Steve Cuden: On today’s StoryBeat:

James Sutorius: In college, I was in Franklin Hall, a dormitory, and I used to go into the laundry room and I would practice and practice and practice, and, you know, people would coming in and out of the laundry and I’m in there going, ah ah ah ah ah. I said, sorry, guys, sorry. I did have the cleanest clothes on campus.

Announcer: This is StoryBeat with Steve Cuden. A podcast for the creative mind. Storybeat explores how masters of creativity develop. And produce brilliant works that people everywhere love and admire. So join us as we discover how. Talented creators find success in the worlds of imagination and Entertainment. Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.

Steve Cuden: Thanks for joining us on StoryBeat. We’re coming to you from the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Well, you’re likely to already be a fan of my guest today, veteran theater and Film actor James Sutorius, who’s performed for the most prestigious regional and repertory theatre companies, including the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre group, South Coast Repertory, and Pasadena Playhouse. He’s also performed at Lincoln center, the Yale, Repertory, Long Wharf Theater, Seattle Repertory, and many more. In 2007, he won two San Diego Theatre Critics Awards for his performance as George in who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? And for his multiple supporting roles in John Strand’s play Lincolnesque. James made his Broadway debut in 1973 in the changing room. In his very first entrance as a member of a rugby team, he had to walk downstage and strip off all of his clothes. Instead of finding the experience terrifying, he actually found it liberating. And he played Laertes opposite Sam Waterston’s Hamlet at the Vivienne Beaumont Theater alongside a cast of rising stars including Jane Alexander, Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, and John Heard. Most recently, James was seen on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin’s play the Farnsworth Invention that was directed by Des Mackinauff and produced by Stephen Spielberg. James was the voice for Ragus spaghetti sauce for 17 years, spawning the national catchphrase, now that’s Italian. He continues to pitch other products for Coca Cola and Wrangler jeans. He also lends his distinctive voice to audiobooks and short stories anthologies on tape on tv. James Break came when he starred as investigative reporter Mike Andros in the Andros targets. Hes also appeared on tv shows like Dynasty, Cannon, Kojak, St. Elsewhere, family ties, 21 Jump Street, murder, she wrote La law, the X Files, judging Amy, and many more. Andy was a regular on Bob Crane’s short lived sitcom the Bob Crane show. Additionally, he’s appeared in such notable tv movies as a Deaf and Canon A Question of Love, Skokie Space and on Wings of Eagles in feature films, James can be seen in dancing as fast as I can, starring Jill Claiborg and Windy City with John Shea and Kate Capshaw. So for all those reasons and many more, it’s my great honor and privilege to welcome the extraordinarily talented actor James Sutorius. Story beat today. James, welcome to the show.

James Sutorius: Oh, my goodness. Who is that person? I don’t know.

Steve Cuden: You have to tell me.

James Sutorius: I don’t know. well, I’m going to do this naked, too. I think that naked part was good for the.

Steve Cuden: Well, I will share the experience.

James Sutorius: Well, it was amazing coming to change. I mean, it was, you know, it was a rugby team and there was so all of us. It wasn’t just me, but it was a whole team. And there was John Lithgow, who became a star, by the way, after changing. And then he won the best supporting actor that year, won the Tony. But we all came on and we just took off our clothes and my folks are sitting in the third row and they’re going, oh, my God, my son, what are you doing? I said, sorry, mom. It’s just the way, But I tended to be playing what was my name in that, Bobby or something. I don’t know. It’s so long ago. That’s a while ago at the Morosco theater, which is gone, but I tended to be because we came back on after the rugby game. The first intermission was half time, but then after the game, we came back on and took off all our clothes again, and we got in the bath. And for some reason, I was the one that was naked the longest I was out there and they’re snapping the towels at me and all these things. And then some of my folks are going, oh, my God, he’s back and doing it. It was great. It was great. It was a great beginning. And to do it, I mean, just to be on Broadway at that age and so young, it was just so exciting.

Steve Cuden: So many, that I’ve spoken to on this show and elsewhere say that acting in particular is a kind of a calling. Was it a calling for you?

James Sutorius: You know? No, I don’t think it was. I mean, in high school, no, I wasn’t the person that was eight years old and nine years old and knew, oh, my God, I’ve got to be an actor. I just feel this. I saw the wizard of Oz or something, and I want to, you know, be whatever. but no, I mean, I was all sports. I was all sports. It was baseball and basketball in high school. And then, but there was some. And this is the odd part, which I was thinking before I came on, that somewhere in high school, there must have been some humor, something was going on. that I, they had a varsity show or a variety show that high schools still do. And I had this interest in. I should have picked Bob Newhart, may he rest in peace. But I picked Shelley Berman. And, Shelley Berman, a bitter guy. But on the variety show, I sat on the stool and I picked up the phone, and I was Shelley Berman. Hello? You know, yes, we haven’t time for coffee, tea or milk. We’re doomed. That was the airplane one. And most people can tell you where it all comes from, but there is this, that was a huge part of why I did any of this. But I suffered from a stutter. You hear that so often, it seems. But I had a stutter in high school, and I, and I, it never goes away. I’ve just learned to control it and all those things, which is a whole conversation. But, but you would think I wouldn’t be doing Shelley Berman, you know, and, but I did. And then I was in a speech class, and younggren said to me, you know, you gotta, you’ve got to be in a play if you’re not going to do a play. In taking a speech class, I guess because of the impediment.

Steve Cuden: Does the stutter go away as you memorize things and you speak them on stage?

James Sutorius: Well, for the most part, but it’s. No, sometimes it happens. It happens. And you, all of that, you just read off that resume. I don’t know. What am I, nuts? And I was going to say, I never raised, and this is in the one man show, which I do. And talking about my journey, high school, I never raised my hand in high school, ever. There was just too much fear.

Steve Cuden: Were you shy?

James Sutorius: No, that was fear that the words wouldn’t come out. Ah.

Steve Cuden: got it.

James Sutorius: That would be a stutter. No, I mean, I. And still, unless I’m really comfortable, if I really get nervous, it will happen. I’ve just learned in real Life, people go, what are you Crazy? What you never had, you don’t stutter, and I don’t now, but I, but I’ve learned how to control it. But back then, in high school, you talk to my high school chums, who I still talk to a lot, and they said, well, of course you had a stutter. I mean, yes, and, yeah, well, you did. And, but I. So. But I’m doing Shelley Berman, you know, and somewhere. And then he said, going back about the teacher, you’ve got to do a play. And I don’t want to be in a play. M my. I’ll do Shelley Berman for some reason, but I’m not. So he said, you’re going to be in the desperate hours, which is a thriller about three escaped convicts. Right. Bogarthe played it, and so I did it, which I don’t. I don’t remember, Steve. It’s so long ago. but I did it, and. And from that, I just felt something about it when the audience. And I just. This warmth that just enveloped me. And I. So from that, I mean, I went to Illinois Wesleyan, and I majored in drama. So something from Shelley Berman and, you know, the desperate hours and the thing. But it wasn’t sort of answered. It wasn’t like something that I knew. No. but I decided to major in drama.

