Red Broadwell
With a show as musically inclined as Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel, it’s natural that the cast and crew would be theatrically inclined. The voice cast is chock full of Broadway’s finest. Leading the way is Erika Henningsen, who originated the role of Cady Herron in the Tony-award nominated Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls as Charlie Morningstar: daughter of Lucifer, creator of the Hazbin Hotel, and perpetual advocate for the citizens of Hell.
Awards Radar spoke to Henningsen about moving from live theater to voice acting, radical optimism, queer representation, and Hazbin’s eclectic soundtrack.
Awards Radar: So I guess my first question is this is your first time meeting a television production, how was the experience?
Erika Henningsen: Yeah. And it’s a big one. It’s been amazing. With the transition from musical theater to voice acting, I’ve led in Broadway musicals before, so kind of going from that to this felt like a nice transition in the sense there was some overlap. And then the stuff I didn’t know I was getting to learn on the fly. We had just the greatest team of people putting the show together so I felt I was in good hands. It’s been kind of bonkers because I think we knew we had a fan base prior to it dropping, but now that it’s been released, we actually get to interact with those fans; that’s been an unexpected, sort of wonderful chain reaction since the first episode dropped.
AR: That’s so beautiful. As a follow-up: what inspired you to move from theater to television, or specifically, live theater to voice recording?
EH: Yeah, I mean for this show in particular, I just think it’s kind of rare to find anything these days that’s original. So many things are based on properties– I’ve been in things based on properties, those will always exist. I love them. They’re great. But this is kind of unlike anything else that’s ever existed. I remember it came across my desk and I just read it and then I watched the pilot and I thought that this is so original. It’s such a world that I’ve never seen before and people singing it and like any chance that I get to sing, but I don’t have to do 8 shows a week is kind of the greatest dream job in the world.
The thing I’m always most interested in, especially with this show, is, ideally, you know we don’t know how many seasons we will get to do. Charlie, even in just the first season, has changed so much. Yes, it’s a show and people sort of liken her to a Disney Princess in hell, but she’s dealing with really adult, mature themes. Every episode I felt like brought a new challenge to the character and also to me: getting to bring it to life and figuring out how do I use just my voice to sort of portray what this emotional moment is or what this turning point is for the character. It was kind of a no brainer. I feel like I I loved the project to begin with and then as I got more involved with it I just wanted to keep doing more because I feel like I’ve kept uncovering new layers of Charlie because that’s the journey she’s on.
AR: It’s a really nice self discovery journey and I guess that ties into my next question. In theater, you’ve played a lot of very optimistic, ingenue roles. Was there a natural transition for Charlie or was there something a little bit different about her that made you pick her?
EH: I think I mean that’s so that’s so kind that you say that like that I picked her. I feel like they picked me and. I got lucky. Actors are like, “Oh my God, they chose me. Hell yeah, I’ll do this.” But the reason that I loved playing her is she is very positive, earnest, and optimistic; I tend to lean that way too. The thing that I love about playing her that I am learning in my own life is owning the confidence and badassery that I feel like she has. She’s pushed to extreme levels–literally heaven versus hell. That’s what I’ve loved about playing her and also why I wanted to. I just think it’s very common for a female in any art form, not just animation, to kind of only get to play like this sort of one-sided thing–especially if she’s an optimistic person. Sometimes skewing optimism can equal a lot of times portrayed as dumb or ignorant. I think the great thing about Charlie is that she’s optimistic and she’s earnest, but she’s curious. She’s always learning and she messes up a lot. We watch her grow from those mistakes as opposed to sort of being this one-dimensional, like “everything’s going to be great” type of character.
AR: Yeah, that’s the big thing about Charlie is she’s optimistic, but she’s not indiscriminately optimistic.
EH: That’s something that I try to embody and pass along to the world and also to the fans of the show. I think optimism gets a bad rap because we live in a world where, like apathy and sarcasm can be so sexy and cool. I love that for those people, I don’t have that bone in my body. I just, I’m not cool enough to have it. But I think, you know, optimism can actually be a really powerful tool and a really strong way to create unity and change or to impact your life circumstances. That’s how I feel as a person and I think that’s the core that I have in common with Charlie. You can choose optimism and still be powerful. And I hope that people who watch the show feel that optimism doesn’t have to be weak or dumb. It can actually be a really powerful choice to stand in joy.
AR: Charlie kind of already had a little bit of an established personality in the pilot from like five years ago. Was there anything that you like, granted, or was like the original interpretation something you stuck to?
EH: I knew fans loved the pilot and so I felt this responsibility to pay homage to the pilot. The performances from those voice actors were incredible, and it’s the reason we get to do this job now. We owe a lot to that pilot and to that cast and its creation. But the thing that I really wanted to do was let me give them more. Let me give the audience more to see. What other textures can we uncover? I’ve done this before where I’ve taken a pre-existing character and brought them to life, and I always start from the same place: pay homage to the character, pay homage to the thing people know. But remember that you’re the person who’s about to take this on.
