When vocalist/actress Margot Bingham auditioned for the new role of Onyx Club singer Daughter Maitland on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” which returns for its fourth season Sunday at 9 p.m., she faced a challenge as grueling as Nucky Thompson’s (Steve Buscemi) when he fought off the vicious Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale) last season.
Bingham, 25, whose most prominent role to date was Alexi Darling in the recent off-Broadway revival of “Rent,” was brought in to audition seven times.
“This was over many months. I thought for sure I didn’t get it,” says Bingham. She auditioned for seemingly everyone involved in the show including, over the final two rounds, creator Terence Winter.
The part required such scrutiny because Daughter, who we’ll meet in episode three as she arrives in Atlantic City from Harlem, serves a dual purpose. As the new singer at Chalky White’s (Michael Kenneth Williams) Onyx Club, her songs help set the tone for the show as the season’s events progress.
“She’s a very sassy girl,” Bingham says. “She’s had a rough ride, but as the season unfolds, she realizes who she is. That Harlem vibe starts to come through, and the songs get bluesier and sexier. The music is the underlying score of the character.”
Daughter’s singing is so important this season that two of Bingham’s songs, “I’m Going South” and “Somebody Loves Me,” are included on the show’s just released soundtrack, “Boardwalk Empire, Volume 2,” alongside songs by such artists of Elvis Costello, Liza Minnelli, and Patti Smith.
But while her singing is essential (Bingham performs at BAM Cafe on September 28, under her performing name Margot B), her acting is prominent as well, and provided Bingham with some of her most hair-raising moments.
On her first day of shooting, she not only found herself tossed into the deep end, acting opposite Williams’ Chalky and Jeffrey Wright’s new gangster character, Valentin Narcisse, but she was also stripped of her most helpful crutch.
“I was beyond nervous,” she says. “When I’m first introduced, I’m not introduced singing. I walk in through the club, and I have to speak first, so I couldn’t really hide behind the music, which is what I’m used to doing. I felt really stripped down, so I had to just show up and wish for the best.”
Later in the season, Bingham reveals, Daughter will find herself entangled in at least one steamy affair, although she’s forbidden to reveal her character’s partner.
“There are lots of steamy scenes, absolutely,” says Bingham. “They’re keeping me busy over there, that’s for sure.”
Bingham, who grew up in Pittsburgh and now resides in Harlem, is the daughter of former NFL linebacker Craig Bingham, who played for the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1980s.
But despite her fit pedigree, it was clear early on that sports would not be her path. From the get-go, Margot Bingham was clearly a girl who was born to entertain.
“I was built like an athlete, and everyone thought I was gonna be in basketball or something. Then I ended up just skipping down the courts, and my parents gave up on the whole basketball thing,” she says.
“I’ve been singing, acting and dancing since I was two. The arts have always been my thing.”