Wallace Shawn, actor

I had bumped into the actor Wallace Shawn last week and I asked him if he wanted to particpate in this blog project. He took my card and he said he would send me an E-mail if he was interested. Alas, I never heard from him.

Today, lo and behold... I bumped into him again and I asked him if he checked out the blog and if he would like to be included with an interview. He replied: "I do not think I am exactly what you would want." I said: "You are exactly who I would want." I was well aware of his impressive body of work and accomplishments. I also knew that his father was William Shawn, the editor (from 1952-1987) of The New Yorker.

He brushed me off, but it is all good. He allowed me to take his photo and I am linking to his long list of credits:

Wallace Shawn at IMDb

I am wondering why he refused to sit down with me for a lunch over which we could discuss his career. I was always aware of him as a neighborhood presence. So maybe he heard of my reputation as the neighboorhood kook...

At IMDb, he is quoted as saying: "I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character... This happens to be a feature of my life generally. I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing."

That seems to be the truth because today, I could hardly even get him to crack a smile.