I put my best foot forward to make the best impression I could have, and it's been serving me well ever since.
— Michael Stuhlbarg
I often find in doing tragedy, or doing very serious material, that there's a level of anxiety that builds that often leads to laughter in some cases. In between takes, there can often be a lightness.
I did a play back in 2005 called 'The Pillowman,' which Martin McDonagh directed, in which, at the very end of the run, I caught a case of shingles. I had something burst on my forehead, so I actually have a mark on my forehead from that experience. But it's also an internal mark as well.
I think it's always a challenge to adapt a beautiful literary work into a fresh and alive film.
There's a lot of noise in the world. And one of the beautiful things about doing theater and film is the absence of that noise or, perhaps, the adding of that noise where it's helpful in telling the story. I'm always trying to get rid of that noise. The more you do it, the better you get.
Had I pursued a film career in Los Angeles, I'm not sure I would have had the fortune that I've had.
Someone who's asking questions of the clergy, that he doesn't have the answers to, I think that's a universal predicament.
I'm just grateful for the opportunities that have come my way.
I just feel like I am a really lucky guy who these talented directors have found places for me. I feel honored and blessed.
I was raised in a reform synagogue. I think we all bring with us a sense of when hard things happen to us, we find ourselves asking questions of why are these things happening to me at this time in my life. I think in that sense, there's a certain resonance that I carry. It's more of a spiritual resonance as opposed to particularly of Judaism.
Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming.
I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.
Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.
I had been acting since I was a kid. I had done 35 plays in New York before 'Serious Man,' but you never know what putting one foot in front of the other is going to do.
With television, sometimes the writing is continuous and happening at every moment, and you'll get new pages at the last moment. We have to incorporate that into what it is that we're doing.
I don't see a difference between the idea of what an actor does and what someone supposes a character actor is, really.
I love throwing myself into people who actually lived. It gives me a lot to research and a lot to know.
I find if you can look in the mirror and see something other than the face you see every day, it can free you up in terms of who you play. Wearing a mask can free you up.
I saw a production of 'Titus Andronicus' at the Royal Shakespeare Company with Brian Cox back in 1987. That sort of rocked my world. It was a remarkable production in its simplicity and its realism and passion.
When I heard I'd be working with Scorsese, I signed up immediately.
I'm not a math-head.
I'm glad to have work.
I've found in my own life, if you try to struggle against what the universe is telling you, you set yourself up for more of a battle.
My mom and my dad are ebullient people, and I think I carry that with me.
I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was one of those kids who sat around and drew in my room all the time.
You never know what is going to happen in your life.
Making television is difficult. Making any art is difficult.
I miss California... I love driving.
Doing film and television demands a kind of simplicity. If you think something differently, the camera will pick it up.
I came to New York to study theater and stayed and was doing exactly what I wanted to do. It's because of that work that some doors eventually opened for me.
With each job that you're given an opportunity to do, you're asked to use new parts of yourself and to figure the play out with other tools that you perhaps didn't use with the last show.
When I try to go with what's happening and embrace that as much as I can, it seems to be a much smoother journey for me.
Scorsese is a fan of improv and is always pushing actors to think up something that would make the scene more fun. He loves any idea that helps the scene be alive.
I find that it's best to take one step at a time and cross each bridge as they come to you.
Most of the people in New York are very often from somewhere else.
I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be.
I think the theater work and the on-camera work feed off each other. My theater work has become more simple, and my on-camera work has become more energized or more spontaneous.
