An interview with The Beaver from “The Beaver”
From Movieline, an interview with The Beaver from The Beaver:
The Beaver was your first professional experience acting ever. Had you ever considered acting before this project came along?
I took musical theater in high school but never considered acting a real “career option.” After graduation, I got into the family business and just assumed that I’d live a Midwestern puppet life just like everyone else.
What is the family business if you don’t mind me asking?
Toll booth work. Third generation. There’s kind of a stigma attached to it but it’s good honest work. And I got to study people all day, which I guess looking back on it now an an actor, is why I enjoyed it.
So how did you go from collecting change on the interstate to co-starring with Mel Gibson?
A friend of my wife’s was looking on Craigslist for a lamp and saw a casting notice for a male beaver with my build and coloring. She emailed it to my wife as a joke and we laughed. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about the part.
Did your wife encourage you to audition?
Eventually. She saw how much it meant for me. She suggested that instead of using our vacation money for another week in Tampa, I fly out to L.A. to try out.
How did that go?
I’m from a small music theater program where you’d get the part if, you know, you didn’t whack the teacher with the lead cane prop while singing “Pore Jud Is Daid” out of tune. So a real Hollywood audition was frightening. They call them cattle calls but I joke that this one was a rodent call. Every actor in that waiting room looked like me but was a little taller, a little thinner or had better hair. It was an ego trip!
How did you think you did?
I had no idea. Jodie’s such a sweetheart but is hard to read. A week later though, I got a call from the casting director saying I got the part. I still can’t believe it really. I’m just a toll booth puppet with a dream, you know?
“Just a toll booth puppet with a dream.” Love it.
The Beaver, written by Kyle Killen, opens May 20th.