"Don’t give them a Punch and Judy show villain."

I recently read an interview conducted with Sir Ben Kingsley, whom I consider one of today’s greatest actors. He is currently promoting his new film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster film based on the popular video game. In the midst of actors like Shia Labeouf creating controversy by bashing their own films – here is Sir Ben Kingsley showing the next generation of actors how to handle all their roles with grace.

“I do the same job. The background alters, and where the camera is placed, and the effects around me. But I am doing the same job. I serve Nizam as if Nizam was written by Shakespeare and he was called Richard III."

“Why waste my time trivializing a character or a film?” he continued… “If I trivialize it, it’s going to spoil three, four, five months of my life. Instead, I consciously think to myself, ‘Aim high, aim very high with Nizam. If the kids are going to come and watch it, let them see Richard III from Shakespeare. That will make them go, ‘Wow.’ Don’t give them a Punch and Judy show villain.”

To this I say, thank you Sir Ben Kingsley, for being a true knight of the stage and film, and serving art with honor. You are an inspiration to us all.

None ever found a thing to praise

I came home to my empty, dark apartment emotionally drained and exhausted from rehearsal. I wish I could say I felt the fatigue from a satisfying emotional journey left on the stage; instead, my weariness came from behind the scenes drama and self-doubt. I felt myself beginning to wreck. Even though it was well past midnight, and I longed for the five hours of sleep I could clock before my 5:45 AM wakeup call, I turned to my dearest friends: my books. I ran my index finger across their spines, and although I expected to pull Shakespeare off the shelf, my finger stopped on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I pulled out Bayard Taylor’s translation of Faust, collapsed in my leather armchair and flipped open the tattered cover to a random page, which read:

In young, wild years it suits your ways,
This round and round the world in freedom sweeping;
But then come on the evil days,
And so, as bachelor, into his grave a-creeping,
None ever found a thing to praise.

How appropriate! - I concluded. On any other day, I would comment on Martha’s ironic flirtation with Mephistopheles, as the foil to Faust’s advances on Margaret. Yet, last night, this passage spoke to me on another plain. In the context of my mood, I wondered how I had let myself get into this slump. Have I been wandering too far away from auditioning for quality theatre? Have I lost my ability to adore my work? Or perhaps the stress of dealing with Faustian actors, in all their arrogant and ambitious glory, is taking its toll on my sensibilities as an artist. I have said it before, and I will probably have to say it again: there is nothing more ruinous than a selfish actor. I need to ward off this destructive energy and focus on the positive as I move through the chaos of today’s activities - After all, a bad dress rehearsal means a great opening night!

Paging Mr. Jones

Harrison Ford: "I think one of the hardest things I had to learn in becoming an actor was how to talk to people about it. Because I'd say to a director, "I have an idea," and he'd say, "Yeah, give me a break kid; I'm busy." It's the most difficult at the beginning of your career, when nobody really gives a shit about what you think. You're there to say the words and go home. But probably the most important juncture in my career: the first job I did when I was under contract with Columbia, to play a bellboy. My entire dialogue was "Mr. Jones, paging Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones, room 503," then hand this person a note and accept his tip. I got called in to the head of the new-talent program the next day, and he said, "You're never going to make it in this business. Let me tell you a story. The first time Tony Curtis was ever in a movie, he delivered a bag of groceries. I took one look at that guy and said, 'That's a movie star.' " I leaned across his desk and said, "I thought you were supposed to think, 'That's a grocery delivery boy.' " He said, "Get the fuck out of here." And I did. But I persisted in thinking I was right and he was wrong. And I did make a living in the business, and I still think that's what you're supposed to think."

We both bruise too easily

"All I Know"
Art Garfunkel

I bruise you, you bruise me
We both bruise too easily
Too easily to let it show
I love you, and that's all I know
All my plans have fallen through
All my plans depend on you
Depend on you to help them grow
I love you, and that's all I know
When the singer's gone
Let the song go on...
But the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast, but they pass too slow
I love you, and that's all I know
When the singer's gone
Let the song go on
It's a fine line between the darkness and the dawn
They say the darkest night
There's a light beyond
But the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast, but they pass too slow I love you, and that's all I know
That's all I know
That's all I know

Don't tell me you're a stepping stone

Alan Cumming performed “I Bought a Blue Car Today” at OCPAC on Sat. night. I bought tickets for my mother and myself, and attended the 9:30 performance. I was in total awe of him from the moment he walked on stage singing “Shine” to the last bow. I have never experienced such complete immersion and emotional connection as Alan brought to the stage. I drank up the sparkle in his eye when he took his moment before each song to connect. It was so brief one could easily miss it, but I saw it clearly and it was beautiful. I bought the album after the show and I can't stop listening to Lance Horne's "Don't Tell Me". I keep marinating myself in its potent truth. Why do I always connect so strongly to the tragedy in life? Alan is quirky and fabulous and I love him. He is truly an inspirational artist. I strive to be like him, to find the truth in everything I touch and share that magic with the audience.

"Don't Tell Me"
By Lance Horne

Don't tell me you're a stepping stone
'Cus I'll step all over you, and won't mean it

Don't tell me I'm not capable
'Cus I'll prove that I am if it kills me

Don't try to hold me in your hand

'Cus living things move, and I surely will

You've got your friends and I've got mine

And wouldn't you know, they were right

I won't tell you that your beautiful

'Cus you'll think I want sex, and don't mean it

I won't tell you that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.... again

I won't quote the four agreements though you'd get f*cking centered if you'd read it

I won't think of you the way I do

Don't tell me....

Take me away from the other you

The one I thought I never knew

I'm not the man you'd thought I'd be

I'm ready for another me

I've gone away from other days

I've weighed my change and changed my ways

Been crazed and turned for turns of phrase

And now I'm left with you

Why can't I love just that

Instead of all the loves that leave my bed?

And all the lives I've never led

Looks like there's still another blank page to fill

Until I've had my fill of you

So thanks for the tips on carpet

And thanks for your taste in shoes

If we could learn to love those little lessons

There'd be a little less to lose

But if you find another love whose going to hold you like me

And have these little talks until a quarter to three

And wait until you're ready for intimacy

Don't tell me

Don't tell me

Quoting Shakespeare

On Quoting Shakespeare
By Bernard Levin

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought;
if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy,
if you have played fast and loose,
if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle,
if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;

if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage,
if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it,
if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood,
if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, i
f you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare;

even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing,
if you wish I was dead as a door-nail,
if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot,
then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut!
For goodness' sake!
What the dickens!
But me no buts! – it is all one to me,
for you are quoting Shakespeare.