Listen Here: Actor’s Actor Kevin Corrigan Tells Tons of Great Stories and Does Impressions
The actor Kevin Corrigan (born on this day in 1969) has been nearly omnipresent in independent American films for better part of three decades. The list of his credits in both independent and studio films is crazily impressive. To name a few: GOODFELLAS, TRUE ROMANCE, LIVING IN OBLIVION, TREES LOUNGE, HENRY FOOL, BUFFALO ’66, SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, LULU ON THE BRIDGE, THE DEPARTED, THE TOE TACTIC, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, BIG FAN, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, RESULTS, and the upcoming INFINITY BABY.
He’s also a compelling storyteller, as anyone who attended his AFS Moviemaker Dialogue in 2014 can attest. Here, from April of 2016, is an interview with Corrigan from The Best Show with Tom Scharpling. It’s one of the best podcasts I have ever heard, and an illuminating portrait of Corrigan’s creative method. It is also hysterically funny and punctuated by Corrigan’s spot-on impressions.
When asked about his decision to become an actor for life, with all the attendant ups and downs, Corrigan replies:
“I always felt like, you know, MEAN STREETS was my favorite movie for a long time, and it still is. It’s still in the hall of fame in my mind of the best movies. And it often comes back to me. Things just bubble up into my consciousness that got there the first time I watched MEAN STREETS, or the first 25 times I watched it as a teenager…
“There was an English teacher I had in my junior year of high school. She showed us A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and I was just completely… She could have given me a hit of ecstasy and that’s the effect it had on me… It has such a narcotic effect… and often the movies we love are about narcotics or involve them at some point.”
And then he’s off on the subject of drugs and the creative process. This gives you some idea about the perambulations of mind that Corrigan displays during his storytelling. Interviewer Scharpling, who is a tremendously funny storyteller himself, operates in a more reserved key here than usual and gives Corrigan room to fly.
