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All Of It with Alison Stewart
Jasmine Amy Rogers on Bringing Betty Boop to Life
00:26:59
Tony-nominated actor Jasmine Amy Rogers discusses her role bringing the cartoon Betty Boop to life in the new Broadway musical "Boop!"
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- [00:00]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
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- [00:22]
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- [00:58]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC Studios in soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. Coming up on today's show, poems from the mother of Kalief Browder form the basis of a new documentary. Filmmaker Sisa Bueno joins us to discuss for Vanita for Kalief, which is screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Plus, we'll learn about a new book called Sick and Dirty that explores the period known as the Golden Age of Hollywood despite its draconian censorship under the Hays Code. And Canadian rock band the Beaches will be at Governor's Ball this weekend, but first they'll stop by our studio to perform live songs from their forthcoming album. That's the plan. So let's get this started with Boop the Musical. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. That's what happened to Jasmine Amy Rogers when she auditioned for the musical beop first time, she was not called back. But she studied, she tried some new things, and when she saw the role had not been cast, she asked to audition again. And now she's a Tony nominee for her role as Betty Boop in Boop the Musical. Betty just wants a little vacation. She's a big star in her universe as a two dimensional woman. But when she's asked by a reporter who is the real Betty Boop, her two dimensional self is left wondering why, what the answer is. With some help from her fellow cartoon characters, she goes through space and time to wind up in the three dimensional present at Comic Con. She is mesmerized by life in the big city and all the big colors and feelings that real life can bring, including love. The reviews for Boop have one thing in common. Everyone thinks that Jasmine Amy Rogers is great the reviews use words like triple threat and sensational, and her 11th hour number leads to a standing ovation. Here's Jasmine Amy Rogers singing something to shout about.
- [03:05]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Some days I am in doubt about whether to get up or not Nothing entices me Nothing amazes me Unless it's scripted and I'm in the sh. Nothing to pout about Listen to me, g. Will is but God, I want something to shout about Stand on my head about Drag a flag.
- [03:50]
Alison Stewart
I want.
- [03:55]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Something to shut up out whatever it.
- [04:10]
Alison Stewart
Jasmine Amy Rogers, welcome to the studio.
- [04:12]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Hi. Thanks for having me.
- [04:14]
Alison Stewart
I want to take you back to that day of your first. Your first audition.
- [04:18]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes.
- [04:18]
Alison Stewart
For.
- [04:19]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Boop.
- [04:19]
Alison Stewart
What do you remember about that day?
- [04:21]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
You know, I was so nervous, I didn't know what to expect, and so I went in the first time. I did the singing and the dancing. That was all great. And when it came down to the dancing. No, sorry. I did the singing and the scenes, and those went great. When it came to the dancing, I was so, so nervous. I knew I had to tap, and I hadn't done that in a long time. And so when I did it, Jerry Mitchell, our director and choreographer, he said it sounded like someone dropped a handful of silverware on the floor.
- [04:52]
Alison Stewart
Oh, my.
- [04:53]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes. And I love him dearly, so it's okay now. But, yes, it was a mess. I've never wanted to walk out of an audition before, and that day, I really did. But. Yeah.
- [05:05]
Alison Stewart
How did you pick yourself up from that moment? That's a really tough mom.
- [05:08]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
You know, it was hard. I think it was easier because I had a job to go back to. I was on the tour of Mean Girls national tour as Gretchen. And so I came to New York. I auditioned. It didn't go well, and I went right back to work. And so I had a distraction. But thankfully, you know, once I came back to the city and I found out they were still looking, you know, I got back in there. But, yeah, it was tough.
- [05:30]
Alison Stewart
What did you learn from that experience?
- [05:33]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
At the time, I learned how important preparation was. And when I came to my prep for that initial call, I had kind of procrastinated, kind of brushing up on my tap because I was so afraid of it. So I learned definitely that, like, you know, you can't. You can't do that. You have to. You have to prepare, like, absolutely fully.
- [05:59]
Alison Stewart
What made you decide to ask to audition again?
- [06:03]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
You know, when. That first audition, I keep. I mean, I keep going back to it because it crushed me, truly. And I never will forget going home that day and laying in my bed and crying. And my agents called, and they were like, it's not gonna go your way. And I felt so defeated. Not just because I. It hadn't gone well, but because I had built it up in my heart and my soul that this was the role for me. And so to walk away knowing that it was. It wasn't crushed me. And so when it came back around and they were still looking, I still had that feeling. I was like, no, something's wrong. This is where I'm. This is where I'm supposed to be. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I just couldn't get rid of that feeling. So when I heard them auditioning in a studio in Manhattan, I immediately was like, I need this. I need this, I need this. And I called my agent up and I was like, can I please get back in the room? And they said, yes. But I just had that feeling in my soul and my gut that I needed to be doing it. Yeah.
