That Guy ... Who Was in That Thing 1 Page #3

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It is fun.

This part of it, you know,

it does get back to what you

jumped into theater for in the

beginning was to try to become

something different, to look

in the mirror and take

a vacation from yourself.

Get a load of this, right?

It's supposed to be your

maternal grandfather is where

your hairline, your hair gene

comes from.

I won the lottery on that one.

Well, before I was an actor,

I was--I was a dancer.

I used to, uh, spin on my head,

believe it or not.

[laughs]

My brother and I were--were

break-dancers.

THIS IS TALKING, LIKE, MID-'80s

when the break-dancing scene

came out to Hollywood when

I was 19.

It was to compete on this

TV show called "dance fever."

Now everybody knows.

[laughs]

When I was 19 years old,

I thought that the best thing

would--to do to be an actor

until I became a great actor,

which was going to be

when I was 35.

I would go then into medical

school, become a brain surgeon.

And by 42, I needed to be doing

brain surgery.

And then by 60, I was going to

become--I was going to run for

public office.

And that was the plan when

I was 19.

I'm a little late, especially

on becoming a great actor.

You know, it's, you know,

I'm still waiting for that,

to convince myself that

I'm that.

My dad who basically dealt

with numbers all his life--

His aunt died, and he got this

trunk that was his mother's.

And we open it, and it was full

of mementos of his, like, youth

AND 20s.

And there was a picture of him

at about 27 singing in

a night club.

And I was like, "what the f***

is this?"

And he's like, "oh, that's--

That's me singing in the elks

club at Hinema--

In Helena, Montana.

Pull up some sheet music.

"Why is your name on the sheet

music?"

"Oh, it's a song I wrote."

"What?"

My mother was English.

And I was brought up in Ireland.

It was 1939.

The war, they started bombing

England, and they shipped me

out.

They shipped all the kids out

of London.

And they shipped me to

relatives, to my granny and to

my auntie Rita, who brought me

up in Dublin.

I went from in Yugoslavia

being, like, a very smart kid,

a very popular kid to coming

to the states and being sort of

the slightly odd kid who had,

like, long hair and bell-bottoms

and didn't fit into

a group particularly.

And the name--the name didn't

help.

Although I changed my name.

It was the only time I went by

another name for--I think it

came from when we were first

in the states, and I was just,

like, three or four years old.

And it was just, you know,

I was too young to try to

explain my name to people.

I went by Jacob.

In Slovenian, in Serbian,

in Croatian, in all those

languages, there's actually

a letter, a separate letter,

a "z" with a little "v" on top

which is a "zhuh."

There is a little writer--

I can't remember if something--

If it actually happened

a couple times, things were

misspelled, and I wanted to try

to prevent that, so there's a

little, very officious-sounding

paragraph about the fact that

they have to spell my name

right, including the little

"v" accent over the "z."

My father was a businessman.

And like a lot of people of

that generation, they weren't

allowed to really go after

dreams.

There was, you know, they were

children of the depression.

It was about making

a comfortable living for your

family, which he did.

But he--he was the best dancer

in the crowd, he had a way with

eye, with color and design, and

he had all these other talents

that men were not allowed to

pursue in those days unless you,

you know, coming from a bohemian

family or something.

Yeah, I think he played the

piano.

I mean, he was into music.

And there wasn't one Broadway

show they didn't see, and we had

the albums, and they were always

playing in the house.

And, you know, in our house,

Gershwin was a god.

And, you know, the house was

filled with those outlets.

And I think, yeah, I think under

different circumstances

he would have done something

differently, but they weren't

allowed to.

He insisted I go to college.

And when I went to Boston

university, which he paid for,

for me to be an acting major--

This is, like, not normal

behavior for Jewish families.

I think I knew when I had his

support, his encouragement,

that somebody else, who could

be a very harsh critic--

All our fathers can do that

to us--was saying, "I'm

supporting you in this."

And it was never--it was, like,

you know the expression, "and

I never looked back"?

That was it.

My dad had been a cop.

And every day he'd say, "so why

don't you get a regular job?"

And he saw me in the west end.

He actually saw me on the

equivalent of Broadway.

And he's sitting there, watching

me, on the equivalent of

Broadway, going, "well, why

don't you get a regular job?"

I was earning three times what

he was earning, but bless him,

you know, it's that old gener--

That generation.

My mom said, "you've got to

take other classes.

You got to have something to

fall back on."

I said, "if I fall back--if

I have something to fall back

on, I'll fall back on it."

I deluded myself into

thinking I could--I could do

some kind of double major with

something more rational and

practical and serious like

geology.

I'm color-blind, which explains

my only "C" in college 'cause

they bring you a tray of rocks,

and you're supposed to figure

out what they are because

they're green or brown or

whatever the hell color they

are, and I'm looking at them

like, "beats me."

We're gonna do something

different this semester.

We're gonna do a Shakespeare

play.

If you're in the play, you don't

have to write a paper."

Done.

When I told my dad and my

mom that I wanted to be an

actor, they flipped out.

They just co--I remember my dad,

I can still hear him, you know,

he's screaming at me, you know.

"We sent, you know, we sent you

through university of Michigan.

And we paid thousands of

dollars and god damn it,

you want to be an actor?"

[groans]

You know, he just flipped.

I applied for the Rhodes

scholarship, and I got it

and went to Oxford in England.

And I did two terms there, which

I really loved.

Between the second and third

semester, I got invited by some

of the people I'd done

Newfoundland traveling

theater company with to be

a part of this new sketch

comedy group they formed called

Codco.

We made our rent.

We had a great time.

We were making films on the

side.

It was a very creative time.

And I thought, "I can do this."

And so I resigned the

scholarship and sort of ran off

to join the circus.

And so from my parents, it was

that kind of thing that,

you know, "that's the worst

possible decision you could've

made.

You, you know, resigned the

Rhodes scholarship, and you are

on a track to sort of become

something fabulous, and now

you're going to be an actor."

I started off studying to

be a doctor.

And I worked at a hospital from

the time I was about 18 until

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