Sheila Astray's Redheaded Ramblings

Random Facts About Me

This morning, I was up at my usual 6 am, on my 2nd cup of coffee, and just for kicks, I decided to answer the little questionnaire that Jim Lipton uses on all the celebs in the Inside the Actors Studio series. And that brought forth a random stream-of-conscious burst of stuff which I thought I would share with you all.

There is no rhyme or reason here. Some are straight-out facts, some are wish-lists, some are memories. I literally wrote down the first things that came to my head, for about half an hour, and once I started analyzing too much, or trying to think of something else to add, I stopped.

Read on....

Random Facts About Me.

The Questionnaire:
My Favorite Word: Elixir
My Least Favorite Word: Plether
Noise I love: Ocean waves
Noise I hate The phone ringing
What turns me on (spiritually, creatively): A good book, my nephew Cashel, hanging out with old friends
What turns me off: Close-mindedness, gossip meant to hurt somebody
Profession I would like to attempt: Olympic figure skater, astro-physicist, Secretary of State
Profession I would hate: Executive Administrative Assistant
My favorite curse-word: Jag-off (a Chicago regionalism)
If heaven exists, what would I like to hear God say when I arrive: "Welcome, Sheila - all your family members are waiting for you over there - Grandpa and Mummy Gina and Pop and Mike and Jimmy and Joe and Angus - and dinner is just about to be served, and you will be sitting between Marilyn Monroe and Teddy Roosevelt. Welcome."

Onto the Facts:

-- I do not have a sweet tooth but I could be addicted to Doritos if I had no impulse control.

-- I have every book that L.M. Montgomery ever wrote, even the god-awful Pat of Silver Bush.

-- I have had three marriage proposals. Two I said "No" to, and one I said "Yes" to. But I'm still not married! Huh. I will leave you to puzzle that one out.

-- There was a time in my life when I was unable to listen to anything other than Nirvana. There was also a good year when the Foo Fighters' "The Color and the Shape" never went back into its case - it was always in my stereo or in my walkman.

-- I'm very big on having celebrity crushes. My first was Ralph Macchio, during his stint on Eight is Enough. I have since moved on to Harrison Ford, Jeff Bridges, Russell Crowe, Ewan McGregor.

-- My favorite movie is "Running on Empty".

-- I did a play once called LESBIAN BATHHOUSE. It is NOT on my resume.

-- I have about 30 cousins and they are all amazing people.

-- I've only had one boyfriend, one guy who has met the parents. This was when the first George Bush was in office.

-- I love Metallica.

-- I am legally blind.

-- I love Guinness and I love scotch.

-- I cannot and will not function without a cup of coffee in the morning.

-- I went through a huge Sylvia Plath phase in high school, unaware that I was behaving like a total cliche.

-- I only need 5 or 6 hours of sleep.

-- I am the oldest of 4 kids.

-- The Bible is a great read.

-- My favorite weather is grey rainy windy chilly days.

-- My parents rock. I feel like, on some cosmic level, I must have CHOSEN them as my parents.

-- I worry about my future.

-- When I was 9 or 10, my best friends were Jen and Katy. We used to pretend we were witches. We made up witch-songs, we had witch-names.

-- I saw "Dog Day Afternoon" while babysitting when I was 12, and knew then that I HAD to be an actor.

-- I have great friends. From all periods of my life.

-- I walk while reading a book.

-- My favorite places on earth are:
Glendolough (Ireland)
Beth's deck (RI)
Narragansett Beach (RI)
The entire city of Chicago
This one random tiny lake in Minnesota where I camped once, with deer literally all around my tent - the first place I saw aurora borealis
The wild west coast of Ireland

-- I have dated two guys at the same time, completely double-timing both of them, until one of them won out. Temporarily.

-- My favorite theatrical character is Rosalind in "As You Like It".

-- I lived in Beacon Hill in Boston.
I lived in Mt. Airy outside of Philadelphia
I lived in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles County
I lived in the financial district in San Francisco
I lived in "boy's town" in Chicago (the gay neighborhood)
I lived in Wrigleyville in Chicago
I lived on the Upper West Side in Manhattan
I lived in Hoboken
Now I live in Weehawken

-- I love biographies. Excellent ones I have read: David McCullough's bio of John Adams, Gerald Clark's bio of Truman Capote, Scott Berg's biography of Charles Lindbergh, Richard Ellmann's biography of James Joyce

-- I don't like abstract modern art, really. I love Michelangelo, daVinci, Rubens ... I love the boxes of Joseph Cornell. I love deChirico too.

-- I'd like to have children. Or, at least, A child.

-- I have never had a "Beatles phase". There is no "phase". There is just one long continuous obsession. I have listened to the Beatles almost constantly throughout my entire life, with no let-up. Since Betsy and I discovered "Sgt. Pepper" in 5th grade.

-- My friend Beth and I used to dance like such banshees at high school dances that we would be drenched in sweat, our Irish faces hot and red, and we would run over to the side of the gym and press our hot sweaty heads up against the cool tiles before running back into the slam-dancing fray. And then we honestly wondered why we did not have boyfriends.

-- I was made fun of in junior high. People put signs on my back proclaiming lovely statements like, "Look at my ugly pants!" I'm getting revenge on all those shit-heads now.

-- I spent the millennium in Dublin with my friend Ann Marie

-- My best teachers were:
Mrs. Rand (2nd grade)
Mrs. Dickison (6th grade)
Mr. Crothers (10th grade English)
Kimber Wheelock (acting, college)
Judith Swift (acting, college)
Maury Klein (the History of the Industrial Revolution in college)
Carla Belver (acting in Philadelphia)
Sam Schacht (my acting teacher now)

-- In kindergarten, I recited the lyrics of "American Pie" in their entirety for Show and Tell.

