Interview: Brandon J. Dirden on How His Texas Roots Influenced His Pozzo

A theater veteran whose resume is stacked with August Wilson works and kitchen-sink dramas, performing in Waiting for Godot was a chance for Brandon J. Dirden to do something very different—a leap into director Jamie Lloyd’s take on Beckett’s absurdist play. “I’m at the point where I was like, it gives me the opportunity to see what else I’ve got,” he explained. “Let’s stretch, let’s grow.”

As Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves’ Vladimir and Estragon wait (and wait) for the mysterious title character, Dirden disrupts their monotony as the formidable and mercurial traveler Pozzo, with his slave Lucky (Michael Patrick Thornon) in tow. Dirden, who’s also a director and teacher at NYU’s Grad Acting program, dives into his Southern-flecked interpretation of the character and why Godot resonates in our post-facts world.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What was it about Pozzo that interested you?
This was not on my bingo card. But when it came about, there was a sense that this is the right role for me at the right time in my life. On top of all of that, my dad, who was an actor, passed in April. He actually played the role of Pozzo as a young man, so it’s also honoring my father. This is the first production I’m acting in since my father’s death, and it was a play that he kept alive in our house. He would quote it often, and I didn’t really pay attention when he was doing it, but he was obsessed with this play to some degree. And now I get it.

To go back to why Pozzo in particular, you can’t try to make too much sense of this play. That wasn’t Beckett’s aim. It’s more about submission and going on the journey. And I’m at a point in my life where I now realize that that was useful to me, as I’m solidly middle aged now, thinking, I got a pretty good grip on this—I’ve got an 11-year-old kid, I’m responsible, I’m trying to do the right thing, be a good citizen. But then life comes at you hard and fast, and it says, “Do you really think you know what you’re doing?” So, it has been such a gift to be thrust into this experience where you do have to have some degree of confidence that you can navigate the waters, but there is absolutely no way to account for every single aspect of this play.

How did you land on this portrayal of him?
I’m from Texas, so I looked at it like, “this guy is all hat, no cattle.” That was my first thought: someone who’s trying to project this image of power. These kinds of guys, the vibrato, the bombastic nature of that kind of masculinity, it really comes from an insecure place, right? We all know that, but I was so fascinated by how far he’s willing to construct this narrative for himself. He gets his value derived from people paying attention to him. What’s the best way to have people pay attention to you? Well, you have to be able to knock them off their equilibrium. That’s something that I wanted to infuse Pozzo with, that he has really no shame, and there’s no depth that he wouldn’t plunge to get attention.

What was it like working with Jamie Lloyd?
My friend Arian Moayed, who was in [Lloyd’s] A Doll’s House, gave me the best piece of advice before I started. He said, “It’s going to be a different process than what you used to. Just keep an open mind from day one.” And that served me throughout the entire process. It wasn’t about him dictating specific blocking, or this is the way you have to think about your character or the story. He’s probably one of the most collaborative directors in terms of seeing what it is that [we] have to offer and how all these things fit, as opposed to setting a benchmark and saying, here’s what we’re aspiring to do. It was a really fascinating exploration.

And tell me about working with Michael, Keanu, and Alex.
Once I knew Michael was cast, since he was in Doll’s House, I called up Arian. They came up in Chicago theater together, and Arian was like, “You’re gonna love Michael. He’s just the best.”

That relationship between Pozzo and Lucky is a really complicated one, and I knew that with Michael being a wheelchair user, we had to do some serious thinking to maintain the integrity of what Beckett was offering in the play, since a lot of the stage directions have Lucky walking around.

Michael’s a smart, intuitive actor, but he has a naughty twinkle, and it’s my favorite kind of actor when he’s just so subversive sometimes, I just love that.

And what I can say about working with Keanu and Alex is, I’m so proud of them. I don’t know if I have a right to be proud of them, but I am. For Keanu to say I’m going to make my Broadway debut not in a new play, or with a safe play that doesn’t require as much risk, but with this play that has long fascinated me—I want to take this swing, and I’m going to do it with this person I have one of my longest working relationships with? And then we’re going to employ this director who famously does not do anything traditionally, and populate it with these seasoned theater vets? They didn’t take any shortcuts.

This play is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, but I’m having some of the most fun I’ve ever had, and that’s primarily because of who I’m making it with.