'You've got to build a thick skin': Andrew Rannells opens up about the hardest years of his career

Broadway star and prestige television actor Andrew Rannells is opening up about a relationship he had as a teen with an emotionally manipulative 40-year-old in the Omaha, Neb., community theatre scene.

He details the experience in his new memoir, Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood so that other young people trying to get out of similar situations know that they're not alone.

"It was very challenging to write about and it's not something I've talked to a lot of people about," Rannells said in a conversation with q's Tom Power.

In the book, Rannells describes how he had hoped that teachers or other adults would help him, but not knowing how to ask. Eventually, the man followed Rannells to New York City, insisting on sleeping in his dorm room before Rannells told him to leave and never return again.  

"Even when he showed up [in New York] I didn't tell my close friends," Rannells said. "I really just tried to keep everything... so compartmentalized."

"It's sad to say … this is not a story that is just unique to me. There are a lot of people out there who've found themselves in similar positions particularly at that age when you think you are an adult and can act like an adult and are responsible enough to make certain choices but... the reality is... that's not the case."

Rannells, known for his roles on Black Monday, Big Mouth, Girls and the Tony-award-winning Book of Mormon, told Power that he's often approached by young Broadway fans hoping for a shortcut to success. His answer: there is none.

"It took seven years for me to get to Broadway," he said. "But there were little wins along the way that kept me going and kept me on the right track and often those aren't fully as celebrated because they're not the final product."

Along the way he was buoyed by "the hope of possibility," he said. "You've got to build a thick skin very quickly if you want to stick around."

"Before you go into any audition you think this could be the one that changes my life, this could be the thing that helps me pay my rent this month," he says. "My friend Zusanna… When her agent calls, her cell phone ring tone is 'Jesus Take The Wheel' by Carrie Underwood. 'This could be it, Lord! Jesus take the wheel!'"

Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood comes out on March 12, 2019.

Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full interview.

— Produced by ​Katie Toth