Unless an entire row of people got up in the middle of a performance and left the theater in disgust, I felt as though I hadn't done my job.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'd feel bad if I had you come into a theater and you leave feeling ripped off.
With me, it was just a job. I never had stars in my eyes about the theatre.
I had done a lot of plays, particularly at my own theater in LA, and it was the first time in my theatrical life where I didn't feel that my role was also to keep everybody else working hard.
I fell into the theatre because I felt I was doing it well, and I stuck to it for the same reason.
But then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.
In my first few years as an actor, I took one terrible TV job after another. But even as I laughed off my awful roles and made fun of myself to friends, my work made me cringe - I dreaded anyone's seeing it. I was crushed that I wasn't doing anything I was proud of.
I liked being on stage; I just didn't like the theatrical aspect of being in front of people.
The thing I learned from 'Pride and Glory' is that people like to feel a little better leaving the theater than they did coming in.
I had given up the theater and everything propelled me into entertainment. And I didn't resist it.
I miss horribly those couple of hours before the performance when you get into the theater and you see people.