I'd had the theater background for so long that I know that world inside out; I just didn't know the pace of how a TV set works, like how a show shoots.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My theatre background is probably more extensive then my film, and I have done a fair bit of television.
I come from a theater background, so usually, at the start, you know what happens and where the character goes and everything. But with TV, it's really unpredictable.
In theater, you really work out the kinks and figure out exactly what you want to do and what we want to say, so by the time we have an audience, we're really prepared. With TV, you have a day... Sometimes, just a few hours.
Once you're on the set and shooting, it's all just cinema. You have actors and cameras.
What's great in theater is that you can sustain the arc of a character for a full three hours, whereas in film or TV, you have to create that arc in little pieces, and usually out of sequence.
I, over the years, have always felt more comfortable if I could go into a projection room and look at a film and not really know what to expect. If you read the script first, you form all kinds of preconceptions about how things look, what the location's like, what the actors are like.
It's really interesting working in television as opposed to the theater, where you know the arc of the character and you are able to create this whole backstory.
I've always said that theater was where I began, so everything I do now has a bit of my theater background in it. It was my training.
There is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.
I don't really have a theatre background at all.