Back to One
A podcast about acting -- just the work. by Peter Rinaldi
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“I Don’t Want To Know Anything. I Just Want to Listen”: The Bear Series Regular Edwin Lee Gibson (Back To One, Episode 246)
Edwin Lee Gibson’s stage career spans 40 years and over 100 U.S. and international theater productions. On television he is currently reprising his role as series regular “Ebraheim” in season 2 of FX’s hit series The Bear. On this episode, he talks about the importance of listening, “letting the character find me,” working with the late Peter Brook, cultivating a relationship with fear, how his stutter actually made him dig deeper into the study of speech, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher. And if you’re… Read more
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“Yes He Was a Visionary, but He Pissed a Lot of People Off”: Spinning Gold Star Jeremy Jordan (Back To One, Episode 245)
Jeremy Jordan is probably best known for his Tony and Grammy-nominated portrayal of Jack Kelly in Newsies on Broadway, as well as his many roles on television including series regulars on CW’s Supergirl, NBC’s Smash and Disney Channel’s Tangled. And now he leads a star-studded cast as the tenacious record industry giant Neil Bogart in the epic new feature film Spinning Gold. On this episode, he talks about how finding a character’s physicality and where they hold tension informs his preparation, the importance of letting every single moment of a performance tell the story, why he’s still getting used to… Read more
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“I Know This Woman. I Have Her in My Body”: Sophie von Haselberg (Back To One, Episode 244)
Sophie von Haselberg stars as Sissy St. Claire in Amanda Kramer’s psychedelic fever dream musical Give Me Pity! It’s part mock 70’s television special, part monologue film, and requires the creation of a bigger-than-life persona on screen, and von Haselberg carries it all and delivers a virtuoso performance. On this episode, she takes us from Kramer “pulling me from the ether,” through extensive preparation, getting the character “into my body,” a frustrating COVID pause, on to the live theater-like 5 day shoot, and how she doesn’t think she would have “ever allowed myself to dream that something like this would… Read more
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“You Have To Live and Breathe This”: Marta Milans (Back To One, Episode 243)
Spanish American actor Marta Milans reprises her role as Mama Rosa in the second installment of the Shazam saga, which hits theaters March 17th. If you binged White Lines during the pandemic, you appreciated her work in that Netflix hit series. On this episode, we go way back to when she played Goneril in King Lear…at age 8! She takes us on a journey of her life as an actor, a job she says you cannot do well unless you “must do it to breathe.” She tells us the reason why language comes easy for her, how music plays a… Read more
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“The Reality of a Life of Acting All the Time Is Different From the Perception”: Mia Wasikowska (Back To One, Episode 242)
Mia Wasikowska’s first project in The States was the HBO series In Treatment. She was just 16 years old, but if you watched it then, you were probably in awe, like me, marveling at this seemingly fully formed acting artist, performing, with nuance and subtlety, well beyond her years. She continued to wow us with stellar work in Jane Eyre, Madame Bovary, Alice In Wonderland, Stoker, The Double, Tracks, Damsel and Bergman Island, to name a few. Her latest is an absolutely beautiful film called Blueback. In this woefully brief episode, she talks about the underwater acting she had to do… Read more
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“I Kind of Wanted To Keep Doing It All, and Fortunately They Kept Letting Me”: Todd Stashwick (Back To One, Episode 241)
You might know Todd Stashwick from The Riches or 12 Monkeys (the Syfy series, where he played Deacon), but you definitely know him from his guest star work on countless shows, both dramas and comedies, spanning more than two decades. And now he plays Captain Liam Shaw in the new season of Picard. On this episode, he talks about how the little boy Star Trek fan in him leapt for joy when he sat in his captain’s chair for the first time, while the “all business” actor in him had to focus on the work at hand. Plus we discuss… Read more
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“…That’s When Something Else Works Through Me”: The Chosen and Jesus Revolution Star Jonathan Roumie (Back To One, Episode 240)
Jonathan Roumie—actor, director, producer, and speaker—is best known for his award-winning role as Jesus in the groundbreaking series and global sensation, The Chosen. His new movie, the Lionsgate period drama Jesus Revolution, is based on the events of the last great spiritual revival in America. Roumie portrays the enigmatic, hippie street preacher, Lonnie Frisbee. On this episode, he gives us a peek at his in-depth approach to the work, which ranges from authentic ‘Method’ to ‘mystically inspired.’ He talks about how his occasional need for solitude on set stems from being easily distracted, why chemistry reads should be not just… Read more
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“… I Just Had to Open My Eyes and Everything Was there”: Godland Star Elliott Crosset Hove (Back To One, Episode 239)
Elliott Crosset Hove is a true rising star in the Danish film world. The remarkable new film Godland, his third collaboration with Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason, just landed him a European Film Award nomination for Best Actor. On this episode, he walks us through his extensive preparation “check list” which he uses to stimulate his unconscious mind and build a defense system to combat doubt. He talks about how the stunning but grueling environment where they shot Godland helped him stay in the moment, his method for approaching a character from another time period, and much more. Back To One… Read more
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“Okay Whit, I Think You Need to Get Dumber”: Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas on The Civil Dead (Back To One, Episode 238)
Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas wrote and star in the wonderful new comedy The Civil Dead, which Tatum also directed. On this episode, they discuss their long collaboration and friendship that goes back to Alabama at age 11, doing comedy events in Los Angeles with Power Violence, filming sketches, honing their craft, learning valuable lessons on the HBO/A24 production The Golden One, the importance of rhythm in comedy, the importance of trusting your own voice, and applying it all toward the modest indie film that won the audience award at Slamdance last year and is about to win audiences over… Read more
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“Making Meaning Out of Life”: After Love Star Joanna Scanlan (Back To One, Episode 237)
British TV and film star Joanna Scanlan won the Best Actress BAFTA award last year for her incredible performance in After Love. She plays Mary, a devout convert to Islam who, shortly after becoming a widow, discovers her late husband’s secret family. In this episode, she takes us on a little tour of the meaningful aspects of her acting process—the investigative phase of initial script reading, the “harnessing” of feelings, the mystical “clicking in” that happens through the words, and why it’s always been about the love of it. Plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you get… Read more
