WEBVTT - The Voice of BATMAN Can Freaking Sing! 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.840 Hi Christy, Hi Will. How are you so good? What 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:04.680 are you doing today? I'm going to sit next to 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:07.000 you and and and just be really excited. Well I'm 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.239 me too, because you know why do you know? Why? 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.000 Do you know why? Ask me why why? Because one 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:13.760 of my favorite people in the world is coming here 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.880 today and I see Kevin Conrad. She jumped in. It's 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.520 Kevin Conrad. I'm you're excited. It's Kevin Conroy, who is, uh, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:22.440 you know, one of my favorite people and has been 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.800 Batman for thirty years. That is not an exaggeration thirty years. 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.520 And he's coming to talk to us today. And I 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:40.920 hear voices. I can't wait. I hear voices, I hear 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:46.240 voices speaking of voices, speaking of voices, voices, And there's 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:50.880 no a song that should be our our to our intro. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.560 You don't understand. So if you want to see people 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:58.959 go insane at a convention, oh boy, Kevin. We will 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.480 be sitting on a pane and Kevin Conroy will start 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:11.600 to sing. I feel blue, Am I Blue? Am I blue? 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:17.440 I Like that There was a time was the only 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:30.840 one now no sad and lonely one, lonely and so 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.720 sung that as Batman on The Batman, the animated series, 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.280 and so he will hit the first note and you 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:45.640 will see hundreds of people like go insane to see this. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.640 And normally he's sitting next to the people who played 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.240 wonder Woman Greenland doesn't matter all eyes, Kevin Conroy, and 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.200 he just owns the stage. It is absolutely, of course 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.720 sitting here with look about love that will of course 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.640 it's Bill loves you so much. He's men. We worked 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:06.880 together for twenty two When do we start? Five years? 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.560 Twenty five years? Seven we started, and it was my 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.600 first ever animated series, and you took me under your 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.200 wing from day one, and you didn't have to. You 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.400 easily could have been one of those actors. But this 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.720 is why we keep talking about the voiceover world compared 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.040 to the on camera world. Because I walked into that room. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.920 I was as frightened as I've ever been in my life. 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.400 I've never done an animated series, and now I've been 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.720 cast as Batman and Batman Beyond with Drey Romano directing, Bruce, 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:37.600 Tim Paul Deaney, Glenn Murakami, all these incredible people involved. Uh, 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.560 and You're sitting there going what am I going to do? 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.600 And I'm sitting next to Kevin Conroy, who had help 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.720 Batman forever. He easily could have been who are you kid? 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:52.239 What are you doing here? But but he was, but 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.960 he didn't. He opened his arms. He taught me how 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.120 to sit behind the microphone. Yeah, I was gonna say, 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:00.880 how did you had? Did you teach him? Do you 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.920 remember meeting him? There's certain tricks in the sound room 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.000 that when you come from the outside, you don't understand that. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.880 You know, every noise in the room is being recorded 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.560 and when other people are acting, because Warner Brothers likes 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.720 to get all the cats together, so you're not working 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.160 in a vacuum. You're working. It's like recording a play. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.560 So all these other people are in the same room together, 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:27.040 all those mics are live. So every time you turn 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.960 a page it can destroy someone else's performance. Someone can 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.840 give a great take and then someone rustles a page 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.160 over there and their take has to be done again. 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.880 Do you have any memories of anybody ruining a take 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.520 that was like really some of your best work kind 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:48.600 of thing. Has anyone ruined your perform exactly? Who do 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:54.600 you hate? Let's really screwed up? No? But then so 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:56.840 there's an art to turning the page by picking up 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.400 the entire page and moving it over and laying it 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.560 down right and turning it. You do it that way 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.360 without making any noise. But you talked, someone just got 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.160 to show you. It's just basics like that. So Will 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.560 had never been in a sound studio like before, so 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.760 he just needed someone to Did you know his work 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.400 from other other things he was doing, or what was 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.920 your first impression of Will? A great guy? Yeah, who 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.960 I knew came from a very successful show that I 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.560 had never seen. Just not that much of a I'm 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.720 not a TV junker. You also were in our demographic 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.520 if I wasn't, if you're honest, and but I knew 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.760 he'd done a successful show, and I wasn't sure. You know, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.400 actors or people, there are sometimes if you feed them 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.000 and they're not such a nice ones. There are generous 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.760 ones and selfish one. Yeah, there are people you want 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.640 to work with and they're pricks you just want to avoid. 