Jesse Williams on Baring All Again in ‘Take Me Out,’ That Leaked Footage and Why He Doesn’t Watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Gordon Cox
·4-min read

Jesse Williams is one of 53 people to make our New Power of New York list. For the full list, click here.

The Tony-winning Broadway revival of “Take Me Out” returns this fall, and Jesse Williams is back with it. In Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play, the “Grey’s Anatomy” actor plays a biracial baseball player who comes out as gay at the height of his career.

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Why bring “Take Me Out” back to Broadway?

We weren’t done. We had a lot more in the tank, and I felt like we were really hitting a new stride. The possibility of coming back was brought up to me before we even finished the first run, and frankly, I didn’t want to do it; I was tired and missed my children. But once I was able to recharge at home, I just kept thinking about the show. I’d find myself running lines in the shower or just doing scenes alone while I was sailing.

How do you feel the racial politics of the play land now, compared to when it was first written 20 years ago?

I feel like the words haven’t changed but the audience has — not only in terms of people’s personal experiences, but also our willingness to allow people to be themselves in public and talk about how they want to be treated. Folks are now getting used to those conversations. We’re not there yet, but we’re a couple of sentences into the conversation.

How nervous were you about the nudity in the show, and did it get easier as the run went on?

There was a pocket of time — maybe a couple months before we came in for rehearsals — when I was thinking about it all the time: “Is it necessary? Maybe there’s some way to do it with an obstruction?” I kicked it around and quickly realized I had to let that nervousness move through me. It’s important for the audience to experience what the characters experience in the shower scenes, which is “Oh shit, what do I do now? Where do I look? Where do I stand?” Everybody’s naked every day, but why does it feel so foreign, so weird? What is it about being a straight man that is so fragile that if my eye moves a quarter of an inch down, then my identity is yanked out from under me?

But once we started doing the show, it is what it is. I’m not me; I’m embodying a character with his own objective and baggage. I’m not precious about this stuff. We have a short life; I’m not holding too tight.

During the run, phone footage of one of the shower scenes leaked. Are you worried about something like that happening again?

Nah, I’m bigger than that. We’re doing something bigger than that here.

There still isn’t an out gay Major League ball player. Are we ready for one?

There’s only one way to find out. Whether America, or a subset of dominant American culture, is ready for something is immaterial to whether it’s time.

You spent 12 seasons on “Grey’s Anatomy.” Do you still watch?

No, but I didn’t watch it for a significant portion of being on it. Which is not a comment on the show; it’s because it was no longer useful to watch myself. When I first started acting, I would watch to see if I was achieving what I thought I was achieving, and I was able to get a sense of myself from the outside in. But I’m a perfectionist, and watching myself eventually just made me more unsettled.

What’s on your to-do list as you’re heading back into rehearsal?

I’ve got to get back in the gym and get myself together! I’m playing a top athlete, and I’ve got to train like one. I train every day; I’m on a meal plan. But in the weeks and months away from the show, I let myself go. You don’t want to see this belly right now! I’ve got to get back and grind.

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