With the ongoing Television Critic’s Association winter press tour happening, it’s no surprise that there are plenty of concurrent parties to be had. NBC threw a bash for their stars this evening, January 6th, at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena — and Aaron Tveit was there along with many others (including Adam Levine, Kathy Griffin, and the cast of “Smash”). Read about what Aaron had to say about stint on “Gossip Girl” below, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

6:56 p.m. Stage vet Aaron Tveit, who plays Enjolras in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables adaptation and is set to star in USA’s summer drama “Graceland,” was candid about his past experiences in TV. “[Sometimes] you don’t always agree with what you have to do and that’s fine, that’s the job,” he acknowledges, alluding to his ‘Gossip Girl’ turn as Trip Van Der Bilt. “I learned so much doing that show.“

The “Graceland” panel at TCA is tomorrow, presumably with Aaron in attendance. Hopefully we can expect plenty of images from the event, along with accounts from the panel and even individual interviews.

Kicking off the new season of Broadway.com’s “Show People” – hosted by Paul Wontorek – is special guest, Aaron Tveit. It’s a very lengthy interview, clocking in at just over 25-minutes, and hitting various subjects along the way — including Les Misérables (if you’ve ever wanted to know the proper way to say Enjolras, look no further), brilliant-but-canceled Catch Me If You Can, Aaron’s upcoming television series “Graceland,” and why he’s not going to join Twitter. He and Paul have a great and easy rapport throughout, making the interview seem almost conversational while still promoting his on-the-rise career.

Preparing for Les Misérables‘ Chrismas day release in North America, the Times Herald-Record has released a short article on Middletown native, Aaron Tveit. As expected, it revolves around Les Mis, with some extra details that were previously unreleased (including more details on Aaron’s audition/process to score the role of Enjolras). Sounds like he had a pretty special weekend when finding out he’d gotten both that role and Mike Warren in “Graceland” only a couple of days apart!

When Middletown native Aaron Tveit first heard about the film adaptation of Les Misérables, he heard Tom Hooper was directing and Hugh Jackman was attached. That was all the information he needed.

“They weren’t casting yet, but I got the script anyway,” said Tveit. “I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna put myself on tape.’ So I basically told my agents to send it somewhere.”

He taped himself playing lead role Marius Pontmercy; the tape reached the casting director, who invited him to an hourlong session with Hooper. Then another session. Then stars started attaching themselves — Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried. It got a little tense, but it worked out.

FOR MORE, GO HERE.

Playbill has a new article all about Aaron Tveit, focusing heavily on his experience of playing Enjolras in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables. It’s a pretty thorough piece, and he mentions certain decisions made with Hooper and Eddie Redmayne (Marius) for their respective characters. He also brings up his feelings regarding award nominations and elaborates on the Anastasia reading from earlier this year. There’s also a major spoiler for his character in Les Mis; even if you’re familiar with the story, it’ll enlighten you on how exactly his final scenes were portrayed in the movie-musical adaptation.

Enjolras – the committed, charismatic firebrand at the barricades in Les Misérables, and a Tony-winning role for Michael Maguire in the original Broadway production – is hardly a shy, retiring type, but he has been surprisingly M.I.A. at all the international red-carpet premieres of the picture save for one — New York City.

The reason for this conspicuous omission is that Aaron Tveit – the actor who plays him in the epic visualization of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel and its 1985 stage musical translation by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil, and Herbert Kretzmer – was in “Graceland” at the time. He has been since Halloween and will be till early spring.

This particular Graceland is not Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis but a beach house in Southern California — and, true to curious Hollywood logic, it has been replicated in Fort Lauderdale, FL, for a crime series that will debut on the USA Network in May.

“I’m playing an undercover FBI agent, and basically it’s a true story,” the actor said by phone after a tough day of toiling on sand and surf. “In the 1990s, the FBI seized the mansion of a former cartel head who was so Elvis-obsessed he decorated his home like Graceland — and the law actually used this place in Southern California as a safe house for undercover FBI/DEA/Customs agents up until right after 9/11.”

Meanwhile back at the barricades, Tveit admitted he had seen the Les Miz movie – twice! – and has no problem shilling his little soul out for it. “I’m so, so proud of that film,” he trilled. “Y’know, sometimes when you’re working on a project, you can sense what you’re doing is different or special — and it really had that kind of feeling. For one thing, they had six full weeks’ rehearsal before filming, which is unheard of. I had four and a half weeks’ myself. It was like a play, blocking it out on mock sets.”

FOR MORE, GO HERE.

In a new article with Entertainment Weekly, Aaron Tveit gives details on the filming of “Red and Black” from Les Misérables – a number focusing on his character, Enjolras, and fellow student revolutionaries at the ABC Café (AKA Les Amis de l’ABC). Along with talking about filming live on set, he elaborates on how the process was for him, which included hearing a piano mixed with his voice to aid his singing. In the second portion of the article – entitled “The Story” – Aaron discusses how he tapped into the role of Enjolras by relating the events of the June Rebellion to current world affairs.

There’s also a 38-second clip of “Red and Black,” which you can view at the source (click the image above).

As has been the subject of much buzz surrounding the film, Les Misérables director Tom Hooper made the unconventional choice to record the movie’s vocals on set (rather than the typical approach of recording in a studio a few months before production begins and having the actors lip-sync to a playback of the music). For Tveit, that made his first movie musical much closer to his experiences onstage.

“The stamina we needed on a daily basis was much like what you would need to perform a show live onstage,” Tveit said.

For “Red and Black,” that meant over a day’s worth of shooting the song that takes place in the revolutionaries’ gathering place, the ABC Café. But unlike performing onstage, Tveit and his co-stars were missing one element that feeds any theater musical actor’s energy: the orchestra.

