2012 GETTY IMAGES
Voices
was surprised. It was a small part
in Shakespeare’s, As You Like It.
I drove up from LA to see it. He
only had a few lines. After the
performance, he asked me, “How
was I, dad?” I said, “Michael, you
were awful. I couldn’t understand
a word that Shakespeare had written for you.” I thought my rejection of his performance would end
any interest he had in becoming
an actor. After a few months, I got
call from him, “Dad, I’m going to
do another a play.” I thought, My
God, doesn’t this guy ever learn?
But I went up to see it. It was a
two-character play. After the performance he asked again, “How
was I, Dad?” “Michael,” I said,
“you were very good.”
Michael never asks me for anything. I went up to visit him in
Santa Barbara; he was living in a
ramshackle building. He insisted
that I use the cot and he slept on
the floor. During the night, I relieved myself outside over the
porch. In the morning, I walked
over to the toilet in another ramshackle building. I went in and
there was a naked girl leaving the
toilet with a cheery, “Good morning!” Of course, Michael never
became a lawyer and embarked on
a career as a professional actor. At
KIRK
DOUGLAS
HUFFINGTON
09.01-08.13
But even as old as
(apparently) I now was,
rejection still hurt. Yet,
for me, it was a valuable
lesson. Sometimes what
you think you want is not
what you really need.”
the beginning, he suffered through
the rejection that all actors experience. How they handle that rejection determines whether they ever
have a career. Finally, he landed a
part with Karl Malden on a TV series, The Streets of San Francisco.
That was his first big break.
Some years earlier, I’d read a
book that I loved, One Flew Over
Jack
Nicholson
in an iconic
scene from
1975’s One
Flew Over
The Cuckoo’s
Nest.