Steve Cuden: It wasn’t a calling for you then, but it did get under your skin, and you wanted to do more of it.

James Sutorius: Well, it did, maybe from the Shelley Berman hearing, the laughter. I mean, doing the play is vague to me right now. It’s so long ago. But I went to Illinois, Wesley, and down in Bloomington, Illinois, and I majored in drama and was there for four years, and then went to an Act, and I was hooked and hooked on Shakespeare. Yeah. No. but it isn’t that story of somebody said, oh, I knew when I was five years old that I.

Steve Cuden: So why did you get hooked on Shakespeare? What was it about Shakespeare?

James Sutorius: I think Richard Burton was part of that. in college, in my. Well, no, I’ll tell you what it was. No, I’m wrong about that. In high school, my mother sent me to private lessons, with a voice coach named Ed Hollitz at Wheaton College. And so. Ed Hollitz. No, that’s how it all. You know, I was. So he. I’m going in Ed Howlett’s. I don’t know what to expect. I’m a senior in high school, and he says, here, he gives me a piece of paper, and he says, read this. I said, I don’t know what it was, and it was to be or not to be. That is the question. And I’m going on, and then I start slaying, I start stuttering. And he says, He said, I don’t understand one word that you were saying. And I said, well, neither do I. And he says, it’s because you don’t know how to breathe, he said. And I said, well, I’ve been breathing for 18 years. Not properly. We changed my breathing from the chest. It was amazing. I don’t remember my voice before this, but it was from the chest breathing, which most people do to diaphragmatic and the diaphragm. And you’re supporting it, and it’s like opera singers. And my voice really changed. It was amazing. But I’m so disciplined then I just did all the exercises Steve and I was doing. Oh, that. This tutu. Sal. My chums back in high school are going, James. No, it wasn’t James. It was Jim. Jimbo, what’s happening to you? You know, you don’t sound like you, and it’s true. But I kept. And I just fell in love with Shakespeare at that time, just in my senior year. So that’s how. Now that I’m thinking, that’s how it all. That’s why it’s good I’m doing this interview. I remember my whole life. That’s why I then would have gone to Wesley and majored in drama, because Shakespeare right then, and then Burton, Richard Burton became a huge in my freshman year in college.

Steve Cuden: Is it that Shakespeare really works the tongue and works the way you move your jaw?

James Sutorius: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s all in there, but it’s just the wonderful words and. And just the impact of what he’s writing. And it’s when you and I fell in love with Hamlet and doing it because of starting with Ed Holodz. I mean, I never became a scholar or anything like that, but I just loved the. I loved the words and something about the doing Bigger Than Life.

Steve Cuden: was there a moment, as you were going along, doing more and more, where you thought to yourself, I am actually pretty good at doing this, where maybe I can make a career out of it.

James Sutorius: I’m, still waiting for that. Although everything you read there, I think that I do all that. That’s, pretty impressive, actually. I was. I don’t look back at that stuff very often. Thank you for that. Is there a time when I thought, yeah, I think I always. I mean, well, there’s always. I mean, the stutter was such a part of my Life in college, too. And so it’s always the insecurity of, am I gonna get through this thing? But there’s some part of me. There’s some part of me that is just determined, and I loved it enough, and I wasn’t gonna give it up. And I. And, yeah, I think there was a strong part of my ego that knew there was something there.

Steve Cuden: Well, there must have also been people that said to you, you’re good at this at the same time.

James Sutorius: Yeah. No, of course they did. No, of course they did in, in college. And although, John Fica, the head of the department and everything, who directed the hamlet, I did there, was. I mean, it’s tough. They’re tough and. Yeah, but you know, that they respected you and thought you had the talent to be there and. No, no, I. But it was always, you know. But it’s back and forth, as most actors are. There’s the insecurities that sit there and maybe that. And the fear. I think fear has driven me. I think something actually, the fear of some of this stuff drives me to determine. And, my discipline always, always worked so hard at, in college, I used to go to, which is I was in Franklin Hall, a dormitory, and they, and I used to go into the laundry room and I would practice and practice and practice. And, you know, and those people were coming in and out of the laundry and I’m in there going. I said, sorry, guys, sorry. I did have the cleanest clothes on campus.

Steve Cuden: The cleanest clothes on campus.

James Sutorius: Well, I’m in the laundry room all the time.

Steve Cuden: So you have stuck to doing lots of theater. You’ve done theater all throughout your career, even as you were doing movies and tv shows. Is there something special about the theater to you? What is it about it?

James Sutorius: It just will always be the first love. It was always what I started. I had no intention of thinking that I’d be doing so much tv work and but that’s when I needed to make a living. But no, that the theater was, And it is still my first love. I mean, the connection with the audience, with the theater and one on one and you’re there and nobody can edit you and change you. And I love the rehearsal for the theater of four weeks and but I’ve had wonderful success with the tv and mainly tv films. Never really, you mentioned a few films, but films were never a huge part. Movies of the week. I did a lot of eighties and nineties was when I made a living so much in. That’s when the ragu came, which was huge, but go back. But the theater was always and going to Stratford in Canada and I was just there a few months ago and I. It’s just always been always going back to the theater. It’s just so ingrained in me. But there’s something about when you’re doing a movie of the week. And when I did the Andros targets, there’s something about that too. That’s wonderful. When you have, you can go back and change and edit and let’s do it again. There’s a freedom in that. That’s nice.

Steve Cuden: So are there sorts of parts that you aim for, that you like to play? Are there types of roles that are your types and you look for those?

James Sutorius: I don’t know if there really are. I mean, I, you know, I guess people think of me as being more of a serious actor. Maybe it’s the Shakespeare part or something, but, but I always find humor in everything I do. If it’s Hamlet or Macbeth or those things, or Henry. I mean, I just, I mean, I tell you this, I, things, I don’t like the restoration comedy and the farce and things like that, I’m certainly not. I want to do the albee’s and the, which I’ve done the albee’s and the Millers and the mamet and Aaron Sorkin and all of those. And Ibsen and Chekhov. And Chekhov I love. And so they tend to be more. The shows, the plays that I look for that are. I just think the writing is, you know, but people love restoration comedy and those things. It just is a technical ability. I don’t know, it just never has interested me. And maybe that goes back to the stutter.

Steve Cuden: You clearly love language and the way that language plays.

James Sutorius: I do. Well, I love, yeah, Dylan Thomas is one of my favorite poets and writers. And not, not that I’m a big poetry and, you know, but I used to do poetry readings in college. They had a coffee shop and I would go in there and do love, poetry. John Keats and Cyrano de Bergerac, which was a part that I would love to have played when I was younger. And I never got to play Cyrano.

Steve Cuden: So when you’re doing poetry and when you’re doing Shakespeare and so on, is it just easier for you to work with the language so that you lose the stutter? I’m curious about that.

