Actor Asher Muldoon On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry

I don’t think I am in any position to give advice about anything, as I still feel like I’m figuring out how to maneuver this world myself. I suppose my only bit of wisdom is this: if there is someone you really admire out there working in the field you want to work in, just email them and say hi and ask if they’d let you buy them a cup of coffee.

As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Asher Muldoon.

Asher Muldoon is a writer, actor, and comedian based in NYC. He is a rising senior at Princeton University, pursuing a degree in English with a certificate in Music Theater. In early 2019 he took a leave from college to join the National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen, understudying the roles of Jared Kleinman and Connor Murphy. His work in musical theater has been performed at 54 Below, NYMF, UC Irvine, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Irish Arts Center, Princeton University and McCarter Theater. He also frequently writes sketches and comedy songs as part of the Princeton Triangle Club, and performs with Quipfire, Princeton’s oldest improv troupe. In addition to writing, he has music-directed and written songs for multiple student productions and has interned with puppeteer Basil Twist and director Oskar Eustis. Upcoming projects: Wake (with Sammy Grob and Dani Koenig), and Burke and Hare, a new musical comedy.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in Princeton, NJ, which meant that I was constantly making my parents ferry me into New York for auditions, shows, voice lessons, what have you. When we moved to the city right before I began high school, it felt like just a natural progression. Like most Jersey kids, I knew I was a city kid at heart.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I saw 3 shows as a child that I think shaped who I would become: Sweeney Todd, Shockheaded Peter, and A Year with Frog and Toad, all of them delightful shows and not the least bit terrifying. I knew as soon as I walked out of the theater that I wanted to be involved with that world in whatever way I possibly could.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Definitely leaving college to go on tour with Dear Evan Hansen. That was a huge gear shift in my life that I’m still kind of figuring out how to deal with. Going from college to tour to Covid to college to off-Broadway to college has been a heck of a ride and I’m just kind of trying to go with it.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I have a lot of things in the works right now. I am writing two different theses for my senior year at Princeton, which will both likely end up having to do with musicals in some way. During Covid, I wrote a draft of a new show inspired by the Scottish murderers Burke and Hare (don’t worry, it’s a comedy). I’m also collaborating with my very good friends Sammy Grob and Danielle Koenig on a few things, most recently an original musical called Wake.

You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

I don’t think I am in any position to give advice about anything, as I still feel like I’m figuring out how to maneuver this world myself. I suppose my only bit of wisdom is this: if there is someone you really admire out there working in the field you want to work in, just email them and say hi and ask if they’d let you buy them a cup of coffee. Now obviously this doesn’t apply to everybody (if you’re an actor it probably won’t be fruitful to try and email Brad Pitt) but among the people, I admire there is generally an astounding amount of kindness and support. People are excited to welcome interested new young people into their craft, and you can get so much knowledge from talking to people who have done what you want to do.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Three is an arbitrary number, so here’s what I feel is the most important reason for diversity in any art: it makes the art better and more interesting and it makes us as viewers better and more interesting. Every movie or TV show or video game that comes out now that doesn’t feature a uniformly white cast is slammed for being too “woke” or a product of “PC culture.” If you are one of those people who thinks that any attempt at diversity is a calculated attack on your existence, you are an idiot and you don’t deserve good art. Diversity brings new perspectives, yes, but also entirely new artistic languages, new things to add to the pot. It challenges us as artists to open the scope of our work, to find the core humanity in it. I feel sorry for people who don’t want that.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

Again, I am in no position to give advice about anything, and I am myself just starting, so I can offer no wisdom. The one thing I wish someone had told me early on was to stretch. I developed sciatica at 20. Stretch every day.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I feel like I used to put enormous pressure on myself to be productive all the time, even when it really didn’t feel right. As I’m sure many creative people can relate to, I was really creatively stunted during the pandemic, and I was terrified that I had completely lost my ability to write anything whatsoever. I was spending most of my free time watching TV and playing video games, which felt like a tremendous waste of valuable time, and I really hated myself for it. But in my house we refer to it as “cooking,” the period when we are simply consuming other works of art and processing them, slowly forming something of our own inside our heads. I’m trying to be kinder to myself during those cooking periods, because I know that eventually something will come out, and it just may be halfway decent.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I don’t think I am a person of any influence whatsoever, let alone influence of the enormous variety. However, there is one big ol’ thing I feel bears repeating until we can all finally agree to address it: our planet is dying and it is our fault (primarily the fault of large corporations who have been shirking their environmental safety responsibilities for decades, even though it is now in vogue for them to pretend that their minor cosmetic alterations can somehow alleviate all the havoc they have wrought), and we should be doing everything in our power to counteract the damage we’ve done. We can’t do anything useful if we’re being boiled alive, just ask a lobster.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

When I was a kid I was talking to my mom and I uttered the phrase “everything happens for a reason” and she immediately said “no, nothing happens for a reason. That’s bullshit.” I don’t really have a “Life Lesson Quote,” but I think that comes the closest.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of my heroes, on account of most of my heroes being current working professionals in the theater. If I could go back in time, I would have really wanted to get a drink or maybe two with Stephen Sondheim. He is, after all, the man who made me want to do this (and I am far from the only one who would say that) and the opportunity to pick his brain about songs or puzzles or anything really would be a treasure. I wouldn’t try to tag him though, it wouldn’t do much good at this point.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am, shamefully, very active on Twitter (@ashermuldoon) and not really anywhere else. You can also check out my website, ashermuldoon.com, for more info about me and my upcoming projects. And come see The Butcher Boy, currently playing through September 11th at the Irish Rep!

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you for having me!