Podcast Ep. #13 with Reed Birney, Tony-winning actor of The Humans, on Actor Despair and Roles that Scare You
Season 2 of the podcast begins with Reed Birney, an actor who struggled for many years and only recently found recognition and success.
As he said in his Tony acceptance speech:
“I’ve been an actor for 42 years…and 35 of them were pretty bad.”
Reed chats about:
- Being nude on stage and screen
- Having a minister for a father
- Decades of anger and sadness
- Obsessions with roles
- Wearing women’s clothing
- And traveling the world
Click here for the full show notes and links to everything mentioned.
A brief bio:
Reed Birney won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for his role in The Humans. He was also nominated for a Tony Award and won the Drama Desk Award in for his work in Casa Valentina. He is the recipient of a special honorary Obie Award for “sustained excellence of performance” and he received a Special Drama Desk Award “for his versatile and finely nuanced performances over the past thirty-five years, and for his exceptional work in three different plays.” He also received Obie Awards for his performances in Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation and Tracy Lett’s Bug. Reed has shared the stage with Ellen Burstyn and Bryan Cranston, and he has over 75 film/TV credits, including Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, playing Vice President Donald Blythe on House of Cards, as Patti LuPone’s husband on Girls, and on The Blacklist.
Excerpts from the podcast:
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