Zurin Villanueva as Tina Turner in the national tour. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade.
Zurin Villanueva was walking down the street from the 125th station when she got the call that she would portray Tina Turner in the National Musical Tour.
”I listened to the message and I was like what? Come again? Run that back one more time,” she said.
She remembers Tina Turner’s music always being on in the background during her childhood. After booking the role, Villanueva watched Tina Turner’s videos, interviews and concerts to get a general essence of her in terms of the way Turner talks and handles herself. Then, she read Tina’s autobiography I am Tina, and her book on Buddhism, Happiness Becomes You.
A theme she deduced from performing in the show is that nothing is over until you say it’s over.
Villanueva mentions during Tina Turner’s return to number one on the charts, Turner was facing bankruptcy, multiple suits, and cleaning houses to make rent. She recounts that Tina Turner’s rent was paid by producer and husband Ike Turner but he never paid Tina Turner a salary.
“She had no savings, no bank account from all of the work that she had been doing for over 16 years. So in her early 40s, literally starting over as if you are a 21 year old just graduating college. It’s amazing what she did and she did it because she said no I’m not giving up, so nothing’s over till you say it is,” Villanueva said.
For Villanueva, the challenging aspect of the show is maintaining the marathon of focus from the second you step onstage to the very end.
“When you’re creating someone’s emotional life every day you are focused. You really need that focus in order to do the role to the best of your ability, tell the story,” she said.
She admires Tina’s ability to always get a good laugh no matter what was going on in her life.
As for what Villanueva would ask Tina Turner if she could, it would be how she maintains her self esteem when everyone is always picking apart anything she might do or not do.
“I would ask her how do you maintain your own strong sense of self because in this business it’s really scrutinizing and how do you get out of the comparisons?” she said.
Villanueva was also part of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls’ Original Broadway Cast since the first workshop. She learned a lot about the process of creating a musical and found that it is up to you to show what you’re good at.
“Don’t be afraid to stand out even in the ensemble. Standing out in the ensemble is a good thing. Everyone has their ideas. Some of them get picked up, some of them don’t. It’s a really wonderful space where you can just like shoot your shot, show whatever it is you can do,” she said.
Zurin Villanueva as Gretchen Wieners and Becca Petersen as Regina George behind the scenes of Mean Girls musical. Photo: Instagram.
As part of the ensemble cast of Mean Girls, Zurin Villanueva performed in both the opening number and Mean Girls musical number for the Tony Awards 2018. With each performance being back to back, she felt overwhelmed before taking it all in.
“I laughed and cried at the same time afterwards for like 30 minutes,” she said.
When it comes to choosing her favorite understudy role to perform in Mean Girls: Gretchen Wieners or Karen Smith, it’s an impossible choice.
With Karen, she mentions there is opportunity for improv moments because you are in your own world. One of Villanueva’s favorite unscripted jokes was done by Kate Reindeers as Karen Smith.
“She would do this amazing thing when she would pull out the fork during the lunch scene and comb her hair with it like Ariel,” she said. “Then, you have Gretchen who has these amazing monologues and one liners.”
Zurin Villanueva as Karen Smith, Ashley Park as Gretchen Wieners, Taylor Louderman as Regina George in Mean Girls musical. Photo: @zurininspired on Instagram.
In fact, one of her favorite lines from Gretchen Wieners was: I feel like an iPhone. I have really good functions and I’m worth a lot but at any point, I can just shatter.
While working with Tina Fey, Villanueva noted Fey was rewriting as she was watching the cast interact with each other. Actors could suggest jokes and she would collaborate with trying them out in the script. She describes Fey as always writing up a storm.
“She found that there were more places to go with the story as well. I’m excited to see the Mean Girls musical movie because I feel like she’ll probably rewrite that too,” she said.
Afterwards, Villanueva fulfilled another childhood dream role when she portrayed Dionne Davenport in Clueless the musical. The first time she watched the classic 90's movie was with her sister even though she was a bit young for it. Eventually, she could quote the whole movie which came in handy when she played Dionne.
“That was one of the best moments of my career. It was just like booking your childhood hero. The Dionne and Murray car scene was my favorite, where she is on the highway for the first time and freaking out. Comedic timing is my thing,” she said.
Zurin Villanueva as Dionne Davenport in Clueless the musical. Photo: @zurinspired on Instagram
Having played such iconic roles from Gretchen to Dionne, it’s hard for Villanueva to pick her favorite costume. She loved Gretchen’s pink Wednesday outfit but a standout memory was getting to walk in her patent leather and blue race car shoes.
“Some of us had Valentino, Prada on our backs. We had crazy designers on our backs in Mean Girls. We had Sophia Webster shoes on our feet,” she said.
When it came to Dionne in Clueless, she remembered the costume designer shopped for a bunch of pieces and pieced outfits together. Her favorite ensemble was a navy blue sweater, black and blue school skirt, and the real Dionne hat.
Her upcoming project is the Netflix film, Murder Mystery 2 releasing on March 31. Villanueva plays one of the suspects, co-starring with Jodie Turner-Smith. The film includes Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It’s a sequel to Murder Mystery where Aniston and Sandler’s characters are now full time detectives.
Villanueva started acting at age 13, and began training in singing at 17. She received her BFA from Howard University in D.C. and attended La Guardia School for acting. In dance, she trained with Alvin Ailey and Dance Theater of Harlem.
Her biggest piece of advice for students starting their journey in the performing arts is:
“Knowing yourself, knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Once you know those things you know what it is you need, what kind of teacher to find, what coach to find just because you leave school, it doesn’t mean training stops.”
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