Back to One
A podcast about acting -- just the work. by Peter Rinaldi
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“I Don’t Want To Be On Stage If I’m Not Vibrating Inside with Life”: Hadi Tabbal, Back To One, Episode 336
The incredible Lebanese actor Hadi Tabbal just finished the monumental Broadway run of Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play English. He originated the role of Omid, and performed in various iterations of this powerful and transformative play over the last few years. On this episode, he talks about the fascinatingly unique aspect of English that is unlike any other play he’s performed, and what he means when he says it is “alive” every night and “very delicate,” and he has to “take care” not to “derail” it. He explains the difference between “discovery” and “deciding,” talks about the “saddest” part of… Read more
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Back To One Episode 335: Magazine Dreams‘s Jonathan Majors
Jonathan Majors is an actor. His latest film is Magazine Dreams. He sat down with me to talk about the work. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. And if you’re enjoying what you are hearing, please subscribe and rate us! Follow Back To One on Instagram.
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“Don’t Wait for Permission” Gazer star Ariella Mastroianni, Back To One, Episode 334
Ariella Mastroianni is an actor from New Jersey by way of Ontario, Canada. With director Ryan J. Sloan, she co-wrote and co-produced Gazer, which she also stars in. The film, which the duo shot on weekends over the course of two years, brings the paranoid thriller genre into wildly original new territory. On this episode, Mastroianni tells the story of deciding to shoot on film, using their own money, with no formal support, no connections, just a deep desire to make the film they were both dying to see. She talks about the tools her acting teachers (like Brad Fleischer… Read more
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“The Only Way I Can Go on a Set Is If My Head is Out on the Chopping Block and I’m Begging for the Blade to Come Down”: Vincent D’Onofrio, Back To One, Episode 333
An actor’s actor of the first order, Vincent D’Onofrio has been delivering “all in” performances, usually in supporting roles, for nearly four decades—Full Metal Jacket, Men In Black, Household Saints, Steal This Movie!, The Cell, The Magnificent Seven, to name just a few, not to mention 10 audience-loving seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He’s getting more accolades for his latest performance as Wilson Fisk in Daredevil: Born Again. On this episode he talks about the “emotional event” that he has to summon to bring about Fisk’s voice in that series and its predecessor. He takes us all the… Read more
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“To Be Able To Play a Flawed, Complex, Messy Woman Who Is Morally Ambiguous …That To Me Is the Juicy Stuff”: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Back To One, Episode 332
The celebrated period drama Belle marked the arrival of Gugu Mbatha-Raw and since then she hasn’t stopped impressing audiences in films like Motherless Brooklyn, Misbehaviour and series like Doctor Who, Black Mirror (San Junipero episode), Loki, The Morning Show, and Surface, which is now releasing episodes from its second season. On that Apple TV+ series, Gugu plays Sophie, a woman who has lost her recent memories and must piece them together. She talks about the “liberating” feeling she got playing someone with a missing back story and how it forced her to be present. She explains how she utilizes her… Read more
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“It’s About Self Exposure and Allowing Someone to See” Caveh Zahedi, Back To One, Episode 331
Caveh Zahedi is one of the most influential independent filmmakers of our time. Jay Duplass, Lena Dunham, Richard Linklater, Greta Gerwig are all big fans of his 30+ years worth of ultra-autobiographical work (five features, I am A Sex Addict perhaps being the most popular). His magnum opus, The Show About The Show, started out as a “self-reflexive TV show about its own making” for BRIC TV and has continued despite lawsuits, loss of distribution, re-castings, and many more obstacles, thanks to Zahedi’s dogged determination to simply tell the story, mostly through re-enactments using the actual people in his orbit… Read more
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“I Want Everyone to be Jarred by It…Especially the Men on Set”: Lucy Boynton, Back To One, Episode 330
Lucy Boynton is known for delivering exceptional performances in films like Sing Street, Bohemian Rhapsody, Chevalier, and The Greatest Hits. Her latest is the BritBox’s limited series A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, about a woman convicted of killing her abusive lover who then became the last woman to be hanged in the UK. On this episode, she talks about why the challenge she faced portraying Ellis “wasn’t an actor issue,” but more about facing the traumas women are still dealing with decades later. She ponders how acting as a child served her into adulthood, explains why over-direction is… Read more
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“I’m Really Good at Getting a Laugh Out of Terrible Circumstances”: Griffin Dunne, Back To One, Episode 329
Griffin Dunne has balanced acting, directing, and producing for over 40 years in this business. Chilly Scenes of Winter, An American Werewolf in London, After Hours, Practical Magic, This is Us, to name just a small handful of his credits. For his latest, Ex-Husbands, he delivers a performance revelatory in its ease, miraculously blending lightness and dread. It’s so much fun, and even inspirational, to simply watch him walk around as this character, carrying this load. Hopefully, this is the start of a new chapter: Dunne as the contemplative man of a certain age who has seen it all. On… Read more
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“Being Clean with the Words Gave Me More Freedom than Anything”: Margo Martindale, Back To One, Episode 328
In movies like Million Dollar Baby, August: Osage County, Blow The Man Down, and series like The Americans, Justified, and Sneaky Pete, “esteemed character actress Margo Martindale” loves to play people much different from herself. And she’s been so good at it for so long that she only started to get truly recognized for her work in her 60s. Three Emmys later, she’s able to pick and choose what she wants to do. Her latest, the Amazon series The Sticky, finds her number one on the call sheet and having a blast playing the bombastic maple syrup farmer Ruth Landry.… Read more
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Actor and Teacher Brad Fleischer on the Importance of the Visceral Over the Intellectual in the Work of the Actor: Back To One, Episode 327
Brad Fleischer is an actor, teacher, coach, filmmaker, producer, and founding partner of GhostLight Media. He originated the role of Doug in Gruesome Playground Injuries alongside Selma Blair. On Broadway, he starred opposite Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, opposite Tony Schaloub in Golden Boy, and played the title character in the Olivier award winning Coram Boy. On the screen, Brad has worked with Robert De Niro in The Good Shepherd, Scott Frank and Liam Neeson in Walk Among the Tombstones, Greg Nicotero on The Walking Dead, among many others. For 17 years and counting, he continues… Read more
