Shawshank in Edinburgh

Or when your mind goes poof!

With Omid. Photo//Kenny Mathieson

([TA] There’s a lot of g****** swearing in this article. A lot. I got so wigged out by it I started doing this *** when it got to be too much. Apologies in advance.)

Edinburgh, Scotland. August 2013.

It was around 6 pm (18:00 GMT), and I couldn’t find a cab. I was hot-footing it across town, headed to the most haunted pub in Scotland - The Banshee Labyrinth. It was a warm evening.

My wife had come over for the last week of The Shawshank Redemption's run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She’d discovered that the Atheist Society of Edinburgh was staging a series of readings at The Banshee, so she’d contacted them and asked if she could read a piece of hers. They agreed after reading something she wrote about being a psychic imposter in Vegas .

This is why I was racing to the Banshee, to see her perform. I was late, confused, disoriented, and dallying with an existential crisis.

I think about that night often. It’s a night I have no answers for.

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A cuppa hot history might be helpful here. A couple months earlier a friend, Anthony Azizi, told me that his cousin, Omid Djalili, a popular stand-up comedian and actor in the UK, was portraying Red (the Morgan Freeman role) in a stage version of Shawshank. They were looking to cast the role of Andy Dufresne and were having some difficulty. Anthony, certain I was destined to play the role, pitched me very strongly to his cousin and the director.

I sent in a self-tape, and I got the role. The director, Lucy Pitman-Wallace, asked me, “Why on earth would you want to do this? There’s very little money, and you’ll need to help move scenery.” It was an easy answer, I mean…

It was The Shawshank Redemption. I’d do that for free.

It was also a full-circle moment. Frank Darabont had offered me a role in the original film as one of an ensemble of inmates. I was told my part hadn’t been fleshed out yet but that they would integrate the chorus of prisoners into the script once we got to Ohio to start filming. At the same time, I got offered Drop Zone. It's a fun film - but perhaps a questionable decision on my part as Drop Zone is nowhere near the top 100 Best Films of all time. (Though it might be a Top 5 Skydiving film.)

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Back to the play. After being cast, I learned I would be the only American in a cast of Brits, Scots, Irishmen, and Omid, who is Persian—an unholy blend of legit actors and standup comics. We were to rehearse in London for three weeks and then take it to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

On the first day of rehearsals, Owen O’Neill, the playwright, who was also playing the warden, tipped his hand right away.

I think he disliked me. Or, just the idea of me. Who knows?

Our first team-building improv was mindfully throwing a ball around the room to connect with your beloved castmates. Owen whipped it at me with no warning, full bore in the face. My eye was out of focus for a week.

Building back trust with him took most of the rehearsal period. But, going to the UK, I set a watermark for myself: to be the Most Professional Actor they had ever seen. So -

Week One: I wanted to set the tone and lead by example. A couple of the comedians had never done a legitimate play - so, fuck yeah, I’d take that literal hit.

How do we think that turned out?