The Chicago veteran of nearly two dozen films and more than 2,500 commercials has written a book, “I Could’ve Been a Cabdriver, but I Became an Actor Instead.”
What’s the book about? The business of acting; how I’ve managed to stay an actor as opposed to a cabdriver for the past 32 years.
What are your main points? I usually tell acting students: The minimum that’s expected of you is that you’re the best actor that exists. No. 2: You must have a very strong will to succeed and a high threshold for rejection. And No. 3: You have to realize that you’re running a business, and, like any other business, if it doesn’t make money, it will fail. The book also teaches how to create a game plan. You can’t go from being a nobody to being a movie star. It takes a lot of steps in between.
What was your favorite commercial? I was very proud of the work that I’d done on Cheer and all of the Procter & Gamble products that same character did. And it was a great adventure for me because in that series, I did 101 commercials in 16 different countries. I went all over the world.
