Liza With a K

One could almost write a song and choreograph a dance about Krysta with a "K" portraying Liza with a "Z."

To portray a living, breathing person, especially a talent as well-known as Liza Minnelli, is one of the biggest challenges in an actor's repertoire.

Rodriguez threw herself into becoming the chanteuse for her role as the fashion designer Halston's most inspiring muse during his career in the 1970s and 80s. It's a relationship vividly portrayed in Netflix's five-part series executive produced by Ryan Murphy and directed by Daniel Minahan.

Although Rodriguez did not meet with Minnelli herself prior to the production, Ewan McGregor, who portrays Halston did, with the purpose of assuring her that his embodiment of her close friend was in good hands with him.

Halston had many famous female devotees during his career, starting with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who wore his famous pillbox hat, and including Elizabeth Taylor, Bianca Jagger, Babe Paley and Anjelica Huston. Yet none was more loyal than Minnelli who accepted her Oscar for 1972's Cabaret in a gold Halston ensemble and the next year got married in another one of his creations.

Minnelli also helped popularize the designer's famous halter dress, wearing a micro-mini red sequined version in the 1972 made for te4levision concert film Liza with a Z, directed by Bob Fosse.

Together, Minnelli, Halston, along with Andy Warhol, were at the red hot epicenter of the New York fashion and nightclub scene during the disco era. Minnelli was Halston's trusted confidante, taking his calls in the middle the night and helping him through career and personal crises – as he did the same for her.

The multi-faceted role of Minelli is a culmination of Rodriguez's love for musical theater, a passion that took hold of her as a pre-teen in Orange County, Calif. She later studied theater at NYU before landing roles on Broadway in shows including Bye Bye Birdie and Good Vibrations.

With that background, it was no surprise that she scored a key role on NBC's short-lived drama Smash in 2012. Rodriguez has also appeared in Daybreak, Quantico, Trial and Error, Indoor Boys, Inside Amy Schumer, Younger and Gossip Girl.

She spoke to us from New York, where she's made her home for the past 20 years, in a conversation that touched on fame, fashion and friendship and the preparation that went into portraying a legendary performer.

We first see you as Liza Minnelli as she's performing the memorable Liza with a Z in a cabaret where Halston is brought to meet her backstage and criticizes her clothing. From there, an interesting partnership is formed. How would you describe the relationship between Liza and Halston and how it developed over time?

I think they're instantly soulmates and that they recognize each other in themselves and a piece that's missing - a partner they've been missing, a partner they can trust. Both had tumultuous relationships, even those that were not romantic. Both were striving for something and shared the same sense of humor and wicked wit. When they join forces, it is so exciting to watch.

How did you feel when Halston is first shown dressing you in the stunning red gown and then being there supporting him for his first fashion show?

The red gown is amazing. It's one piece of fabric. That's how Halston designed, one piece to be the most flattering thing on your body, because it honors the body. It goes to where the body goes. It does not enhance or hide anything, it simply is a beautiful piece.

I loved the outfit in the fashion show, the tie-dye pajama set. You feel so glamorous in them although they're basically pajamas. It's the first glimpse of who Liza is about to be, as she's not quite her established self at that point. He takes her from the Buster Brown look to this womanly look with no undergarments. It's very freeing and a very womanly feeling and it just goes from there.

I loved the scene in the second episode where you got Halston out of his brood-fest in the car by talking to him about being a true artist and pursuing his dreams.

That scene is very important to the story as their relationship is not based on just kowtowing to each other's idiosyncrasies, or allowing each other to have fits. They've called each other out. He's a very temperamental person and it's important for me to show Liza wasn't just taking abuse. When things got rough, she got rough right back. That's who she is.

She was born with this in her blood and found the person she thought also had that. It's an insult and a betrayal to her for him to walk out on a performance. It's another thing to NOT do what you're born to do. That to her is the ultimate betrayal and waste of genius. It's something that doesn't even compute to her. The show goes on.

We're not show people because we like to perform, we HAVE to, and you claw your way back out there. She can't believe he doesn't understand.

