interview

There's this evil interview meme going around LJ. These questions from from frawst. If you'd like me to interview you, please leave a comment to this post.

Once upon a time you were very protective of your RL self online, what has led to the relaxation?

Oddly, I actually think I've become a lot more protective of myself, because while I use my real name now, there's a lot of stuff I just don't get into anymore online. And it's not really a matter of being ashamed of it -- more, I find it's not relevant, and truthfully, I'm a little embarassed by it -- I find myself with such a passion in everything I pursue, and I don't think our culture really knows how to take passion seriously, so it's important to me to be a bit more protective of myself.

But ultimately, my product is me, not my online persona, so, this is about getting those things in sync.

You have had many varied jobs/careers, do you regret moving from any of them? Which?

I can't say I regret leaving any of it behind -- although I wish I had had the courage ot pursue performing seriously when I was younger. I also sort of regret never having the opportunity to be a war correspondant -- that was why I wanted to go into journalism -- to run around and get shot at. But all in all, I'm really happy not to be doing most of the things I've done.

While NY is very much a part of who you are, do you think you could be happy somewhere else? Where?

For a period of time, yes, and that's one of the reasons working in film has a great appeal to me, because it means weeks and months here and there. Oddly, I've never been to most of the places I think I could live in happily, so that's all about fantasy and narrative, although my instincts, even about place are amazing. I will say though that stateside, I could probably be happy in Chicago, but no where else. But that's about love for a place -- if I'm doing the work, do you think I'm really going to care where I am?

You have intellectual crushes often (VG, Moulin Rouge, Boheme, Tricky), do you feel that you consume them and move on, or do you think that you absorb them into who you are?

Well, there's a question, eh? And really interesting the things you've singled out there -- I don't think necessarily anyone else would have added Tricky to the list -- so I like that, a lot. Anyway, I think, most people think I just go through these phases, and then I'm on to the next thing. But I'm so loyal about my talismans. I just... reach a point where I learn how not to talk about them, because I start to understand how specific and private my reactions are to them -- I mean, I've seen Boheme twice, and both times burst into tears at something that isn't sad. it just touches a particular nerve that I don't know if other people have.

I guess what's funny about that list, and it's a very true list, is it's such a recent list, and none of those things are why I'm doing the things I am right now, although one of them is absolutely responsible for a bit of changing tact I've been going through, and my level of committment -- and if you'd asked me if that were possible a year ago, I'd have laughed in your face. So art is funny. Being the audience is funny. Here's a confession -- blame Lord of the Rings -- and not because I'm a big geek or anything else, but, I can't think of another film that needed to be exactly what it was, when it was. And I was awed by that, and sat in the theater through the credits unable to think of how to justify not trying to be a part of something like that -- not out of ego (although mine's huge) and not 'cause it would have been fun and not 'cause I'm a big geek at heart -- but it was good and it was needed, and I want to be a part of things that are good and needed, so it was the final push to the path I'm on now, certainly, eventhough artistically, that sort of stuff isn't necessarily where my interest lies at all.

Ultimately though, I guess the right answer is to say I absorb them into who I am, but more than anything I love art, for myself, and for other people, because it reminds us of who we are -- shows us we are not alone -- and in the realm of things I particularly enjoy and am fascinated by -- allows us to think on an incredibly grand scale about everything that is both ordinary and unique about us. So, how can I absorb something into myself that's already there?

Look, the really fundamental deal with what I love -- probably comes down to this: When I was a kid, and I cried, my parents told me not to be dramatic. So art that is, and is about that, without shame, I adore. Drama, and passion and honesty -- it's gorgeous stuff. I mean what the hell can we do in this life but work and play -- everything fits into those two categories, if you're lucky, both, in the end. I think everytihng I've ever loved, probably comes down to that.

As a writer what do you most like to produce?

I like the feeling of things speaking through me -- so I don't really have a genre preference. But I love to create characters so real they scare people, and I think I do a pretty good job of it. So to find a first person voice that's fun and interesting and compelling for me to write in, that's the best. But I will confess to a certain intensely and nearly guilty pleasure at churning out a love poem, although my love poems are admittedly often hard to detect and pretty cracked (although here's a hint: it's nearly all of them).