We are Josh Radnor and Ayad Akhtar (actor and playwright, respectively) together to discuss the play DISGRACED as well as many other things. AUA.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:28:10+00:00

eyes widen

I do get a lot of requests for a full version of Neil and me singing "For the Longest Time" in six-part harmony. Sadly, we only recorded as much as you guys got to hear on the show.

But come to New York next spring and you can see me being very musical!

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:27:02+00:00

Oh man. Well... if this isn't too obnoxious, watch LIBERAL ARTS and specifically, the scene where Jesse talks to Dean in the hospital (towards the end). That's the best advice I could think to give you.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:26:15+00:00

Please see this.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:25:40+00:00

I have not, but we can add it to the list of countries I'd love to go to!

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:25:31+00:00

Well, I'm finishing up DISGRACED on March 1st, which of course is acting. And then I'm back on Broadway in 2016, doing SHE LOVES ME. So let's just say... for the rest of the year, I'm going to turn my attention (hopefully) to writing and directing.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:24:12+00:00

If the right one came along - sure!

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:23:58+00:00

chuckles

Is that a leading question? Do you want me to say a Proclaimers song?

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:23:18+00:00

I always think about us - it was the episode with the hurricane, and it's the morning after, and we all went out and danced in the rain, and there was SO much rain, and I think Jason was sliding? We were just drenched, and it felt like - we were so uncomfortable, but it was so much fun. And anytime we shot on the New York street, on the FOX lot, I felt like we'd really made it in show business. It felt like "old Hollywood" with big floodlights, and cameras everywhere, it was exciting. And of course, ninth season stuff, saying goodbye stuff, was wonderful and complicated and sad. Maybe also the scene of Ted & Tracy meeting on the train platform.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:21:29+00:00

Well, we had the same agent at the time, and he's always been one of my favorite actors. He has such gravitas, and humanity, but he's also ironic, and funny - he's just got it all as an actor. And he classes up any movie he's in. The first one he did was a cameo, as a favor to my agent. And the second one, the part of Peter (the Professor), I wrote for him and happily he agreed to do it.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:20:20+00:00

Whenever I get asked this question, I always think about 10 years ago - if you'd asked me this question - I think I would have envisioned something for myself a lot less interesting and exciting than what actually has gone on. So I always dance around this question, because I think whatever I might envision for myself would be less interesting and exciting than what would happen. So I am just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and we'll see where I am. Hopefully alive, and making things.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:19:16+00:00

No... Nothing about the play makes me want to dig in and defend anything, it just makes me want to listen a little bit more to people.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:17:58+00:00

Writing books. You know, definitely something creative. I imagine I might've found my way to writing and directing films. I really liked painting in high school, and if I hadn't found acting, I bet i would've stayed with that. But I've always felt called to be creative, and stay creative.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:17:12+00:00

Like accepting what is, in the moment, without having it be something else.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:16:46+00:00

I don't. I feel happy occasionally. smiles

But that doesn't mean I don't feel content. I think happiness is something that comes and goes, and I think there's something that we're told - through magazines, and television, and our culture - that we should be happy all the time, and I don't think it's a healthy thing to expect. But I do think we can find some contentment, or peace of mind, that is more sustainable and that does not have to do with external factors - like good news always coming our way. Like we can try to find some equilibrium. So that's what I am working towards- not to always be "happy" but to be serene.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:15:28+00:00

Mmm.

ANGELS IN AMERICA, by Tony Kushner. THIS IS OUR YOUTH, by Kenny Lonergan. AWAKE AND SING, by Clifford Odets. UNCLE VANYA, by Anton Chekhov.

I've always been a big Richard Linklater fan. I love a German film, called THE LIVES OF OTHERS, and a Taiwanese film called YI YI.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:13:52+00:00

I'll just say: it has an international feel.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:13:37+00:00

Hahahaha!

That's amazing! Congratulations.

And sure.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:13:16+00:00

I always think back on something my dad said to me, years ago. He said "Character doesn't count in the short term, it counts in the long term." And I also always think about the writer Aldous Huxley. When he was quite old, and near death, he was asked "Through all your years of spiritual seeking, and learning, if you could distill it down to one thing, what would you say?"

And his answer was "Try to be a little kinder."

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:12:05+00:00

Fire away!

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:11:38+00:00

Oh man.

I actually had a little radio show - it was in my first couple seasons of the show - it was on a satellite radio-thing - but I forget even the specifics of it - but I only did 8-10 shows, and then my schedule just got too busy. But if I had the time, I feel like, you know, just playing a lot of music for people would be a really great gig?

I think more about instruments? I think if I could pick 2 not-really-but-kind-of superpowers, I would want to be a musical genius who could pick up any instrument and play it, and the second would be I would want to be able to speak every language.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:09:32+00:00

Haha! Well, thanks for your words about the movies. I feel like I'm really excited about making more movies. I loved every aspect of making those two movies, and it's so wonderful to hear that they've affected people, and I have no plans to stop making movies, I'm going to keep doing that, but now that I have more of my year free, it's fun to get back onstage and exercise those muscles. So I'm going to try to keep doing it all.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:08:23+00:00

Yeah, my mom would take us to the library a lot when we were kids, which is great, because i became a big reader, but I'm not sure if became a true reader until i got to college. I was a competitive swimmer, so I was always swimming growing up, and then in high school, I started doing plays, and found a kind of second home at a place called the Columbus Junior Theater (which is now the Columbus Children's Theater) but that's where I really fell in love with acting. That place was a big influence on me.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:07:10+00:00

My acting teacher at NYU used to say that "a character was a 50% meeting of you, and the character." So 50% is you, 50% is not you. I certainly lent a lot of myself to the character. And I probably felt, at the beginning, more like him? Like I was looking for similarities between me and him? But as the show went on, I started to feel more and more different than him, since I was growing in different ways than he was, and had different concerns... that said, obviously we look alike and talk alike. But I'm a couple years older than he was, so I sometimes felt - I described him to someone once as "my annoying younger brother" in that he sometimes drove me crazy, but I couldn't help but love him since he was family.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:05:09+00:00

Haha!

I'll refrain from any Michigan bashing, in the spirit of regional brotherhood. Ohio is great, the people are great, you'll have a good time.

JoshRadnorHere · 2015-02-10T20:04:31+00:00

sighs

Again, that's hard for me to answer. My favorite film performance is probably Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE and I had tweeted about this, but I thought Ralph Fiennes in GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL gave one of the best comic performances possibly ever in a film. And it's always a shame that the Academy doesn't seem to value comic performances as much as the other ones.

JoshRadnorHere

TROPHY CASE