'Hamilton' Star Brandon Victor Dixon Calls Mike Pence's Response to Speech 'Encouraging'
"I'm also grateful for his words," Brandon Victor Dixon told "The View."
-- “Hamilton” star Brandon Victor Dixon today said he’s encouraged by Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s response to the actor’s post-show statement directed at the Indiana governor, who was in the New York City audience with his family Friday night.
"We decided it was important for us to take the stage and let our message be heard,” Dixon said on “The View” today of comments that included an appeal for Pence to “work on behalf of all of us."
“I'm glad we did and I'm very grateful for Vice President-elect Mike Pence staying there and hearing what we had to say."
Dixon added, "I'm also grateful for his words yesterday, his response to it. It's encouraging."
While President-elect Donald Trump has railed against the cast for appealing directly to Pence after the curtain call, calling on them to apologize after they “harassed” him, the vice president-elect said this weekend he felt no intimidation and enjoyed the show.
"I wasn't offended by what was said," Pence told "Fox News Sunday."
On the stage with his fellow actors, Dixon read a statement Friday prepared by the cast that included, "We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of all of us."
Dixon explained on “The View” today how the cast came up with the idea. He said everyone weighed in before taking the stage that night.
"Everybody kind of made their comments and contributions [to the speech]," he said.
Dixon said Pence was leaving the theater but stopped, turned and listened when he started to address the politician.
"It's a transitional time," Dixon added. "There are uncertainties. So, what we wanted to do, we felt we had an opportunity. Our show is unique, it's intrinsically an American story told by the people who make up the fabric of America. We literally define what makes us such an extraordinary country ... that is why our show has become such a global phenomenon."
The 35-year-old actor said the cast thought it was their "responsibility" to "comment on our politics."
"These divisions we create are really fiction," he said today. "We are living lives and living lives with one another. So, when we have an opportunity to speak with one another, when we have an opportunity to speak with our elected officials, you must seize that opportunity."
For Trump's part, however, he said the theater should be a "safe and special place,” and, at another point, tweeted that the cast member who treated Pence to a “theater lecture … Couldn’t even memorize lines!"
Dixon’s response to the president-elect:
"He [Pence] was certainly not harassed and I think he spoke to that yesterday," Dixon said today. "Donald, he did say one thing that I did read. After watching the video, he's right. I should have memorized that thing [the speech]. I was looking down too often."