JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Each week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. John C. Reilly has dabbled in music in his acting career, from roles in "Chicago" to "Walk Hard." But recently, music is front and center for him with a vaudeville stage show called "Mister Romantic." Riley spoke with Wild Card host Rachel Martin about his childhood and shared how he developed his love for musicals.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
RACHEL MARTIN: What does your birth order say about you?
JOHN C REILLY: Ah, interesting. Well, I come from a family of six. So I'm the fifth of six...
MARTIN: Ah.
REILLY: ...Which kind of makes me a middle kid. You know, the classic - a lot of actors are middle kids, actually, believe it or not. Like, I - yeah, it's almost like a cliche among actors. You know, the older one gets too much correction. The youngest gets too much, you know - gets spoiled.
MARTIN: Freedom.
REILLY: And the middle one's like, hey, what about me? Like, I'm here, too. And it kind of creates extroverts, I guess, or something.
MARTIN: And I read - I mean, you started doing musicals when you were really little. Like...
REILLY: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Musical theater, right?
REILLY: A lot.
MARTIN: Was that - do you remember the first time you raised your hand and were like, I think this is something I want to do?
REILLY: Yeah, I was 8 years old and started to go to the - there was this park near my house that had, like, programs for kids after school - woodworking...
MARTIN: Yeah.
REILLY: ...And ballroom dance and drama. Or we used to call it dramma (ph) 'cause I'm from the South Side of Chicago, and that's how we used to talk. But I'd be like, Mom, I'm going to dramma class. And I remember this first teacher I had named Jim Morley (ph). And he's like, everyone lay down on the ground. Now, I want you to imagine you're a piece of bacon in a pan, right? And the pan is cold right now. Now I'm going to turn up the heat. And what happens when the bacon starts? And everyone starts (vocalizing). And I'm looking around the room, like, oh, my God, I've found my people. This is it.
MARTIN: (Laughter)
REILLY: This - these are the people I understand, who want to pretend to be pieces of bacon.
MARTIN: Everyone's convulsing like bacon. Yes.
REILLY: Yeah, yeah. Like - or just, like, complete flights of imagination. You know, like, that's what I was into, as a kid. I was like...
MARTIN: Yeah.
REILLY: ...Already that way, you know?
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
REILLY: Yeah, musicals taught me how to be an actor. That - 'cause you know, where I grew up, on the South Side of Chicago there, like, no one was doing Shakespeare or Ibsen or, you know, like...
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
REILLY: People weren't - no one wanted to see, like, just straight dramatic plays. Everything had to have some music in it, you know?
MARTIN: Yeah.
REILLY: And so I went to acting school in Chicago. The Goodman School of Drama, it was called, then. It's called the Theatre School at DePaul University now. And when I got there, I was like, OK, no more musicals. You're a serious actor now, you know?
MARTIN: Right.
REILLY: I want to be like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, you know? Those guys don't do musicals, you know? Like - and then that movie "Chicago" came along, and I realized like, oh, my God, like, not only is this worth doing...
MARTIN: Yeah.
REILLY: ...Not only do serious actors do this, but you have to be very talented to pull this off.
MARTIN: Right.
REILLY: To be someone that can do dramatic work and to do musicals, it takes a certain skill set that not everyone has, you know? And I realized, like, you know, the American musical theater is one of the few original art forms America has.
MARTIN: Yeah.
REILLY: And you shouldn't be embarrassed about it. Like, this is a beautiful way to express yourself as an actor.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISTER CELLOPHANE")
REILLY: (As Amos Hart, singing) Cellophane.
SUMMERS: You can watch the full conversation with John C. Reilly on YouTube or the NPR app by searching for NPR Wild Card. Riley's album as Mister Romantic "What's Not To Love?" is out now. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
