‘Glass Onion’ Cast Made Leslie Odom Jr. Re-Watch His Own Performance in Hamilton
Like Knives Out, Glass Onion brings together an ensemble of celebrated actors to tell an entertaining murder mystery tale that also serves as social commentary. There is a palpable sense of fun emanating from the cast throughout the entire movie. It comes as no surprise to learn that there was a strong sense of camaraderie between the actors during production even when the cameras weren’t rolling.
And there’s no better way to develop a friendship than to lightly roast people about their greatest accomplishments. Leslie Odom Jr.’s career can’t be boiled down to just Hamilton, but the rest of the cast enjoyed reminding him of his biggest role to date.
‘Hamilton’ changed the course of Leslie Odom Jr.’s career
Odom Jr. developed a love for performing as a child and wasted no time turning his passion into a career. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 17 in Rent in 1998. Odom Jr. continued to act in different plays and musicals (he also earned a degree with honors from Carnegie Mellon University), but it would take another 15 years before his profile rose above the theater circuit.
2014 was the year he worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda for the first time in the Encores! Off-Center production of Tick, Tick… Boom! The relationship with Miranda led to him auditioning for Hamilton, a role that completely changed the trajectory of his career. Odom’s performance as Aaron Burr earned him a Tony and a Grammy award, and the ubiquity of the musical in mainstream pop culture helped earn him more opportunities in the film industry.
Funnily enough, his first major role in a movie was in an adaptation of one of Knives Out’s biggest inspirations. Odom Jr. played Dr. Arbuthnot in the 2017 version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express directed by Kenneth Branagh. He has since gone on to star in films like Harriet, One Night in Miami, and The Many Saints of Newark.
His ‘Glass Onion’ cast mates forced him to reconnect with his signature performance
Odom Jr. will always be associated with Hamilton, but he has been involved with so many projects at this point it is clear he isn’t a one-hit wonder. But one funny story from the set of Glass Onion shows that the musical’s legacy is so massive that it will follow Odom Jr. for a very long time.
Most of the movie’s cast sat down for a behind the scenes video where they talk about how much fun they had making the film and hanging out in their downtime.
The actors and their families spent most of the production in the same hotel, the Amanzoe’s Villa 20 in Porto Heli, Greece. The proximity helped cultivate positive chemistry between all of the performers, who all spent time together when they finished shooting for the day. They played a lot of Mafia and threw dance parties, but one night they had a group watch of Hamilton.
The memory comes up about three and half minutes into the video, and Odom Jr. clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. He sang all the songs in the movie and he’s surely grateful as he is for how Hamilton made his life better, but it must get tiring to be constantly reminded of the same role over and over again, especially when the tracks are such earworms. Just when Odom Jr. thought he was out, they dragged him back in.
“He’d finally got the songs out of his head!,” teased Edward Norton.
Leslie Odom Jr. continues to work on interesting projects
Aside from hosting the Tony Awards in 2021, Odom Jr. has stuck to TV and film in his post-Hamilton era.
Odom Jr. voices Owen Tillerman in the musical sitcom Central Park on Apple TV+, and is also the star of an untitled installment of The Exorcist franchise directed by David Gordon Green and written by the creative team Green worked with to make the most recent Halloween trilogy.
Odom Jr. continues to tour the country as well, promoting his music. You can find dates and tickets for the shows on his website.
