Audra McDonald is calling out an overeager fan who followed her home after a Broadway performance.
The Gilded Age actress, 55, detailed the scary encounter in a “PSA” Instagram video on Saturday, August 16. She said the incident took place the night before after she left New York City’s Majestic Theatre following her latest performance as Mama Rose in Gypsy.
McDonald said that the theatergoer “snuck around and found me the way I’d exited from the theater and followed me all the way to where I was staying, came into the building and was uncomfortably close. And then when I finally got some security to help me, their response was, ‘Well, hey, I’ve come all the way…’ and they wanted an autograph and felt that they deserved an autograph.”
“That is crossing a big old boundary. I just want to call that out. That’s a big no-no. That’s now messing with me safety. It’s not right,” the Tony winner added.
McDonald said that while she sometimes greets fans at the stage door, she has chosen not to for her run in Gypsy in order to “conserve energy” to be able to “get through the next show and the next show and the next show.”
“Actors, as much as we would love to greet every one of you after a show, sometimes we’re just exhausted and it’s hard. There’s a million reasons,” the actress explained.
She continued, “There’s a lot of reasons performers don’t do the stage door. There are shows that I’ve done it and shows that I’ve not done it. Some of the reasons are: they’re exhausted, some people get anxiety about doing stage door, some people are in a rush to catch trains so they can get home, some people avoid the stage door for health reasons.”
McDonald concluded her video by asking fans to respect actors’ boundaries and privacy after theater performances.
“When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don’t stop, leave them alone. There is a reason that they’re not stopping, and it has nothing to do with you,” she said. “It’s them protecting their space and peace. If they do stop and wave, take a picture with you, or sign an autograph, great. But please respect the proper boundaries.”
McDonald concluded her acclaimed run in Gypsy on Sunday, August 17. The show opened in December and played over 260 times.