James Sutorius: I guess I do, but then it can happen. But it can happen anytime. It can. All of a sudden, you know, if I’m doing, a child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, for the most part it won’t. Yeah, I can lose myself in the words, but no, it’s, I don’t mean to make it, but it sits there. It sits there, subconsciously, subliminally is there. It can happen. If I get anxious or too nervous. And I love the words so much that maybe I do lose my. And for the most part of my career, I wouldn’t be able, if it was so bad, I wouldn’t have a career.

Steve Cuden: Do you think part of it is that you’re not having to think about what you’re saying and, when I say that, I’m saying you’re not making it up. It’s something that was written down and you’ve memorized it.

James Sutorius: Right, right. I think that helps. I think that, yeah. Ah, I think that’s. You’re right.

Steve Cuden: All right, so let’s talk about character development. When you first get a script, especially something you’ve never seen before or read before, what are the first things that you do, aside from reading it, which is the obvious thing, what do you start to do to develop a character?

James Sutorius: Well, I just feel how it sits in my bones. And when I was reading the father, I won at, North coast rep, and I won another one of the awards down in San Diego for the best actor, the one that Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for.

Steve Cuden: Right.

James Sutorius: And Frank Langello won the Tony for. It’s. It’s funny, whoever plays that part, the father with dementia, they win the award whenever they’re playing it. Sure. But, But I just started. I just, my, I just, you know, I think. I think Anthony Hopkins says that I just touch. I trust my instincts. I don’t go into a whole lot of rigmarole. And, you know, I’ll do some research about, with the father taking that play about dementia and Alzheimer’s, and we have people come in and talk to us. But I know when I read it, I just trust my gut. I trust my instincts, Steve, that says, this is one that I. Especially if it’s a new play. I mean, if it’s, you know, if it’s Hamlet or, you know, or if it’s who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? When I’m playing George, I mean, I just know that I want to play that part. I mean, that is such a wonderful role. That and the albee roles and know and Arthur Miller, the crucible. But then, I mean, I do. I tend to play my career. I tend to play. What I’ve done is one is the lead, major roles is what I’ve wanted to play, and I’ve played many of them. Cyrano, I did not. Which I. Lear. Will I ever play lear? I don’t know. I mean, it’s not a real bucket list for me.

Steve Cuden: It’s the towering shakespearean role. Right.

James Sutorius: Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just, it’s never one that’s, you know, I mean, and now I don’t know if I could learn it now.

Steve Cuden: So you don’t come at this from, let’s call it the method or any.

James Sutorius: Of these other techniques? No, I come at it with my instincts and my guts and the thing with Shakespeare, and it’s just, I try to make it as people, when they hear me do Shakespeare, would say, I just I really I never understood it. You make it. I mean, that’s my goal with, I mean, I don’t really care about the iambic pentameter and all the yddeh John Gielgud would turn over in his grave, but I just want to make it real. I want to make it real. And people go, you make it so real. You make it sound like. And I understand what he’s saying, if you can say it in a way. I don’t know if Dakin, you know, who you’ve had on, would agree with that. I don’t know.

Steve Cuden: Dakin Matthews, who is a shakespearean scholar.

James Sutorius: Yeah. So I don’t, I just, I go so much, Steve on my just on my instincts and my feelings, and I’ll do, and I’ll do research during, you know, during the rehearsal and things like that.

Steve Cuden: About what kind of research?

James Sutorius: Well, just reading about when doing the father about Alzheimer’s and dementia and things. And then somebody comes in and talks to us, a doctor or psychologist or things about that, and, I mean, I’ll do that kind of, I truly trust my instincts and the acting part of it. And what I just tap into the part of me that is the truthful part. I don’t bog myself down with a lot of analytical things and going and people. And that drives me Crazy in rehearsals, when people are stopping and they’re trying to explain everything, and I said, just, can we just do it? Just do it. Just feel it. Where are we? Just, you know, talk to me.

Steve Cuden: Well, there’s the famous story during marathon man, when Lawrence Olivier was working with Dustin Hoffman, and Hoffman was trying to figure out his character, and Olivier allegedly turned to him and said, have you tried acting, my boy?

James Sutorius: That’s true. That’s a story that. Yeah, and, yeah, and even Olivier, you would think, is a technical, or maybe he’s, you know, the. But he’s not method, of course. But, no, I mean, I agree with that, but I’m certainly not the whole method thing. No.

Steve Cuden: Would you say there’s a difference in how you approach an established, well known play like who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Versus a play nobody knows yet because it’s new. Is there a difference in how you come at it, or is it always the same for you?

James Sutorius: I think it’s always the same. I don’t. If it’s a new play, I mean, I’ll know. And I say no to new plays, and I read it, and I just trust my instincts. Again, no, this doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel right in my mouth. I’ll do it out loud. If I’m interested at all. Sometimes I know right away that, no, this is not for me. This is somebody else.

Steve Cuden: Do you have a method of breaking down a script, or do you just. No, I don’t memorize it.

James Sutorius: I memorize it. everybody does that differently. Some people record it, all the other lines, you know, and they then have there, and they play it on the tape. And I’ve always done from the very beginning, back in college and things I will just do, it out loud. I’ll just walk around the house and, just doing it out loud with the script in my hand. And I see, I read the other in my head. So then when I get into rehearsal and I hear these other people, I’m going, what is it? What is this? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? Come on. I don’t. You know, anyway, I’m sorry. I don’t have all these methods and things. I just.

Steve Cuden: That’s actually great for the listeners to know. This is something that’s important.

James Sutorius: Yes. See to my pants. Yeah. I trust. I trust my instincts, and then I trust if I have. And this doesn’t happen all the time. Of course, now, with the father, it did in other plays. It’s the director. The director. Let’s just let me. And, I mean, if I trust him, then. No, James, this is. No, we got to know. Look at this. We got to pull it back. You know? You know, we. I think we’re just doing a little too much here, and, you know, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? And then I. I might resist at first, but then I’ll go home and. And think about it and come back, and all of a sudden, I’m doing what. The suggestion, if I. You know, so it’s. But the director is really important for me. I mean, in terms of, a director who. And with the father that trusts me. That really trusts me, and because trusting me then allows me to freeze me up, because rehearsal is a birth. I mean, it’s where you have to be able to fail. And many actors just don’t have the nerve to just fail.

Steve Cuden: Does that freeze them?

James Sutorius: I think so. It just, limits them to their creativity. If they’re worried about failing or making the director unhappy or something, or the other actors, or I’m gonna, God forbid I should have the other actors see me be vulnerable. I mean, the vulnerability is, I mean, that’s one thing I think I can tap into that. I’m not afraid of the emotions that I have.

Steve Cuden: So what are some of the important lessons that great directors that you’ve worked with have given you?