- [07:03]
Alison Stewart
Once you got the part, how do you start to research Betty Boop?
- [07:07]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yeah. You know, luckily there's so much source material for Betty because all of her shorts are on the Internet. They're on YouTube. And so I was doing a lot of watching a lot of reading up on her history and where she comes from and who she was and who the Fleischers were and why she was in the first place. So, you know, it was just a lot of, like, deep dive. It kind of felt like when you're in high school and you have to write a paper and you have to, like, go into the library and look at all these things. So it was kind of like that. Yeah.
- [07:39]
Alison Stewart
When you play her, you play her as a feminist.
- [07:43]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Absolutely.
- [07:44]
Alison Stewart
What's feminist about Betty Boop?
- [07:46]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Well, Betty always, from her inception, was this independent woman who did whatever she wanted to, when she wanted to. She could do anything. She could do any job, hold any job, entertain, you know, she never really had family or anything like that, but she took care of others. She was just the epitome of, I'm a woman. I can do anything. I'm capable of anything. Her motto is, I'm capable of amazing things. So it was very apparent to me and to the Fleischers as well, that Betty was truly one of the first feminists on television in that way. Yeah.
- [08:22]
Alison Stewart
How did you decide on the voice that you would use? You also decide on one that people could listen to for two hours?
- [08:28]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes. That was a very big part of it.
- [08:30]
Alison Stewart
That's a big Part of it. Cause you listen initially, you're like, I don't know if I could listen the cartoon.
- [08:34]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes, absolutely.
- [08:35]
Alison Stewart
Could I listen to this for two hours? How did you develop her voice?
- [08:38]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
A lot of it. I just, you know, I went to the original source material, obviously, and I grabbed onto all of that bubbly, light, like, almost childlike voice mannerisms, and I just put it in my own voice. I'm like, you can probably hear. It's early for me as an actress, as a singer, you know, my voice is a lot raspier and lower than Betty's. So my Betty voice sits a little lower and it's a little raspier, but it all sits in that. In that little. That little pocket that she has. And that's where the truth of her voice lies. And so I just combined the two. And I think it made her a little bit more human, a little bit more grounded in the voice, you know. Cause the shorts, you're only getting her for a couple minutes, you know. But this is two and a half hours, obviously, so it makes it a lot easier to listen to, I think.
- [09:28]
Alison Stewart
What did you pick up from watching the shorts about her mannerisms that you could not imitate, but that you can embody?
- [09:35]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes. You know, the Fleischer cartoons are so specific in the way that they depicted movement. The Fleischer's created the Rotoscope, which was a brand new way of animating, and it allowed for very fluid movement, which we hadn't seen in cartoons at the time. And so there's a lot of human aspects to the way that they move. They based her movement off of people. But there's also just like a. Oh, my goodness. Just like an elasticity to the way she moves and a sharpness to the way she does things. And I always think about the way she holds her hands. And early cartoons, you know, the early drawings, her hands weren't fully form, like her fingers. And so I do a lot of like displaying with my hands. And that honestly helps a lot into the. Into the physicalization. And she moves a little bit like a princess, a little more spastic than that, but she holds herself in a way that sometimes I think of a princess might. So that's in there too. But it was so. It's so iconic what the Fleischers did, that it's. Honestly, it feels easy to kind of emulate because it is so specific.
- [10:44]
Alison Stewart
You know, you can see it in the curtain call.
- [10:46]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, really?
- [10:47]
Alison Stewart
Because you come off the top of the stairs and you kick your foot out.
- [10:50]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
I do, and you go down the stairs.
- [10:52]
Alison Stewart
And I was like, down to the end of the show, she's Betty Boop.
- [10:56]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
That's something I just started doing, and I wasn't aware of it until I saw a picture, and I was like, oh, I do. I do that every night. Yeah.
- [11:03]
Alison Stewart
What was something that was hard about nailing Betty Boop?