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:50.240 Did I just use a bad word? That's okay, Well 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:55.200 we can bleep it. It's not. No, it's not Those 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.200 kids have heard that by this point. But so when 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.560 you're dealing with someone who came from a successful show. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.200 You don't know you're going to be dealing with you. 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:02.880 So I didn't know. I don't know who was he 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.560 going to come in with a lot of attitude, you know? 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:10.680 And he didn't. He came in ready to work, open, giving, generous. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.040 You know. I should have known because Andrea Romano, who 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.279 cast the show. She's my sister. By the way, christ Romano, 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.240 I wish I still haven't better. My last name is Romano. Yes, 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:23.560 I wonder if you're related. Sometime I kind of do. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.960 I think I've actually messed Romano. Good question. I want 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.600 to I want to work with all these wonderful women. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.800 A voice has another batman, it's a Reno is a man, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.120 and I said it was a woman. I'm sorry. Is 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:42.200 a great guy. But anyway, Um, she always brings people 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:47.120 together who are just generous, fun, creative, not a lot 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.520 of judgment, not a lot of attitude, just ready to play. 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:53.880 That's what all the bookings have always been like for 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.719 thirty years. Just no attitude. Yeah, well it is lucky, 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.640 but it's not lucky. It's it's Andrea. Yes, you know 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.400 what I mean. There's more of a science to it, 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.039 I think than just look she knows what to look 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:10.000 for in people, and she brings wonderful people together. She 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.400 also so here's here's a question for you, because one 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.160 of the things that Andrea I always noticed did was 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.800 she just she cares about the acting. That's all. It's all. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:19.479 It's about, just get the best actor you can for 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.880 the role. However, at the same time, she's turned more 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.520 quote unquote on camera actors into voiceover actors than anybody 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.799 else I've ever seen. I've never done a voiceover role before. 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.880 I now consider myself more of a voiceover actor than 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.400 I do an on camera actor. Will Wheaton. You know, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.640 there's a giant group of us who look at Andrea 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:40.960 and essentially say, we were one thing in this industry, 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.559 and then you brought us into a whole another side, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.880 and now we consider ourselves a whole different thing. So 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.160 there's a strange justs where yes, she wants to get 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.239 the best actor possible, but then she takes that actor 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.479 and brings them into this world and it's like, now 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.280 you're something else, and there's something really I mean, well, 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.200 I mean you started on stage, didn't You was a 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.520 New York actor, much like you're Juilliard trained as well. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.480 You know, they rejected me classics. Okay, so I pre 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.240 fools them, Yes, okay, I totally see it. So I 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.960 I was infatuated. My mom used to call it cross training, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:20.960 but she was like, yeah, let's do the dancing. Let's 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.840 go to School of American Ballet. I got kicked out 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.000 of there and I went to I went to Performing 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.280 Arts school right there by the Fame School. I went 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.200 to Professional Children's School. Anyway, long story short, I auditioned. 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.440 I trained for about a year to be a color 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:37.840 tour soprano in the pre college Juilliard program. I was 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:39.960 not accepted into the program. They said I had because 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:41.720 I was a Broadway kid, so I did a lot 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.400 of Broadway belting. It turns out I had too many 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.600 bad habits for Juilliard. Really, but my god, is Juilliard 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.960 amazing And anyone that's done Juilliard training has a lot 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:55.120 of respect. It's it's it's grueling. I mean it's it's 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.320 it's a grueling experience for somebody who doesn't know anything 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.440 about Juilliard. Is it a four year program, is it 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.720 a two year It can be many things. There's the 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.320 pre college. There are a lot of different programs you 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.240 can do what you did the four years you did 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.679 four you I was seventeen, I'd left high school early. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.520 I was the youngest one in the school when I 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.360 went in, but I was six too, and I had 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.920 a deep voice. Yeah, no one really thought about it, 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.280 you know, because I just fit right in. But um, 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.880 so I really wanted he's hit looking guy too, if 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:27.040 for honest, Oh come on, forget about forget about how 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.880 you're still a hugely attractive man. Show me pictures of 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.200 himself back in the day. I think he's dashing. It 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.920 was like, it was incredible. I mean, you're, let's be honest, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.760 he's pretty damn good looking at I'm coming back here. 