James Sutorius: There isn’t, you know, there isn’t like a lesson that they say, no, they just, the ones that are just that trust me. I mean, they trust because they, you know, because the biggest thing is this casting. If they cast the right people, if the director casts the right person, then he’s done three fourths of his work. And then you just, you know, but if you cast the wrong person in, you know, as Othello, you’re going to have a problem. That’s one of the biggest jobs for a director, is having the right instinct and the right taste. But then, no, for me, a director is trusting me and saying, James, you know, you’re here because I want you here. And they know my work. And so do you think the more.

Steve Cuden: Famous directors, as you treat them differently in some way? like a Des Macanoff versus someone who nobody’s ever heard of? Or is it all the same for you? Is it one line?

James Sutorius: I think it’s Dan Sullivan, the director, Broadway director, who won Tony’s. And we go back a long ways, way, way back in regional theater. And great friend of mine. And he was just, again, like David, Ellenstein. And Dez is a little different. Des is more hands off. But Dan Sullivan is just, he’s just so allowing actors to find their way. He’s not going to be talking to you and telling you this and that and do it this way, do it that way. He’s cast the right people and he trusts them, and then he guides them. And those are the directors that, I mean, I don’t know what Guthrie was like or some of the other great directors from the Michael Langham at Stratford and people like that, or the other, well, the musical people, you know, Jack O’Brien, what is it that you don’t want from a director telling me how to do it? Even in Dan Sullivan, never. He’s just letting. Just move. Just move however you feel. And some directors know you got to move over here. You got to go there. You got to go there. This line reading has to be quicker here, quicker there. And, I hate the word pace. I hate the things.

Steve Cuden: Why do you hate the word pace?

James Sutorius: Well, because then you just, I feel like it’s just artificial, you know? Let me find the energy to have the pace. If you can, you can give me other ways to get there besides saying, well, that’s the thing you hear the most often in the theater is, okay, everybody, now. Now is the last week of rehearsal. Okay? Now we got to pick it up and go faster. And I mean. Oh, geez. I mean, I always know it’s coming. And, I do my best to just say, okay, screw you.

Steve Cuden: Well, does that then impact?

James Sutorius: I’ll tell you one thing. It makes me think, and this is being very. I don’t know if it’s vulnerable, but very real. When I hear pace. I don’t know if I’ve ever said this on a. But I. When I hear pace and go fast, all I think of is, I’m going to stutter.

Steve Cuden: Oh, interesting.

James Sutorius: I’m going to stutter. If I have to start going faster, then the mind is, see, the mind’s going to go too much quicker than the mouth is going to be able to work. And so, which, in real Life, I can do it. I’m talking fast right now and all of that, but all of a sudden, you have to do it. And here’s on the thing. And there’s other, It’s, this is what I mean about it never goes away, and this is the truth. I don’t think I’ve ever. I mean, I’ve thought of it, but I know when I hear pace and quick, pick it up. Okay. All right. The fear of the stutter will kick in, and I think that’s a real trigger for me. So the pace thing. But it’s said all the time.

Steve Cuden: That may explain why you have less of and a desire to do farce or comedy, where sometimes that pace is important.

James Sutorius: Yes, it is. It is. I think that’s certainly, I think you. You’re exactly right. And it’s. I don’t think I’ve ever said it in an interview before, but I know it’s there. I know that is. Yes, the farce is in the restoration, and, and I don’t do, the other thing is, I’m a very, I don’t know why I’ve had this career that I’ve had the stutter, but I don’t do. I don’t. I have this little, you can’t see me m but this little teeny talent that I. I don’t do accents. I don’t sing. I can’t sing at all. I can’t carry a tune. And because I can’t carry, I think I may be, I’m not tone deaf, but I. So I. Accents are very difficult. I just can’t do them. And I can’t dance and I can’t sing and I accent. So I just have this little thing that I do a little Shakespeare here and there.

Steve Cuden: And you play leading men, sort of straight men.

James Sutorius: I’m a leading man. I was a leading man. Now I’m guess I, don’t know what I am now. I mean, things are certainly winding down. I mean, it’s not. But, this is a very interesting thing. We’ve tapped into that, this whole pace and the quickness and restoration comedy and. No, what’s it called? Noise. Noises off.

Steve Cuden: Noises off is a Michael Frayne play.

James Sutorius: Yeah, that play. All those shows that are so slamming the door and in and out and they’re not. I would never even think about auditioning for those.

Steve Cuden: Well, that’s fay do and that’s all in and out of doors.

James Sutorius: Yeah, but it’s all to me, speed. And speed means to me stutter.

Steve Cuden: Interesting. You need to find, for lack of a better word, your own pace.

James Sutorius: I do. Which I think, I think the history of looking at what you read off in the beginning. I think that obviously my pace, whatever I do, has been beneficial to me and to my work.

Steve Cuden: Do you find it’s different for you when you’re working in front of a camera versus on stage?

James Sutorius: I m mean, you’re only doing.

Steve Cuden: Little pieces of time at a time.

James Sutorius: Yeah. No, I mean, it’s different. Is maybe a little with the Andros targets and stuff and other, all the other, not just the Andros targets, all the other things. I mean, no, if it’s a particular long monologue or something in filming it and it can be the same fears, the same thing and m it just depends on where my head is and how relaxed I am. And for the most part, I am, I get myself, I’ve learned to get relaxed and do it. But it’s, No, I think it’s there the same way.

Steve Cuden: Do the tv directors ever say, do you pick it up?

James Sutorius: Yeah, they will.

Steve Cuden: They do.

James Sutorius: Yeah, they do. Everybody. Every director and every medium and. Bastards. No, they all do. No, I mean, that’s their way instead of going, saying it in some other way, which I can’t give you an example right now, but there’s another way to get around that without saying, oh, let’s just go quicker and faster. I mean, m but they, they don’t know how to do it except saying.

Steve Cuden: Well, famously, Barry Sonnenfeld, the director who was started as a DP, but he’s a director, he famously has two forms of direction, faster and slower. And that’s it. That’s all he ever says.

James Sutorius: Yeah, I guess if somebody. I’m really, I know if I’m somebody, if I knew him really well, Barry and I were friends, and he would, he would say it to me in a way that I would know what he was, that it would, it didn’t mean, okay, just let’s go so fast. I can,

Steve Cuden: So aside from paste notes, do you ever get notes from a director that you don’t know how to handle and you’d have to figure out what they’re trying to tell you and work it out with them? Does that ever happen?

James Sutorius: Well, I’m sure it has, but I think I just, if I don’t, I’ll say, just, I don’t understand what you mean. What are you talking about? I just, Let’s just get up. And I just don’t get it. So tell me. Try and make this clearer, and then if they don’t get offended by that.

Steve Cuden: All right, so you’ve talked about those kinds of things can give you some form of fear or anxiety or whatever it would be. And part of that is that you don’t want to stutter, which is part of it. So that’s a kind of pressure. When you feel that pressure, how do you handle it? What do you do to deal with pressure?

