5.
“You take something no one notices and see 150 things others don’t see and
then you give yourself freedom to go there.” – Liev Schreiber
This the fifth in my series of lessons learned from Tropfest’s RoughCut film symposium in NYC last month. In addition to interesting speakers and insider expertise, I got some great 40:20 Vision. I love going to events simply because they interest me and then realizing there is so much I can apply to my life and work. This is the fourth post (read the fourth here) based on the Q&A with Liev Schreiber, Actor/Writer/Director (Salt, X-Men: Origins, Everything is Illuminated..and some of my fave indies, Party Girl, Walking and Talking, The Daytrippers, and Big Night).
I have to profess to Liev love here. To me, he’s the modern renaissance man. Blending theater, Hollywood, TV, writing and directing he seems a more mature James Franco who seems to have gotten the whole celebrity and family thing down and lives a thoughtful life.
Liev talked about life as an actor and making the transition to his directorial debut. His expression of what “art” means to him once again made me think how the arts and entrepreneurism are not that far apart:
“Art makes something out of nothing. You take something no one notices and see 150 things others don’t see and then you give yourself freedom to go there. Shakespeare has been done thousands of times but there’s still room for something unique about your Richard or Henry. Allow yourself the freedom to think how you do it. Spend time on how you would create the world your characters inhabit hat will move people to feel the way I do when I read. Don’t skip it. It’s so easy to get into that mentality of let’s just get to the finish line.”
This reminded me of a quote by Audrey MacLean, the founder of Network Equipment Technologies (NET) who I saw speak about what makes her tick as an entrepreneur:
“The fact is to be an entrepreneur, you need to be able to see things the way they could be vs. the way they are and you have to believe that if you can see it you can make it happen. Then you have to inspire others to want to do it with you”
This quote always hit home for me. It takes a team to making your dreams reality whether it’s your cast-mates or your team.