casting experience to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“They don’t send you a script, don’t send you character names, scenarios are changed,” he said. “You have to make some choices as an actor. You take what you see, and you start inventing.”
The actor underwent several rounds of auditions, each time submitting a tape and receiving notes back from the team, each time unsure of what he was auditioning for.
“I said, ‘Guys, I don’t mind taping again, but you’ve got to send me a script,’” he said. “‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ Then I got on the phone with [director] Alan [Taylor], and he helped clear up all of my questions.”
In an interview with NME earlier this year Odom Jr. offered some key details about the film, which takes place during the 1967 Newark race riots.
“I was very happy to talk about how the immigrant story rubbed up against the story of disenfranchised Black people at that time,” he said. “It was quite literally incendiary. The city was on fire.”
