Original subtitles

Well, I think I was really fortunate

that I got introduced to great writing,

great drama, uh, great theater, first by

my parents who were lovers of theater

and lovers of film and music. And so I

really got introduced to this at a very

early age and got taken to the theater.

Um, and then I got even luckier when I

sort of was introduced to a series of

teachers who became my mentors who then

furthered that into specific kind of

introductions to great writing. And it

was being introduced to the writing of

Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neal and

Shakespeare and sort of discovering that

I I felt uh a kind of immediate response

to that kind of writing and then wanting

to work on it and then wanting to sort

of get up and perform it and um see what

those kind of words could do uh to me as

an actor. and then auditioning for

Giuliard. And you know, you had to do

monologues for that. You know, I

remember I had to do a I did a monologue

from a fellow. I played Iago

and that audition was the hardest

audition ever. I had to fly up to San

Francisco to meet with Michael Langam

who was the head of the department.

Elizabeth Smith who ran the voice

department

and I think one other person was there.

I can't remember who it was now. all of

my teachers sort of at Giuliard start to

blend into one another. Um but I

remember that I had done this monologue

where I had taken

not just one monologue uh from Iago but

I had taken sections of the play and I

had strung it together and made a kind

of overall arc of Iago so that you got a

real sweep of his character and it was I

thought it was really in inventive in a

slightly different way of doing a

monologue and I remember at the end of

it when I finished it Michael Langgham

who was a very officious British

director who looked at you over the

bridge of his glasses that were perched

on his nose, usually disapprovingly.

He looked over his glasses and he said

to me, "Um,

Kevin." I said, "Yes." He said,

"Did you write that?"

And I said, "Uh, no, that was that was

Shakespeare." He said, "Oh, didn't

recognize it."

And then I remember Elizabeth Smith said

uh when she was then critiquing my vocal

qualities,

she said, "Well,

on the scale of the average, you sound

like the end of a frayed rope."

And I thought I was never going to get

into Giuliard. And then surprisingly, I

did. When I left Giuliard, my very very

first job was playing a whole bunch of

parts uh in the production of Henry Ford

part one. Um that Mandy Pmpkin starred

in and that Dez Mackenov directed and I

you know I played a tavern person and a

priest and a rock and a guard and you

know and whatever they wanted me to

play. Um and that was the greatest job

in the world. Um because you know you

got paid 12 bucks a week and you got to

do Shakespeare in Central Park. It was

the greatest job ever.

I've been incredibly fortunate to

um not only have had mentors uh but then

to have been able to work with my

mentors professionally. Um and the first

and the most important to me was Jack

Lemon. Um Jack Lemon was my idol when I

was growing up. I just loved his movies

and he seemed to be able to do

everything um comedy, drama, musicals. I

mean, he was just uh one of the most

extraordinary all-around performers

uh that that we have ever produced. And

um one of the great things about growing

up in Southern California when I did was

there was a lot of money in schools for

the arts. Um, and so we used to be able

to go to professional productions and

workshops and seminars and festivals and

all this stuff that involved

professional actors. And one of these

was to go to the Marter Forum while Jack

Lemon and Walter Matau and Moren

Stapleton were doing a production of Jun

Juno and the Peacock Shaun Casey's great

play in 1974

uh, and attend a workshop that Jack

Lemon was going to run before seeing

that production. and uh we all had to

get up and do scenes and um I did my

scene and at the end of it Jack Lemon

walked up to me and he put his hand on

my shoulder and he said that was

actually terrific.

He said, "No, you're a you're a born

actor. You're you're meant to do this

for your I'm telling you right now, you

should go to New York and you should

study acting because you're meant to do

this for your career. You're meant to do

this." And I was a shy 13-year-old kid.

And that meant the world to me. I mean,

that was an example of when someone says

something to you at exactly the right

moment that you need to hear.

And of course, I did go to New York and

I did study acting.

