/ Don't hate the media, become the media.
Jello Biafra

The creative world is not just about an audience's simple gratification or creating work for monetary rewards alone, it's about exploring one's own creative mind, desires and one's own willingness to remove all limits placed on you.

André Gregory, the renowned actor, director, writer and artist has a body of work that is intriguing and engages his audience. Whether it is through his American cult classic 'My Dinner with André', co-written with Wallace Shaw, through theatre or through his art Gregory's inspires you to look deeper and explore creativity and the arts in such an original way. 

​

Hello André thank you for talking to TNC, how have you been holding up during these very strange times?

​

It's a dark, dark, time. We have 27 friends who have now come down with the virus, it's completely changed our lives. My wife and I have been in lockdown since March and have seen almost no one. It's strange and lonely with very little hope that things will change for the better soon. Then we have the second virus - an insane and stupid President who is killing his own people and bringing this country to its knees. As a young boy, I was confronted with fascism in Europe. Now I have to live through fascism in America. Arundhati Roy has said "we cannot afford the luxury of despair." So the question is how to see what's going on with clarity and still find some remnant of hope.

Do you think this has offered people creative opportunities to explore their creative selves? 

From the artists I know, I would say that this time is so cataclysmic that very few are able to explore their creative selves. There's too much distraction, too much concern, too much anxiety. I did do some joyful paintings during the summer, but have now run out of steam.

You studied acting at The Neighbourhood Playhouse School of the Theatre where did your passion for acting and theatre come from?

No, my passion for acting did not come from the Neighbourhood Playhouse, it came from performing the role of  Petruccio when I was 12 years old. 

What was your time like at The Neighbourhood Playhouse School and how much did your time at the school help shape the type of work you would create?

My times at the Neighbourhood Playhouse? I would say that I learned nothing there and that Meisner's work was rather superficial. He gave us exercises developed years before for the group theatre in another time for other actors. Also, borrowing from one period in Stanislavski's work, he asked us while working on a scene to ask the questions, "where am I going, where do I come from, why am I here, what is my action, what is my objective." This is very cerebral, I was so busy asking these questions that I couldn't simply be there. I did learn a lot, however, at the Actor's Studio, the Berliner Ensemble, and at the theatre of Jerzy Grotowski.

​

How much did your theatre background help prepare and guide your move from into film?

My theatre background helped prepare and guide my move into film because of my feeling that the theatre belongs to the actor.

Few modern actors/writers/directors have theatre training or a theatre background would you recommend theatre training for an emerging acting?

In my experience, most theatre training is rather mediocre, at least in the United States. Every actor is unique and works in his or her unique way. The task, I think, is to find out how to make a concrete manifestation of your inner self as an actor. Theatre schools often give every actor one way of training. This does not address the unique nature of each human being.

"I have never understood why the film made such a profound impression on people, but of course I was delighted it did so."