So why acting?

I could give you a simple, non-answer like, "It's fun." Or "I like pretending." Or... "why not?"

But to get more real-

My interest in acting has always been rooted in my interest in psychology, and the human condition.

Why are people the way they are?
Why do they behave the way they behave?
Why do they make the choices they make? (I'm always asking myself: Why did I just do that?)

Questions around identity... (What would it be like to be you? How do you see the world? Why are you the way you are? And how are we wired differently?) -

ego (getting beneath the surface and looking at all the ways ego manifests in our lives)

transformation (How is the self permanent, and how is it malleable? Are we the story that we tell ourselves? To what extent are we a collection of habits - the way we think/speak/feel/walk/behave..? Is it possible to break the habit of being yourself? Can people change? How do experiences transform us?)

truth and authenticity (what does it mean and what does it feel like to speak from a place of honesty and truth? And what is it to step into someone else's truth, and see the world through their eyes?)

the Hero's Journey (to set off on an adventure, to face our demons, to overcome (or not overcome), and to be transformed through experience... to experience both the light and the dark... as I see it, every character is somewhere on that Journey)

creativity (What does it mean to be in a creative flow? How can we use divergent thinking to shake up our thought process and see things from different perspectives?)

presence (What does "being present" mean? Does it mean to "not be in our heads," preoccupied with ideas? Is it to be "dropped into one's body" - aware of one's senses, alert to one's surroundings, and not thinking about the future or the past but being present in the immediacy of the moment? And how do we get there?)

perspective (We all see and experience the world through a unique lens, but where does that lens come from? Can it be altered? Can it evolve? And how?)

To me, perspective is everything. It shapes our own unique experience of the world. And there are few things more interesting to me as a storyteller. It's why I love films like The Last Duel, Gone Girl, and even Tucker & Dale vs Evil - because they point to an aspect of life that is so rarely acknowledged: that we all perceive things differently. We all live in very different experiences of reality, according to our own views/ beliefs/ experiences/ biases/ perceptions/ etc.

Films & plays have the ability to shift perspectives by presenting perspectives the viewer may have never considered. We can become aware of our own biases, and expand our way of thinking- or seeing.

These are the kinds of things I'm always thinking about.

I'm endlessly curious about the human experience.
And acting, for me, has always been a natural way of exploring these questions.

It's normal to go about our days with a singular way of looking at and experiencing the world. Playing other characters invites - or demands, rather - that we shake up that experience, and step into other ways of being in the world; perhaps even playing characters whose choices you don't agree with or dont relate to.

Every character - like every human - is uniquely specific. And each is different from me (or my general experience of being me). We have different lives, different personality types, different perspectives, different outlooks, different trauma, different wants, goals, needs, quirks, phobias...
We care about different things. We make different choices. We navigate life differently....

What would it be like to be you? To stand in your shoes?

My experience of being "me" in the world has always been quite different from my experience of every character I've ever played.
More often than not, I wouldn't do what they do - and wouldn't be affected the way they're affected.

My job as an actor - as I see it - is to go beyond my own experience of self and open myself to the experience of being someone else.

It's experiential self-transcendence.

But that doesn't mean I dont bring aspects of myself to every role. Quite the contrary. Things about the actor always, inevitably seep through. Even though we step into someone else's shoes, we're also - on some level - sharing our own truth. My interpretations, choices, and instincts will always be unique to me, and that's what makes me playing a role different from you playing that role.

The light that animates a character must first pass through the prism of the actor themselves.

Secondly, I'm also endlessly interested in the craft, which asks the question: How do I bring this person - who is not me - to life, so that everyone believes they are me - in order to tell a story?
And how do I do that while accounting for all of the technical requirements of the stage and screen.

Im endlessly curious about how to do that "better" than before. If I could go back, I'd play a lot of roles differently - because I know things now I didnt know then. I'm driven by the challenges of the craft, and that learning never stops.

And Thirdly - and most importantly - what really compels me to act, is my interest in telling stories; meant to be shared with an audience.

Stories, after all, are an important part of the human experience.
Why do we read books? Why do we watch movies and TV?
Why do we become enthralled when other people tell us stories from their lives?

We do it to be entertained. We do it to escape. We do it because it expand our experience of life.
Like reading a book, we can venture into other worlds, other cultures.
We do it to feel connected, and not feel alone.
And sometimes we do it to gain perspective into our own lives.

How do I navigate this part of my life? Or this relationship? Or this challenge? Or these questions?

To watch a film or a play is to be a witness to someone else's story; a story we can potentially draw from and find application in our own lives.

"I'm not the same person I was one movie ago."

And certainly, I could give you a long list of films and plays that have had a profound impact on me as a person... where I walked out feeling differently, or seeing differently... or where I felt seen, and less alone.

It's also about empathy. Witnessing other peoples' stories has the ability - if we're open to it - to expand a sense of empathy within ourselves. Something the world can always use more of.

Movies and plays - along with other art forms - are not just a reflection of society; they also have the ability to move and shape society, by opening, altering and broadening perspectives.
They add to the conversation of who we are, where we came from, and where we're going.

So devoting my life to telling stories, just seems like a life worth living.

But the simplest answer I could give you, is that acting for me just feels like home.

And that's not something you choose, it's something that seemingly chose you.

There's something about being someone else, that makes me feel like I'm being myself.

Once upon a time I was a relatively poor kid growing up on a farm outside a small town... and when I looked out into the future I thought to myself: "I think I wanna be an actor....but I dont even know if that's possible."
And my journey ever since has been a journey to see if that's possible.

A few of the films that have had a lasting impact on me as a person:

• Into the Wild

• American Beauty

• Fight Club

• The Thin Red Line

• Mr. Nobody

• Run Lola Run

• Nine Days

• A Beautiful Mind

• My Dinner With Andre

• Waking Life

• Before Sunrise / Sunset

• Tree of Life

• Patch Adams

• Slumdog Millionaire

• The Green Mile

• The Matrix

• It's a Wonderful Life

• The Book of Eli

• The World's Fastest Indian

• Garden State

• Dead Poet's Society

• Life is Beautiful

• Good Will Hunting