Beloved Broadway actress Audra McDonald recently experience a harrowing encounter with an obsessive fan, according to a story she shared on social media.
In a video shared on her Instagram account on Sunday, August 17, McDonald, 55, revealed that a fan had followed her home after her final performance as Mama Rose in Broadway’s Gypsy.
“Last night, someone—I don’t even know if they did the stage door or not—but they snuck around and found me the way I had exited from the theatre,” said McDonald. She noted that the fan had “followed me all the way to where I was staying, came into the building and was uncomfortably close.”
Thankfully, the Tony winner was able to get security and fend off the fan. But the fan apparently still had some sense of entitlement.
“When I finally got some security to help me, their response was ‘Well hey, I’ve come all the way,’” McDonald continued. “They named some town, some city that they’ve come all the way from. They wanted an autograph and felt that they deserved an autograph." McDonald typically doesn’t stick around to sign playbills outside of the New York City theatre’s stage door, as she prefers to save her voice for upcoming shows. She often performs eight shows each week.
As she is known to limit access to her, she found the fan’s actions to be a big violation of privacy that demonstrated a total lack of respect.
“That is crossing a big old boundary,” McDonald emphasized. “I just want to call that out, that’s a big no-no. That’s now messing with my safety. It’s not right.”
She closed the video sending a directive to fans — of hers and of any stage actor.
“When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don’t stop, leave them alone,” McDonald said. “There is a reason that they’re not stopping, and it has nothing to do with you. It’s them protecting their space and peace, whatever that may be.”