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.000 But it's like this company, but the whole package when 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.040 it comes to especially back in the day, what they're 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.280 what you're looking for as an actor, I mean, commanding 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.640 the presence of the talent. I mean. But so I 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.440 went for the four year program because I wanted to 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.760 get a b f A. Which involved doing academics on 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.160 the side. Oh where did you do? The academy on 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:02.040 the fourth floor, So Juilliard, and they had special teachers 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.520 who would come in and be you know, you're you're 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.079 dealing with people in Essay, BA School of Americans, the 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.720 American Opera Center. I mean, all these incredibly you know, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.160 stars of their generation with dance and singing and acting. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.760 You know, Kevin Klein's in your regular slus that kind 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.040 of stuff. And you're talking about you know, Dickens or something. 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.760 You're studying English literature with people who are really thinking 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.520 about what they're going to have to perform that night. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.600 You know, what they're going to present my experience. I mean, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.400 it's all about performance. It's all performance oriented. So these 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.520 academic classes were such an afterthought. They were they were 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.920 kind of a joke. Yeah, I understandably that everyone went 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.040 to just to you know, get the basic training. So 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.240 if you get a f A because you were spending 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:54.000 you know, twelve fourteen, sixteen hours a day in performing fencing, dance, movement, voice, diction, 0:09:54.120 --> 0:10:00.280 acting classes, poetry classes, French mass. For e to one 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.120 of those classes, you have to perform. It's all performance based. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.040 So you're doing a French mass class and I you 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.080 know defense, Oh my gosh, did you know that? I 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.319 did not know. I was trained by B. H. Barry. 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.120 The you know, there's I don't know. He said, no, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.880 he's um, he's like the stage fighting theater stage fighting guy, 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.760 a British, wonderful stage fighting. But Pierre Lefevre taught me 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.080 French map. Now see that in that name. And I 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:30.360 was in that class with Robin Williams. So my presentation, 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.800 I did a scene from Peter Pan, the fight between 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.760 Captain Hook and Peter Pan as the characters, and we 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.559 staged a fight. And who did I do with Harriet? Harris? 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:46.240 Harriet were wonderful character actors? Wait were you Peter? Okay, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.559 you are the bad guy because of his height and 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:53.640 my voice. But you present these pieces and you know 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.320 it takes weeks to work on these things and present 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.120 them and then get judged by torn down. Oh the 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.520 judgment was. But then in poetry class you're doing you know, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:09.400 you're preparing poetry to to have judged, and it's it's grueling. 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.440 It's a grueling experience. So you don't have time to 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.360 prepare academics. So I'm actually really curious about this because 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.480 in speaking to somebody who's gone to Juilliard, I don't 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.719 think I really have had that interaction. Did you want 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.200 to leave at any point just to do traditional industry work? 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.720 Or did anyone else want to just stop the grueling? 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.000 That's such a good question. I was scared. I always 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.440 wondered if I should leave and just start acting. Okay, 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.840 wouldn't you learn more by just doing? Because the first 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.439 two years are really the training there. The second two 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.920 years are all performance based people application of what you've learned. 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:50.360 But the thought of swimming in the deep pool at 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.880 the age of eighteen nineteen, it scared me. I wanted 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.080 to stay in the school. Now did you go to 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:57.880 become an actor? Did you go to become a singer? 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.960 Did you go to be collected? It was an actor? Okay, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.160 Now there's one thing, So going back a little bit 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:03.680 earlier in your life, there's one thing that I'm the 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.240 only one at this table that knows, which is all 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.640 three of us are from Connecticut. Are you from CONNECTICUTT? 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.080 Are you from CONNECTICUTT? Of course I'm from Say I 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:17.240 was doing? I was doing from Hartford, I'm from I 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.640 was born in Harvard. I'm from from a town in Avon, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:24.400 And you were from Milford. Where are you from? West Pole? 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.199 Fancy guy? Three? Kid? Now, for anybody doesn't Connecticut, we 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.280 are from three different sides of Connecticut and that's still 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.719 a half hour away from each other. Um, what what 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.679 kind of Connecticut's are we all from? What? What kind 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.520 of Connecticut is Avon? Or was it? Avon? Connecticut? Is 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.560 exactly as it sounds. It was. It was farmland, it 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.520 was I mean, it was a small town, but it 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.679 was upper middle class and you know, very hoity toity 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.199 kind of people. And we were not that family, but 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:50.760 I mean there were kids in high school that drove 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.160 the BMW's and all that kind of stuff. Again, not 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.720 our family, but that's what it was like. So it 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.560 was what you would expect a place that sounds like Avon, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.720 Connecticut would be any did Yeah, there were the Avon 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.240 country clubs. And again I went to a public high school. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.840 So I went to Avon High I because I had to. 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.120 I was swimming in the deep end. I never was trained. