Pop Culture Planet Podcast: Jordan Donica on Charmed, Phantom of the Opera, and the Balance of Stage and Screen
Kristen Maldonado is joined by actor and singer Jordan Donica, best known for Charmed and Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera, on a brand new episode of the Pop Culture Planet podcast. He talks about the art of developing a character, the balance of stage and screen, working on a magical show, and returning to the role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera years later.
Episode Quotes
Jordan Donica on one of his first introductions to theatre: “My mom took me to [see] Fiddler on the Roof [when] I was very little and it dawned on me that like you could play pretend like kids do and people would watch. I was like, ‘This is very strange. This is interesting.’ I was as interested in that idea as I was in the thing itself.”
Donica on his first experience with Phantom of the Opera: “I saw Phantom of the Opera when I was like eight or nine. I was very affected by just the voice of the Phantom before you even see him. I felt like I could see this energy over the audience. I leaned over to my cousin [and] I was like, ‘I'm gonna do that one day.’ Then everything else was just setting up the dominoes to push them all down later in life.”
Donica on breaking down barriers in the industry: “I feel like that's my whole life and has been my whole existence so it's not something that I spend a lot of time thinking about because i already know that that's a reality. The sooner I can accept that the quicker I can get past it and over it into where I want to go. That’s not just with theatre, that’s been my life, so theatre is easy. Theatre is fun. Just like with anything a lot of people don’t believe something until they see it. So all I ever ask if just let me show you. Let me show you what I can do. Maybe you’ll dig it, maybe you won’t because it’s all subjective anyway. It’s not like sport. There’s nothing that you can actually measure. It’s really just a feeling. That’s what I love about it.”
Donica on exploring the historical aspects of playing Raoul as a Black man in Phantom of the Opera: “What I love about it personally is delving into the historical side of our reality as human beings and learning because most people would look at something like this and call it like a Bridgerton or something like that. I look at it more intentionally than that because I am of the belief that everybody has been everywhere always. We just don't get to hear all those stories for many reasons.
Donica on opening the door for more representation in theatre: “I take it as a learning experience of look at where we were then too and how can we build from then and from now and make something greater. Because it's not just people like me. It's not just Black, white, Asian, Hispanic. We're all representing each other in my book. After I left [Phantom of the Opera the first time], Rodney Ingram came in and he was the first Mexican American to play [Raoul]. I take great responsibility in those things and that's why what what we do means a lot to me. I take great pride in it.”
Donica shouts out the welcoming arms of community theatre: “I gotta give a shout out to the community that I grew up doing theatre in back in Indianapolis because that's the philosophy of community theater. Who's the best in here for this role regardless of how they look, like how tall they are, how short they are, how young they are, how old they are, how big they are. That's the kind of mindset that I carry with me in this business and it's interesting at a certain level where that goes away and the idea of why that goes away. I think we're all slowly chipping away at that and that feels good.”
Donica on audition for Jordan in Charmed: “The first time I got these sides iIsaid no because I really liked them, I knew it was Charmed, I loved the sides, but I actually thought they needed to cast someone who wasn't as light-skinned as me because of what the scene was. They were like, ‘No, you can change the words,’ but I didn’t want to change the words. I’m not that kind of actor. I can be. If you give me that permission, I will, [but] what I didn’t want to do was change the meaning of the scene because the scene was beautiful and very important. So I just changed a single word to not change the meaning, but to make it so that I could inhabit the role.”
Donica on his character Jordan singing at Dev’s funeral: “My pipe dream was to sing with Kapil [Talkwalkar] who played Dev, but he was busy. I was like, ‘Oh you know what would be cool? If we sang with each other from the other side.’ Because we’ve been doing this whole veil storyline. But he was busy. I did everything in my power, which is in my nature to surround myself with other people that I thought were also very talented. They’re like, ‘No, we just want you to play the piano and do it. I was like, ‘Ah, okay, okay.’”
Donica on cast changes in Charmed season 4: “It was hard for me personally because I was friends with Poppy and Madeleine. We would eat ridiculous steak dinners and I would do cold dips with Poppy on the weekend. I just really enjoyed them as human beings. […] Losing two friends is hard, but I gained another in Lucy [Barrett] and she's awesome. She's really is such a bright light and such a spirit that allows a freedom for other people which is really cool to see.”
Donica on what he loved about Charmed season 4: “What I liked about this season the most was that we were able to make a season and then release it. We were not making a season [and] watching Twitter and then making adjustments to whatever story they had already come up in their mind. I'm of the philosophy that if you have a story to tell, tell it, and then let people decide what it is later. So that's what I loved about this particular season was that we got to tell whatever story Charmed story they wanted to tell this season in its full scope without that outside noise.”
Donica on if Jordan is a whitelighter: “I never saw him as a whitelighter. I explicitly went away from that and just saw him as someone who could like focus heal, similar to what he did in the army. He's not a surgeon, but he can keep you alive on the battlefield long enough to get you to a place that can save you. That’s how I viewed him this season.”
Donica on Jordan and Maggie’s relationship: “I was brought in and told that I'm not necessarily there to be in a relationship with [Maggie] but to be a friend. That's always fun to play because I don't think we see that enough in our day-to-day lives or in entertainment of: Can two people who are attracted to each other have a friendship? Can two people who aren't attracted to each other who are opposites […] just be friends? Can people challenge each other and grow with each other and from that then love of all forms can blossom? What you choose to do with that then takes form with each choice that you make and that's how I approach their characters, in a very Shakespearean, like Beatrice and Benedick type of way. Like, ‘Oh, I like you because you challenge me. Cool, that's interesting.’ I felt like that was very much the case for both of their characters, which is what drew them together in the first place in my brain, but it was really fun to play that. To work with an actress like Sarah [Jeffery] who has that kind of range makes my job way easier and teaches me a lot as an actor. It was fun to just listen and exist in those scenes and those moments with her.”
Donica on developing characters for screen vs stage: “I had [a] teacher who would say as long as you've done the work before you get to the day everything you do will be correct because it'll be the character. I really had to learn to trust that because it's very true and when you do there's more freedom and there's more magic because there's more discovery. Ultimately what the camera is trying to capture is the moments of discovery for every character and in theater what you have to learn is how do you have a moment of discovery when you're doing the same thing all the time.”
Donica on returning to the role of Raoul years later: “Everyone says the same thing. It's always deeper, it's always different because you're different, right? I’m six years older now than I was [when I first played Raoul]. I’m closer to 30 than I am to 20, which was the opposite back then. It’s equidistant exactly actually, so it’s an interesting exploration. There are things that feel much easier, much more calm, much more in control. What I love about it is it just affirms that both are correct. You know, the 22 year old Raoul is the 22 year old Raoul and the 28 year old Raoul is the 28 year old Raoul and there are still similarities there, but because of the experiences that happen in between, just like with life, it’s been a little easier to find the different routes within the piece [and] things I didn’t necessarily think of before. I still started from the same places, you just get to go way deeper. That’s the thrill of doing the same thing every day. You just find the endless possibilities because there are an infinite number of choices and reactions. It just comes from listening and being in the moment and that’s the thrill. To play the roles with different people […] automatically changes your performance too. […] It’s fun to see who you become with other people.”
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Hosted by TV and film critic Kristen Maldonado, Pop Culture Planet is a video podcast featuring analytical pop culture discussions and interviews with diverse voices in the entertainment space. Watch episodes on youtube.com/kaymaldo or listen on your favorite podcast platforms, from Spotify to Apple Podcasts and beyond.
