A few years before he became famous for his comedic turns in Ugly Betty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and the delightful Buyer & Cellar, a fresh-out-of-college Michael Urie starred in a play called WTC View, in which he played Eric, a photographer trying to find a roommate in the aftermath of 9/11. The sensitive script by Brian Sloan touched on the fears of New Yorkers who had to deal with survivor’s guilt, while being aware that the world they knew would never be the same. In 2005 WTC View was turned into a film, with Urie reprising his role as Eric; the film has been out of circulation for a few years, but is now being released digitally to commemorate its tenth anniversary.

We had the opportunity to talk to leading man, Michael Urie, who looked back at the making of the film, talked about the differences between stage and screen acting, and was kind enough to listen to our pitch for a Buyer & Cellar film.

You said that re-watching this movie made you miss your old face?

(Laughs) Well, there’s a lot of closeups in this movie and I’m sure when I saw it the first time I thought “I hate watching myself in closeups”...and there’s definitely lines that are different now, my eyes are in a slightly different place than where they were.

Since you originated the part of Eric onstage, what changes did he undergo in the transition to film?

It’s interesting, the play takes place in only one room, the room that Eric is trying to rent out and then the movie was expanded to the entire apartment. The play is a very traditional, single set, one act play, and I was onstage basically the whole time and all these other characters came in and out. So when we expanded it to the movie, it became far more about what was happening behind my eyes, in my soul, without being too cheesy...that’s what film should do, you can really get behind the eyes of a character. The play was more about turning these emotions into behaviors - even in an intimate theatre like the one in which we played which I think was called The Bottle Factory - so that the people ten or one hundred feet back can follow what’s happening with you. In a movie instead you can think things, feel things and it’ll come through behind your eyes, cause the camera can capture things like that.

This was your first leading role in a movie as well, right?

I didn’t have much experience, so I had to trust my director Brian Sloan and my fellow actors, the DP, the editor, that they were capturing all these feelings I was trying to feel. I think it’s easier to self-critique in a theatre, it’s a lot clearer as you’re doing it what’s working and what’s not.

When you did the play you were fresh out of Juilliard too.

It was my first gig out of school.

You were a new New Yorker basically then.

I moved to NYC in '99, so I'd been in the city for about four years when we did the play.

It seems like it’s been a billion years since 9/11 and watching the film made me think of how much grieving has changed ever since, especially with how fast things seem to happen in social media.

Interesting, what do you think it is about social media that keeps us from being able to grieve properly?

It’s so instant! Things happen, we get them out of our system and we move on. While I watched the film I thought how interesting it would be to hear younger people’s reactions to the way in which the characters process pain and loss.

I definitely agree, the film is a complete microcosm of what it was like to be specifically in New York at the time. Anybody who remembers where they were that day will relate to the movie, it represents everyone’s experience of the weeks after 9/11, and what it was like to be a citizen of the world. After something so huge and terrible had happened we all came together all over the world, to comfort and protect each other. Anybody who was too young to remember that should watch the movie and get a sense of that. I see what you mean about minute by minute grieving and maybe you’re right about it…

Hey, it’s your fault, the movie put me in an existential mood.

(Laughs) Alright, I’ll take responsibility for that. I think if something like 9/11 would happen, god forbid, I don’t know if it could possibly stay within the confines of the minute by minute of social media. It was so huge and tragic, it stopped the world.

Since you played Eric both onstage and onscreen, is there any chance of you ever getting to play Alex More from Buyer & Cellar in a film version?

I would love that, I think it would make a wonderful film piece. I don’t think you could make a film out of it like we made WTC View, but I think you could film the play and it would be really fun. I know that some people have been trying to make that work, and I’m all for it!

I think it’d be fabulous if Barbra went all Yentl and decided she wanted to play Alex herself too.

Well, that would suck for me (laughs) but I would rather see her play Barbra, that would be incredible, but somehow I don’t think that’ll happen.

Are we getting more What’s Your Emergency? in the future? It’s such a fantastic show!

Oh yay, thank you so much! Yes, there’s gonna be more, there’s going to be a sort of half season coming up, a mini season that goes behind the scenes of what was happening in this season, but there’s new footage, there was almost like a documentary crew following me around. Unfortunately I’m an idiot, and cast incredibly busy actors, so we’re going to have to find time to get in the same room together, but yes, we definitely are planning on having another season. It’s done very well for Stage17 and as you know, we got some awesome theatre people to do the show, so I wanna keep doing that! Theatre people are my favorite people and that show was such a dream come true. I always wanted to make a TV show and it’s really hard to do that in real, big TV, so this was from top to bottom an incredible experience. I’m so proud of it came out, I’m sure there’ll be more, I’m just not sure when.

WTC View is now available on iTunes and other HD platforms.