-- I had my first kiss at 17 years of age.

-- I rarely remember my dreams. This has not always been the case.

-- I'm Catholic and all, but there is one man out there who actually made me contemplate the possibility of past lives and reincarnation. Not because he believed in it, he was Catholic, too - but because not only did I love him, but he seemed familiar to me. It was more like I recognized him. From a past life. My friend Kate said, "Yeah, your Celtic tribe probably slaughtered his Celtic tribe."

-- I read Shakespeare's sonnets out loud to myself if I'm stressed out.

-- I laughed so hard once in college that I literally peed my pants.

-- Me and my friends Jayne, Meredith, and Dolores made a 2-hour movie in high school called "The Troubled Days and Nights of Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Children in Hope and Despair". I played, among other things, a murderous LUNATIC named Andrea. I did a dance with a meat cleaver to the tune of "The Hall of the Mountain King".

-- As the oldest child, I am often consumed with worry about my younger siblings, even though they are fine. I lie awake at night worrying: Are they okay? Are they happy? Is everything all right with them?

-- I love to jitterbug. My friends Mitchell and my Brian are my favorite partners. They know how to lead.

-- I love my friend Beth's marriage to her husband Tom. I know it's not perfect and all, but still - I love them together. I like who they are with each other, and I like who they are TO each other.

-- I have always been fascinated by madness.

-- Meryl Streep's performance in "Postcards from the Edge" is highly under-rated. I think it's comedic genius - one of my favorite pieces of acting ever.

-- My father has given his children a sense of history and cultural continuity. We grew up being proud that we were American. But we also grew up surrounded by Irishness, and he let us know that we were a part of that tradition too.

-- I have had platinum hair.
I have had jet-black hair.
I have shaved all my hair off, a la Sinead O'Connor.

-- Things I need to do before I die:
Travel through Iran
Take the train across Siberia
Go to Tibet

-- Ongoing passions:
Physics
Totalitarian Regimes
Independent films
Literature
The male-female dynamic

-- My friend Betsy and I, during grade school recesses, would sit on top of the jungle gym and sing the entire score of "Oliver" at the tops of our lungs. Crowds of kids would gather about and listen. We were geeks, but we were happy.

-- My brother Brendan is an actor and a musician and a great dad.

-- My sister Jean is a teacher in a middle school.

-- My sister Siobhan is an actor and a musician.

-- My mom is a wonderful painter - watercolor and oils.

-- My dad is a librarian. Here is who my dad is: Ask him a question about something, and he will stand up, go to one of the MANY book shelves in the house, and pull down a book (he knows just where to find it, in the 1000s of books he has) - and read you a quote that will answer your question.

-- My nephew Cashel is an articulate sweet-hearted boy who loves "Star Wars". He and his friend Jack have bonded about "Star Wars" to an intense degree. Cashel, speaking to my parents, rhapsodized about his friendship with Jack and actually said the following words: "The first time I saw Jack - I could see the twinkle of 'Star Wars' in his eyes."

-- The first time I saw "Harold and Maude" was at The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, and I laughed so hard and so loudly at the general with only one arm that I had to get up and leave, to try to get a-hold of myself. My guffaws were annoying people.

-- I have a tattoo of a phoenix on the back of my left shoulder. I drew it myself in a notebook during a bout with a 103 degree fever, and then I walked into a tattoo parlor, still sick, and held the notebook out, saying, "Could you put that on my shoulder?" Reluctantly, (tattoo artist could see how sick I was, thought I would regret it) the guy gave me the tattoo. And I've never regretted it.

And after writing the memory below, the stream-of-consciousness ran out ... and I stopped ... and so I will end with this tale:

-- I was involved in a production of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy in Chicago. It was a wonderful production, but it did not generate an audience.

We had read somewhere that William Hurt was looking for a theatre company to be involved in. He missed the stage. We weren't just a random group of actors happy to have jobs - we were an ensemble, a company - so we sent a note to his agency, inviting him to come see Golden Boy.

Well - he did come - with his assistant - and on the night he showed up to see it, we had NO audience. Not ONE OTHER PERSON showed up. It was so mortifying. But we did the entire 3-act play solely for William Hurt and his assistant - as though there were a full house. It was one of the weirdest theatrical experiences I have ever had. On any other night, we would have CANCELED if only 2 people showed up ... but this was William Hurt! Flown in from Los Angeles!

We were all very embarrassed. We came out for our curtain call, mortified at making him come all that way to see this obvious failure. And he was sitting there, clapping, (an odd lonely sound - 2 people clapping in a big empty theatre) - and he had tears running down his face.

Afterwards, we all sat around in the lobby of the theatre with William Hurt, and talked about theatre, the state of the theatre, and acting - until 3 or 4 in the morning.

He needed a ride back to his hotel. Michael, one of the actors in the show, offered him a ride with the rest of us, in his pick-up truck.

So I sat in the back of a rickety pick-up truck with William Hurt, as we drove through the quiet dark streets of Chicago, my hair blowing like crazy, William Hurt was just beaming - and laughing in exhilaration - He looked so happy.

He hugged all of us good-bye, holding on to each one of us so tight - He said that we had made him believe in the possibility of good theatre again in this country.

It is a night I will never forget: laughing and screaming "Whoo-hoo!!" into the wind with William Hurt, crouched in the back of a battered pick-up truck.

Posted by Sheila O'Malley at October 28, 2003 10:08 AM | TrackBack