Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel are two of todays most in-demand performers.
Theyre also really cute together.
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He barely noticed her.
The first time Bill Camp saw Elizabeth Marvel was a few years later.
The place was crackling with nervous energy, but none of it was coming from Beth.
She was sitting in the corner, smoking, without a care in the world.
Beth did get in, and Bill was the one who gave her a tour on her first day.
They talked for three hours afterward.
Their first date wasnt until after Bill had graduated.
He was still smitten, and at intermission he asked her out.
Why did they leave?
Because, all this time, Beth had been thinking of Bill, too.
She thought about him after he graduated.
She thought about him when they barely knew each other.
Shed been thinking about him ever since her audition, when he gave her a light.
Ive always felt there was something inevitable with him.
Weve been watchingCamp and Marvel for years; theyve been watching each other for decades.
They are character actors, utility players who shine in roles no matter the size.
This has made them extraordinarily prolific, particularly in recent years.
She is blunt about their mid-career renaissance.
Were really fucking lucky.
We got older as streaming platforms hit, and what they churn out is content, she says.
They need people to carry the water, and we are water carriers.
No muss, no fuss.
Both are prized for their versatility.
InHulusHelstrom,she played a mother inhabited by a demon, pouring pure bile into every syllable.
Camp is a directors Swiss Army knife.
Yet when ham is on the menu, he can go as big as anyone.
(They sent selfies back and forth from their respective Oval Offices.)
The voice Camp uses in his most famous projects isnt the one he uses in casual conversation.
His real voice is more laid-back, as if Captain Ahab had taken up surfing.
Marvel too is crunchier than the power-suited titans she plays.
(They dive the deepest.)
Camp shows off a tiny scar on his forehead from a bike accident when he was 11.
He was tickled when someone sent him a piece of fan art from Eastern Europe.
Proof that there are no small roles: A one-inch part of him had been seen 4,000 miles away.
After Juilliard, Camp and Marvel spent the 90s cutting their teeth on the citys stage scene.
So many actors in their 20s seem to be waiting for that big break, Camp says.
For us, it wasThat aint gonna happen.
Marvels first professional role was playing Isabella inMeasure for Measureat the 1992 Stratford Shakespeare Fest.
From there, she had a good run of the Bards ingenues.
Meanwhile, Camp took on dissolute-young-man parts.
On two different occasions directors bleached his hair blonde, leading Ben Brantley to twicecomparehimto Billy Idol.
We were apprenticing in a way, Camp said.
We worked with brilliant directors, on these master texts, and that penetrated us and lit the fuse.
Sometimes the fuse burned out.
I had run out of gas.
She learned the lesson Los Angeles teaches every New Yorker: Not everything has to be so hard.
We never had a moment to reflect in New York.
It was just forward motion.
Then suddenly I was making money and having everything change.
After two years away Camp decided to dip his toes back into acting.
Around the same time, Marvel returned to New York to star in van HovesHedda Gabler.
My life had been neglected.
Now my life is so full, it makes whatever I do more honest and accessible.
The birth of their son, Silas, in 2007 clarified motivation, Marvel says.
(They hadmarrieda few years earlier.)
It gets simple: To send him to a good school, we need to makeXamount of money.
Once in a while, we get to be together, said Marvel.
Doing theater together was much harder.
A play is the worst thing you might do to a family.
When they worked together, theyd sometimes take him along.
Were like a three-legged stool, Marvel says.
Were very dependent, but most of the time well balanced.
This fall and winter, nearly every month brought a fresh Camp/Marvel project.
In real life, however, they have barely worked in the past 12 months.
Camp was offered roles in interesting projects but found himself saying no.
I didnt feel compelled to have to do anything, he says.
Weve had an incredibly fortunate run, with some obstacles, Camp says of their careers.
Weve stayed in it through a kind of partnership.
Beth is the person I trust most in the world.
Hes right to do so.
God, after all this time?
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