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:13.640 So I started acting at a very young age. And 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.560 I would take the bus. It was three hours from 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.200 Farmington to New York, uh, and I would do that 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:19.840 once or twice a week for auditions to be told. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.120 You'd walk in there, you go, no, you don't have 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:22.800 red hair, and you go thank you. When you turn around, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.040 your walk out and at twelve, I was walking around 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.199 New York City and in the eighties and the bus 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.439 would drop you off of Port Authority. My manager was 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.160 supposed to be me there. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.640 I would walk to my audition and it's I mean, 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.480 there's there was no better way to grow up. I 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.560 never had a problem. Uh, nobody ever accosted me. I 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.240 knew the homeless people in Port Authority by name. Where 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:44.920 I would literally get off the bus and somebody go, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.000 I break a leg today, will and I go, thanks, Harvey, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.080 And I'd walk through the you know, it was It 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:50.599 was a great experience for me. It really made me. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:53.480 But you know, and then I did my first show 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.320 in New York and at fifty Unit Television Studio at 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.520 fifty five and ninth. What was your first show? Don't 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.560 just sit there on Nicola both who else? I know 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.560 that show? That was my first one, that was nine. 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.640 But the idea of being trained to do it I 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.640 never did, And I think I suffered because of that. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.080 I mean, obviously, if you had to go back and 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.440 do it again, knowing your success, would you just jump 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:15.800 into the deep end or would you go back to 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.400 Juilliard again? No? I. I learned an awful lot. That's 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:23.040 what I was. I was emotionally very immature at seventeen. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.040 I had a lot to learn. The city was overwhelming. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.720 Everything about the experience was overwhelming. My first job in 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:29.960 the city was as a mailman, as a mail carrier, 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.920 really delivering the mail for a private mail service. When 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.560 I was seventeen, on a bike walking, how are you 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:38.560 doing it? I had a card pushed card. It was 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.320 one of those guys on Sixth Avenue, see pushing, Yeah, 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.960 did you have your beat? Like the like the wow. 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.800 It was like a private business mail service. It was 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:52.840 before FedEx and and um, so they would all subscribe 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:57.880 to this airline mail service. Basically, the mail room was 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.760 underneath Grand Central. So you come in. I come in 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.120 on the morning train from Connecticut at like five am 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:05.800 and go to the mail room and start sorting all 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.000 the mail. And all the guys in there were wonderful. 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:13.400 They were all these New York tough, blue collar young men, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.680 all men, real characters like a sitcom. And I went 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.080 to go to my Juilliard audition from that mail room 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.680 and they were so you know. God. They used to 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.680 call me Shakespeare because I was always working on Shakespeare, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:28.680 and I was working on my pieces and stuff. They go, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.560 go for Shakespeare, go for it. You gotta get in there. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.160 And the day I got my acceptance, they all like 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.920 picked me up in the air and they carried me 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.480 out and they got me drunk ish. It was such 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.680 a wonderful New York moment. They just adopted this kid, 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:50.720 you know. And so that was a job that you 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.960 commuted to, like before you heard about Juilliard. So you 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.720 were kind of already going into New York. Interesting. I 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.560 was gonna have to get a scholarship to go, so 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:01.880 I had to save up as much money as I could. 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.280 That's amazing. That's amazing. Now what did you want to do? 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.680 You got to pick your career from Juilliard. You could 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.480 be a film star, you could be a TV star, 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.960 you could be on Broadway. What what would you do? 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.960 You're both much younger than me. It was different in 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:22.000 the seventies, right, There was still a theater that you 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.960 could make a living in. Really, yeah, I mean you 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.480 could train to be a classical actor. Used to go 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.240 to the American Shakespeare Festival Stratford, Connectquet. See the plays there. 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.480 I saw brilliant, aren't they didn't it burn down recently? 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:42.880 Oh my god. But you would see these actors who 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.560 did these amazing performances, and we're making a wonderful living 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.400 at the theater. And that doesn't exist anymore anymore. I mean, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.280 you have to supplement your income with other things. You 0:16:52.360 --> 0:17:01.120 have to Yes, sponsored content, sponsor. The section of Catacandra 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.400 has been brought to you by m X. Now. I 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.320 hate to keep bringing integrating, but I'm just so impressed 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.520 by you that I'm trying to, like, like I need 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.359 to tell you certain things, so like, because we're all 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.479 from Connecticut, right, the worst audition I've ever had in 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:19.439 my life was for that Stratford Shakespeare. I was always 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.679 this Disney kid. I did a bunch of Disney shows 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.040 growing up, and but I did actually start in theater 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.720 like I was in was Mary Fagan Original Mary Fagan 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.960 and parade Um with Jason Robert Brown and hell Prince 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.360 and all that. And I was just a theater kid. 