Let me ask you about comedy. Have been there any comedian actors that you just watched rising up in Ohio that you just thought, God, I’d like to have the ability to do what they do?
The actor I grew up imitating probably the most was Jim Carrey. Possibly the primary film of his I watched was Ace Ventura—the second: When Nature Calls. And Liar Liar was a favourite of mine. I did quite a lot of imitations of that. However the film I watched over and over and over was What About Bob? I cherished that film a lot, and I had one pal in highschool who additionally cherished it and we might quote it forwards and backwards to one another on a regular basis, and nobody knew what we have been speaking about. There was one thing about Invoice Murray and Richard Dreyfuss’s performances that, you understand, journey on the sting a little bit bit. And so, I suppose I’ve a few of that inside me as a result of I imitated these guys for thus lengthy.
There’s quite a lot of theater expertise in your CV. Did all that stage work train you one thing that you just carry with you now into movie?
I went to varsity to check drama and piano. And I began within the theater as a result of it’s all I had accomplished—and, frankly, it was all I actually had aspirations to do. I had my first starring function off-Broadway in a Mike Bartlett play known as Cock that Ben Whishaw had accomplished in London, and I used to be forged by the identical director in New York, which to me was a loopy coup as a result of I like Whishaw. He’s an unimaginable, particular expertise. And having the director that employed him, rent me—it’s like these little moments in a profession the place there’s validation that you just’re on the appropriate path. Then, I had my Broadway debut at 26 [in Breakfast at Tiffany’s], which was not an amazing expertise. I imply, it was not an amazing manufacturing and it didn’t do properly. And that was actually exhausting. It was a second once I determined to strive going into display screen work. There’s a sure rigor to theater, a examine of language and physique—belongings you don’t essentially be taught when engaged on digital camera. It’s actually useful to know how a full physique is used to inform a dramatic story.
