Rising Star Doug Plaut On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

Have a tangible, physical reminder of why you do it around you. Always. My deepest and richest relationships in my personal life would not have been found without my professional life. I look at my closest friends in this business and sometimes think about the time I met them in a work situation. That helps keep me feeling grateful for it all.

As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Doug Plaut.

Actor, writer, diversity activist, and advocate for mental health and eating disorder/body dysmorphia awareness, Doug Plaut (He/They) was born with mild cerebral palsy into a conservative family in Connecticut. From as young as he can remember, he was odd and flamboyant, which prompted his traditional parents, who didn’t know how to handle his feminine side, to take them to psychologists at a young age. He began Pace College in NYC while battling cancer, and it was there where he found his voice as a story teller and found pride in their uniqueness and began performing on stage and booking acting jobs. Doug is an advocate for the LGBTQ+ and disability community and in their free time, he enjoys classic films and is developing and producing exciting new projects.

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 Greenwich, CT as the absolute black sheep of my biological family. I was saved on the regular by countless female figures in my life who scooped me up and mothered me. I’m extraordinarily grateful for that now because it taught me an emotional autonomy to learn various things from various people, some of whom were in my life only tangentially, and a perspective that I don’t think I could have possibly had if I had a more traditional upbringing.

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

I’ve thought a lot about this because it wasn’t traditional. I think like a lot of creative people I feel perpetually misunderstood, and if I don’t have the tools to express myself, I can do it through a creative channel. To this day, if someone laughs at me/ with me (I’ve never quite grasped the difference between those two) I feel they understand me at the deepest level. This presents its own set of problems, but such is life.

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

When I was a kid I saw the 2003 revival of Nine on Broadway 10 times. I was probably too young to be running around the city by myself, but I would show up there and get a rush ticket probably twice a month. That ensemble of women, the glamor, the design — I could not take my eyes off of it. Jane Krakowski was in that production.

I was lucky enough to have a tiny recurring role on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt about 13 years later, which Jane was a regular on. I never had any scenes with her and I never got to meet her at the premiere because she was in She Loves Me at the time.

But about a year after that, I was at the closing night party of Grand Hotel at City Center Encores. Jane was there because she was in the original production. She approached me, was very complementary, gracious and sweet, and then introduced me to Maury Yeston, who’d written the music for both Grand Hotel and Nine. I don’t think she had the faintest idea that that production had meant so, so, so much to me when I was a kid.

Anyway, I started crying and made my poor friend Todd leave with me because I couldn’t keep it together. Very embarrassing. But still a lovely memory.

It has been said that mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I make about 15 gargantuan mistakes a week. I’ve counted/ averaged it out/ gotten the mean number so I can speak with some authority here.

I suppose a huge one that pops out is I spent a fair number of my first years trying to turn my love of musical theatre into part of my skillset, which it is most *definitely* not.

Do what you’re good at. No one ever had a good life banging their head against a wall trying to make something happen that is not happening. (I heard that on a podcast but I don’t remember for the life of me who said it. Sorry!)

What are some other interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

In the early summer, a movie I was in a couple years ago will be released theatrically and on streaming. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. It’s called The Sixth Reel. It’s a 60’s-esque caper comedy (a la It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World or The Great Race) about a group of ruthless classic film collectors who find a reel of a Lon Chaney horror film long thought to be lost, and we all want to get our hands on it. It was written and directed by Charles Busch and Carl Andress, who have become something of parental/ big brother figures to me, with an absolutely crackerjack cast: Charles, Julie Halston, Tim Daly, Margaret Cho, Andre de Shields, Patrick Page, Cady Huffman, John Ellison Conlee, Dee Hoty and Heather MacRae.

I’ve been working for the last couple years on a strange story loosely based on my relationship with my mother with Veronica Reyes How, a superb writer, called Mother, May I Have A Kidney? The relationships in the story are somewhat autobiographical but it’s a fictional story and set of circumstances. Paul Schnee, a wonderful casting director, is gonna step behind the camera and direct it. We’re gonna do it as a short form project and we’re gonna start in June. More to come on that soon.

Then in the fall I get to go back and hang with some old friends doing a 3rd Hurricane Bianca movie with some of the Drag Race girls. I really love playing the part, mostly because I’m not sure how often I’ll get to play a character who is super sex forward. On top of that, to get to spend a chunk of time with some folx at the nerve center of queer culture is very exciting. We meet Bianca’s mother in this story, who’s being played by an actress I’ve loved forever, so I’m really looking forward to it!

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?

I think we speak a lot about how diversity is important in the entertainment industry in terms of employment and opportunity, but not as much about how it affects the audience. It’s great that employment goes to people of all backgrounds and experiences, but what is earth shattering is what happens when those eyeballs see them.

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

I’ve spent the last few years with one foot out of a hard pursuit of things while I dealt with a longstanding eating disorder, so I feel like I’m coming back at it with a clearer head and renewed vigor. Breaks are important if you feel like your life and your spirits are dictating that.

Have a tangible, physical reminder of why you do it around you. Always. My deepest and richest relationships in my personal life would not have been found without my professional life. I look at my closest friends in this business and sometimes think about the time I met them in a work situation. That helps keep me feeling grateful for it all.

A nightly sob, like Holly Hunter in Broadcast News. Very effective.

Be happy for other people’s success, unless you have hard tangible proof they are terrible people. In that case, see #3.

Have friends who don’t know anything about show business. And I mean ZERO. It’s awesome.

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

As far as show business goes, I think remember the absurdity and laugh a little. We care about this a lot, it brings joy and needed respite and reflection to the masses, but at the end of the day no one’s life is on the line here, so try to laugh a little bit about it.

As far as the world goes, more of the same. Nothing is that serious that it can’t be laughed at.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

If I’m a bowling ball, my life has been defined by countless women (mostly women, and a LOT of them) who have kept me from rolling straight into the gutter. Yes, the gutter.

I had a pretty extensive bout with thyroid cancer when I was 15 and paralyzed a vocal cord after surgery. It was an ugly, terrible, dark time, unquestionably the worst of my life. Linda Carroll, who was a speech pathologist for professional voice users at Mt. Sinai, sort of grabbed me and was determined to not only recover me, but help me thrive. She became something of a surrogate mother to me in my last years of high school, and it felt, in a sort of macabre way, sort of cool and elite because she had been instrumental in the recovery of many folx after their own injuries, including Ben Vereen, who I got to have dinner with once with her. She and her husband recently left New York for New Hampshire so she’s been on my mind a lot.

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

Charles Busch taught me a major life lesson with this: View everything in your life as a narrative, like you are the protagonist in a story.

That has been tremendously helpful in viewing my course in life. If I make a mistake (see above) or even if something wonderful and amazing happens, viewing the whole thing like I am the star of my own sitcom (I don’t need Hulu to give me that. Really. It’s fine.) is a way to find hilarity in everything.

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 mean, the answer for me would have to be Barbra Streisand. I will never not be completely obsessed and enamored with the confidence, drive and total singular abandon that marks everything she does, but especially in the 60’s.

I have to say I am always impressed with the work Michael Showalter does. I never lose sight of his point of view on what he’s doing, and having a point of view for me is one the most important things a creative person needs.

How can our readers follow you online?

@dougplautperson on Instagram. That’s about it!

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