David Marchese

Okay.

which I don't remember, but where I wanted to start, I just watched the speech you gave to graduates at Cal State Fullerton.

This is probably something like 25 years ago.

Going way back.

And in that speech, you said, artists have the license to go straight up the devil's ass, smile at him, and survive.

When have you done that?

Have you ever done what you just described?

Sort of used the world outside?

Sort of looked at current events to motivate?

David Gordon Green, yeah.

You know, it's interesting when actors talk about the psychological or emotional risks of performance, they often talk about it in the context of darker emotions.

Does it feel risky or difficult to get to the more positive emotions?

Also, in that Cal State Fullerton speech, something you said that really stuck with me is you talked about a willingness to invite negative reaction to the work, a willingness to be despised or have someone not like the work.

And you said something along the lines of when somebody has a negative reaction like that, they're not BSing.

It's a genuine reaction, and that's something that you're striving for.

Right.

And I think about that a lot, actually.

Like, if you're only doing something that people like all the time or only have positive reactions to, it's possible you're not taking them on an exciting of enough ride.

But it does take some courage to be willing to be despised or laughed at or misunderstood.

And I wanted to know for you if you have a memory of when you realized that you were willing to elicit that kind of reaction or maybe even were drawn to that kind of reaction.