Jason Bateman

And Yale is famous for its drama school, and they have a lot of productions going on all the time.

So I decided I was going to start trying to take classes over at the drama department, and they were very loose about it.

They would just let me walk in and do writing classes, because I thought, maybe I'm going to write plays, because the idea of writing novels or poems seemed so very lonely to me, you know, when I was 20.

22 23 years old and I was just sitting in a room all day long alone trying to write and I was like this is fucked up you know this is not you know I like people not as romantic as you thought no but I liked I like collaborating I like so I thought okay I'll write plays and that way at least I'll I'll get out into the world

And so I met all these actors, and they're always looking for bodies because there's so many productions going on around in Yale.

And they said, hey, you know, come and do this thing, this Arthur Schnitzler play we're doing, which name escapes me.

But you can play the Count de la Tremouille or something.

I had one or two lines.

And...

I liked it.

It wasn't like, oh, this is a revelation.

In fact, I thought, oh, well, I'm comfortable.

And I was so comfortable that in between the first and the second performances, I smoked a joint.

Not so good.

I was so cocky.

I was like, I got this.

And then I was like, oh, I don't have anything.

Why are people looking at me?

I started taking classes in New York with a woman named Marcia Halfrecht who taught Strasberg Method.

She was associated with the Actors Studio.