What could pull the heartstrings of our afflicted nation tighter than a story of brief, emotional setback suffered by a handsome movie star? There’s a section where the director lands his opening spiel on the cast as they gather together for the first time, I found it astounding in its power and impact. The consensus, he begins to hear, is that he must relinquish his unearned sense of specialness and stop trying to make sure everybody likes him.

Con una prosa sincera y valiente, no exenta de humor, Hawke revela al lector los entresijos del mundo de la interpretación, donde los oropeles y las limusinas se dan la mano con la ansiedad y el desgarro más devastadores. I do believe that the power of the words will shine through in the written text, but I’m totally convinced the way to go with this one is to listen to the reading of the book by the gravelly voiced man himself.Hawke is a genius at conjuring the hush of the auditorium, the thrill of live actors, the magical sense of a performance moving through time. He must examine himself, and who he has become, under the brightest of lights and the keenest of eyes.

There's definitely some male fantasy stuff happening re: the women in this book and there are problems to pick at this -- but also, the relationship particularly between William and the woman playing Lady Percy speaks to a depth of understanding about showmances that people outside of the theater can't ever really comprehend. I’m not gonna say the book isn’t entertaining ‘cause it is, but man-oh-man I wish EH would get out of his own way.La rabbia e l’ardore lo sostengono, insieme a un desiderio confuso di riscatto e di rivalsa che lotta contro la tentazione di lasciarsi semplicemente andare a fondo. Amid the endless pandemic lockdown, reading this novel with its spirited scene-by-scene reenactments is the closest I’ve gotten to live theater in 10 months. Recognizing the elements of his life that were always just puffs of fantasy is an excruciating process — harder than getting stabbed to death eight times a week. But you don’t need a theater background to enjoy this first-person tale of a self-involved drug-addled film actor who’s destroyed his marriage by cheating and, in the throes of anxiety and self-pity, is making his Broadway debut in a production of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Inside the play it felt possible that I was not a person defined by his adultery, or his unloving parents, or his lies, his failure as a father.