EPISODE 5: EDDIE KAYE THOMAS
EDDIE KAYE THOMAS
On leaning into discontent, finding freedom at Starbucks, Kobe Bryant Moments, and much, much more!
Eddie has been acting since he was a wee babe. Most famously, he played Finch in American Pie. You might also recognize him from the Harold & Kumar movies. But before he was a movie star, as a kid, he acted on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank. He has continued in theatre as an actor and has dabbled in directing and playwriting. In TV, he starred in the FOX show Til Death, the HBO series, How To Make It In America, and most recently, you may have watched him saving the world in the CBS series, Scorpion.
QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE
26:18 ~ “Assume that everything that's happening is correct. Because it's happening and you're not going to change that. So there's no reason to go, ‘No no no no. Doesn't the universe know that I'm supposed to do this right now?’ There's nothing but rejection and pain and self-hate in that. And then the reality of the situation is you're going to take that into a room on your next audition. So whether you wind up in a movie that does well or you do a play that doesn't do well or you're in a commercial that no one sees or whatever it is, it's probably the right thing to happen. And you've got to kind of trick yourself into going, ‘no, this is absolutely perfect.’”
45:02 ~ “I love - I call it a ‘Kobe Bryant Moment’ - when you can be in a scene and you're not thinking about it and things are happening and you're getting laughs or capturing an emotion and then something builds off that. I don't get it as much as I would like to. But I'm chasing that. I can remember the few times when you're doing a scene - it usually happens on stage when you've done something 30 times and you're doing it again. And then just something happened and something else happens. And then you can even be aware of it. You’re like, ‘Oh my God. Something really cool is happening right now.’ And it keeps happening. I call it Kobe Bryant because like he knows he's getting the ball and he knows he's gonna make it and it's kind of out-of-body you know... Andre Agassi talked about there's times when the tennis ball looks like it's the size of a beach ball and the game just becomes that much easier. So I think I'm chasing those moments... On a very practical basis, I don’t know what else to do.”
56:41 ~ “I guess all I could offer in my experience is that the ‘misery’ I experienced as a spoiled 18 year old thinking that I was owed all this stuff, gave me the necessity of gratitude at my age... I don't know if you've experienced this thing, but writer's block can lead to a dam bursting... of ideas and inspiration and ‘I can't do it I can't do it I don't know, but I'm gonna sit here like nothing's happening nothing's happening nothing's happening, oh my God something just happened!’ and then it just bursts through and you know, perhaps, all of these feelings of discontent need and wanting are just a sign of something about to happen... So get into it lean into the thing lean into the discontent.”
1:01:13 ~ “You get so many opportunities working in Starbucks to fantasize and make up anything you want. Assume that things are gonna be fine and that God, for lack of a better word, has you there for a reason and you're gonna get to wherever you're supposed to be that this is the time that you have to, in your brain, do whatever you want and do it however you want, because when you do get where you think you're going, you're gonna be judged, you're gonna be critiqued and there's gonna be a lot more riding on the line. So now that you're at Starbucks and you work eleven hours a day and you only get an hour or two a day, when you're not making espresso, to fantasize and design, you can do whatever you want. So enjoy that freedom, because when your dreams come true there's gonna be a lot less freedom.”
1:02:18 ~ “Also, maybe there's a way to trust that, if you really dig into the experience of hating being there... or you really dig into the experience of that need to get out and do something else, that that digging in, in and of itself, will be fruitful when you do have those two hours.” - KF
REFERENCES MADE IN THIS EPISODE
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot
“We all know sometimes life hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet your lifetimes that and twice it's double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed
So make sure when you say you're in it, but not of it
You're not helpin' to make this earth
A place sometimes called hell”
- “As” by Stevie Wonder