A Quote by Jessie Mueller
Directors didn't know what to do with me in college. I didn't really sound like a belter. I didn't look like a soprano. But in New York, I was in the right place at the right time, where my unusualness fit the bill.
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In school, I really felt like I didn't fit a type. I think everybody had a hard time putting me in a category. They all sort of realized, 'Hmm, you don't really look like a soprano. You're not really a character belter.'
The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano.
I feel like we cheated... because you read about these other directors, just like, 'Damn! They paid dues for 10 years before they got to get behind the camera.' We cheated because technology was in the right place at the right time, and we were alive at the right age at the right time for us to take advantage of that.
The New York book was a visual diary and it was also kind of personal newspaper. I wanted it to look like the news. I didn’t relate to European photography. It was too poetic and anecdotal for me… the kinetic quality of new york, the kids, dirt, madness—I tried to find a photographic style that would come close to it. So I would be grainy and contrasted and black. Id crop, blur, play with the negatives. I didn’t see clean technique being right for New York. I could imagine my pictures lying in the gutter like the New York Daily News.
At the time, I was reading this Miles Davis book, and he was talking about coming to New York right after he was in high school. It kind of made me feel like, "Yeah." I didn't want to go to college; I wanted to do stand-up. And I figured, "What's the point of doing stand-up around DC? I'm always going to be under-appreciated there because I started there." I felt like I was strong enough and unique enough that I should give it a big leash to shine. New York was the best thing that ever happened to me as a comedian.
Our industry is so technologically driven that often I Skype with directors or send tapes in to people. It's so common now that sometimes even when I'm here I'll be send tapes for things that are based in the U.K. There's never really a right place, right time anymore. Even something that's L.A. based, the director might be in New York or they might be on location in Budapest. I think everyone's really accepting of the fact that people are all over the world all the time. In a funny way, you can be an actor now and live anywhere, so long as you have internet.
I'm definitely bicoastal, but I have to say, it's easier to live in New York than in L.A. I feel like people respect other people's space a bit more here. Everyone has the right to that freedom, right? Everyone has that right. It's freezing in New York right now. In L.A., it's sunny. But I would choose freezing over being followed.
The big thing is, everybody says it's being in the right place at the right time. But it's more than that, it's being in the right place all the time. Because if I make 20 runs to the near post and each time I lose my defender, and 19 times the ball goes over my head or behind me - then one time I'm three yards out, the ball comes to the right place and I tap it in - then people say, right place, right time. And I was there *all* the time.
I haven't gotten jobs because I'm famous or I have a big Twitter feed - it's primarily directors. People employ me because I'm right for the part. But then, everybody needs a bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time. You just gotta be in that place for that opportunity to come by.
It really comes down to fit. When it comes to a suit, for example, it's important that the shoulders fit you well; the length of the pants are important. That kind of shows me right away if you're into it or if you don't care. If they get the shoulders right, you know that they have some sort of interest in getting a good look.
Being an actor is like winning the lottery. It's not really about your talent, it's right time, right place, right face.
You can go anywhere in New York. There's always something to do in New York. There's always a place to eat no matter what time it is. There's always a place to work, a place to drink. It's conducive to my lifestyle. I don't know how to drive a car, so I like to be able to walk places.
I always feel like I learn more from directors that are new, and I also am able to understand how much I really do know about filmmaking when you work with directors that maybe don't have as much experience, so you're able to sort of take the reins. I know how to do these movies, I've done so many of them and have learned from new directors who are usually willing to try new things and are more open to allowing someone like me to kind of come in and just do what I know how to do.
People stop me and ask me about their loved ones who have passed away. I have to explain to them that what I do is a lot like therapy and it really requires the right time and the right place.
No city owns me, you know what I'm saying? I'm from New York, but no city owns me. Nobody can bottle up my sound and box me in. Yes, I am a rapper, but am I a New York rapper? No. I am from New York, I love New York to death, but I will not conform myself to one place, no.
I don't feel like I make sense in the world. I don't feel like I look right. I don't feel like I act right or do right. It's very frustrating to me that I just walk around with this all the time.
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