Isaac Powell and Zachary Quinto on Frogs, Teslas, and the Ryan Murphy Brotherhood

When Isaac Powell reunited with former American Horror Story co-star Zachary Quinto, it dawned on him just how much has happened since they first met five years ago. “Trump was in office, there’s been a whole pandemic, I’ve moved to three or four different cities,” the 29-year-old actor explained. Quinto, too, remembers their first encounter with razor-shap clarity. It was March 12th, 2020 at what would be Powell’s last performance in West Side Story before the world and Broadway shut down. Two years later, the pair would finally get to work together on season 11 of Ryan Murphy’s beloved horror anthology series, a full circle moment in which Powell got the chance to collaborate with some of the heroes whose careers he initially sought to emulate. Since then, he’s has taken a step away from the disturbing and grotesque and has instead opted for something a bit lighter, starring in HBO’s Hollywood satire The Franchise as Bryson, the burnt-out first assistant on a big-budget superhero film set. When the two AHS alums sat down over Zoom earlier this month, they covered all the bases, from the ethical concerns of owning a Tesla to the logistics of raising frogs.

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ZACHARY QUINTO: Hey, how are you?

ISAAC POWELL: I’m so good. I just got a facial. I feel so relaxed.

QUINTO: That’s always a good place to start.

POWELL: How are you? Did you have rehearsal today?

QUINTO: I did have rehearsal today, but this isn’t about me. I was actually thinking about when we really met officially. We’re coming up on five years. It feels like a lot has happened in five years. Would you agree?

POWELL: I mean, the world has changed so much in those five years. Trump was in office. There’s been a whole pandemic. I’ve moved to three or four different cities.

QUINTO: You bounced all over the place. We have a lot of mutual friends, and I went with one of them to see what ended up being your last performance of “West Side Story” before Broadway got shut down. We met on March 12th, 2020. That’s an indelible memory, going with Jesse Tyler Ferguson to see you in “West Side Story” and meeting up afterwards just not having any idea what was about to happen.

POWELL: It was so weird. I’m so, so glad that you got to see that show, though.

QUINTO: You were fantastic in it.

POWELL: Thank you.

QUINTO: You had done a lot of theater before that, but do you feel like that was a seminal moment or a transitional point in your career?

POWELL: That definitely felt like a real break for me. I had done a show on Broadway before, but “West Side Story” was a totally different beast. It was a really well-known and beloved classic, and that role is so iconic. Working with Ivo van Hove and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, just the scale of that production and the pedigree of the creators involved was just really huge for me. It was such an audacious show, and it felt like a challenge that I was rising to in a really exciting way. And it opened a lot of doors for me. The pandemic obviously kind of contracted the industry in a lot of ways. But it was only a couple of months before I was back at work again. And that’s when I really made a hard pivot into the film and TV world, which is where I’ve been for the last five years.

QUINTO: What was it like working during the pandemic? I did not work at all. I finished a job right before the pandemic, then I didn’t work again for a year-and-a-half. It was crazy.

POWELL: That was such a wild time. I mean—

QUINTO: Frankly, I was grateful not to work.

POWELL: I had nothing to compare it to because I hadn’t really been on a big-budget set before. All the separation and living by yourself in isolation, masks on set and COVID tests every day, that was just all I knew. It was very, very weird. It feels a lot more relaxed now.

QUINTO: And then we got to work together, which was quite fun and enjoyable.

POWELL: I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but when I was a senior in college about to enter the industry, I made a list of people who I could look to as inspiration. And I remember your name was on that list.

QUINTO: Oh!

POWELL: Joe Mantello’s name was on that list. And Russell Tovey.

QUINTO: Wow.

POWELL: So it felt so sort of full circle to then be working with all of you. That was actually really, really special for me.

QUINTO: That’s amazing. And I think it reinforces something that you and I have talked about before, which is just paying attention to those reminders that you’re very much on the right path. That experience was very special for me too, just working with so many people that I knew and loved. I mean, obviously Ryan incubates that kind of experience in many ways. And the fact that we got to live together, literally, in Fire Island. That was really special.

POWELL: That was insane. Just all of us living in that house on Fire Island together. 

QUINTO: Then we reconnected again in London because we overlapped a little bit. I remember you were over there doing the pilot and I was over there doing a play, so we hung out. You weren’t a hundred percent sold on London, and I love it with a passion. Do you remember that?

POWELL: I remember it very much. I was in such a dark place during that time. Yeah, I was not happy to be there.

QUINTO: But eventually your take on it all shifted pretty drastically and you fell in love with it, right?

POWELL: By the end of my time in London, I was asking, “How do I get a visa? How can I move here?” It took me a minute to wake up to the particular magic of that city. Once I stopped resisting and being homesick, the city kind of opened its arms to me and I could see it with new eyes.

QUINTO: That’s nice. So I watched the first few episodes of The Franchise and I really enjoyed it. Having gone through a franchise of my own, I could really relate to a lot of stuff. For somebody who knows how the sausage gets made, it definitely captures some really subtle and unique and idiosyncratic experiences and expresses them quite accurately and really funnily. How has your experience working in that ensemble of people? Were you all tight? How was the vibe?

