Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's Tituss Burgess: 'I’m the most boring of the rainbow of gay men'
Much like the shows he started out performing in on Broadway, Tituss Burgess’s own life story is full of fairytale-style twists. On his last day playing the small role of D’Fwan, a hairdresser and reality TV star on Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, he went home to his studio apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. “I remember getting on my knees and sobbing,” he says down the phone from New Jersey. “I was sad but I was praying that I would be blessed with another series-regular role, because I felt like I had finally found a purpose.” Instead, Burgess was evicted from his home and moved to a basement flat in Harlem, putting his TV career on hold. “Five years later, I get a text from my manager, and she goes: ‘When was the last time you spoke to Tina Fey? Because either you’re about to get a job, or this is a cruel joke.’”
His agent had received a breakdown for a character in a new ABC series (working title: Tooken) that seemed uncannily similar to himself: a downon-his-luck actor and Broadway fanatic named Titus. Was Fey recruiting him for a lead role in her new show? Burgess still had to audition, having never been a series regular on network TV, but he landed the role, “and on my first day of filming, I was told to report to 52nd Street between Eighth and Ninth and that someone would take me to my trailer. My hand to God, my trailer was right outside of the apartment where I had prayed. It makes me teary thinking about it now.”
If this sounds like a TV dream sequence, then perhaps it’s fitting that the show he’d been cast in would become one of the zaniest comedies around, with Tooken later evolving into the Netflix hit Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
With its dark premise (it follows Ellie Kemper’s title character as she rebuilds her life after being held hostage for 15 years by Jon Hamm’s crazed reverend), splashes of magical realism and Fey’s razor-sharp dialogue, it was both
a soothing balm in an unpredictable world – and totally bonkers.
At its centre, Kimmy’s roommate Titus Andromedon captured viewers’ hearts and launched a thousand memes with his constant zingers (“Black, gay, and old? I’m not even gonna know which box to tick on the hate crime form”; “I envy you, I’ve never been able to meet me”). Ironically, the real Tituss was more than happy to leave the world of theatre – which he had been catapulted into after winning a talent contest back home in Georgia. His roles in shows such as Guys and Dolls and The Little Mermaid had been formative but left him feeling disillusioned.
“I learned more about performing and producing than at any other time. But I think I went as far in that industry as I was going to be allowed to go,” he says. “And if I can be perfectly honest, there was what I call the ‘big black woman that stopped the show syndrome’. That is to say, the character that the show is not about comes in, razzle dazzle, and then disappears, and we don’t hear from them or see them ever again. I had no interest in doing that. So me and theatre went to couples therapy, if you will, and what emerged was a desire to see other people.”
As Titus and Kimmy return for a final hurrah in an interactive featurelength special, Broadway’s loss is clearly TV’s gain. Burgess, a more reserved presence than his character, speaks lovingly of Fey (“I revere her’”) and his Kimmy Schmidt co-stars. It’s clear that the show was as much fun to make as it is to watch. But it hasn’t been without its challenges.
“I’m probably the most boring of the rainbow of gay men, if you will,” he says. “When I meet someone who is expecting Titus Andromedon I apologise and oblige them with a photo if they ask for it, but it’s not been the easiest thing to navigate. I like to try and remind people that there’s a public persona and that there’s a private persona.” Burgess doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s clear that there is something of a gap between himself and his character.While onscreen Titus rents a peacock to show off to his ex, the real Tituss has said he prefers not to be the centre of attention.
His desire to separate himself from the role made it easy to bond with Daniel Radcliffe, who stars in the interactive special. “He’s spoken at length about choosing roles that are a departure from the wizard that people grew up with, and how people have had a hard time accepting him as a grown man,” says Burgess. “I think our job is to get to work and try to create opportunities for ourselves wherever we can and to remind people that we’re just actors.”
Kimmy Schmidt is not the only thing Burgess has been working on. He’s the host of Quibi’s terrifying-looking contest Dishmantled, where chefs are pelted with foods that they have to recreate(Variety called it “deeply stupid”, though they noted that Burgess was charming as ever).Right before lockdown shuttered the entertainment industry, he finished filming a musicthemed reality contest for Netflix in London, which he remains contractually tight-lipped about except to describe it as “probably one of the most fun on-camera experiences I’ve ever had”.
He has also been in the voice booth for upcoming Apple TV+ animated comedy series Central Park, alongside Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci; has just finished making the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, alongside Jennifer
Hudson, in which he plays pastor and “king of gospel” James Cleveland; and is about to release a dance track (he has made three albums to date, spanning gospel, pop and R&B).It sounds somewhat exhausting and he agrees. “On some level, I’ve appreciated the residual effect of the quarantine – which is mandated rest.”
But what of Titus Andromedon? Will the world ever see another hysterical gif? “If Tina and Robert [Carlock, the show’s co-creator] think there is cause or reason for these two characters and the gang to emerge again, then I’m likely to be on board with it,” he says with a laugh. “Doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll be there.”
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy v The Reverend is available on Netflix now