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Actor Adam Driver on Bringing Theater to the Military (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: know it's true. Kylo Wren Star Wars, episode seven, The
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  Speaker 1: Force Awakens. Do you recognize that voice? Maybe you heard
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  Speaker 1: him playing Adam Sackler on the HBO hit Girls Adam Driver.
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  Speaker 1: It is also marine, I learned years ago. You never
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  Speaker 1: say it was a marine. Wants a marine, always a marine.
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  Speaker 1: He left the Marines after an accident. He went to Juilliard.
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  Speaker 1: He stumbled quite nicely into a mega career now as
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  Speaker 1: a movie and television star, and he's joining us now.
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  Speaker 1: We want to talk a bit about his career, but
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  Speaker 1: we mostly want to talk about his new foundation, Arts
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  Speaker 1: in the Armed Forces, which is taking the best modern
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  Speaker 1: American theater to the military free of charge. And he's
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  Speaker 1: getting ready for a big tour in South Korea. Adam,
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  Speaker 1: are welcome. It's great to have it on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Well, you know
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  Speaker 1: I knew your story. I recently just coincidentally, my daughter
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  Speaker 1: I washed over shoulder as she listened to one of
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  Speaker 1: your ted talks where you talked about that so in
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  Speaker 1: a nutshell where people who don't know your story from
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  Speaker 1: a kid in the Midwest who wasn't sure what they
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do to the Marines two movie star, how
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  Speaker 1: did it happen? I was interested in acting in high school,
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  Speaker 1: but it didn't really seem like a realistic job to
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  Speaker 1: pursue in the town that I was from, a small
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  Speaker 1: town called Mishawaka in Indiana, in northern Indiana. Uh. Then
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  Speaker 1: September eleven happened, and I feel like most of the
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  Speaker 1: people my age at that time, you know, felt a
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  Speaker 1: sense of patriotism, and uh, I wanted to be involved
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  Speaker 1: and do something. And I knew that the military um
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  Speaker 1: or the Marine Corps specifically, seemed like something that I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to throw my energy towards him. It seemed like
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  Speaker 1: the toughest branch to join, so I UM. I left
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  Speaker 1: a few months later on like a January or February,
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  Speaker 1: and then when I got out, had this maybe false
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  Speaker 1: sense of confidence that like all civilian problems are small
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  Speaker 1: because I was compared to the military. You know, um,
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  Speaker 1: I can stand in lines and pay taxes, and that
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  Speaker 1: would be something easily manageable. It's an illusion, but at
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  Speaker 1: the time that's what I thought. And so I knew
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  Speaker 1: that Juilliard was supposed to be the best school for acting,
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  Speaker 1: and I figured, like, what since the Marine Corps is
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  Speaker 1: the best for the military, I'll just I'll just go there.
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  Speaker 1: I'll try to go there. And I was lucky enough
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  Speaker 1: to get in and then graduated, and was also lucky
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  Speaker 1: enough to keep working after I graduated, and that was
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  Speaker 1: that was kind of a I'm going to ask you
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  Speaker 1: something some personal stuff later, but I just want to
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  Speaker 1: get out of arts in the Armed Forces. This is
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  Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization, and I'm wondering if you could tell
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  Speaker 1: us about some of the works that are being performed
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  Speaker 1: and also how this came to be. So when when
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  Speaker 1: I was at school, UM was really for the first
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  Speaker 1: time I was exposed to theater, playwrights, characters and plays
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  Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with the military at all.
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  Speaker 1: But we're somehow giving me the language to describe my
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  Speaker 1: experience in the military, and even just from being from
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Midwest where my household. The emphasism using
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  Speaker 1: your language to be able to communicate feeling wasn't something
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  Speaker 1: that was often not necessarily encouraged, but just it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: something we did very much. But if it was finding
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  Speaker 1: through theater the language basically to express myself and and
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  Speaker 1: process what had just happened. And I wanted to share
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  Speaker 1: that with the people that I served with because I
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  Speaker 1: remember that being an issue just people not being able
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  Speaker 1: to express themselves or find the right words, and how
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  Speaker 1: frustrated they would get at and how usually anger and
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  Speaker 1: violence came from that, just not being able to use
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  Speaker 1: their language in an environment like the military. Phrase you
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  Speaker 1: know is filled with acronyms for acronyms upon acronyms, but
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  Speaker 1: there's not really a lot of emphasis put on um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, language and expressing feelings. Uh. So, we tried
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  Speaker 1: to go team up with the various veterans organizations to
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  Speaker 1: see if they would be interested in it. Kept getting
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  Speaker 1: the response that theater didn't fit in military demographic, that
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  Speaker 1: the the people in the military wanted to see cheerleaders,
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  Speaker 1: and which is true, My love cheerleaders. But I felt
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  Speaker 1: like we were capable considering what we were being asked
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  Speaker 1: to do. We were capable of handling something a bit
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  Speaker 1: more thought provoking, like a play, you know, I think that.
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  Speaker 1: And I had all these places that I was exposed
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  Speaker 1: to for the first time, that Sam Shepard and David
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  Speaker 1: Mammott and you know, Deniz Ravance, all these great writers
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  Speaker 1: who um, I knew would resonate with the military audience.
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  Speaker 1: So so Juilliard funded our first performance and we went
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  Speaker 1: to Camp Helton, where I was stationed at, and we're
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  Speaker 1: very confused about what it is we were doing there,
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  Speaker 1: and we were kind of confused about what it is
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  Speaker 1: we were trying to do, and somehow, over the course
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  Speaker 1: of the evening that's it seemed to all the theater
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  Speaker 1: and the military together just seemed to make complete sense.
