“Proof”: Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri make their Broadway bows | UNW

They’re larger-than-life, and somehow on stage they still are. In “Proof” David Auburn’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Don Cheadle plays a mathematical genius with mental health issues; Ayo Edebiri plays his daughter, with issues of her own.

This is the first time they’ve ever worked together.

Edebiri said she was “very happy” when she was presented with the prospect of working with Cheadle: “He’s on, like, my Mount Rushmore of actors.”

Cheadle says the two share a father-daughter relationship off-stage: “I do check up and see what time she’s going to bed. And when she’s texting too late, I’m like, ‘Hey, we do have a show tomorrow!'”

The play centers on Catherine, a young woman who put her life on hold to care for her aging father Robert, a professor. 

The play involves what you take from your parents, and what you give to your parents. Asked if she’s thought about her own parents differently since acting in “Proof,” Edebiri replied, “Kind of hard not to. It’s a weird thing that we all go through that you don’t realize you’re gonna go through – when it changes and all of sudden you realize like, ‘Oh, now I’m taking care of my parents. Now my parent’s sort of my child.'”

“Proof” is a deep dive, but Edebiri is up for the challenge. She’d been a rising star in Hollywood for years, but her role in “The Bear” made her a household name. It also made her an Emmy-winner. 

In more than 50 films, Cheadle has played an astonishing range of characters, like a stone-faced attorney opposite Denzel Washington in “Flight.” He’s one of the “Ocean’s 11” crew, and he looked right at home in an Iron Man suit.

Asked if there were ever a moment when he thought his career finally had traction, Cheadle replied, “Tuesday! I mean, really, we have this every time you do the last thing, you’re like, ‘Well, that’s it!’ You don’t know that it’s just gonna keep happening, just ’cause it has been happening.”

He also played a real-life hero, a hotel manager during the Rwandan genocide, in “Hotel Rwanda.” He says he would’ve happily done anything to get that film made – even going so far as to tell the producers, if they got a more “bankable” star, he still wanted to be part of the project: “Yeah, absolutely. I was like, ‘I just want to be a part of helping to get it made.’ So yeah, I did tell him that. And thankfully, it came my way.”

“Hotel Rwanda” also scored him an Oscar nomination for best actor. “It’s great to be recognized,” he said. “I do this because I’m passionate about it and I want to be a part of it. Whatever happens after that happens, you know? … But I really hope I – !  Did that come out? Did you hear that? Did that come out of my mouth? “

For all of his years in show business, “Proof” is Cheadle’s Broadway debut, as it is for Edebiri, and for two of the show’s producers, Barack and Michelle Obama.

Asked what it’s like to take the stage at the Booth Theatre, Cheadle said, “It’s like, ‘Here we go,’ you know? I feel like when we’re backstage, and we’re waiting for that cue light, and the cue light goes off, I feel like when you’re on the roller coaster, and it’s like [creeping up]. Then, we come out here, and it’s lights up, and it’s like whoosh!!! Here we go! I don’t know what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna see. Hopefully, I remember to say all the things I’m supposed to say, and don’t throw my scene partner, and that we have some magical experience.”

Now it seems Edebiri and Cheadle are so in-sync, that even in moments when there is no script, you still get the sense they’re family. 

Asked, “Now that you have this relationship, do you think that you’ll work together again?” they responded simultaneously:

Edebiri: “Not at all.”
Cheadle: “Kinda hope not.”

Perfectly timed! “There was no way that was gonna be any other answer than that!” Cheadle laughed.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle (Video)

     
For more info:

      
Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Barnello.