|
BALTHAZAR GETTY appears on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters
and is in the band Ringside. He is the father of four
and would like you to know that he is grateful to have a
great life and great kids. This conversation took place
in December, after he did a stint on the Writers Guild
of America picket lines.
What’s
new with the new record?
We were
signed to Geffen, me and Scott Thomas, who I grew up
with, who’s the singer-songwriter. We produce and mix
and write together. That deal kind of went south and we
sort of found some backing and created our own label and
our own model. We own a studio in Burbank. We’re putting
together our own independent label, with some more
ownership and control—not of the music but of how it’s
marketed and how you get it into people’s hands.
Oooh.
What are your distribution thoughts now that you’re a
label owner?
Well,
you know, there’s a couple of things we’re mulling over.
Doing a kind of distribution deal through a major, doing
a Best Buy and a Starbucks. But I think the ticket is to
do a couple deals—an online deal and through Europe and
each country.... And doing different territories. We’re
excited!
After
you’re done with yours, are you going to go sign people?
That’s
the idea! Rather than, typically, the artist and the
label are against each other in a way, the label trying
to [undermine] the artists, the artist trying to get
attention and money—you’d think they were on the same
team. All you’re doing on a label is battling, trying to
get them to pay money and pay attention. We want to
create an artists’ label, where each artist has his or
her own label without ours. They’re in control of their
vision....We’d like to figure out a model where
everyone’s on the same page. An artists’ co-op.
What’s
the difference in controlling the means of production
for actors versus musicians?
Unless
you’re on a huge level, like a Tom Cruise or one of
these guys who decides who makes it, cuts it and puts it
out, and you’re able to be a part of that process from
beginning to end, as an actor you’re just a hired gun, a
monkey to dance around and say your lines. You do a good
job and you love it—depending on the project. Some of
the indies I’ve done, I’ve gotten in there and produced
and developed scripts, and that’s a lot of fun. It’s a
lot of fun for me to see things through. Especially in
TV, you don’t have any control over anything. But I got
lucky! Look, I’m on a TV show I believe in, with actors
anyone would be thrilled to be with, with great
writing.
You seem
very cautious about roles in general.
I have
been. I mean, I feel one of the powers you have as an
actor is to say no to something.
People
get all twisted up: they feel they have to make a
strategy.
I mean,
look, most actors, 99.9 percent, are just working
actors. They love acting or they’re paying rent. And
that’s great and admirable. Then there’s a small
percentage that make a great living. And are able to be
choosy about the work.
So
there’s a huge disparity in freedom and income.
Yeah,
forget it. I’ve had to do such crap that it will haunt
me until my last day. Honestly! But you know, I think
Orson Welles said it: I’m an actor, I get paid to act.
Which is true! You know? There is something to be said
about, “Look, you’re an actor, you’ve got a paying job
to be an actor, show up.” It’s not like a painter’s
gonna go, “No, I don’t wanna paint that house! I don’t
like the neighborhood.”
I guess
in some ways we take it too seriously.
Yeah, we
do. That’s been my struggle as an artist and an actor,
of just vacillating between taking myself too seriously
and then not taking myself seriously at all to the point
of ridiculousness that I feel this is the dumbest way
ever to be making a living. The fact that I have to put
on makeup in the morning and put hair gel in my hair and
say ridiculous lines, it just feels absurd. Then there’s
moments you’re connected with an actor and you’re
inspired and it’s fantastic. And you feel so grateful to
be able to do it. I’ve got a real love-hate relationship
with acting, for sure. |
