Billy Crudup’s display name is “William” on Zoom, which begs the obvious question. “I only use that name when I fill out s—t or when I’m at the doctor,” he explains. “But I was named after mother’s father, who went by ‘Billy.’ So I was always ‘Billy.’”
And yet the Emmy-winning actor is so impressive slipping into his roles over the past 25-plus years that it’s easy to associate him with other names, too. As Cory Ellison on the Apple TV+ hit The Morning Show, he’s the ambitious network executive-turned-movie producer with a perpetually disastrous personal life (said with love!). There was also Dr. Manhattan, the superhero in the 2009 Zack Snyder-directed movie The Watchman, and long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine in the 1998 gem Without Limits. And he’ll always be Russell Hammond, the 70s rock star shouting out “I am a golden god!” on a rooftop, in the Oscar-winning 2000 film Almost Famous.
At one point during his exclusive Parade interview, he even shows off an electric guitar that he played onscreen . . . but doesn’t strum a chord. “I’m no good at it!” he says.
In the moving new film Jay Kelly (streaming on Netflix starting December 5), Crudup is a standout as a former actor named Timothy — otherwise known as the unassuming guy who goes to toe-to-toe George Clooney’s charming A-list movie star character and ends up setting the entire narrative in motion. The drama goes down in an unforgettable scene in which a casual catch-up between old friends devolves into a heated argument about jealousy, fame and regret.
“It gets boring to hear actors about the process but I’ll tell you that [director and co-writer] Noah Baumbach put this scene together with math in that A plus B equaled the explosion of C,” he explains. “It was done with a very technical precision. But that explosion happens in no time.”
The amiable New York native is checking in from his place in London, where he’s in rehearsals on the new West End stage adaptation of the classic film High Noon. Opening night is December 17. “My goal is to get this show running as long as possible,” he says. His wife, actress Naomi Watts, he adds, is “back in New York” with his 16-year-old stepdaughter, Kai (dad is actor Liev Schreiber). Crudup is also a proud dad to 21-year-old William (with his actress ex, Mary-Louise Parker). The pair, by the way, reconnected while playing spouses in the 2017 Netflix TV series, Gypsy, and wed in 2023.
Now Crudup, 57, talks about his career highs and lows and more with Parade.
Parade: On some level, are you doing this play to get out of making holiday plans?
Billy Crudup: Well, you’ve figured me out. That didn’t take long. Those are my precise motivations! All that holiday stuff drives me bonkers, for sure. I do love seeing the family, but an opportunity to work in London is always a welcome opportunity for me, especially doing a piece of theater.
JSquared Photography/Contour by Getty Images
Back in movie-land, how well did you know George Clooney before filming that tense scene?
Yes, I’ve encountered George several times over my adult life. We had dinner together probably 20 years ago and we just had a desire to work together at some point. And so there was a very easy way of relating to that scene. I’ll also say that George is one of the greatest hosts of all time. He hosts on a movie set the same way he does at a restaurant, which is with incredible aplomb and generosity.
Have you encountered a lot of Jay Kelly-types throughout your career?
Well, I'll tell you, there are a hell of a lot more Timothys than there are Jay Kellys. Every single actor goes through a period of time where they’re covetous of something and feel slighted in a way that they can’t articulate. But they can rarely express that. The space that Jay Kelly occupies, it's the reason we call them icons. Iconography is reserved for the very rarest of human experience in the entertainment industry. But the movie asks if that fame comes with a cost — what’s the cost of hyper-American ambition? That goes for any chosen field.
Why did you go into such a tenuous field?
I got a degree at the University of North Carolina in speech communications. Nobody in my family was an actor, so I had to explain to my father and grandfather why I was taking so many performance classes. So I made very good grades, and I was on a student soap opera that aired on student television, and I performed in many plays in the drama department. Several teachers welcomed me, despite not being a theater major.
Would you have been satisfied if you didn’t make it as an actor?
Probably. You can still act if you're not doing it for a career. In fact, I got my master's degree [at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts] with the opportunity to teach. The scholastic environment was always something that I valued, and I had pretty exceptional experience. So I think I would have been very content and exhilarated and may still be teaching at some point.
So when you started off, did you aspire to be a big movie star? Honestly.
It's a strange thing to be an actor, because unlike other professions, you are just a couple steps away from being something else. We didn’t have any classes on how to be someone who occupies a bit of the cultural landscape of America for a period of time, so I was not thoughtfully disciplined about how to become a star. That didn’t mean that I didn't want to be highly successful. And I was getting the kinds of opportunities very early on that none of my peers were getting that could have propelled me. But it turned out that my taste didn’t align with the zeitgeist most of the time.
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Almost Famous, in fact, wasn’t a big hit out of the gate. Did you think it would propel you to that next level?
