You’re at school and today is the first lesson with a new teacher. He seems odd but come out he has lived a thousand years.
You’re at school and today is the first lesson with a new teacher. He seems odd but come out he has lived a thousand years. You can’t wait to see what he has to say.
As you turn around and walk back into class he is gone. The teacher has been teaching for hundreds of years. You thought he was the odd one until now.
To a student you are the odd one. The only thing you can do is try to make the class as much fun as possible.
No matter what your age is you can find a way to have fun.
If you are going to be the odd one then be the best one.
We all have things we do, but to be the best at it you have to make it fun.
Trying to figure out why we do what we do is as much fun as the doing itself.
Ain’t it wonderful when we see something we did in a way we never saw it before.
Find out what makes you different, what makes you great and do it.
Someone who has lived a thousand years takes up a job teaching high school history.
Someone who has never lived a day in his life takes up a job making sure that the girl who never had a father is taken care of.
And even if they did, I think, if you are an actor, your choices of who you are in real life is not like a doorman, where you have one doorman who can do things for you.
A doorman has a fixed career, and that’s not you.
You can’t just be a doorman forever.
You might be a doorman for a hundred years, but it’s never gonna be a hundred years of your life.
You have to find the people you are living your life for.
The interesting thing about Actors Anonymous is it’s one thing to be doing this play in New York, but it’s another thing to have other people around you who are living their lives for you.
Like, my brother David, who’s an actor as well, lives in London.
He came out and is staying with me for the duration of the play, so he’s here and we’re together.
I’ve known him since I was nine, so it’s nice to have him here.
It’s very much like you are performing with your family.
So that’s kind of nice.
But he also lives in London, so when I have to go back there for a few weeks, that’s tough.
But I’ve been lucky enough to have a whole bunch of really good friends come out and do it with me.
As part of the Actors Anonymous program, every week you have a work date, where you practice scenes with a cast member from the other group.
Does it feel different from work on a show where you work with a bunch of people who are completely different from you?
I’m not good at comparing myself to others.
That’s always been a hard thing for me to do.
I have a hard time thinking that way.
I mean, I’m always comparing myself to someone, but I’m always saying, ‘Well, I’m not doing it as well as this person.’ I’m always comparing myself to someone else, but I don’t ever think of doing it as well as me.
I’m always thinking that.
I don’t think about it as doing it as well as me, I think of it as doing it as well as somebody else.
I’m in my head going, ‘Well, I’m not doing it as well as David, I’m not doing it as well as Joan, I’m not doing it as well as Richard.
‘ You know what I mean?
So I never compare myself to other people.
I think that’s a good thing.
The funny thing is, though, when I do do that, I always compare myself to other people as me, as if that’s the only way you can do it, because you think that’s the only way it’s going to get better.
I think it gets better by working with other people, but when you are the one that’s the actor and you’re the only one that can really make the change, you do feel a little different doing scenes with other people.
Even if it’s the same people you were doing the scene with before, it feels different.
I think that’s an interesting thing, but I don’t really think of it in terms of ‘Oh, this is the same thing as doing it with my brother.’