James Sutorius: Well, I mean, I just try and take a deep breath and relax. I mean, there’s not much. I mean, I mean, I just, I mean, if it’s on stage and at the time it’s happening, you just, it’s just, it’s gonna be terrifying all of a sudden. But for the most part, it doesn’t. For the most part, I put the rehearsals and things, and then, but, and I’ve learned how to. And if you’re doing a Film, a movie of the week, I mean, you can obviously stop and go back. And if the director knows you well, and I said, sorry, sorry. This is, getting too. No, I mean, you just have to take a deep breath. And, I mean, unless you want to take drugs or something or do something.

Steve Cuden: Well, there I mean, I’ve talked to any number of actors who have varying degrees of, you know, dealing with pressure, whether they meditate or whether they run or.

James Sutorius: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t do. No, I don’t. I don’t do that.

Steve Cuden: You don’t have any specific technique? It’s just trying to calm down.

James Sutorius: No, I don’t have it. No, I don’t have a. No. I mean, I just take a deep breath and trying to remember that, you know, you can do this and relax and, you know, and if it happens in rehearsal, then it’s okay. And if it’s on Film, you know, you can go back.

Steve Cuden: Does it ever happen to you?

James Sutorius: No, I don’t have. I suppose I should have some sort of, oh, I have the yoga, the meditation. I go into a whole trance. I don’t. I just go by the seat of my pants again and let’s just hope for the best.

Steve Cuden: So does it affect you if you need to go on an audition, you still audition these days?

James Sutorius: I don’t like to audition. I never have, because it scares me so much that although I. People say I’m really a good auditioner. See? So I think the fear just drives me. I work so hard at the audition piece because of fear, fear that I’m not going to be able to. So I work on it over and over, and, other people do, too, but I know I still, at times, I don’t audition as much as I used to. Thank goodness.

Steve Cuden: But, what is your philosophy toward auditioning, aside from you don’t want to do it, but it’s a necessary evil. How do you approach it?

James Sutorius: It’s just prep, prep, prep, preparation. It’s all preparation. Being so. I’m just so prepared, and I don’t like to memorize it completely. I’ll have the script in my hand, but I know it so well.

Steve Cuden: Why don’t you like to memorize it completely? Why?

James Sutorius: I’ll use that because that’s not what you’re paying me. You’re not paying me that. When you pay me, I’ll put down the script and, I don’t know. It’s like, you know, come on. I mean, I’m auditioning, and this is not the final thing, but I know it so well that I’m not looking down at the script much. But I. Yeah, I think. I think today. I think today, and I don’t audition as much today as I used to. They. I think they say, and we want this memorized or something, which is just bullshit. I think. I think it’s wrong.

Steve Cuden: And a lot of it, I imagine, is on camera, not, not in person.

James Sutorius: Well, not if it’s all, it’s all self tapes now. I mean, there’s something nice about that because you can, you can get it exactly how you want it on a self tape. You can do it over 30 times, but without the director in the room and saying, you know, I’d like to be in the room and the director saying, let’s go back and let’s. Because I can, I like making adjustments, which can be, it can actually be, let’s make it, you know, move it along a little more or something. You know, that I freeze a little bit, but I do. But, but usually it’s something else, you know, and, but when you’re in the room with but two or three people, they get to see how you, the whole essence of who you are.

Steve Cuden: Sure.

James Sutorius: And I, and I depend on that. I trust who I am. And they’re going to like this person. And that’s a huge part of how they cast, how they like somebody, if they could think they can work with them. But with self tapes, they do. Then a lot of times you, then after the self tape, you go in and on a personal, you know, an audition. Right? Well, sure, with the people, but not every time. I mean, a lot of my friends get jobs just from the self tape.

Steve Cuden: Do you come at your preparation different? Obviously, if you’re doing a stage play, you’re going to have four weeks of rehearsal or whatever the rehearsal period is. But you’re likely to have little or no rehearsal on a tv show or on a movie or a commercial. So do you approach your prep on those two different things very differently? Do you memorize differently? Are you forced to do more deep memorization memorized the same way?

James Sutorius: I mean, certainly with the rehearsals, it’s four weeks. It’s, I go into rehearsal now with four weeks with a play, and I know the play. I mean, I didn’t used to do that, but now I need to know. I’m older, and I want to know, and I like it. I don’t want to have that script in my hand. You know, when we’re moving around, you.

Steve Cuden: Come in fully off book.

James Sutorius: Yeah, fully off book. When I go in for, and there are huge parts usually, and I’m off book. And, George and Virginia Woolf and the father.

Steve Cuden: All right. So how long did it take you to memorize that part?

James Sutorius: George?

Steve Cuden: Yes, George. And as an example of what it takes you to do.

James Sutorius: Yeah, when I was younger, I think I had two months before rehearsals, and I think so maybe I had two months to. I mean, now people know they’re doing a play six months in advance. I mean, they know something. If I was doing lear, I would need six months. I would need six, and I could do it. And it’s all good for my brain, you know, doing the one man show I’m doing now is an hour and 20 minutes.

Steve Cuden: What’s the name of your one man show?

James Sutorius: It’s, My Life with Will. Go back to Shakespeare. My Life with Will. An evening with Will Shakespeare and James Sartorius.

Steve Cuden: Well, certainly, if any of the listeners are ever lucky enough to have a chance to see it, wherever it might be, whether in Los Angeles or elsewhere, you should check it out.

James Sutorius: Yeah, I’m going to be doing it soon here, but, who knows? It keeps going on and maybe it’s good. It’s my journey within Shakespeare being a part of going back to college, and.

Steve Cuden: It’S a one man show. So you have no net, you’ve got no one to fall back on?

James Sutorius: No, I don’t have any. No, I’ve got, nobody to. I do have, in which I haven’t gone. I’ve done it now four or five, six times. Only once have I. I keep the script on the stage, on the prop table with other props, just in case. Hey, it’s. Why, Say it’s my one man show. I need to go over and say, I don’t know where I am right now. I mean, what’s. It’s just me. I’ll go over and. Let me just see where I am.

Steve Cuden: Has that happened?

James Sutorius: It happened once in the first 1st, but people thought it was part of the show. People thought it was, and they loved it. They thought it was part of the whole thing. The way you did it was, But it’s. Knock on wood, you can hear that it, hasn’t happened since. And, I’m doing four more now at the end of this month. But it can happen any moment. I mean, any moment. It’s amazing how you’re just going along, blah, blah, blah, and I have no idea where, if you get distracted at all. But I have the script there, and I think an audience. An audience likes it in a way. They like the mistakes. They like the thing. Just, you know, it’s like, I have no idea where I am right now. So let me just. They don’t care.

Steve Cuden: That, to me, is part of the beauty of the live theater, is that you’re never seeing the same performance twice.

James Sutorius: Exactly. And that’s why I think the theater has always been frightening to me. It’s just all crazy with me. It does frighten me. It does. But it’s. But I’m just so passionate about it and love it so much. Then when you do it and you’re doing the one man show, this last in May, the response you get, it just makes everything fall into place. This is why I do this. This is why I love. This is where I want to be. And to have this to people is. It’s funny and it’s moving, and I guess that’s what I’ve all these years of doing it, that satisfaction and laughter. And again, people don’t think of me, but I make people laugh a lot in my work. And, That sounds egotistical, but I find it.

