meme fraud
May. 16th, 2006 06:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerSo there's this whole meme going around where you ask someone to interview you with five questions and you post your replies to those questions up at your LJ. Now, I've got questions from the lovely ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sabine42 here, ready to reply and post here. HOWEVER, if it's ok with everyone, I think I'm gonna cheat a bit and not post the meme here. Mainly because I suck at thinking up neat and imaginative interview questions. And to top it off, I am brain-fried from working 8 days straight and rehearsing virtually every single night (for THE DAVID DANCE, which opens on Thursday!!!)
Answering these questions is fun, though. In fact, if any of you would care to ask me any questions of your own (and please, feel free to make then as creepy/personal as you wish!), by all means, shoot!
Yes, I'm being lazy. My brain hurts and I'm tired. Forgive me for cheating, and if you have any questions, please ask away!
1. Would you choose to be a famous actor but never write again, or successful based on your writings and wit without ever stepping on stage again?
What an awesome question, and one that I've been asking myself for a long time. It seems like such a difficult question to answer, until I realized that the only response almost absurdly simple.
The latter, hands-down. Writing over acting.
Acting is a venting for me, a way to get attention and to provoke reactions and to entertain. Like many actors, it all ties back to my desire for approval, to please everybody. That's an ugly, unromantic way to look at something that has meant so much to me over the years, an art with which I hope to make a living soon. It's intensely personal to be bearing your soul up there on stage, but it's to someone else's words. Acting thrills me as much as it exhausts me mentally, physically, and emotionally. Acting pushes me to the brink.
But it's writing that brings me back again. There is no high greater than those rare times when I am just on a *roll*. For so many reasons, writing just gives my life purpose. It makes all the shit worthwhile if I can turn it into entertainment, or maybe something more than entertainment. And unlike (stage) acting, which is so precious and fleeting, like a dream, my writing is a legacy that will, I hope, not only out-live me, but even those who knew or had seen me first-hand. If this sounds pretentious, forgive me, but that's how I feel.
If I only acted, I would burn out and die. If I only wrote, leaving behind a good body of work, that would truly be a life with which I would be satisfied.
2. Okay, fess up, what was your “gateway” or “trigger” comic?
Oddly, I didn't really start reading comics hardcore 'till I worked at the comic store, where I could be exposed to so many new worlds and voices than I could have before during my middle school years. But the first comic I ever read made an indelible impression on me that lasts to this day. It was the issue of Batman that was Part 3 of the "A Lonely Place of Dying" storyline, drawn by the great Jim Aparo. It featured Batman and Two-Face plotting against each other concurrently. Aparo's Two-Face was so striking to me, hardly realistic and yet strikingly human and complex, rather than a two-dimensional comic book bad guy, and Aparo's Batman is considered by many to be the definitive. I credit this comic for making me a life-long Batman and Two-Face fan.
3. Betty or Veronica, and why?
I never read much Archie, but based on what little I know, I'd say Betty. I think Veronica is more attractive, but she's got an edge that, while sexier, would drive this insecure, neurotic boy up the wall. Veronica's the girl you have crazy sex with in a swimming pool filled with her father's money on her yacht. Betty's the girl you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with.
Erm... I say again, based on what little I know about Archie.
4. What little thing turns you on without someone trying?
A smile and a laugh. I suppose that's kinda universal, but that's the way it goes with me. With the right person (for different reasons in different ways), it can bring me crashing to the ground. Tammy certainly fell into that category (but not Misty, who had a permanent scowl).
Also, nibbling their lower lip as they look at me? Wowzers.
5. Most challenging role you want to face one day (I know, I keep asking all you guys “actor” questions….can’t resist)
Hey, *I* don't mind at all! Most challenging role... I dunno, maybe King Lear, just for the practical purposes that Lear must be played by an old man but said old man has to be strong enough to do things like carry a girl in his arms. I desperately want to play Hamlet and Cyrano, but I'm not so sure I see either one as "challenging," because I feel I understand them well enough that I could (with a good director of course) do those roles, perhaps quite well, even.
I tell you, though, I'd love to play a superhero like the Green Lantern (Hal) or Daredevil (in the remake), but at the same time, I can tell you right now, I'd be scared shitless to do it.
sabine42 here, ready to reply and post here. HOWEVER, if it's ok with everyone, I think I'm gonna cheat a bit and not post the meme here. Mainly because I suck at thinking up neat and imaginative interview questions. And to top it off, I am brain-fried from working 8 days straight and rehearsing virtually every single night (for THE DAVID DANCE, which opens on Thursday!!!)Answering these questions is fun, though. In fact, if any of you would care to ask me any questions of your own (and please, feel free to make then as creepy/personal as you wish!), by all means, shoot!
