Sunday, April 12, 2009
A+E, Theater, Reviews

L.A.? No way!

Atlanta actress Kate Donadio says goodbye to Hollywood

BY BERT OSBORNE

Who needs L.A., anyway? Not Kate Donadio. The 30-year-old actress grew up in North Carolina, earned her theater degree from New York University, and eventually came to Atlanta, where her father (actor James Donadio) has been a fixture on the local scene for nearly two decades. She quickly established a name for herself in the Alliance’s "...,’ said Said," Georgia Shakespeare’s "Othello," Theatre in the Square’s "Rabbit Hole," etc. But when she got a small part in the big movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Donadio decided the time was right to "go Hollywood" in pursuit of additional film and TV work.
 
She was wrong. "I hated Los Angeles," Donadio confesses during a recent lunch interview. "It’s not my kind of town. Some people do really well there, living that sort of lifestyle and always playing the game, but I found it incredibly difficult. I’ve never been much of a schmoozer." She pauses, and then shrugs her shoulders. "It’s one of those things you have to do. How will you ever know unless you try? I just happened to land in Atlanta after college, and I think I needed that time away to realize that this was my home, where I needed to be. So I hated L.A., but I’m really glad I went. It made a lot of things much clearer to me," she says.
 
Donadio gave it a year, without any luck. On the bright side, she’s only been back a few months, and already she’s impressing audiences by night, with her sultry performance in the Tennessee Williams potboiler "Suddenly Last Summer” at Actor’s Express. By day, she’s revving up for her next role in the upcoming NASCAR comedy “Tradin’ Paint” at Theatre in the Square. "Me, as a pit-crew chief. I love it," Donadio offers with a laugh. "These plays are at opposite ends of the spectrum, from the poetry and passion of this iconic drama to a charming little story about stock-car racing, and that’s the kind of variety most actors live for."
 
Interestingly, "Summer" marks her third time co-starring with Shannon Eubanks, her real-life stepmother. (She and Donadio married when Kate was 2.) The actress admits she’s "a bit upset" that she hasn’t yet had the opportunity to share the stage with her dad. "I’ve always wanted to, but, at the same time, I’d probably get all nervous and intimidated about it, because he’s so amazing," she smiles. "Summer" also reunites Donadio with Joe Sykes, her leading man from Steve Yockey’s "Skin," which she cites among her favorite experiences.
 
Although she knows a couple of them socially, Donadio has never worked with any of the "Paint" cast before, including Chad Martin, Veronika Duerr, Matthew Myers and Eric Mendenhall. As she puts it, "I’m looking forward to rehearsals, and we’re even planning a field trip to the track that sounds like a whole lot of fun. That’s what makes each show unique, all the different personalities of all the different people involved. Every creative process is its own thing."
 
What’s true of working with, say, Joe Sykes is no less true of working with, well, Brad Pitt. In "Benjamin Button," Donadio shares one scene with Pitt, as a pregnant wife who’s house-hunting with her husband—appearing prominently in a couple of shots, speaking a few lines of dialogue and, contrary to speculation about dwarf stand-ins or computer-generated gimmicks, otherwise holding her own opposite the superstar.
 
"It was totally the real him," Donadio enthuses. "That was like the best day ever. He made me feel really good, and he even came over at the end of the day to say he enjoyed meeting and working with me. He’s just the nicest guy, really thoughtful and laid back." She pauses. "And so pretty." SP