Steve Cuden: Well, no, you’re stating a fact. If you are doing things and people laugh, you’re making them laugh.

James Sutorius: Yeah, I just find it. I find the humor in almost. And it’s one man show certainly has a lot of humor because it’s me just talking and doing things. And then all of a sudden, I roll into Shakespeare and I roll into Macbeth, and I roll into lear and I roll into all these. But it’s all about the journey with me and talking about the stutter. I mean, if I’m going to do my one man show, it’s going to be talking about the stutter, of course, and it’s happening, and how it happened in. Happened in the hamlet that I did at wesleyan, my first hamlet. I’ve done hamlet three times and two professional. But I did it at wesleyan, when I was a junior, and it was great. And that’s where I’m going back to do the one man show, which is full circle, but it happened.

Steve Cuden: So, what do you do to keep your instrument in shape? Do you do vocal exercises? Do you physically do exercises?

James Sutorius: Yeah. I mean, as I say, I don’t sing, but I’ll sing in the car. That’s about it. But, No, I’ll do, My voice has stayed strong, over all these. I think maybe the breathing and the diaphragmatic thing, which the teacher, when I’m doing a georgian Virginia wool for some of the other ones, when you’re doing it all day, it just builds up the strength in your muscles and the things. But I’ll do exercises. I mean, now with the one man show coming, I’ll do exercises during the day, you know, walk around, you know, the doing the thing and my neighbors are. I’m in a townhouse, probably knocking on the door right now, but, I’m disciplined about so many things, but I don’t do vocal lectures.

Steve Cuden: Do you do physical exercises, keep your body in shape?

James Sutorius: Well, I go to the gym a lot, and I go to the park and do. I used to run, and then I jogged, and now I power walk and jog and. And I play golf a lot. I’m a big, big golfer. But the body that now says, I don’t want to do this. What are you doing? Because golfing is twisting.

Steve Cuden: It is.

James Sutorius: Yeah. It’s. It’s hard, but I. But I love it. And I go to the gym, and I don’t do yoga and I don’t do pilates, and I don’t. I went to a stretch lab for a while where they stretch you. It’s called a stretch lab because my back gives me problems. I thought that might help.

Steve Cuden: It happens.

James Sutorius: Yeah. it didn’t help.

Steve Cuden: What do you do when you’re between gigs and don’t have something booked?

James Sutorius: Like, what do you do?

Steve Cuden: You play golf?

James Sutorius: No. I read a lot. I mean, just. I mean, I go to the park in the morning. I have the regimen. I go to the park and do the walking three or 4 miles, and jogging, and then I’ll come home and just, the paper and something. The news on the news, and then I’ll go and practice a lot with the golf and stuff like that. And then I have friends I see at night. That’s the other thing, too. Other people say, well, I write. I write. I tell you. I just do this one little thing. I, have no desire to direct or to write. I could never. I could never be a writer. I mean, I just. It’s not in me. It’s amazing how these people. Well, you write. I mean, it’s just.

Steve Cuden: I do,

James Sutorius: I don’t know how you do it. Blank page.

Steve Cuden: Well, it’s. It’s the same thing, is when people ask you, how do you act? you know.

James Sutorius: Yeah. right. No, I’m sure. No, I’m sure. And my dear friends, he’s a great writer, you know? I mean, not that you would know him, but written some novels and things, and he wrote the one man show that I do. He’s my college roommate. Oh, is that right, dear friends? Yeah. And he wrote the one man show, and I didn’t know he was writing it. And I said he remembered all these things that I said. Dennis, what I did, I don’t remember that, no, James. Well, you did this and that was part of this. But he’s a great writer.

Steve Cuden: And so what then today then most inspires you? Is it certain dramatic plays? What do you get your inspiration from?

James Sutorius: I can watch a commercial on tv and I’ll get inspired and how much. And I can. All of a sudden I’ll be crying on something. Some song can come on or some guy can be on YouTube and somebody can be singing and some, and, it just, and I don’t go to the theater a lot, but I mean, acting, when I see something that, you know, even if it’s on YouTube or something, but I get inspired and that’s what I, you know, with people, which makes, again, why I do this thing. M when people see the work and they see that back to the one man, they just, it’s just because I’m so, I think, honest with it. There’s just that it’s so inspiring, James. It’s just so inspiring to have you to be honest about what you go through and what’s happening, how you do. but I can get inspired by almost every day there’s something that will be, I’ll see, you know, on YouTube or something like that, you know.

Steve Cuden: So you’re still finding growth and inspiration all the time.

James Sutorius: It happens all the time. And it spurs me on. like, hopefully I can spur people on, you know, that are younger. And, when I’m taking the one man show to a college and I’m going back to the college, I Wesleyan, I’m going to do them. And that’s where the show, a lot of it’s about Wesleyan and hopefully these students, the drama students, when they hear it, the one thing you’d want is this is I’m not Tom Hanks or George Clooney or Brad Pitt, but this is a regular actor that had a career, you know, and made a living. I’ve never made a penny. And a lot of that’s because of ragu. But I did 15 years, I never made it. I’ve never made a penny doing anything but acting. Not a penny. Because ragu spaghetti sauce, that Italian.

Steve Cuden: That’s the truth. That’s the truth.

James Sutorius: The lady said, go in for this voiceover. I said, what’s a voiceover? I had no idea. And I got it. I mean, I couldn’t believe it. I think it’s because my mother bought every jar of ragu. She just bought them.

Steve Cuden: And that was not on camera. That was voice only, right?

James Sutorius: Yeah, just voice. Yeah. You can still, if you go to YouTube and bring up ragu. I sound younger, but there I am. I mean, there’s, I’m doing, and I would say other stuff, old world style with sausage, blah, blah, blah. And then ragu spaghetti sauce. That’s italian. And that was it. I mean, that was the whole thing.

Steve Cuden: Have you done other voiceover work too? Like for cartoons?

James Sutorius: I’m, gonna tell you something, Steve. It’s so, don’t get me frustrated now. I still love it back then, maybe because I’m just not that good. but nobody knew about them then. Nobody knew. It was back in the seventies, early eighties, seventies, eighties maybe. And, but now everybody, every living creature is up for, and the celebrities and so it’s, and my guy still sends me and I just say, you know, what’s, I hate to even admit it, but I just, you know, I like what I do and they sound great and my agent likes them, and then who knows what they, why. I don’t get it. So.

Steve Cuden: Well, you’ve earned the right at this point to be much pickier than you were when you were young.

