YouTube was always a secret space for me. I'd randomly post videos of me singing with guitar, or sometimes I'd post some half-finished film projects I'd made.
For me it's all just one big online world. Everyone has a favorite social network, and some people like YouTube more than Facebook or Twitter. But I make sure that when I post a new YouTube video, I post it on Facebook, and I tweet about it.
I have to get off the Internet. It's so unhealthy for me. I do see what they post about me, and it's not always positive. They're mean - though there are some lovely ones. I'm so tempted to post something, but I haven't done it yet.
I grew up in the '80s where there's a lot of these kind of post-apocalyptic, post-comet, post-whatever it was, so that always captured my imagination a lot as a little kid, that idea of getting access to secret places and being able to roam around where you're not supposed to.
More academics should blog, post videos, post audio, post lectures, offer articles and more. You'll enjoy it: I've had threats and blackmail, abuse, smears and formal complaints with forged documentation.
Of course, you decide which story you want to tell. For me, it's been very authentic, so sometimes I'm super happy, and I post four pictures one after the other; sometimes I'm busy, and I don't. Sometimes I'm sad, and I post a sad picture.
I think I was just bored one summer afternoon, and I decided to post a little video of me singing and playing guitar out of tune.
I'm perfectly happy for my videos to be on YouTube, whether I'm getting paid for them or not. If they're on YouTube, people will see them. If for some reason my videos get taken down from YouTube, well, I apologize. If it was up to me they'd all be up there and they'd all be free.
I gravitate towards the utopian potentials of digital space (post race, post gender, post human etc.), but understand that people live in real bodies that experience real consequences based on how they are gendered, sexed, raced and classed.
Of course, I always try to integrate my life on social media but I would be the last person to post a random picture just to get likes and just so that I can create some social media feed. For me, a post should have some meaning.
Do I post pictures of my overflowing laundry basket or the dirty dishes by the sink? No, I'll probably post a pic of the finished meal looking pretty. We're all skewed in what we show.
For me, whether or not a film has some kind of massive budget or is an independent film, or however it's getting made, it's always about the filmmaker and, hopefully, being a vessel for the filmmaker's vision. That's what really attracts me to projects.
The videos I put on YouTube have expanded my audience beyond what I could have done at just a Hamburger Mary's. People saw the videos, started booking me, and literally 40-plus countries and thousands of gigs later I can basically say that YouTube has bought me a house.
I comment on my friends' things; whatever they post, I post funny posts. I don't post anything that's too sad or mad, or at least not for too long. And I'm usually just a happy person! Silly - people would describe me as silly and crazy and fun.
People start to talk about post-racist, post-feminist. What does that mean? We're clearly not post either. Would you say post-democracy? Clearly we haven't reached true democracy yet.
My struggle began after my first film, post a success, post a jubilee of so many weeks.
My acting ability would have sent me back to the post office. It was my singing that got me jobs. Ironically, now, people think of me as an actor and don't know me much as a singer.