I for one, have loved Christopher Walken since I first saw him. Sometimes the movies don't hold up to him, sometimes he's way more memorable than the film, there are times he completely changes the material and makes it his.
If I mention him to someone and they go, "Oh yeah, 'More Cowbell!'" I know they're amateurs and don't deserve to find the delicate nuances and jazz-like performances of his more interesting roles. Sometimes, I find Christopher Walken to be a deal breaker in romance. Once a young lady and I were going to see a showing of "King of New York," it was a double bill with "The Addiction" and I was all excited because there was all the certainty in the whole world that after the movies we were going to be having sex. However, after "King of New York," ended she turned to me and said, "Yeah, let's go back to my place, I'll light some candles, heat up the meatloaf, have some wine, we can get in the tub..." "But "The Addiction" is about to start! It's great! I've seen it 3 times, you'll dig it!" I told her. "Honey, I think I'm tired of Walken, I'd rather lay down with you," she whispered in my ear. "You don't really like Christopher Walken, do you?" I asked her. "Well, I guess I just don't see the big deal. He's the same in every movie, really." That was it! I could go into greater detail, but I had her call a girlfriend and I watched her climb in the car that pulled up as I watched from the lobby and then returned to my seat happy to have unloaded that burden from my life. Models are pretty to look at, for sure, but most have no sense of what's important in the world. When I was a kid, the first time I remember seeing Christopher Walken and having to find out who that guy was, was when PBS aired the American Playhouse short directed by Jonathan Demme and adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's, "Who Am I This Time?" I loved that show! I remember telling my friends all about it. It blew me away! That was the life I wanted to live, acting in community theatre and living in a sweet cool little town. I hadn't seen the film since, but I just found it on Netflix Instant View, so I watched it again, and yes, it's a lil' dated and rough, but so well worth watching because the young Walken is amazing as a shy clerk playing Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite a captivating Stella, played by a beautiful Susan Sarandon.Watching it, all those dreams of performing came back, or making theatre happen, creating a group and putting on a show, it brought back all those memories of running the acting workshops in Dallas and Los Angeles and boy, do I miss that! I began wondering if having watched this PBS show as a kid influenced me in some way and that's how all that happened? I also began wondering how I could get all that back? How could I find a way to make a living, in a small town, putting on shows in a community theatre and trying to create some good memorable work? After watching it and looking at my bank account now that rent is due, utilities are due and there's no food in the kitchen, I became very depressed and threw all care for keeping up appearances out the window and overcame the fear of ridicule and posted my situation on Facebook. I held my hat out. I opened my heart. I asked my fellow man for help. I said, "Hey, I need a job! I've had several gigs collapse on me recently and need some funding for my other projects, like moving, oh and I need to eat and stuff... Know of any possible jobs, or good connections to jobs, or any money making ideas?" I know people will pass right over that like they didn't see it. They will try and find a way to make a joke out of it. They will be hurtful and mock and kick a guy when he's down, because it will make them feel better. So many artists I know have other jobs that they hate, sometimes, to fund the art they do that doesn't always sell, but they're forced to do it because that's what they have to do. A true artist must create, sales of that work has nothing to do with it! Most people have no idea what I'm talking about. That burning inside to show something, to put yourself out there in words, or paint, or whatever way you need to express regardless of it supporting you. You will scrounge money to make it happen like the junkie will lie, cheat and steal to get his fix. You demand your creation into existence! You have to pull lightening down from Heaven by shear will. Force of intention! You imagine that work, that dream, that song, it's in you and you have to act fast or it moves on to the one that will make it be. You want it to be you! It has to be you that gives birth to it! It is your child, but if that child doesn't bring you money, you don't hate it, or throw it
away, you have to spent money on it to raise it and watch it grow and become something else, something more. "There were years when I didn't do anything but collect unemployment. I worked a lot, but I worked for nothing. I worked for 15 years as a kind of janitor at the Actors Studio. I would do manual things. I did lots of plays, theater workshops, for nothing. If you want to learn how to build a house, build a house. Don't ask anybody, just build a house," Christopher Walken said that.
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