- [11:06]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
You know, truthfully, it was still that movement. When I first got the role, I was in pre production rehearsals. We call it Pre Pro with Rachelle Rack. She's our dance associate, one of our choreography associates. And she basically taught me how to walk, truly how to walk, period. She taught me how to stand and to walk and. Cause Betty is obviously known for being sexy as well as this cartoon character. That sex appeal is a big part of who she is. It's not all of who she is, obviously, but I. You know, I never stood in myself the way that Betty would. And there's a confidence that she has and a sultriness to the way she moves. And Rachelle really had to teach me how to do that, and it was really hard for me. There's a confidence that's needed to do it, and I had to retrain my brain to just be comfortable moving in that way. Yeah.
- [12:00]
Alison Stewart
My guest is Jasmine Amy Rogers. She's starring as Betty Boop in the Broadway musical Boop. She's nominated for a Tony Award. You're working with some of the best Tony award winner Jerry Mitchell, who directed. He's also nominated for choreography for this show. What's a piece of advice that he gave you as a director? And what's a piece of advice he gave you as a choreographer?
- [12:21]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, my goodness. Well, I'll start with the choreography, because Jerry is amazing in this way, and he's learned from the best and the best. The best of the best in this industry. But he is really big on. We're gonna make the choreography look good on your body. And so it's. What do you need for this to feel right in you as your. You are the art, are the person that is making this role. What can we do to make you shine? And so just knowing that was really great advice. And so there's a way to jump into anything that will work for you, which is really, really lovely. And as a director, I think he really encouraged me to be myself creating Betty. And for them, finding Betty was really hard because they needed to find somebody who could bring the cartoon to life but also ground her in reality. And there's this fine line between those two spaces and what I learned from him was that I was the right vessel to do that because that's kind of just the way I move through my own life. And so he really encouraged me to just be Jasmine. And that has been life changing in the show and for my life, you know, just the way I move through my day to day.
- [13:33]
Alison Stewart
I was gonna ask you, what advice did he give you about life as being, you know, number one on the call sheet?
- [13:38]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
You know, just to trust myself and that what I'm doing behind the scenes matters, the way that, I guess I lead the cast. Ainsley Melham, who plays Dwayne, my opposite, my love interest in the show. He and I are very. We're just very happy to be here. And I think it's very apparent. And, you know, Ainsley's done some amazing work. He was Aladdin on Broadway. He did it in Australia as well. But we just want to do the work, and we wanna have a good time, and we want to share our love for the work that we do with everybody. And I think it really shapes the environment that we all work in. And we come into work and we have a great time, and we all really love each other truly. And so it was nice that Jerry was like, you know, you can see, you know, you're a great actress or whatever, all this, but he's like. But off the stage, he was. I'm really proud of the woman that you are. And that's really special because I've known Jerry since I was 20, and I'm 26 now, so it means a lot. Yeah.
- [14:38]
Alison Stewart
What's something that you didn't know about being in a Broadway show that you know now.
- [14:43]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, my goodness. Just how hard it is, you know, I knew it was hard, but I'd never. I couldn't have imagined what it would feel like. It's exhausting in the most wonderful way, obviously, but it is so tiring. And not just for the people that are on stage, but the people offstage. I mean, the work that the crew is putting in backstage at the Broadhurst is incredible. There's so many moving pieces. It just never ends. And, you know, sometimes you have to take those moments off for yourself, but more importantly for the show, the integrity of the show. And there you are putting on this piece for this audience. And the audience deserves to have. You're 100%. So there are days when you don't have your 100%. You need to step away. And I've learned that that's okay, too. And that's been very hard for me, I love being there, but I've learned to take care of myself. And how much just goes into this beast that we put on every night?
- [15:39]
Alison Stewart
We were talking before we went on air how you're not wearing heels today.
- [15:42]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
No, I was like, I can't. I don't. I was in PT physical therapy yesterday. We have somebody in the house, his name is Steven and he takes care of us so well. But yesterday I was like, my cal are just, they've had it. So this morning when I got up, I was like, I cannot put on a heel. I won't put on a heel. And it's lovely. I'm at this little desk here with my little flats on. It's amazing.
- [16:08]
Alison Stewart
I'm talking to Jasmine, Amy Rogers. She plays Betty Boop and Boop the Musical. Okay, so Betty, she's not sure of who she is at the beginning of this show. Why is she so unsure?
- [16:21]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Well, I think like the rest of us, we get into this everyday, we get into the pattern of our everyday life. And Betty has been doing it for almost 100 years and she's in her little cartoon world and she realizes I've played so many of these roles that I forgot who Betty is. I forgot who I am when I come home. When they turn off the cameras, who is Betty? And I think it's just like that age old thing of where like, oh my gosh, I've gotten so used to the lull of this every day that I forgot to ask what makes me happy. What makes me happy makes me me. Yeah.