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.159 And then Disney kind of plucked me into l A 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.600 and then I sort of did a wonderful production. I was, yes, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:40.760 the one that closed got closed down from Live In. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.280 Yeah that was fantastic, thank you. Yeah, it was amazing 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.240 to be a part of that. So theater was how 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.320 I started and going back and forth as a kid 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.760 from Connecticut to New York. So that's why I really 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.840 resonate with that part of your story. But I will 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.280 also say worst choice of my life was thinking that 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.880 I could just try to be auditioning for Romeo and Chew. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:02.720 Now I can do. I was like, all of a sudden, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.000 my Mom's like, go for it. I was like, okay, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.040 I said, literally standing there like like this, just terrified. 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.760 I couldn't get through one like Stanza or whatever it was. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.520 It just just bombed. Shakespeare's not for me. I leave 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.639 it to Well. I mean, I think that brings brings 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.680 it to kind of an interesting point in the conversation 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.440 where we're going to get into v O because it's 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.359 about v O. But it seems like acting itself has 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:32.639 changed where there doesn't seem to be the discipline that 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.280 there once was. There isn't the study of acting as 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.639 a craft as much anymore. And it's more I've got talent, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:44.040 it's natural, just hire me to be myself and arsenalitying 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.000 that more. Do you see that more and more with 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.760 the generations coming up? Where it's like, which is why 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.359 it seems like everything we're watching, whether it's television or film, 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.960 everybody's British because they still study the craft of acting, 0:18:55.240 --> 0:19:00.320 whereas we're more about being celebrities, they're still about being actors. Yeah. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.680 Acting is the art of communication, right, It's it's communicating, 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.800 it's telling stories. It's as old as the caveman. It's 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.359 telling stories and elevating it to an art form. And 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:16.160 the more intimate you can make that story, the more personal, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.200 the more at risk you can make it for you, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.720 the more compelling it is. People can't take their eyes 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.040 off of you. If you're risking something, if you're really 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.920 exposing who you are, if you're really exposing who you are, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.760 if you're taking if you're if you're being dangerous, that 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.600 makes it riveting. People have taken that to mean I'm 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:44.000 just going to be myself in whatever role I play, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.560 it's about me, rather than taking those personal experiences, those 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:53.879 personal emotions, that raw emotion and bringing it to the character. Okay, 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.359 you know what I mean. Well, don't you think creating 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.080 a character? American actors don't do that so much anymore, 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.640 do you sound Meryl? Does there are certain actors who 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:04.960 but for the most part it's the British actress who 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.720 do that. I really love Jessica Chastain. I think she's 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.159 isn't she Julie. No, there's a group that does it, 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:14.879 but there's also I think one of the things that 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.000 it shows about, especially the American society right now, is 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.320 there's kind of a pervasive narcissism kind of that is, 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.399 you know, it's about everything's about me. It's all about me. 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.240 Whether it is I call it a narcissistic purgatory, well, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.520 there you go, but it is so when you're making 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.320 everything about you, then the idea that you don't want 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.600 to watch me is so strange. It's alien. Why would 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:40.199 you not want to watch me just being me? So 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.639 I don't have to study or do anything because just 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.200 me is so amazing And I think you don't see 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.680 that in some of the foreign actors. Um Now the 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.440 question becomes, then bringing it back to what we do here, 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:57.240 the question becomes, how do you get that same level 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.919 of vulnerability that you've talked about that you need to 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.680 really kind of established to make something compelling When all 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.200 you have to work with is your voice. I find 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.320 it easier when all you have to work with is 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.879 your voice, because you don't have to accommodate the camera, 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:14.560 you know what I mean. You don't have that whole 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.159 crew standing around you off off camera. You don't have 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.080 the boom man and the lighting guy and the makeup 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.159 person and the camera coming in. Well, it's you and 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.280 the microphone. So it's more intimate. It's so intimate. It's 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.679 it's more of an internal dialogue that that I have 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.520 with the character. So in a booth, I can really 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:40.280 let go, whereas on camera there's so much more that 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.199