And 12 years later, I got the

opportunity to audition

to play Jack Lemon's son in a production

on Broadway of Long Day's Journey into

Tonight. And um after auditioning with

Jack, which was the second series of

auditions I had because I had auditioned

for Jonathan Miller, the director, first

and then about 3 months later, I had to

go back in and audition with Jack Lemon.

Um I did a series of scenes with him and

I was relentless. I wanted this part so

bad to play the alcoholic son.

And at the end of like four scenes, Jack

Lemon walked up to me, put his hand on

my shoulder again, and said, "You know

what? I never thought we'd find the

rotten kid, but she did. Jesus Christ,

what the hell was that?

And um I spent the next year of my life

working with Jack every night. And then

we got the opportunity to do a

television miniseries together called

The Murder of Mary Fagan. And then we

did a film called Dad together. And then

our final work together was in a film

called Glengary Glenn Ross. And he

became like a father figure to me. Uh,

and there isn't really a day that goes

by that I don't that I don't think about

Jack.

After I did my first play in New York,

which was Shakespeare in the Park, I

didn't want to be a waiter. So, I went

back to the public theater and I had no

appointment. And I went past Dolores who

was the person who always was like the

security desk and she answered all the

phones and and she knew me from the

rehearsals and she was like, "Oh, hi

Kevin." I said, "Hi." I'm just going up

to say hi to the girls. I Oh, great. I

you know, I was like sneaking into the

public theater and I went upstairs and I

started saying hi to all the girls that

worked for Mr. Pap and he was in his

office and he sort of leaned out and he

goes, "Oh yes, I remember you." Because

Joe always used to saddle up to the

young actors

in rehearsals or up at the delicacort.

He'd ask you where you're from and where

you studied and you know why were you an

actor? He was always sort of

investigating

people's degree of seriousness. And um

so he called me to his office and I went

and I sat down. I told him my little sob

story about I had no agent, I had no

manager, I had no money, I had no

prospects, I

didn't want to wait on tables, I didn't

want to be a waiting actor.

And I said, I just came because I

thought maybe if there was anything, you

know, there's like a job at the public I

could do and just make like a little

money so I could pay my rent.

So Joe hired me in the stock room

and put me downstairs in the basement

where I handed out pencils and pads and

erasers and rulers to stage managers and

directors. And then over the course of a

bunch of months, I ended up they took me

out of there and put me up into the

contracts office. And so I worked for

Robert Camelot for a while and I went

into the publicity office and I worked

there and then eventually I ended up in

Joe's office and became one of I don't

know three PAs that he had. So I, you

know, wash the car, get the dry

cleaning, you know, whatever the minial

stuff was that I had to do.

And then I got while I had this job, I

got this off off off off off off off off

Broadway production of of a Friedrich

Schiller play called The Robbers,

which wasn't even in the theater. It was

on a in a dance space on 13th Street. So

I I I got this lead part. And so I was,

you know, at that's what I was doing at

night, sneaking off to rehearse every

now and then. And uh so anyway, we

opened this play and for reasons I can't

even begin to tell you, The Village

Voice came to review this play and I got

my first New York review, which was a

pretty good review.

It actually

in the same paragraph

compared me to both Carl Malden and

Marlon Brando in the same sentence. So

my friends had a really good time

calling me Marlon Malden for quite a

while.

And someone at the public shows Joe this

review.

And the next night he came and saw me in

this play on 13th Street. And the next

day he called me into his office

and he fired me.

And I was like, "What did I do?" He

said, "You didn't do anything." He said,

"You've been working here now for about

eight months. You've been getting

comfortable making a little paycheck.

And last night I went to the theater and

I discovered an actor on stage and he

pushed me out, gave me three months

salary

and four months later wasn't in the

opening night audience of my first

Broadway play.

And that kind of mentorship, that kind

of fatherly shove, which is clearly what

I needed.

Um, yeah, it's the reason I do

workshops. It's the reason I started my

foundation. It's the reason that I feel,

you know, it's what Jack Lemon used to

always say. If you've done well in the

business you wanted to do well in, then

it's your obligation to send the

elevator back down. I always thought

that was a pretty cool way of saying it.