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185 i Stephen Tobolowsky From wacky characters like Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day (1993) and Elton Bates in Freaky Friday (2003) to serious dramatic roles such as Clayton Townley in Mississippi Burning (1988) and Sammy Jankis in Memento (2000), Stephen Tobolowsky has built a career on his versatility . While photographing him in my studio after our interview, he demonstrated his ability to flip instantly from clown to axe murderer. ‘‘What first attracted you to acting?’’ ‘‘As a kid, I was drawn to monsters: Frankenstein, Wolfman, Mummy, and assorted creatures from outer space. I thought as an actor I could hang out with Godzilla or Rodin, fire guns and rockets and fly in spaceships and planes. I envisioned the actor’s life as one filled with adventure. Of course, when I grew up and entered the business, I learned that being an actor meant spending a lot of time waiting around in a trailer and the action scenes were performed by body doubles.’’ ‘‘You began acting as a child?’’ ‘‘Yes. I was five when I did my first play, Hansel and Gretel, at a local park near my home outside Dallas, Texas. I was good at memorizing lines and delivering them energetically. I don’t know that this made me a very good actor, but I won the best supporting actor award in the Pee Wee division that year. As I got older, I continued winning acting awards on the local, regional, and state level. I thought to myself, Hey, I must be really good at this, and gained the confidence to pursue it professionally.’’ ‘‘Where did you get your training?’’ ‘‘I majored in theater at Southern Methodist University. I was a very good student, but I had this teacher who hated me and did everything in her power to bring me down. She duped me into thinking I was really special and o√ered to tutor me privately in the afternoons. I accepted. Our sessions were held at the same time as one of my other classes, which she said she had gotten waived in my case. She hadn’t, and it was a required class. I was marked absent and nearly kicked out of the department and prohibited from enrolling in the professional actor’s major. I was crushed. I decided to show up in the professional actor’s classes anyway , even if I didn’t get the course credit. This flabbergasted the teacher 186 The Actor Within who had betrayed me, and she systematically turned the rest of the faculty against me. I became practically invisible to them. They wouldn’t call on me when I raised my hand, grade my homework, or give me exams. Still, I showed up day after day after day.’’ ‘‘So then what happened?’’ ‘‘I became increasingly depressed. I got to a point where I thought it useless to do the assignments. That’s when I encountered my first champion—Jack Clay, who was one of my teachers. He called on me, and, of course, I hadn’t prepared for that day’s assignment, which was to perform a song. ‘Stephen, get up and do your song.’ I got up and fumbled around with something from Fiddler on the Roof until he stopped me and said, ‘You are unprepared. Do not ever come to this class unprepared again. Tomorrow I want you to sing two songs, and in Shakespeare class to do two monologues.’ From then on, Jack gave me double the work and graded my tests extra hard. But he also stood up against the entire faculty for me. This was a turning point. I decided from that time forward I would take my life into my own hands. I went to the theater history professor and asked if I could take the graduation exam, even though I was only a junior. He allowed it and kept it on file. When I became a senior, my nemesis tried to prevent me from taking the graduation exam and getting my degree. When she learned that I had already taken it and passed, she was furious. I saw her one more time in my life when I was doing my first Broadway show. She came backstage after the performance and said to me, ‘You’re still no good.’ ’’ ‘‘In a sense, you went through boot camp for actors.’’ ‘‘I suppose it prepared me for what was to come. As I was making it in Hollywood, I encountered many casting agents, directors, and costars...

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