James Sutorius: No, I mean, I would do, no, I don’t read for just any, but, I’m not a celebrity or anything. I’m not, I’m just a regular journeyman actor who’s out of, you’re a working actor. Yeah, I’m a working actor who’s out of wonder. It’s a blessing career. And if I could say to somebody, you want to take the chance to be George Clooney or you want to have my career? Well, you know, the odds are you got to take my career when you make a living at this, because the odds of being George Clooney and Tom Hanks and things like that, it’s just, it’s a rare 1% less. I mean, it’s just, but I’ve had, you know, and I forget sometimes that.

Steve Cuden: I, you’ve also had one of those careers where you love what you do. You’re not trying to be famous by doing it. You’re doing it because you love it.

James Sutorius: Yeah. And that was, that was the very beginning why I did it and just being the best. And that’s what I, you know, you just gotta be the best actor you can be. I mean, this is, things then happen sometimes it does take some luck in being the right, coming around the right corner at the right time and things like that.

Steve Cuden: But at this point in your career, do you think that there’s anything that you are still trying to figure out that you would like to learn about the craft, anything?

James Sutorius: No, I don’t. I don’t feel that way, to be honest. I just. Every time I do something, when I do the one man show in a few weeks, I’ll learn something about that. But there’s not something. But I video. I mean, I video something. They call it when they filmed it last time I did it, and I learned from that, Steve. I’m watching it, and I see, and people loved it. That’s, why we’re doing it again, because it wasn’t my idea. But I’ll watch it and I’ll go, boy, I know how much they love this, but that’s not right. That’s not. So the excitement now to do it again is I really see where I want to improve it. Slow, it down here, the things like, why are you using your hands so much? What is with your hands all over the place? So it’s things like that, I guess the basic acting of it stays the same, but it’s just little things that I know I can, that I’m looking forward to slowing some things down, taking my time doing, you know. But you go by the response from when people were there, and that response was magical. And then I watch it and I’m going, what the hell were they talking about? I mean, it was actually took me back, to be honest. It was very. It really was. I’m not, I’m trying to find the right word, but it was disturbing that I went into it loving the two shows I did. The response was. And then watching it. And of course, people say it’s so hard to watch.

Steve Cuden: It’s hard to watch yourself.

James Sutorius: Yeah. And you’re hypercritical. Yeah. And I really, I didn’t like, for one thing, I’m not going to wear. I didn’t like what I wore. something as simple as that. I had the, I had a jersey on that. I was wrong. So when I do it again, I’m going to have a different.

Steve Cuden: Do you have a costumer or you just pick it yourself?

James Sutorius: No, I do that. No, well, I have a director, my friend, who’s great director of the show.

Steve Cuden: And you needed that. you didn’t want to self direct.

James Sutorius: No, I wanted him. No, he’s great. Leo Marx directed it. No, and he was great. No, he was.

Steve Cuden: And he’s, he’s the original audience. He gives you the feedback.

James Sutorius: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he’s, he’s great actor and great director for me and totally trusts me, and he makes me feel, again, we’re going back to. It makes me just feel so if you’re comfortable, then you’re relaxed and you can have creativity and you can, be free. And Leo allowed me and just supported me so well that I made me so confident and so. Yeah, no. And so we went through what I wore in San Diego when I first did it was a shirt that would make any difference. But then I changed it to a jersey in La Heredez. And he was okay with that. But then I realized it was not flattering and things so that bothered me watching it. And I didn’t know that at the time when I was doing it. I mean, I didn’t know. I thought this was so, you know, those are little, but I’ll, you know. And I have now finally sent. Let people see the video. I wasn’t letting anybody because I have it, but I doesn’t mean anybody has to see it but me. No, it’s true. So I sent it to somebody who’s not a theater. Well, a little bit. A friend in Florida. And she just. She saw it two nights ago. She had to see it on her phone, and she just was, James, this is. God, it’s just so wonderful. You’re brilliant in this. And it. And that helps, you know, because she’s not seeing what I see. I just send it to my brother in Florida, too.

Steve Cuden: You’re undoubtedly your harshest critic.

James Sutorius: Sometimes I think I’m. I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, some stuff I watch and I really. The movies, you know, the tv and a play that we just. North coast during COVID We filmed a play called trying at North Coast Rep with three cameras.

Steve Cuden: Right.

James Sutorius: I mean, this, during the one man show is just one camera way in the back. And it wasn’t like. But this was three cameras and cutting in and editing and. And I loved that. I played Francis Biddle, attorney general of Franklin Roosevelt, and, Really two hander. And the girl was great. And I’m hoping to do. I’ve never done it on stage. It was because it was Covid. So there was. All the theaters were shut down.

Steve Cuden: Sure.

James Sutorius: But I’m hoping to do it on. But huge part. Huge part. And that took prep. I did a lot of prep for that. About Francis Biddle, reading about Francis Biddle and the Nuremberg trials. He was the judge.

Steve Cuden: And you like the big parts? The bigger the better.

James Sutorius: I do. I’ve mainly played big parts. I guess when you’re looking back at the theater. I’m not. People would have more quality. More, more, quantity than me. But I think my quality of the parts, I played McMurphy in Cuckoo’s Nest, you know, which I don’t know if that plays done anymore, but one flew over the Cuckoo’s nest, you know, back.

Steve Cuden: Where did you do that play?

James Sutorius: Stage West.

Steve Cuden: Stage West.

James Sutorius: It’s called stage West in Massachusetts. I don’t think it’s there anymore. But those are, the parts that I started out playing was, you know, McMurphy and parts like that and the Hamlets and Macbeth, things like that. But I mainly. You’re, I’ve mainly, I’ve mainly been character leading man. I’m not gonna. Yeah, I guess I’d be.

Steve Cuden: As opposed to what? Romantic leading man?

James Sutorius: Well, the Roman. Yeah, I don’t think I’m there. I don’t think I’ve ever played a real romantic.

Steve Cuden: You never got the girl?

James Sutorius: I don’t know. I’ve probably got some girl somewhere. I don’t know. on tv I was usually the villain. I mean, the Andros targets the series I did for CBS. So I never had a ro. Maybe if it had gone on, we only did it for one season, maybe I would have had a romantic interest.

Steve Cuden: You played an investigative reporter, right?

James Sutorius: Yeah. Yeah. Mike Andros, New York forum. It was all, after all, the president’s men and Nicholas Gage, who wrote for the New York Times wrote it. He was the one behind it. And, I got that out. I mean, how I got that, I was just doing a play down off Broadway called at the Cherry, doing a mammoth play called sexual perversity in Chicago.

Steve Cuden: Yeah.

James Sutorius: at the Cherry Lane was great with Peter Regert and I had taken over from F. Murray Abraham did it originally and I took over and all of a sudden, CBS, I auditioned for this tv series and I got it. I remember all the, doing the play at the chair. All the CBS executives came down to the Cherry lane to see me do sexual perversity and I got it. I mean, I was just a kid. It was great. I mean, that led me to LA and then doing stuff there. But I, but shooting in New York at that time, I mean, every episode, it was 1977, 78 and every episode was a Patti Lupone, Richard Kiley, George Rose. I mean, every, because it was the only thing, only one in town. There wasn’t, they didn’t shoot in New York. Then the tv series, it was amazing. Every episode.

