In the last few years after Cory Hawkins has appeared in some of the biggest movies and TV shows. Now the actor is currently working on the Broadway revival of Six Degrees of Separation. His performance on the Broadway show has been so critically acclaimed that he has recently received a Tony Award nomination for it. This is a long way for the actor who had a small role on the now canceled Royal Pains in 2011.
The actor tells Playbill that he made an early attempt at an acting career in Los Angeles, but his real goal was to attend Juilliard. However, a nearly disastrous audition nearly ended his dream.
Hawkins explains that he was interested in the structure and foundation of the classical acting school. “I didn’t audition straight out of high school. I was like, ‘I’m gonna go to California and try my luck,’ but then I wanted to get back to the East Coast. I remember thinking, ‘I want to go to Juilliard, I want that structure and I want that rigor and that classical foundation.’”
With his dream set, Hopkins managed to get an audition for the school. But it merely went wrong. “I’d been working on this monologue since I was a kid. It was from James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner. I remember walking into the room, getting down on my knees, and I was like, ‘This is it, I’m about to act my behind off. They’re about to accept me into Juilliard,’ and completely blanked on the monologue.”
He eventually bounced back and was accepted into Julliard, graduated, and has reaped the benefits of attending the acting school ever since.
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