Geramee Hensley (GH): What are some of your fondest memories of living in Bexley?
Josh Radnor (JR): Oh man, well, Bexley is kind of the ice cream capital of the midwest. So, I ate a lot of good ice cream. You know, I just remember in high school, before we got our driver’s licenses, my friends and I would just stroll on through the street trying to find something to do.
And there was never anything to do, so we would just be walking around for hours making each other laugh. You know, it felt like a really safe, lovely place to grow up. I think it’s still that way. I’m still friends with a lot of friends I went to high school with. Those friendships that I forged in high school are pretty strong.
GH: What did you read and watch as you were growing up?
JR: I watched a ton of TV. I watched a lot of sitcoms. Now that I look back on it, I kind of see that that was formative. I didn’t know, obviously, at the time that that’s what I would do for such a large chunk of my [life]. But I remember watching “Cosby,” “Family Ties,” “Cheers,” “Night Court,” “LA Law,” all those shows.
What did I read? One of the first things that really made me fall in love were those S.E. Hinton books like “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish.” I went through, in junior high, a really big Stephen King phase, which I think a lot of people go through. I guess I did read for pleasure. In high school, I was also on the school paper. I was on the swim team, and I started acting.
I got involved in other stuff and started watching a lot less television. I was never acceptive about TV and movies the way you would think I would be for someone who does what I do. I mean, I love when they’re great. I just never had the patience to sit and watch TV mindlessly. I get really restless. I always preferred to read a book or a magazine instead of zone out in front of the TV.
GH: Living so close to campus, did you ever consider applying to Capital?
JR: That would have been a little close to my parents. I went to Kenyon, which is about as close as I could bear. I thought I was gonna go east for school, and I got into a bunch of those schools, but Kenyon was really the school that grabbed me. Capital would have been a whole other level of proximity that I wasn’t prepared for.
GH: What other jobs did you dream about when you were younger?
JR: I don’t know if I ever dreamed about being an actor. I first approached being an actor very methodically and went to school and went to different theaters and interned and apprenticed and did all these things in a very intentional way, so that I would have enough behind me that I could get into grad school, which I ended up doing and going to NYU. But also so that I was qualified to work as a professional.
I never really sat around and thought in some far off time that I would be an actor. I just approached it like you would approach going to med school or law school. I just really put one foot in front of the other and did it. And I don’t know that I’ve had a clear idea about what I want to do. I was always into visual art. I always liked writing. I guess I kind of assumed in some ways that I’d go to law school or something because that’s what my father did and that’s what smart kids from Bexley…end up doing. Not to slam the great law profession, but I’m happy it didn’t work out that way.
GH: So another one of the things I do on campus is meet with students one-on-one as a Compass Leader. We talk to students about life direction and helping them find what drives them as individuals. We talk a lot about vocation and how to go about finding it. What is vocation to you?
JR: Vocation? Wow, I don’t know. I suppose in the broader sense it’s how you earn your living. I think some people have the..I don’t know if it’s foresight or good fortune or whatever to have that be something they really love. Because I think a lot of people look at that more tactically. They’ll say, …well I’ll suffer five days of the week so I can enjoy my weekends, take some nice vacations, and retire well.
That always seemed like that’s…the kind of life I didn’t want to lead. I really wanted to love my work, and I do. It’s to the point where it doesn’t feel like work. I mean, sometimes the show started to . . . anything you do for a long time will feel like work. But now I’m just creating my own work and doing things when it strikes me as an interesting opportunity to grow or challenge myself. So I don’t know if I’m the best person to talk about what vocation is. Mine is just strange.
GH: So, you’ve had experience working as an actor, writer, and director. Do you prefer one of these over the other, or is there one you feel more at home with?
JR: Probably acting, just because I’ve done it more than anything else. And then writing, I’ve logged a lot of hours of writing. Most days I really feel at home as a director, but I’ve certainly done less of it. Even though making two films is a great film school education in and of itself. But I’m still getting my sea legs under me.
And, you know, every film is different. I think one of the interesting things about any new project you take on, whether it’s acting, writing, or directing–you’re always gonna feel like a beginner at the start of it. Because every project has its own demands and a different…set of things it calls for. So, I don’t know. Certainly stage acting feels like where I’m the most at home in that I know how to do it the best. I think that I have my 10,000 hours as a stage actor, easily. It was such a joy to get back on stage this year after being away for awhile.
GH: After watching “Liberal Arts” for the first time, I remember seeing my campus completely different. That movie functioned for me as a love letter to the liberal arts. I watched the movie my sophomore year while reading “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace for a class. The movie also hinted at that book a bit. And it completely changed how I felt about having to read that book–that I had the opportunity to instead of had to. I don’t know how much you know about this idea behind New Sincerity, but that’s what I mostly affiliated the movie with in my head. So what kind of intentional things are you trying to do with your art?
JR: I appreciate all that. Thank you for that question. And it’s really nice for me to hear that the movie landed you in that way. You know, I’ve heard a little bit about this kind of sincerity thing. I didn’t know it was…an actual movement with any organization to it. But I certainly feel like I do get more than a little exhausted by the ironic stuff. And more than just the ironic stuff.
You know, I was just thinking about all the Twitter comedians. I’m on Twitter but kind of halfheartedly. I read quite a bit of it….There’s some really deeply funny stuff and then there’s some stuff that I find a little tiresome. Which is kind of along the line of, you know, I’m more depressed than you and the world is meaningless and I’m gonna make a joke about how meaningless the world is. You know, that’s just not where I operate from.
I feel like we’ve so thoroughly explored the rottenness of the world and how craven and evil we can be. But I just don’t think we’ve quite explored enough of the opposite story about how kind we can be, about our better angels, so to speak. I feel like I’m trying to put something out there that I would find inspiring, that I would want to watch. I mean, I don’t like watching movies that feel asphyxiating and hopeless. And I don’t think those are quote unquote more real than movies that offer a healing vision about things. I just feel like, why don’t we put something out there that inspires people and gives us some faith.
I would think about that Boy Scout rule about [leaving] a place better than you found it. I would think of my characters that way. I want to leave my characters better than I found them. And that means transformation, and that means growing up.
Someone pointed out to me that all my films have mentorship in them. There’s always something of a wiser older person giving some wisdom to someone in a moment when they’re stuck. It doesn’t have to be an age thing, but there’s a lot of mentorship in both movies. I found that sometimes I’m the one in my life who is passing on some wisdom and other times I’m the one who’s desperately in need of hearing something or being helped. I always think we’re in some version of this where we’re giving someone a leg up or someone is giving us some help.
And I like making films that are about that because that feels real to me. That feels honest. I always try to avoid being sentimental. I always try to avoid being trite or cliché. I want to get people in a room together and see if they can be honest and help each other grow up and get out of their own way.