“We had to imagine that we were singing over what you hear now [in the completed film], which is this lush, 60-piece orchestra,” Tveit said.

In place of the orchestra’s part that was recorded later, the actors had a pianist playing live on the opposite side of the Pinewood Studios soundstage where the café set was built. The actors could hear the piano via in-ear monitors, but everyone else on set was serenaded by what sounded to them like an a cappella rendition of Les Mis songs – an especially “surreal” sound when the song was the stirring, ensemble “Red and Black,” Tveit said.

FOR MORE, GO HERE.

The Craptacular has an amazing, new interview with Aaron Tveit and it’s both incredibly insightful and fun. While some questions tap into the character of Enjolras and working on Les Misérables, others are light and offer Aaron the opportunity to share some tidbits like his favorite 90s pop song and what he expects from Santa this Christmas. There’s also a picture of Aaron with Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche in the Les Mis film), along with Aaron’s memories of working with the talented young actor. Read an excerpt below before heading to the source for more; it’s also been added to the press archive.

M: When did you first see Les Miz?
A: I grew up an hour north of New York City, and I saw Les Miz when I was in tenth grade with my high school chorus. I didn’t think I knew the show, and then I was sitting in the theater and I was like, “How do I know all these songs?” That’s the cool thing about it. It’s part of American pop culture, in a way. And I just loved it. I’d only seen a couple shows before that and you know – all the war, and the story – it got me. I loved it.

M: Did you picture yourself being in it when you first saw it?
A: Absolutely not. No. If you told me then, sitting in that theater, that I was going to be in the movie version of it, I would have told you that you were crazy.

M: Film is so permanent. Did you feel any pressure about playing this iconic character on screen?
A: I have to say, I didn’t. I just didn’t think about the scope of it in that way. It definitely felt special, though. There were moments where I would turn to Eddie [Redmayne] or someone and be like, “Dude, this is different. This is a special thing.” But I really didn’t concern myself with the weight of expectations or anything like that. I really just tried to prepare for it as I prepare for everything else and just focus. I find that with anything, you have to focus on the micro. If I look at the whole thing, I’ll get overwhelmed.

FOR MORE, GO HERE.

Aaron Tveit finally has a new interview just in time for Les Misérables‘ U.S. release date on Christmas day. In it, he talks a bit about the movie-musical adaptation (including his experience of singing live on set and how that compares to a stint Broadway), his new USA Network show (and that we can expect a “complicated” character in Mike Warren), and his plans regarding future stage musicals (which he plans on “never ever” walking away from). There’s some great new info! Check out an excerpt below before heading to the source for more; it’s also been added to the press archive.

When you auditioned for the film, did you initially audition for Enjolras?
Aaron Tveit: I sent in a tape for Marius. I put “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” and “In My Life” on tape. I’ve never done Les Miz in New York. I was too young by the time it closed on Broadway, and I was doing something else when the revival happened. When I went in for Tom, they wanted me to prepare all the Enjolras material and read for Enjolras. It was actually, I have to say, my naïveté. It’s funny, once I got more and more familiar with the material and when I read the novel, I was like, “Wow, this is a really, really great role,” and I felt very much better suited for it.

How did your theater experience and training help you on this film?
Tveit: A lot of stuff that I’ve done in television and film, you do much smaller takes. But the way that Tom shot this, we literally were shooting five- and six-minute sections, like whole songs. Because of that, you kind of had to always be in the moment and always be in character. You kind of had to be fully living in this world for the whole length of the takes. Coming from a background of being onstage, you’re onstage for two and a half hours and you’re in it for the whole time no matter what you’re doing. Even if you don’t have a line, you have to stay in it. I think I definitely used a lot of that background that I personally had to help me focus while we were shooting.

FOR MORE, GO HERE.

Nominations for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards have been released — and Les Misérables did extraordinarily well. Aaron Tveit earned his first SAG Awards nomination for being part of the ensemble, scoring a nom in the prestigious Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Congratulations, Aaron! Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway also picked up Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role/Female Actor in a Supporting Role, respectively. The film also received a Stunt Ensemble nom.

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
LES MISÉRABLES (Universal Pictures)
ISABELLE ALLEN / Young Cosette
SAMANTHA BARKS / Eponine
SACHA BARON COHEN / Thénardier
HELENA BONHAM CARTER / Madame Thénardier
RUSSELL CROWE / Javert
ANNE HATHAWAY / Fantine
DANIEL HUTTLESTONE / Gavroche
HUGH JACKMAN / Jean Valjean
EDDIE REDMAYNE / Marius
AMANDA SEYFRIED / Cosette
AARON TVEIT / Enjolras
COLM WILKINSON / Bishop

FOR THE FULL LIST OF NOMINEES, GO HERE.

Tonight, December 10th, New York held the Les Misérables premiere — and Aaron Tveit was finally in attendance! Others at the premiere included co-stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Isabelle Allen, and Daniel Huttlestone. There were also a few Broadway veterans there, including Norm Lewis (who’s played Javert) and Cheyenne Jackson. Pictures are still coming in, so keep checking back for more. I’ll also edit this post with interviews should any videos come in.

My attention has been brought to this incredible film still from Les Mis featuring Aaron Tveit as Enjolras. It’s the first official picture of him in costume, and he looks great as the revolutionary student leader. If you’ve never had the chance to read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, he describes Enjolras as having hair like Aaron’s wig used in the movie-musical adaptation; kudos to the stylists! Check out an excerpt from the novel below:

“All at once [Enjolras] threw back his head, his blond locks fell back like those of an angel on the sombre quadriga made of stars, they were like the mane of a startled lion in the flaming of an halo.”