I certainly thought it was going to be incredibly successful. I freaking loved that movie. But there were people who run studios looking at the box-office numbers that said, “OK, that guy was No. 1 in that movie, and it lost money. And he was No. 1 in that other movie, and it lost money. So guess what? He's not going to get another chance until he proves [otherwise].”
You replaced Brad Pitt in that role. Did Cameron Crowe ever tell you why ultimately picked you?
You know, getting a part as an actor is such a precious thing, and you don't want to ever talk anybody out of it. And when you do get the part, you better show up with some confidence that you're the only person who should play that part!
What was your audition like?
It’s three hours of me with this guitar in my hands. I didn’t even know how to hold it! All I could figure out was “Smoke on the Water.” And then I would say one line, like, “Penny, maybe we shouldn't do that.” Cameron must have that three-hour video somewhere!
Which rock star over the years has come up to you since 2000 and said, “You’re playing a version of me”?
Rock stars don't hang out with me!
You must have run into one over the past 25 years, Billy!
I have run into Bruce Springsteen! But he liked Without Limits. But the movie is about the fans of music. There's a whole generation now who still love that movie — my son is 21 and so when I take him to school or to visit him at school, I see that there are so many more fans of Almost Famous now than there were when it came out. It’s because the parents have shown it to their children, and the kids are at the right age right now and they see their future as nothing but exhilarating and exciting.
We’re talking just a few hours after the release of the Season 4 finale of The Morning Show. Do you agree that Cory is inherently a good guy who’s just bad at relationships?
I'm with you on that. He doesn't know how to manage relationships, and no small part, because this season, we discover what kind of primary relationship he was in with his mother. So he’s got a wizard-like approach to capitalism, but he's got an adolescent approach to interpersonal communications in romantic ways. And I think maybe after 10, 20 years of therapy, he might be able to be in a relationship, but he probably won't get around to it.
Courtesy of Apple
So it all goes back to mommy issues?
Well, even more to daddy issues. Daddy wasn’t there. It has more to do with the parental guidance that goes into teaching a young person how to be in a stable relationship. If nobody models it for you, it’s the wild, wild west.
Do you know anything about Season 5 yet? Have you read a script?
I’ve read nothing. I don't know what they have in store for Cory. I mean, they really put him through the ringer. I hope it's fun, because it was really fun the first couple of seasons, and this season was just torture.
But he turned out to be the hero and saved Reese Witherspoon!
I say torture, but for an actor, it's the greatest gift you can get. I would read these episodes and go, “Wow, you're going to let me do that?!” The writers are also trying to hit a moving target, because the news is always changing.
Related: Will ‘The Morning Show’ Return for Season 5?
You’ve won two Emmys for the role. Is it not cool to say that you love getting awarded by your peers?
It felt great to me. What do you mean?
Well, some actors are like, “Oh, it's just about the work.”
No. I've been doing this long enough. Sure, give me a pat on the back! From time to time, I'll take it.
Valerie Macon/Getty Images
You have Oscar buzz for Jay Kelly. Is there a role you think you should have already been Oscar-nominated for?
For every part, I hope that the character is written in a way where I hope my colleagues will appreciate it and welcome me in. I always want to be a part of that group. I have two brothers, so I'm very competitive, and I'm really ambitious when it comes to the work. But sometimes you have to be a professional actor where you show up for work with a character that you know is going nowhere. I mean, sorry, but Captain Oram in [2017 ’s] Alien: Covenant is not getting the Golden Globe.
Throughout Jay Kelly, the titular character looks back on his life choices. If you did the same, how would you have rated your trajectory?
Oh my God, if I had known you and I would be talking in 2025 about a movie I just did with Noah Baumbach and a TV show that I'm on while I'm doing a show in the West End, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have thought that was some sort of pipe dream or fantasy, and I would shake myself out of the reality of it. So, yes, I am living as gilded an actor's life as I could possibly imagine.
So why haven’t you mastered that guitar yet?
Well, listen. I can play stuff. But I usually just play for myself, and it's more like self-soothing. Unless you have had the experience of how joyful it is to make really bad music, you probably don't know. But from time to time, I'll be playing and singing, and my wife will call out, “Are you OK?” And I'll say, “I'm singing!” And she'll say, “Oh, I thought you fell.”
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What about your son? Can he play?
It will be my son on stage singing “Fever Dog,” I can assure you. He's ascending so rapidly, and he's a real badass.
What else do you do for fun?
I confess, I exercise. And seedy bars and guitar with friends. Those are my main outlets.
Are you still looking for that next great role?
I'm going after it right now. I am still hungry as can be and trying to work at the highest level I can. I don’t think I would have taken on High Noon on stage for the first time by a first-time playwright if I wasn’t aiming for something difficult.
You love talking about acting, don’t you?
Oh, I’m a total nerd about it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
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