- [16:55]
Alison Stewart
There's a song where Betty is told by the young woman in the show when she gets fast forwards to 2025 about how great she is. And Betty can do anything. And your reaction when you're listening to it is sort of you're nervous about it. You're sitting on the bed, you're sort of going through it, you're listening her talk about how great you are. And I was really interested in the direction that Jerry gave you for that song because you look like, oh my gosh, this girl's singing about me. And I'm not so sure.
- [17:26]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Right. I think it's that there's kind of a horrifying moment for Betty where she just wanted to come here and have this day off. And this young girl is in love with her and she feels awful because she's lying to her and telling her that she's someone else. And it just feels very untrue to Betty to kind of hold this secret from this young girl and I think there's also. Hearing about yourself in that way can be very, very scary, especially when you. You don't feel worthy of that praise. And I think she's having that moment where she's like, oh, my goodness. This young woman has all these lovely things to say about me. I am lying to her, and I can't hide. I can't hide from this. I can't hide from myself. And she's like, how can she feel all these things about me when I can't even feel them about myself? I don't even know this about myself. And so with Jerry just was. We were having that moment where you're like, what does it feel like to receive praise and not feel worthy of praise, but also be so inspired by what you're hearing from this young woman? It's so many things that Betty is going through in that moment, and she's experiencing all of this, like, straight out of the gate, things she's never really thought about, had to think about before. It's really an interesting moment for her. Yeah.
- [18:41]
Alison Stewart
I want to talk to you about working with a puppet.
- [18:42]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, my gosh. Yes.
- [18:44]
Alison Stewart
All right. So there's a puppet on stage. It's by a very distinguished puppet performer. Philip Huber plays your dog. The audience is all in.
- [18:51]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, all in.
- [18:52]
Alison Stewart
All in, yes. What have you learned about playing against a puppet?
- [18:59]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yeah. Honestly, it doesn't feel very crazy to do. Philip is such an incredible artist in the fact that sometimes you forget Philip is there. You do. You see Pudgy. And Pudgy is a scene partner through and through. And the only thing I had to kind of adjust to was just making sure. Cause he's so small. Just making sure that I'm seeing that he's there. You know, Pudgy is. Oh, my gosh. I love Pudgy. I'll never forget the first time we saw him. We all just kind of stared at Pudgy because it was like, that thing is alive. And Philip was just master of his craft, just, like, controlling this dog. And it's incredible. Sometimes you'll have conversations with Philip backstage, and he has Pudgy and is reacting with Pudgy as we're talking to Philip. But it's easy, honestly, to act with him because he's such a complete scene partner. He's so involved.
- [19:54]
Alison Stewart
That 11th hour number that we played at the top of the show really shows the power of your voice. It's really well placed in the show. You're welcome. I was curious how you wanted to present that moment. Because it is your moment in the show.
- [20:09]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes. Yeah. You know, it's this tricky moment because it's un. It is different for a musical to have an I Want song at the end.
- [20:21]
Alison Stewart
It is.
- [20:22]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
But Betty goes through this entire journey. She figures out that, you know, she wants these things for herself for the first time, and they're immediately ripped away from her. And so she's kind of going through these emotions of like, oh, my goodness, I had this thing. I want this thing, and it's gone. And I was so close. I was so close, and I still want it. I want it, I want it, but it's gone, you know, And I just wanted to have it be. And Jerry, also. We wanted it to be her most real moment the whole show. Betty is a cartoon, obviously, but she goes on this journey where she kind of. She transforms into almost a person, like a real girl. And so this was that moment where we're saying Betty is a real woman with wants and needs and real emotions. She is fully 3D. She is fleshed out. And so that was just that raw emotion we wanted to deliver with this song. And it's a David Foster song with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and they just really nailed it. It is just heart wrenching, honestly, to sing, and the audience is experiencing that as well, and it's incredible. Yeah.
- [21:32]
Alison Stewart
When did you want to be a singer?
- [21:34]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, my goodness, when I was. I was as soon as I could talk, and my father says before I could talk that I would sing. My father sang. He since passed away. He passed away last summer. But he always sang, and it was always his dream that I'd be a singer. But I've always sung. And I used to sit in my bedroom and sing along to the Disney Princess soundtrack by myself. And my mom would say, I thought that was the radio playing, and it was me. So it's always been in me. I've always wanted to sing.
