Actors are always afraid of ending up like overcooked old soup over time. What's risky is that you don't realize this has happened, and you just get thick and boring. Going abroad was like getting a new pot to cook everything again. I was a rookie, a new self. And they were asking me, 'Who are you?'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the fear of stagnation and the rejuvenating power of new experiences.
Ken Watanabe reflects on the fear actors have of becoming stale and uninteresting over time, likening this to being overcooked soup. He shares his personal experience of going abroad, which revitalized his creativity and self-identity, allowing him to rediscover who he was as an artist.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing new experiences to avoid stagnation.
I can't become another person, no matter how much makeup I wear. Something of your own past, your experiences and personality always comes out in the role, and that makes acting very risky. You're exposed. You always wonder if you can pull it off.
Drama criticism ... is a self-knowing account of the way in which one's consciousness has been modified during an evening at the theatre.
None of my other investments give me the joy that autographs do because they make me feel that I am holding a piece of history in my hands.
Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint.
Nudity has never seemed to bother Grace Jones. Her art has thrived, in part, on a physical candor that both shocked people and redrew the boundaries of taste, beauty, and eroticism around her masculinity, ebony skin, and unrelenting intensity.
When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I've got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.
He believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music. True life was kept safe in the lines of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin while you went out in the world and met the obligations required of you. Certainly he knew (though did not completely understand) that opera wasn't for everyone, but for everyone he hoped there was something. The records he cherished, the rare opportunities to see a live performance, those were the marks by which he gauged his ability to love.
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