You have to bring yourself to it and you have to bring your own opinions and world insights to the part. I felt super encouraged to do that because Vivienne was like, “Thanks for watching it, do your thing and we’ll guide you if we feel like it’s off track.” I feel like I kind of operate at a very high frequency and it was cool. The moments that Charlie loses it or freaks out or is in an emotional state of turmoil, I asked the first couple times I was like, “can I really, really go here?” And they were like, “No, not too much. More of that.” So that was fun.
AR: That sounds so good. So, arguably, at the heart of the show is Charlie’s relationship with her partner Vaggie. How do you feel about, like, how that’s developed over the course of the season?
EH: I think the thing that’s so special about it is like you meet them. You meet them at like the middle of their relationship. It’s not like the beginning, where it’s about Charlie coming out as bisexual or coming to terms with having a girlfriend and having to tell her dad about it. These people are just in a committed, loving relationship. It’s a part of who they are. It’s not their full identity. I understand we have a lot of queer stories about that moment of coming out or having to share who you are or who your partner is with people who haven’t been aware of that, or you had to keep it hidden from. We need those stories. They’re so beautiful. I think there’s also such value to seeing the story where it’s like, this is just who they are. This is just accepted, they are one another’s person. So I love that from the jump that that was how we meet who Charlie is and who Vaggie is to her.
AR: I didn’t see it coming either. I was floored. But I think it’s a really interesting dynamic, and especially because you do meet them as they’re in the swing of their relationship. There is none of that early awkwardness, it’s so nice just having two people who are in love with each other as a fully established queer couple doing their thing, and they’re still finding things out about each other too.
EH: Not to bring up another title, but I remember watching Modern Family for the first time and the way like the gay couple on Modern Family, they were just married and had a kid. And the story is not about that. It’s about what happens within this pre-established thing that is just normal and should be normal. It’s who they are. I love that and I really enjoyed that. That was how Viv saw these characters and how she decided to portray like this really central queer relationship in the show.
AR: Obviously, Vivienne also has a very big soft spot for musical theater, and there’s a lot of very diverse musical theater talents across the cast. How was it performing in an eclectic collection of genres and songs?
EH: My God, that’s a really good question. Our writers really did nail that. I remember the first song they gave me was “Happy Day in Hell” and, I was like, wow. I’ve never had a song that felt like this. I’ve gotten to sing songs that were written to my voice. But I got to do every single thing I’ve ever wanted to do in a song in that one song. So I wondered, how are we going to top this? Then they came with these beautiful ballads and then these fun pop rock anthems. For me, my favorite thing was that every week we got a new song. It was a new challenge to figure out: where does this sit in Charlie’s voice? What does she sound like singing this type of music when she sings with Vaggie? How does her voice change when she sings with her dad? How does her voice change when she sings with Alastor or or with the entire hotel? What texture can I bring to my voice? The soundtrack is so iconic because every single one is a different genre. Which means that my job as the actor was to figure out how to sound like Charlie, but also how does Charlie sound singing this style? That was really special because you don’t get to do that in most musicals– or projects in general. There’s a style to a show, and this show goes all over the place.
AR: Yeah, it was. I mean, by nature, it’s not a jukebox musical, but like the closest you could get to a jukebox musical while also having completely original songs.
EH: Correct, correct. So you’re like: there’s the Randy Newman number. There’s the Britney Spears “Toxic” number. Every single song kind of scratched another musical itch for people. If they want a big gutsy ensemble thing, that comes by episode seven.
AR: There you go. So what was your favorite song that you personally sang? Or, if you want, favorite song that you do not feature in?
EH: Yeah, my favorite song that I sang in was “Ready for This”. It was the first time that I was like: “this is a different tone for Charlie” It’s our Penultimate Episode Song where she’s rallying the battle troops together to fight heaven. So I love that because it was just so fun, and it was the first time I got to hear other people’s voices in the recording studio. On top of that, it was the first time I had to figure out what she sounds like when she’s Badass Charlie and not optimistic Charlie. Optimistically badass Charlie? Yeah.
My favorite thing that I didn’t sing on is “Loser Baby”. I think it is just a perfect song. It’s exactly what those two characters would sing together. The lyrics are clever. It’s simple; the best songs are sometimes the simplest ones. It’s just catchy. I heard it and I thought our writers know how to write for every single character. You don’t think Husk is going to sing like you don’t know, like, well, what will it sound like to sing with Angel Dust, who’s a totally different character. That song is just the perfect middle ground for both of them. I love it.
AR: Yeah. Also just getting to hear Keith Davidson was like. Yeah, like, can this just be like that forever? 24 hours. Will my phone die?
EH: Yeah.
AR: Well Erika, thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure.
Hazbin Hotel‘s first season is now airing in its entirety on Prime Video.
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