Steve Cuden: So you got all the Broadway actors to be in it.

James Sutorius: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, it was just amazing. Amazing. I love Richard Kiley.

Steve Cuden: Well, he was a great actor.

James Sutorius: If I could do man of La Mancha and sing, I can’t. I mean, there’s something. I mean, I. Camelot. I would Richard Burton. I suppose I can’t. It’s just not going to happen.

Steve Cuden: I have been having just so much fun having this wonderful conversation for almost an hour now with James Sutorius and I going to wind the show down just a little bit now. And you’ve already given us a lot of really interesting stories to chew on. But I’m wondering, in all of your experiences can you share with us a story that’s either weird, quirky, offbeat, strange or just plain funny?

James Sutorius: Yeah, I mean, I don’t have a lot of those, to tell you the truth. I mean. I mean. I mean, it certainly is very funny when you’re doing Hamlet and you go out there that the soliloquies in Hamlet or, Shakespeare, you’re out there alone. So you better not, you know, and you have, you know, if you go to be or not to be wine and have no idea where you are, that is, you know, you’re up the creek with the. That is the question. You. But I’ve gone. But I’ll get back to, I think, which is a fun story because he’s so great. But I have in Wallace, Shakespeare during, when you’re out there alone in a soliloquy, I have gone up and then you just. It’s amazing how your body, how you feel in your body. It is incredible when it just goes blank and you just. Because you can’t see me now, but you just. And then somewhere, something to you, it’s like 30 minutes, but it’s seconds. And then you kick in maybe a line or, you skip a line, but you get back on. Then after the show you’re saying to your friends, my God. My God, I’m so sorry. Did you see that? And they have no idea what. What are you talking about? None. I don’t know. But I was doing a big mini series called space with James Garner, who, I love James Garner. He was great. May he rest in peace. And, And it was, James Michener’s space and 16 hours for CBS. And now I’m with, He’s a senator and I’m his aide. So I’m with him all the time and he’s smoking and he’s a real curmudgeon and it’s like I am now he’s just all. And now he knows. He knows my name is Sutorius, but he prefers to call me superfluous. So it’s always, has anybody seen superfluous? And my folks come to the set and he goes, hey, everybody, they’re here, mister. And misses superfluous. And he’s. But he wasn’t. But then I must say, a year later, Steve, a year later, I was at a screening and garner and I didn’t keep up. I was at a, he was a big golfer too, though. Great guy. And the lights come up. It’s a screening and I didn’t know he was there. And he’s way across the aisle and he looks over and he sees me and he goes, hey, superfluous. It had been a year and so it’s that’s always a great, you.

Steve Cuden: Know, anytime you can get a major.

James Sutorius: Star to give you a name, a name, superfluous. And then he remembers it for the whole. He just, I mean, he knew my name. He just had fun with some of my friends. Now here around they, hey, superfluous. They were sick because they know this. Actually, this story is in the one man show about when I’m doing my tv work. So I have to put that in the one man show about because it’s a great little thing that he, that’s.

Steve Cuden: A wonderful little story. So that’s that with that final question for you today. James, you’ve given us huge amounts of advice all along the way here, but I’m wondering, do you have a solid piece of advice that you like to give young people, or people just starting out in the business or maybe they’re in a little bit trying to get to that next level?

James Sutorius: Yeah, I, you know, when I go, if I go back to the college and where I started Wesleyan and do the show and talk to the students, I mean, it’s just when I was just be the, I don’t know if any, but today it just seems like it’s fame and fortune. I want to come to LA. I want to be a movie star. I just, come on, just be the best actor you can be. Just work and discipline and whatever that means in terms of working. If it’s Shakespeare or Moliere or Ibsen or just be the best, things will happen. I mean, just, just have the discipline and the, you know, and the passion for the craft. For the craft and not all the extenuating other things that can get in the way and if that means going to school and acting school and whatever that would be, but it’s just being the best actor you can be, and then let the chips fall where they will. And, But don’t get distracted by other. I mean, it’s easy to say those things. I mean, I know that’s. It’s. But that’s all, that’s all I cared about when I was then going to acting school and just being the best actor I could be, and then all of a sudden, I’m doing Hamlet and I’m doing a tv series, and things can happen from m being, hey, this guy’s really good. But if you’re not training to be really good, and then, you know, I mean, I guess just discipline. Be disciplined.

Steve Cuden: I think that that’s extremely wise advice, because if you’re trying to go into show business, let’s call it that as a whole, just because you want fame or money, you’re in the wrong place, really, because the people who have that discipline that you’re talking about are going to be great.

James Sutorius: You need a break. You need something. You need. I mean, I’m not saying, but if you’re a singer, again, things that I don’t. If you’re a singer in New York and taking all your singing lessons and dancing lessons and then acting, and then you’re just doing everything to be the, and I’m sure I know people do, but to be the best at what you do, and all that means is the discipline of every day. And, I mean, that’s why in the, in the laundry room, you know, in, at Wesley in Franklin hall, I went in the laundry room, and I’m telling you, I practiced and practiced and practiced, and people, I was annoying to everybody, but I was in there doing shakespeare, and I can’t believe I did this. I don’t think I’d have the nerve now. But I was in the laundry. I couldn’t. There’s no other place to go. And maybe it pays off. Maybe the, you know, the ragu, because of my voice. And she said, I love your voice, my commercial agent, and you gotta go. I don’t know. So it paid off, you know, you just don’t know.

Steve Cuden: But just, just do the work.

James Sutorius: Do the work. People don’t. I don’t think people. Some do, of course, but just people would say, oh, I do, but I don’t know if they do. I don’t know if they do. They would say, oh, I do the work. Let me see what that means. Let me follow you around a week and see what that means.

Steve Cuden: Well, James Sutorius, this has been a wonderful hour on StoryBeat, and I can’t thank you enough for your time, your energy, and especially your wisdom in all this. and so I thank you greatly.

James Sutorius: Well, I thank you. I guess I’ll put my clothes back on now. Is that what I said? Wasn’t that the very beginning, that the changing room?

Steve Cuden: Indeed.

James Sutorius: it’s been great. No, it goes by so fast, Steve. It’s just great. And it’s, I don’t get a chance to talk, and I said some stuff today that I don’t think I’ve really was very revealing for me, too.

Steve Cuden: I’m delighted that you revealed those things. And, you know, m my great thanks to you.

James Sutorius: Yeah, yeah. And why not? Why not? Yeah. Well, thank you, Steve. This has been a great pleasure.

Steve Cuden: And so we’ve come to the end of today’s StoryBeat If you liked this episode, wont you please take a moment to give us a comment, rating, or review on whatever app or platform youre listening to? Your support helps us bring more great StoryBeat episodes to you. Storybeat is available on all major podcast apps and platforms, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, iHeartRadio, tunein, and many others. Until next time, Im Steve. Steve Cuden, and may all your stories be unforgettable.