Why Ask "Why"?

Since starting this blog, I’ve given lots of thought, when I’m not writing, to what I’m going to write next; since the goal is to update daily, I’m constantly thinking about potential topics.

And for awhile now, I’ve thought it would be interesting to write about “Why I Want To Act” or “Why I Am An Actor”. Explaining to you, and maybe clarifying for myself in the process, the motivation behind my desire to act.

But on Saturday, I saw the documentary Man On Wire - about tightrope walker Philippe Petit, and how in August of 1974, he and a group of confederates, under cover of darkness, strung a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Center so he could, come morning’s light, “dance” back and forth between the towers, hundreds of feet in the air - and something he says at the end of the film really struck me.

He’s asked by reporters afterwards “Why did you do it?”, and his response was to say, basically, “There is no ‘Why’”.

Now that sounds very enigmatic to me - very “French”, if you will - but I actually kinda/sorta “get it”.

I think he was basically saying “Who cares why I did it? What does it matter ‘why’? The point is, I did it”.

In that sort of situation (Why someone would choose to do something most people would consider crazy), “Why?” is a boring question. A pointless question.

The answer you get is going to either be bullshit, because the person giving you the answer doesn’t really know “why”, or else it’ll just sound facile and silly when reduced to some one-line, bite-sized “motivation” (“Because it was there”, “Because I could”, “Because I wanted to be famous”, etc.).

In the film, Petit in the present day still seems almost offended by the question, saying, “I give you something magical, something beautiful...and the only question you have for me is ‘Why’...?”.

“There is no ‘Why’.”

So what’s all this have to do with me?

I should be long past reflecting on “Why” I want to act, why I choose to act. I should be beyond that kind of navel-gazing when it comes to acting.
At this point, it doesn’t matter. And it’s not the most interesting, meaningful, or important question I should be asking myself at this stage.

Besides, I know. At this point, I know as much as I’ll ever need to know about “Why I Act”. It’s “beside the point” now, the “point” being “I’m an actor”

And I don’t think it’s the most interesting thing I have to say to you, Dear Readers. I’m not 100% sure what the “the most interesting thing I have to say to you” is at this point, but I’m pretty sure that ain’t it.

Besides, if you’ve been reading along, and you haven’t gotten a sense of “Why” I do this just yet, I’m pretty sure you will before we’re done.