- [22:01]
Alison Stewart
What was your first professional encounter?
- [22:03]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Professional? You know, my first professional encounter was with Jerry Mitchell. I did becoming Nancy in 2019. We went to the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and we did that show. I was supporting lead. I played Francis Bassey. It's like the sassy best friend. So full of life and so full of energy. And, you know, my mom said, from that experience, she said, jerry's gonna bring you to Broadway. And I was like, okay, Mom. But he did. But that was my first professional gig, and it was amazing.
- [22:31]
Alison Stewart
My guest is Jasmine Amy Rogers. She's starring as Betty Boop in the musical. She's Nominated for a Tony. All right, you're in this category with these amazing, amazing actors. Nicole Scherzinger, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Audra McDonald. You're the youngest woman in this category. It's very exciting.
- [22:51]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Yes.
- [22:53]
Alison Stewart
What would you want the rest of the women to know?
- [22:57]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh, my goodness. Just that their work is so important in that I've watched them for so long, and I wouldn't be here without them. All of them, truly. Especially Audra, as a black woman in this industry. But that they're. The work that they do and have done is so incredible and so inspiring. And what they're doing for women, especially this season, the women in this season have been leading the charge full force. Full force. So unapologetically. It's incredible. It's so inspiring. I just want them to know how much they matter and how incredible they are. And I hope that they do. They know that that's. Yeah.
- [23:38]
Alison Stewart
It's been quite a week, quite a month for you. You've won the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award. You had your portrait revealed at Sardi, and you went to the Black Women on Broadway event, which I think looked really cool. It was like, Cynthia Erivo, Adrienne War, Carol Young lachanze, Danielle Brooks, Whitney White. How would you describe that event?
- [24:03]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
It was the most joyous experience ever. It was, like, so amazing. Everybody was having such a great time. You could tell we were all just so excited and elated to be there. And, you know, all these events, they're so exhausting, but in the best way, obviously. Truly. But that event was so empowering because we were all just there being our full, unapologetic selves, having a good time, dancing. You know, there were drinks, there was food, and we were just. Some of us were meeting each other for the first time, but it was the most incredible room. It was just so full of love. And. And we did. They did this thing where when the women got up and were being honored, they made them. Made them because Latonya. Oh, my gosh. She was like, do I. Latanya Richardson Jackson? She's like, do I have to go down the aisle and do this little dance? They were like, yes, you do. And she came down and did her little dance on her strut and her suit, but they made everybody get up and do this. And we just got to freaking, like, honor them and celebrate them as they did this. And it was so incredible. It was so incredible.
- [25:13]
Alison Stewart
You know, there's already been a petition out. Huge boop fans. They want to have Boop. At the Tony Awards, over 6,000 people have signed this petition. What does that say to you?
- [25:22]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
It was when I first saw it, I was really moved. I cried because it just is so nice to know that we are doing our job. All we wanted to do when we set out for this show was let people have a good time. And we wanted them to come in, to relax, to shut their brain off and just experience joy. And the fact that we did that and they want to see that means everything. It's so incredible. I'm kind of speechless by it because I kind of was resigned to the fact that it is what it is. And I still am. But the fact that people care is really, really cool. It's really special.
- [26:05]
Alison Stewart
I asked Jonathan Groff this, what does it mean to be a theater kid?
- [26:11]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Oh my gosh. It's amazing. It's the coolest thing ever. We are so weird. So I mean we were at the, we were at the, this Vogue event at Anna Wintour's house of all places. And we were just up there being like little strange loud creatures in our little gowns and it was so amazing. It's really special. And we get to go to these events and you know, it's a little nerve wracking because you're like oh my goodness, look at all these people. These titans in the industry. But they are just the same as you. They are goofy and strange and nervous and they fangirl in the same way. You fan girl. It's the best thing ever. It's so cool.
- [26:55]
Alison Stewart
Jasmine. Amy Rogers is playing Betty Boop on Broadway. She is nominated for a Tony award. Thank you so much for coming to the studio.
- [27:04]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Thank you for having me.
- [27:05]
Alison Stewart
Let's go out on the song Where I wanna be.
- [27:10]
Jasmine Amy Rogers
Okay fellas. G of G. Wait, you're saying who is she? New York town. Put your ears on and let's burn this. Bam. Stand down. As you know.
- [27:50]
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