Will Brill has moved between theater, film and television, earning a Tony Award for “Stereophonic” in 2024 and taking his first leading film role in Giselle Bonilla’s “The Musical” in 2025. But the actor told IndieWire that awards and career milestones are not his main measure of fulfillment: he most values projects built around close friendships and shared creative work.
Brill won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for “Stereophonic.” The following year, he led “The Musical” as Doug Leibowitz, a middle-school drama teacher whose frustrations as a playwright feed into an unexpected school production. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and is available to rent or buy digitally, according to the source report.
The lead role brought a different level of responsibility, Brill said. In supporting parts, he is used to contributing to a project without feeling that its success rests on his performance alone. For “The Musical,” he was on camera for nearly every scene and felt that more of the film’s success depended on him.
Brill also compared the experience with “Test Pattern,” Shatara Michelle Ford’s 2019 feature, in which he starred alongside Brittany S. Hall. He described both films as demanding projects that required strong trust between actor and filmmaker. “Test Pattern,” he said, was a major emotional undertaking, while “The Musical” challenged him in a different way as his first film lead.
His career also includes supporting roles in projects such as “Caught Stealing” and “Being Heumann,” as well as appearances in “The OA,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and numerous theater productions. Brill said he enjoys the range of those jobs and is interested in playing a television character who develops over many years, while continuing to work on stage.
Even so, he does not want to plan his career around a single format. Brill told IndieWire that he is willing to see what opportunities come, and that his most rewarding experiences have been projects formed by close-knit groups of friends or ones where those friendships grew during production. For him, the lasting appeal is telling stories with people he cares about, whatever the medium.
Brill’s upcoming supporting role in Sian Heder’s “Being Heumann” is as Gene Eidenberg, a political adviser involved in the events surrounding disability rights activist Judy Heumann and a historic sit-in. The film is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on November 6 and to arrive on Apple TV on November 13, according to the source report.
Sources: IndieWire.