Yes, I'm being lazy. My brain hurts and I'm tired. Forgive me for cheating, and if you have any questions, please ask away!
1. Would you choose to be a famous actor but never write again, or successful based on your writings and wit without ever stepping on stage again?
What an awesome question, and one that I've been asking myself for a long time. It seems like such a difficult question to answer, until I realized that the only response almost absurdly simple.
The latter, hands-down. Writing over acting.
Acting is a venting for me, a way to get attention and to provoke reactions and to entertain. Like many actors, it all ties back to my desire for approval, to please everybody. That's an ugly, unromantic way to look at something that has meant so much to me over the years, an art with which I hope to make a living soon. It's intensely personal to be bearing your soul up there on stage, but it's to someone else's words. Acting thrills me as much as it exhausts me mentally, physically, and emotionally. Acting pushes me to the brink.
But it's writing that brings me back again. There is no high greater than those rare times when I am just on a *roll*. For so many reasons, writing just gives my life purpose. It makes all the shit worthwhile if I can turn it into entertainment, or maybe something more than entertainment. And unlike (stage) acting, which is so precious and fleeting, like a dream, my writing is a legacy that will, I hope, not only out-live me, but even those who knew or had seen me first-hand. If this sounds pretentious, forgive me, but that's how I feel.
If I only acted, I would burn out and die. If I only wrote, leaving behind a good body of work, that would truly be a life with which I would be satisfied.
2. Okay, fess up, what was your “gateway” or “trigger” comic?
Oddly, I didn't really start reading comics hardcore 'till I worked at the comic store, where I could be exposed to so many new worlds and voices than I could have before during my middle school years. But the first comic I ever read made an indelible impression on me that lasts to this day. It was the issue of Batman that was Part 3 of the "A Lonely Place of Dying" storyline, drawn by the great Jim Aparo. It featured Batman and Two-Face plotting against each other concurrently. Aparo's Two-Face was so striking to me, hardly realistic and yet strikingly human and complex, rather than a two-dimensional comic book bad guy, and Aparo's Batman is considered by many to be the definitive. I credit this comic for making me a life-long Batman and Two-Face fan.
3. Betty or Veronica, and why?
I never read much Archie, but based on what little I know, I'd say Betty. I think Veronica is more attractive, but she's got an edge that, while sexier, would drive this insecure, neurotic boy up the wall. Veronica's the girl you have crazy sex with in a swimming pool filled with her father's money on her yacht. Betty's the girl you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with.
Erm... I say again, based on what little I know about Archie.
4. What little thing turns you on without someone trying?
A smile and a laugh. I suppose that's kinda universal, but that's the way it goes with me. With the right person (for different reasons in different ways), it can bring me crashing to the ground. Tammy certainly fell into that category (but not Misty, who had a permanent scowl).
Also, nibbling their lower lip as they look at me? Wowzers.
5. Most challenging role you want to face one day (I know, I keep asking all you guys “actor” questions….can’t resist)
Hey, *I* don't mind at all! Most challenging role... I dunno, maybe King Lear, just for the practical purposes that Lear must be played by an old man but said old man has to be strong enough to do things like carry a girl in his arms. I desperately want to play Hamlet and Cyrano, but I'm not so sure I see either one as "challenging," because I feel I understand them well enough that I could (with a good director of course) do those roles, perhaps quite well, even.
I tell you, though, I'd love to play a superhero like the Green Lantern (Hal) or Daredevil (in the remake), but at the same time, I can tell you right now, I'd be scared shitless to do it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 02:25 am (UTC)To sum up: NOOOOOOOOO! Don't fall for that! NOOOOO!!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 05:15 am (UTC)1. How do you go about creating (or interpreting) a character when acting? How much of that is up to you? Is there a standard way?
2. What's it like to work in a comic-book shop? I feel the movies are lying.
3. Tell me the story of the comic-book story.
4. Any strange habits?
5. What kind of shoes do you have?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 05:58 am (UTC)When it comes to real, deep, human fleshed-out characters, I want to deliver an honest, heartfelt performance. However, I really don't like certain method techniques of "ok, you need to cry, so think of the time your doggie died," shit like that. I almost never spent time mentally preparing for a role for a few minutes before I go on stage. I just turn it on as I go out there. I want all my moods and reactons to come organically from the moment itself. They really do, is the thing; I've come off stage with my heart racing because of how much I got into it.