POWELL: I got so tight with this cast so fast. We all come from such different backgrounds, whether that’s country of origin, age difference, whatever. We’re all very different people from different places, but we cohered in such a really natural and beautiful way. It felt like being on a sports team or something. We were all just kind of passing the ball to each other on set. And that sort of energy carried off set as well. We wouldn’t even really go to our trailers. We would just hang out in the green room tent that was on the soundstage just because we wanted to be together. And I feel like you can feel that chemistry in the show. You can feel our energetic trust, which is so important in a comedy.

QUINTO: That’s so nice. What ended up being your favorite parts of London?

POWELL: I moved to a lot of different areas and neighborhoods while I was there. I stayed in Hackney, I stayed in Camden, and ultimately I ended up staying in Primrose Hill, which was just such magic. I would just walk out of my flat and go up to Primrose Hill and watch the sunset and—

QUINTO: That’s magical.

POWELL: So much beauty.

QUINTO: I think my favorite place in London is Hampstead Heath. I absolutely marvel that such a stunning, sprawling landscape is just in the middle of London town. I just find it so enchanting.

POWELL: Enchanting is really the word for London.

QUINTO: I agree. And if the show continues, will it continue there?

POWELL: I would imagine so. The show takes place on the set of a superhero film that is being shot in the UK. And when we finish off the seasond—not to spoil anything—the film is still unfinished, so…

QUINTO: I see, I see. I recently learned that you have pet frogs?

POWELL: Three frogs.

QUINTO: Three frogs?

POWELL: Four of them. But now, three.

QUINTO: I want you to take the lead on that.

POWELL: We lost Reggie. He was 11 years old.

QUINTO: Reggie’s gone? Oh my god. You’ve had him for 11 years?

POWELL: I had him for 11 years.

QUINTO: Wait, who watches them when you go away?

POWELL: I rent a place in upstate New York and I have housemates up there who are watching the frogs in my absence. But I’m currently trying to figure out how to get them across the country to my new place in L.A.

QUINTO: How do you get them across the country?

POWELL: I don’t know. Maybe a cooler?

QUINTO: Can you freeze them?

POWELL: You could freeze them, but they would die.

QUINTO: Oh, okay. So, you just relocated. Is this true? You just made the plunge for L.A.?

POWELL: This is true. I made the plunge and now I’m a bi-coastal boy. The dream has finally come true.

QUINTO: How do you feel?

POWELL: I feel great. I feel free. I feel abundant. I feel excited.

QUINTO: I love these adjectives.

POWELL: I just love California so much and I love New York so much. I needed to spread my wings a little bit more and have a bigger footprint in the world.

QUINTO: Do you have an L.A. routine? I feel like it’s easier to take short little trips from L.A.

POWELL: I do. I have one secret spot that I don’t want to blow up.

QUINTO: Okay. You can tell me separately.

POWELL: I will tell you separately. But it is a gorgeous oasis that is yet to be overrun by TikTokers and influencers, and I kind of like it that way.

QUINTO: I see.

POWELL: Los Angeles is a great gateway to the rest of the beauty of the Western United States. It’s good to be here for work, but to a greater degree, it presents me with proximity to the incredible coastline, incredible deserts, incredible mountain ranges. I just love the state and all the opportunities to interact with nature here.

QUINTO: Have you driven cross-country?

POWELL: I haven’t yet.

QUINTO: Do you know how many times I’ve driven cross-country?

POWELL: I expect it’s many times because you have the dogs, so it’s kind of easier to travel that way, no?

QUINTO: Yeah. But if you had to guess how many times I’ve driven cross-country, what do you think it’d be?

POWELL: If I had to guess, I would say three trips there and back.

QUINTO: I’ve driven across the country 11 times. Not there and back 11 times, but 11 times. I highly recommend it. Do you like to drive?

POWELL: I love to drive, but I have a Tesla now and I don’t know if I would do that across the country. It seems kind of complicated.

QUINTO: Do you not feel slightly problematic having a Tesla?

POWELL: Listen, it was a real consideration for me.

QUINTO: There are other electric cars. I’m just saying.

POWELL: Okay, Zach.

QUINTO: When your lease is up, maybe just think about—

POWELL: When my lease is up.

QUINTO: Do you want to go back to the theater? Or are you fulfilled in your current film and TV trajectory?

POWELL: I want a variety of opportunities. I love doing theater and I love being on set, so I don’t want to have to choose. But I do hope that I go back and do some more theater soon because I really miss it, and getting to do some this summer was really restorative for me. It’d be so fun to do a play together.

QUINTO: Yeah, it would be. It’s really, really nice to be back in the process of doing a play. I made this commitment to myself in 2010 when I did “Angels in America,” which was the first play I did in New York, that I would do a play every other season. Thankfully, I have been able to keep that promise.

POWELL: Are you at the point now where you can just tell your agents, “I want to do a play,” and they’ll just find one?

QUINTO: I mean, it’s always an alchemy of the right thing. I knew I was looking to do a play in this precise window of time and this opportunity came along, so it was perfect timing. I’ve had a relationship with my representatives where I’ve always been clear about theater being a priority for me, and everybody that works with me knows about and supports that commitment that I’ve made and they’ve really helped me to do that. So I feel grateful for it.

POWELL: That’s my new goal. I want to do a play every other season.

QUINTO: I think it’s a worthy goal. Theater is an experience that’s been around for thousands of years, and there’s a reason for that. When we do it, we’re part of a lineage. We’re part of a history that connects us through generations to our ancestors. And that can’t be erased with AI or androids.