The 'Becky Shaw' star and Tony Award-nominee tells PEOPLE why stepping onto the stage made him feel like a newcomer all over again
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/alden-ehrenreich-sofitel-ny-053126-a3bc0e09e970456ab5321f59bc09637c.jpg "Alden Ehrenreich at the 79th Annual Tony Award Meet the Nominees press junket held at Sofitel New York")
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NEED TO KNOW
- Alden Ehrenreich earned a 2026 Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in Becky Shaw
- Speaking with PEOPLE, the actor says performing eight shows a week required “emotional athleticism” and was a major learning experience
- Ehrenreich also runs the Huron Station Playhouse in Los Angeles to support unique, non-commercial theater projects
Alden Ehrenreich has starred in blockbuster franchises, worked with some of Hollywood's biggest directors and appeared in Oscar-winning films. But when it came time to make his Broadway debut this season in Becky Shaw, the actor says he was intimidated.
The 36-year-old Los Angeles native — known for films like Solo: A Star Wars Story, Oppenheimer, Cocaine Bear, Hail, Caesar! and Weapons — took on a new challenge with the acclaimed revival. And he tells PEOPLE each step of the process felt like a lesson.
"It was all new; every single aspect of it," he admits. "I felt the way I felt in my early 20s in certain early films that I did, where I was just so green. The core of preparing a role is the same, but just in terms of the practical day in, day out reality of putting on a play, I was learning in every single moment."
That's hard to believe, seeing how comfortable Ehrenreich appears on stage. But the leap paid off.
Credit: marc j franklin
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Not only did Ehrenreich earn rave reviews for his role, but it earned him a 2026 Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play.
"It's pretty exciting," Ehrenreich says. "I've loved theater since I was a kid and have always wanted to be part of this community, because so many of the actors I've looked up to began in theater. So the experience of doing this play every night and working with this artists that I respect and admire is very gratifying."
Credit: marc j franklin
Ehrenreich stars in director Tripp Cullman's production of Gina Gionfriddo's dark comedy as Andrew, a sharp-tongued money manager who goes on a disastrous blind date with the titular Becky (played by Madeline Brewer).
In the aftermath of their evening out, the audience begins to see how Andrew uses cruelty as both a weapon and a defense mechanism. Over the course of the play, he delivers cutting insults, dismisses other people's feelings and repeatedly pushes those closest to him away as his life unravels — behavior that can leave audiences unsure whether to root for him, recoil from him or both.
It's a tricky balancing act, but one Ehrenreich pulls off with remarkable precision, earning laughs, gasps and, at times, surprising sympathy for a character who rarely makes things easy on those around him.
Credit: marc j franklin
That complexity is what drew Ehrenreich to the role, especially because Gionfriddo never seems to judge the character outright.
"The big distinction for me is if I feel that the playwright cares about the characters," he says. "If the playwright is just saying, 'Look at this a—hole,' it's not that fun. But if the playwright, as Gina so does, gives you an understanding to who they are behind their behavior, then you have a way in."
One of the biggest adjustments to Broadway, he says, has been maintaining the intensity required for eight performances a week. "Finding the way to sustain that and rest and do all that outside of it has been a learning experience," he says.
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He calls it "emotional athleticism," explaining it's what surprised him most about Broadway. "You're going to some serious places and sustaining and making sure that you keep your foot on the gas for every performance," he says. "That's hard to keep up, eight shows a week."
What motivates him through that?
"I always think about how I was a little kid going and seeing a play that changed my whole life. So I think about that," Ehrenreich says. "You don't know who's in the audience. Just because you're through previews and reviews or whatever, and it's a Wednesday matinee, doesn't mean that might be an opportunity where somebody could have a really profound experience. You have to give it your all every single time."
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And while he's mastered that, there's still something Ehrenreich is working on: what to do to leave the role behind once the curtain comes down.
"It's challenging," he says. "I'll go and try to do a little yoga routine or have a drink or do something that changes the setting or changes the context a little bit. But it's not easy."
"I don't know that I have figured out how to do that," he says.
Credit: marc j franklin
Becky Shaw also stars Tony winner Lauren Patten, The Pitt's Patrick Ball and stage veteran Linda Emond.
The play wraps up his run at Second Stage Theatre's Hayes Theater on June 14. A week earlier, Ehrenreich and Becky Shaw — which is nominated for Best Revival — will learn its fate at the 2026 Tony Awards.
Win or lose, Becky Shaw won't be Ehrenreich's last experience on Broadway, if he has his way.
"I look forward to doing it again now that I know the ropes," he laughs.
In the meantime, he has his own theater company to focus on: the Huron Station Playhouse, in Los Angeles. Since opening in the fall of 2024, the space has hosted multiple readings, acting workshops and playwrights' circles. His hope, he's said, is to build it into both a rich place like Off-Broadway where unique art can be produced without the pressure of commercial success, and a home base for artists looking to make that kind of work.
"[It's my] pride and joy," he previously told the Los Angeles Times. "This has been extremely helpful for me, just psychologically. [In L.A.], you end up living this very itinerant existence. And this could not be more, not that. To be able to put love and attention and growth into something that continues to be there is really helpful."
Tickets to Becky Shaw are now on sale. The 2026 Tony Awards will take place at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 7. The show will be broadcast live to both coasts on CBS (beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), and will stream on Paramount+.