Inside the Actors Studio with Eric Devendorf

(Syracuse Guard Eric Devendorf’s interview of Daniel Day-Lewis if Devendorf was asked to sit in for James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio)

Eric: What up Danny?

Daniel: I’m sorry?

Eric: I said, what up Danny? What’s really good?

Daniel: Um…I…don’t know.

Eric: Ah’ight, Ah’ight.

Daniel: I’m sorry. I'm afraid I don't know...

Eric: I saw you in Last of the Mohicans, dog.

Daniel: Did you? Well, I was in that movie.

Eric: Dude, you was kind of holdin’ it down out there. I was like, “What?”

Daniel: What?

Eric: When you had that British army guy burned alive, I was like, “Shit is deadly, son. Are you serious?”

Daniel: Serious about what? And Nathaniel did not have Duncan burned alive. Duncan decided…

Eric: Whatever, man. I’m just messin’ wit' you.

Daniel: Oh…

Eric: Who wrote that shit?

Daniel: What shit are you referring to?

Eric: You know, the movie. Stop playing.

Daniel: Well, the movie was actually based on the classic novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The screenplay was…

Eric: James Fenimore who?

Daniel: James Fenimore Cooper

Eric: (laughing) Sounds like a fairy.

Daniel: What do you mean?

Eric: Aw, so it’s like that?

Daniel: Like what? I assure you that I have not the faintest clue what you are talking about.

Eric: So, next you were in My Left Foot.

Daniel: No, actually My Left Foot was released three years before Last of the Mohicans.

Eric: And I heard you pretended like you were in a wheelchair in that movie.

Daniel: Well, yes, my role called for…

Eric: Have you seen me ball?

Daniel: What?

Eric: Have you seen me play ball on TV?

Daniel: I’m afraid I have not. What sort of ball do you play?

Eric: Aw, you real funny. You a comedian. Danny’s got jokes.

Daniel: I truly don’t know what you are talking about.

Eric: Someone told me you quit acting to cobble shoes.

Daniel: Yes, I stopped acting for a period of time and took an apprenticeship as a cobbler.

Eric: That’s crazy.

Daniel: Actually, not at all. I needed something real in my life. I needed to get away from all of this (gesturing at the set and audience with his hands).

Eric: What?

Daniel: I needed something I could touch, something I could feel.

Eric: Aw, that’s straight. I feel you. This guy…he lived down the street from me where I grew up…he had all this crazy talent. One of the smartest cats I knew. No doubt. Crazy smart. Like Einstein, dog. Anyway, one day he was applying to all these schools. Trying to get his grind on, you know? And next thing you know, he’s like, “forget all this shit.” And I’m like, “Holla at a playa all day,” you know?

Daniel: I suppose…

Eric: So what’s next for Daniel Day-Lewis?

Daniel: I will be appearing in There Will Be Blood, a film adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s…

Eric: (laughing) Shutup, man. You stupid.

Daniel: What?

Eric: I just remembered a scene in Last of the Mohicans that messed me up.

Daniel: Yes?

Eric: When that Indian tears the heart out the old white dude’s stomach. Shit’s crazy right there.

Daniel: I can see…

Eric: Indian was like, “I’m going to wipe out all your children.” And then I think he takes the heart and eats that shit. I’m sittin’ there like, “Oh damn. This dude is crazy.”

Daniel: I think we’re done here.

Eric: That’s straight. (Daniel stands up, takes mic off, and begins to walk off the set.) Yo, Danny, keep grindin’. Hold me down, baby! Hold me down!