It must've been intense preparing for the role and transforming yourself into someone you've long admired.

I was thinking and daydreaming while auditioning that if I get this part I'll do nothing but Liza until it's over. I was craving that immersion. That's something you dream about. From the moment I woke up I did speech work, dialect, dance lessons and choreography rehearsals. I watched everything you can image of hers on repeat.

I would walk and talk like her - everything you could possibly do to really capture the essence of what she wanted in life and what made her happy, scared, vulnerable and excited. I cobbled it together from my own experiences and from interviews of what others said about her.

People like her ex, Peter Allen and Ben Vereen, a friend, co-star and lover, they would talk about her ability to make you want to scoop her up in your arms and take control. Wanting to protect her and realizing she's her own protector. That's such an intimate thing to say about someone. It was important for me to find out why.

Talk about how being Judy Garland's daughter shaped Liza's life and career and how it is dramatized in the series.

With her mother, she always wanted to scoop her up in her arms because Judy was always portraying a damsel in distress. But being Judy Garland's daughter was this thing that most people wanted to talk to Liza about.

In an interview later in life for Inside Edition she was asked, "What would you like to happen?" She said for no one to ever ask her that again. Her desire to be outside her mother's shadow came from everyone else. I don't think in her heart she wanted that but the more she was asked, she was hell-bent on carving out her own path, hoping one day it wouldn't be the most important thing about her.

Let's delve into the big production number "Bonjour Paris" in the huge Versailles episode which was intercut with the fashion show.

Versailles was so fun. It was Liza as we know her, and the costume is spectacular, although it's actually the outfit she wore to the afterparty. She wore a turtleneck and gabardine pants. It's very Cabaret, with the spiky eyelashes and such a vibe. We shot over three days. It's a huge piece, interweaving models, the audience and designers in two locations.

It was before Covid when we rehearsed that number. It was shot in November, [during the pandemic] with some great Broadway dancers, one of whom I went to college with, and it was really fun to be on stage with theater people.

The audience was really anxious. People said they were emotional to see live performances. At one point I started the performance with two rows of 10 people in gala clothes and I thought, "This looks like a Kubrick film because of the masks."

What was it like for you inhabiting that milieu of the 70s and 80s – the fashions, the drugs, the entire lifestyle?

There are so many parallels to where we are now. New York was on the precipice of an economic downfall, there was political unrest and yet people were trying to live their lives.

I started to feel connected, I started to become enraptured by the clothing – the simplicity and the artistry. Halston was never kitschy. He was refined and streamlined. It was a time of people trying to have a liberation. Everyone was expressing themselves in entirely new ways.

Working closely with Ewan McGregor-- let's talk about some of your experiences.

I loved working with Ewan so much. It's wonderful and it makes such a difference when you see how they treat everyone and that can make or break the experience. As a leader he's so great.

Here's an example. It was the first fashion show, and we were all tired. He was in the corner, watching it as Halston. He came up and gave us a big hug, and said, "Isn't it so much fun?" It was such a moment for me. We have someone who wants to have a good time. We tried to honor the relationship he and Liza had. The easiest part of the job was falling in love with Ewan.

I'd also like to hear about your working relationships with Ryan Murphy and director Daniel Minahan.

Dan has been our leader from the beginning and he championed me from the audition. From the minute he saw my tape he didn't consider anyone else. You feel safe and protected with him. He and Christine Vachon had been trying to get a story about Halston made, but it was too much for a movie. It was the resurgence of limited series that allowed it.

Ryan really shepherded it. You can see the possibility of longform with an ending you can plan for. We have had a great heyday in this format, largely in part to Ryan, and that's why he was such a champion. It's a great partnership.

Growing up in Orange County, California, you got bitten by the Broadway bug early and appeared in a number of stage shows, so is only natural your move into TV was on NBC's Smash.

It was a great transition to a new world and my first job as a series regular. I'd done guest spots and pilots and being a musical performer was an asset. It makes such an impact on the theater community to know people outside it are valuing our contributions. To be able to have that was a really championing moment you don't always get. I had to just do what I already knew how to do and learn how they filmed it.