When you're an actor, people talk a lot about how, at some point, you really have to take control of your career and what you want to do and create your own content. But for me it came from a really natural place of wanting to feel like what you're putting in the world has some meaning for you.
Ari GraynorWhen you look at all of the male characters on television and in film, it's not like every one of them are the people doing the right thing that you can point to as your own moral compass.
Ari GraynorMost people, no matter what they do, they don't think they're a bad person. The place where their actions are coming from is a complicated place and a whole personal history. I definitely think that it helped me to look at the world a little less judgmentally.
Ari GraynorI started doing community theater when I was seven and I think the intent was just expression. When you're a musician, you can make music in your room, and when you're a writer, you can write. Acting is one of the tricky art forms where you need a certain amount of permission to be able to do it. You can talk to yourself in the mirror, but it's different than actually acting or doing a scene. You need an audience and you need someone else to do it with.
Ari Graynor