TAKE MY ADVICE: John C. Reilly
It's hard to be one of the beautiful peopple , just ask actor John C. Reilly:On-screen, he's played husband to Jennifer Aniston, Julianne More, and Renee Zellweger, strutted his stuff as a porn star in Boogie Nights alongside Heather Graham, and landed an Oscar nomination for Chicago. That's pretty impresive for a tough-mugged street kid from southwest Chicago's Marquette Park who spent part of his youth getting to know members of the city's police force. But ever since he stumbled into a role in a school play, Reill has had a laser focus on the future. Now nearing 40 and headed to Broadwa for perhaps the juiciest role in American theater--Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire--the married father of two has a few thoughs about keeping his act together for the long haul.
ON DOING THE RIGHT THING When I think of my dad, the first thing I remember is him saying, "It takes at least as much effort to do the wrong thing as it does to do the right thing." I grew up in an immigrant neightborhood with a lot of racial tension--not a place for the meek soul--so I'm gonna take the Fifth Amendment on most of the bad stuff I did. I will say it included a lot of fights and some petty theft, and I did have a record as a juvenile. But my dad turned ou to be totally right: With all the time and ennergy it took to get me out of trouble, I could have just made some money and bought the damn albums I was stealing!
ON COMPETING WITH THE PRETTY BOYS I don't think I have matinee-idol looks, but I don't think I'm some horrible Gollum, either. And I find that it doesn't really matter what you look like:If you do something well, people are going to appreciate you for it and gravitate toward you. Why? Because there's nothing sexier than talent.
ON TACKING TIMIDITY I break out in a sweat when too much attention is focused on me--- I'm a really shy person. But good manners will pull you through alot of situations, and grewing up Irish Catholic, that's onething you learn: to smile and say hello.
ON OVERCOMING FEAR I live for doing things that seem slightly beyond the realm of what I think I can do. One of my favorite phrases for tough situations is "Worry is negative prayer." When you're living in fear, you're meditating on the negative. I learned this in acting school when I kept judging a scene--while I was doing it---and thinking it was bad. Then a teacher, who happened to ride a motocycle, told me ,"When I ride my motocycle on the highway and there's a truck on each side of me, if I even look at the trucks, I'm dead, coz the bike is gonna lean that way and I'm gonna hit it." Makes sense. Life is just like doing a scene: You have to let go of the fear and focus on where to go--not where you're afraid you might end up.
ON BUILDING A LEGACY I'd like my kids to feel the same way I felt about my dad. He was a man of integrity who knew when to do the right thing, especially when the sh--hit fan. Because that's when a man is defined--when he's taking a stand about something, even if he's not sure what the consequences are going to be.
ON GIVING ADVICE I've gotta say that I'm not so good with advice. For instance, a lot of my friends are older than I am--like, my best fried is a guy in his 60s--and I coud, theoretically, seek their counsel. But whenever itseems like they're trying to save me from something with a "Let me tell you how to do this before you do it," I always say,"No---that's your experience. I'm going to find my way." So, if I have any real advice, it's "Toss out any road map that's been given to you by another person, and find your own way there."
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