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On May 1, Gold House unveiled its annual A100 List, recognizing the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders across industries. See the full list here.
At the very end of Sunset Boulevard as she’s taking her bows, Nicole Scherzinger always hears them in the crowd, the people cheering, “Chee Hoo.” The familiar expression of joy tells Scherzinger there are likely fellow Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders in the audience—and it’s a moment that fills her with immense pride. “Part of my superpower is where I come from,” the 46-year-old actor and singer says. “I bring my ancestors with me on that stage every night.”
Scherzinger, who was born in Hawaii and raised in Louisville, K.Y., says she comes from a long line of “strong warrior women.” Her grandmother was one of 18 children, and her mother had Scherzinger when she was 18 years old. These women modeled resilience and selflessness, and they taught Scherzinger at an early age to never give up. It’s a lesson that she’s needed to lean on throughout her career. First, as a timid Hawaiian Filipino Ukrainian girl growing up in Kentucky who never felt like she fit in. Then, as she navigated pop stardom and its aftermath as a member of the Pussycat Dolls, one of the best-selling girl groups in history. Now, that lesson has taken on a whole new meaning as she’s made her Broadway debut playing Norma Desmond, an aging has-been who’s hellbent on staging a comeback. On May 1, Scherzinger received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
Broadway has always been Scherzinger’s dream. Growing up, she was an awkward and shy kid, and she felt like she never belonged anywhere. But then she found the theater. She loved Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, and, especially, Miss Saigon. Her childhood theater idol was Lea Salonga, who played Kim—and the Filipino actor’s presence fueled Scherzinger’s determination to be in the same musical one day. She attended a performing arts high school, where she was quickly cast as the lead role in Alice in Wonderland. She remembers crying in disbelief when she learned that her director picked her. “To know that she gave it to someone with color at that time was really thinking outside of the box,” she says. “She saw me for me.” That validation propelled her into more leading roles—and eventually to much bigger stages.
Decades later, Scherzinger has finally landed where she’s longed to be, though she never envisioned that would mean starring in Sunset Boulevard. The musical, which is adapted from a 1950 movie starring Gloria Swanson, is about a washed-up silent film star named Norma with an unsinkable desire to get back into the spotlight. It’s a thorny role because Norma’s obsession with fame can ring hollow, out-of-touch, or even over-exaggerated. Audiences often sympathize with her, but they also judge her. Scherzinger wanted to cut to the core of the story and peel back Norma’s layers, aware that she’d have to expose her own “ugly” to connect with people. “Time is fleeting for all of us, and Norma struggled with abandonment, deep loneliness, feeling unseen, and not accepted,” she says. “A lot of us feel that way, especially in this industry.”
As Norma, Scherzinger brings with her the highs and lows of coming of age in a spotlight that wasn’t always kind. She knows exactly what it’s like to be on top of the world and then, suddenly, not. In the early 2000s, she joined the Pussycat Dolls as the band’s lead singer, then spent much of her 20s swept up in the whirlwind of international pop stardom. “One day you’re just not as successful as you once were or would like to be,” she says. “I’ve definitely lived the life in the industry where sometimes you feel disposable, discarded, or dismissed.” For that reason, she says, she is quite familiar with chasing external validation—and relates deeply to that aspect of Norma’s character.
If you had asked Scherzinger at 19 what success looked like, she would have pointed to awards. She remembers thinking, “If I don’t have a Grammy by the age of 23, I’m gonna die!” But she’s since learned that true gratification comes from giving it her all on stage. In Sunset, there’s nowhere for her to hide. She’s barefoot in a slip dress, and her face is projected on a screen that stretches over 20 feet tall. As she sings Norma’s songs about wanting to be who she once was, Scherzinger digs deep to access memories of being passed over or stuck inside boxes where she didn’t fit. She feels like her true self onstage, and for that, she’s been celebrated by Broadway, a community she’s loved for her entire life. “I’m really finally living my purpose and my dream, because I finally get to share all of me and who I truly am with this world in this role,” she says. “That’s the ultimate success.”
Write to Annabel Gutterman at annabel.gutterman@time.com.