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  Speaker 1: And it's the best across across section of the best
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  Speaker 1: people that we have in this country, you know, to
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  Speaker 1: defend it. Why not bring them the best form of
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  Speaker 1: entertainment like life theater. Well, I think I first understood
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  Speaker 1: more than military mentality years ago when I went to
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  Speaker 1: an Army base to profile a lieutenant colonel who was
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  Speaker 1: leaving active duty after about twenty years and wanted to
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  Speaker 1: transition into corporate America. I was trying to get a
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  Speaker 1: middle management and you get, it becomes very clear the
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  Speaker 1: skills you gain in the military, and certainly in combat
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  Speaker 1: or just just serving. But how to convince people have
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  Speaker 1: never served in the military, how that translate. It's interesting
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  Speaker 1: to me that the military itself couldn't see that maybe
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  Speaker 1: its own members could benefit and understand theater. So I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's almost like the military itself not realized. No, this
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  Speaker 1: is a very diverse group of people with a lot
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  Speaker 1: going on the Yeah. Yeah, it's the most you know,
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  Speaker 1: culturally diverse, complex group of people who are in life
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  Speaker 1: or death stakes daily. We're in acting, you kind of
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  Speaker 1: pretend your circumstances or life and death. Uh, their day
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  Speaker 1: to day actually is life and death. And so I
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  Speaker 1: think that really great writing has those stakes built into
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  Speaker 1: it so people automatically find And we were also presenting
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  Speaker 1: things like that that weren't. It wasn't streamers. Those are great,
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  Speaker 1: that's a great play, but it's not it's not a
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  Speaker 1: theme centered around military. We hope to show characters that
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  Speaker 1: highlight the human struggles that we all share that our
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  Speaker 1: life and death. There aren't specifically, you know, within the
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  Speaker 1: context of being in the military, because I think that's
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  Speaker 1: you know, these people the people that within a job
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  Speaker 1: that um is very stressful, But at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, they're not um uh, they're people within a
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  Speaker 1: military setting. So it's it doesn't completely define them. It's
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  Speaker 1: not like they won't be able to Everyone has mothers
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  Speaker 1: and fathers and brothers and sisters that uh stories that
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  Speaker 1: are um. Hopefully they'll find resonance. One some examples of
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  Speaker 1: the places in which your organization arts in the Armed
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  Speaker 1: Forces A I T a F have performed Walter read
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  Speaker 1: military Medical Facility, the Center there also just did one
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  Speaker 1: I believe in April at Fort Hood in Texas. What
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  Speaker 1: what how can businesses? How can how can people participate?
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  Speaker 1: If they agree with this approach, they want to bring
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  Speaker 1: more arts to the military, what do they do? Then
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  Speaker 1: go to our website which is www dot A TA
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  Speaker 1: dot org A I T A F. And I think
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  Speaker 1: it also depends on where you're at within this the
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  Speaker 1: journey of being in the military. If you're a civilian
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  Speaker 1: that we definitely need volunteers and people to help us.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're if you're in the military, you can
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  Speaker 1: reach out to us through that website and and try
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  Speaker 1: to bring us to your base. If you're a veteran.
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  Speaker 1: I think it would be the exact same thing on
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  Speaker 1: either side of UH. We're very much a new nonprofit.
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  Speaker 1: Well we've been we've been going for six years, but
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  Speaker 1: only in the past couple of years of it is
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  Speaker 1: it really picked up steam and for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: Basis are reaching out to us and they want us
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  Speaker 1: to come there and and that's that's as simple as
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  Speaker 1: it is. We have a very there's there's a low overhead,
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  Speaker 1: so you can get to to any of us pretty quickly,
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  Speaker 1: and we try. It's such a the project is designed
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  Speaker 1: where we bring like a play or monologues, so we'll
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  Speaker 1: take a uh we're doing Lobby Hero in South Korea,
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  Speaker 1: for example, so it's a four person play. All we're
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  Speaker 1: doing we're flying out there. We're reading the play, no sets,
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  Speaker 1: no costumes, no lights, just on music stands. We come
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  Speaker 1: in and we say hi, and we talk to people
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  Speaker 1: and we read the play and then and then that's it.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's an easy to transpo in and out.
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  Speaker 1: I just have to put a plug for boom BERGALP
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  Speaker 1: because we also have a growing recruiting military veterans program
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  Speaker 1: and reaching out with various services for veterans just gonna
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  Speaker 1: ask you any advice since you're here. We're a business channel.
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  Speaker 1: We think about jobs and stuff. For somebody who's interested
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  Speaker 1: in theater, military, you know, a veteran or not. What
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  Speaker 1: what would you say, Adam and me as far as
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  Speaker 1: how to get a job, Just just what's your one
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  Speaker 1: thing that comes to mind? How to get a job
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  Speaker 1: or pursuing it or not pursuing What's what's someone know
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  Speaker 1: or have inside them? Everybody's different, I would say, everyone has.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the things that I have to compete against
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  Speaker 1: is a straight white male or completely different females or
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  Speaker 1: people of color. So um, but I can tell I
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  Speaker 1: can say my experience going to school. I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: was lucky enough to go to Juilliard, to great school,
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  Speaker 1: but by no means guarantees you work at all or
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  Speaker 1: that you'll find a long career because of where you
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  Speaker 1: went to school. But for me, especially coming out of
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  Speaker 1: the military and having all this energy and wanting to
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  Speaker 1: find something to put it in like theater can give you.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about theater culture or military culture.
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  Speaker 1: So to find a place that I could that gave
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  Speaker 1: me that structure was helpful. Thanks very much for spending
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  Speaker 1: time with us. Adam Driver, of course, the actor who'll
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  Speaker 1: be starting next in Martin Scorsese's movie A Silence. And
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  Speaker 1: also he's the founder of arts in the Armed Forces.
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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. Thank you,