I try to bring as much honesty as I can to any character. I think we all want to find something with which we can identify, something with which we can all sympathize, no matter how flawed or scummy the character.
Hope that in some way answered your question.
2.) This is the stuff of a whole Hefner Monologue, but I'll do the quick and dirty version.
The store mostly consists of me on my butt surfing the net and writing the Hefner Monologues for most of the day. The actual work I do is to ring up customers, shelve books, and do inventory stuff for reshipments. I also love to make recommendations to customers and get them interested in new and excellent things (and gently steering them away from the crap).
The nice thing about comic book customers is that they're all generally the same sort of person. Your average guy, no crazy uber geeks. That said, about 1 in 20, maybe 1 in 10, fits one of the stereotypes that gives comic readers a bad name. Google Cat Piss Man (or possibly Catpiss Man or Catpissman) for an example that plagues all comic stores. Every one has one. These types of customers infuriate me. The majority are good folks.
What really gets my goat are the people who say, as if I'd never heard it before, "You know, these used to be twelve cents back when I bought them!" Shit like that, usually said by "norms."
I have to really work hard not to let my intolerance show, but man, I really hate it when people buy crap. I seriously want to just tell them to pick up other books, far better books. No, you idiots, don't buy that Michael Turner Wonder Woman poster! Why does everyone love that horrible poster?! She's not hot! She's freaky thin and crazy booby! ARGH.
There will be a much more in-depth version of this written up several months from now.
3.) Which story of the comic book story? The one I got published?
4.) Whenever I think of something I'm ashamed of, something really frickin' stupid I've done, I instantly blurt out the names of my two ex-girlfriends, plus John Constantine, as if I were cursing all three at once. If I think of some horrible foot-in-mouth moment of my past, I will blurt out, even as a whisper without thinking, "Tammy! Misty! Constantine!" Just saying those instantly blocks out the memory, pushing it aside. So far, no one's noticed it or called me on it. I'm waiting for it to be really awkward, like with my girlfriend. "John, why did you suddenly just call out the names of your two exes? And what's the Hellblazer have to do with all this?"
5.) Black New Balance, the only shoes that make EEEE width to handle my large duck feet.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 06:50 am (UTC)4. I associate feeling like an ass with my ex-boyfriend in a sort of very direct way. (Not that things were bad, he just has that effect on me.) Interesting that your ex-girlfriends' names dispel that feeling. But what does Hellblazer have to do with this?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 04:09 am (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0972183116/qid=1147924768/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-6857573-6112028?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
The thing about the story is that John, who drew it also, heavily edited it (good in many ways, as I'm long-winded), and ended up diluting some of my better jokes and dialogue. Still, for all intents and purposes, it's still mine and I'm still pretty proud of what my 16 year old self whipped together.
4.) Have you read Warren Ellis' "Haunted" storyline? At the end, the bad guy is broken and driven mad, and all he says is "Con. Stan. Tine." From that point, the name "Constantine!" has been such a great curse word. I mean, really, "Richards!" is more appropriate for me, but "Constantine" is so lovely on the tongue.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 03:17 pm (UTC)Oh, word! Right there with you on that!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 08:27 pm (UTC)Should Billy Dee Williams reprise his role as Harvey Dent so that he can play Two Face in the next series of Batman movies as he was originally supposed to or should they go with someone else? If they do go with Williams, how do you think he would do as Two Face?
What is your number one all time favorite movie?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 03:57 am (UTC)Ok man, I know you don't care for Two-Face (for some reason that completely eludes me. He's my favorite comic character of all time, plys second only to the Joker to being Batman's greatest enemy), but Tommy Lee Jones should NEVER have played Harvey. Never never never. Harvey is supposed to be handsome, multi-layered, charming, charismatic, but with that dark, supressed side also. Billy Dee would have been awesome, but dude, WTF? He was too old BACK IN 1989!!!
Ten years ago, I would have said go with Ray Liotta. Now? I say Guy Pearce or Liev Schriber.
My number one all time favorite movie? I think maybe, just possibly, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY or ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. I keep going back and forth between the two.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 04:43 am (UTC)Also, much as I hate hate *hate* LONG HALLOWEEN and DARK VICTORY and as much as Jeph Loeb writes the lamest, most two-dimensional versions of Batman's villains ever, he's one of the few writers to really, really get Two-Face. His Harvey and his Two-Face are awesome.
I'd also read all of the NO MAN'S LAND saga, and the Gotham Central trade HALF A LIFE, all of which focus on the romance-thing between Harvey and Renee Montoya.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 03:05 pm (UTC)