Terry Gross

I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.

You had a teacher, an acting teacher, who said to you, you're not going to get the roles until you're in your 30s.

Yeah, so how discouraging was that when your own acting teacher said to you, you're not going to get the roles until you're 30s?

Did you see that as discouraging, like he's telling me I'm not going to get roles?

Terry, you heard me.

Wait, wait, wait.

Okay, go ahead.

Or did you see it as encouraging with him saying, like, it's going to take some time, but you will get roles when you're in your 30s.

You will do well.

No, I had to.

I got lucky.

I really did.

Your father owned a jewelry store in Princeton.

And you sometimes work there.

And apparently it was a famous store.

And I would presume you sold a lot of jewelry to men buying gifts for girlfriends and fiancés and wives.

Yes.

And mistresses.

What was it like as a man selling to men who know nothing about women's jewelry but want to give something to the woman in their life who they love or they want to impress or they want to make up with?

So you had a significant role in a film I really love, A Serious Man, that was made by the Coen brothers.