An Interruption

“When I was a kid, I used to walk looking at the ground. Always my head was bent over. My dad said to me: “Vladimir! Why are your eyes looking toward the ground! Be a man and stand tall!” When I turned 18, I saw the world for the first time. I looked up. I started to move with confidence—I had a goal. I searched how to be an actor in America. So I moved to Boston, I worked for six years in Boston, international hospitality. I studied Kung fu. I learned twelve languages. Then when I thought I was ready, I moved to Los Angeles. Already in a year I’ve been in over twenty films! I go through town, I meet other actors, I ask them: “What have you been in?” They say nothing! Ten years nothing! How can you call yourself an actor, and for ten years not booked a role? I never rest. I’ll take anything. Student film. Independent production. Web series. Every time I get better and better.”

No. 077

Hands-on Learning

  “No—it’s one of those things where I put myself in rooms with people smarter than me, listen to what they say, then go into other rooms where the people won’t know any better, and repeat what I’ve heard.”

No. 010

In Audience

Two girls stood in audience of a man on the outdoor patio of a coffee shop in Los Feliz. He played guitar and sang, while a shallow fence separated him from them on the sidewalk. The guitar was decorated in a pine wreath. The man’s voice was hard and gruff, work-worn and in concert with a grizzled beard and the dirt-streaked skin of the unhoused. I had to excuse myself as passing the girls, so focused on the performance they didn’t realize they blocked the sidewalk.

No. 002