In television, the audience has to be comfortable with you, and I've managed to prove that I can be in American homes to some degree, and not necessarily where everyone knows me, either.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Most of my peers in television seem to be from a different planet. I don't hang out with any of them.
I can't be as open on national television as I can when I'm having dinner with friends. But that doesn't mean the type of person I am is different. My values, my dislikes, my sense of humor are the same.
As much as I'd like to think and as much as people mistakenly think my audience is blue collar people in the heart of America, my audience is basically, in the States, an NPR audience. I play college towns in the summer because that's who comes to see me.
As I got older, I never considered that tons of people were watching me on television every week. I give a nod to my parents for keeping me as normal as I could be in an un-normal adult world.
I don't doll myself up for TV because I want people to accept me for who I am.
When I was younger, I did a TV show in the U.K. for a couple years, and I learned a lot from that. It taught me a lot about being known amongst your peers and having to deal with a lot of derision from them.
Every audience has its character; I like America - they love me. I suffer from stage fright, but in America not so much.
You're not anyone in America unless you're on TV.
Television has to reflect back to you your own sense of security. It also has to mirror your sense of your own decency and your own limitations.
People tend to think they know you when you come into their televisions every week. They think you are different than who you are. Don't believe everything you hear.