Andrew it’s a huge pleasure to sit down
with you on stage and talk to you about
the facets of your career I wanted to
begin by going back to the original
professional facet of acting and just
ask you how did acting enter your life
how did you become an actor how did you
get started good grief I had just gotten
cut from the high school basketball team
and I was moping around the house and my
mother said why don’t you go try out for
the play dear oh my god I want to be in
a play and so I did and it was a musical
Oliver and I was cast as The Artful
Dodger and it’s the best I’ve ever been
it’s that experience I’ve say changed my
life I had that experience that there’s
a famous Tennessee Williams line of a
room that was always half in the dark
was suddenly in the light and that’s the
way I felt about my life at that moment
when I did that play it my life suddenly
made sense to me in a way it hadn’t
before I felt like I belonged in a way
I’d never experienced before I felt
powerful seen and I wanted to be seen
whereas opposed before that I’d been
very reticent than shy and I knew it was
important because I told no one I told I
didn’t tell anyone helpful I just yeah
it was good I liked it yeah when’s the
next one and so then I went to college
for acting and I took it more seriously
it took me more seriously and after two
years of college I was kicked out of
college and got a job as an actor and
then it sort of happened very quickly
for me so that’s how how it began and
after I was kicked out did my first
movie the university called me up and
said do you want to come back right you
can use that as independent study and
you just pay the thirty thousand dollars
and you could just pick up we left off
and that’ll be a semester of independent
study and I said no thank you
what was the first movie and how did
that happen
it was called class it was 19 years old
it happened because a friend of mine I
just gotten kicked out of school because
I didn’t go frankly was the reason I was
in the acting theater program and I went
to all my theater classes but I didn’t
go to my other classes because they just
didn’t interest me and I was 19 and I
didn’t really occur to me you know I
just wanted to do what I want to do and
I didn’t really even notice I was kicked
out of college in a certain way you know
and so anyway there was an ad in the
newspaper called backstage which is the
unemployed actors sort of guide about
wanted 18 vulnerable sensitive to play
lead in the movie and I thought and so I
went and waited with but this many other
18 vulnerable sensitive kids and met a
casting director and chatted for two
minutes and they said come back tomorrow
okay and I went back and back in ten
meetings auditions later I had to lead
the movie this couldn’t happen now I
mean it was different then but that it
wouldn’t happen like that now generally
huh so it was one of those experiences
again of I was completely thrilled and
over the moon but not at all surprised
in a certain way of like well this was
what I just thought my life would be you
know what I mean once acting sort of
asserted itself into my life it just it
just was I didn’t have to make any
decisions I knew and I don’t know how
anything would happen but I didn’t worry
about that at 90 it didn’t occur to me
that I have to figure out how this is
gonna happen I just knew what I wanted
and why I wanted it and just sort of it
was clear and then when it happened it
was like oh my god that’s amazing yeah
cool and then I was utterly unprepared
for it when it did happen because I
wasn’t really bred for success you know
what I mean I didn’t grow up a Kennedy
where you plan for these kind of things
and you know I was utterly unequipped to
handle being successful at very young
but anyway it’s another story that’s how
it started and then one role led to
another but I didn’t work for you
and then I got a job as a Burger King
boy in commercial and I was a Pepsi boy
in the Burger King commercial the Pepsi
boy in a Pepsi blue and white you know
out of outfit with the hat and there was
a girl Elizabeth Shue and access was she
was the Burger King girl and we fell in
love over Pepsi and burgers you know and
so that supported me for a few years
that commercial and then event then I
got another job and then suddenly I got
some jobs very quickly and I was
suddenly a 22 year old star which was
utterly baffling and great you know
great I had to suddenly had a sexual
identity I didn’t have before you know
women very attractive noises great and
there you go you know and then but at no
time did I feel like I was sort of in
charge of my life or my decisions you
know I was just sort of along for the
ride in a certain way and in hindsight
I’ve often said I wouldn’t with success
on anyone under 30 you know because I
just I was clueless about what people
approached me with opportunities to
start planning production companies and
buying material and I’m like yeah huh it
just didn’t occur to me how to build a
career really at that point I mean kids
now are much more savvy and have much
more sort of they’re just more on top of
it at that time where I was I got
another job oh great I got another job
great oh cool I mean I wasn’t offered
movies like people are now you just sort
of know those days you always audition
for jobs and sort of we’re happy to get
the next one so in hindsight and end the
whole thing with all the brat pack stuff
started and all that and that was a very
that’s like where did that come from and
suddenly that took on its own kind of
life mm-hmm and that’s terrified me so I
would do that anyway
when you want to literally you stopped
well withdrew both I mean I my energy
withdrew from it because I felt ill
equipped for it and I didn’t like the
parts that I was doing you know I could
talk about that later when get to the
writing bit but because I had no idea
when I was young that the way you enter
us
a scenario or a scene is very important
you know and that sort of launches you
want a certain trajectory and pedigree
and I just took whatever job came along
and then I started to look back at a
certain point where with this aren’t the
kind of movies I want to be doing but I
didn’t have the wherewithal and/or the
opportunity to sort of alter that too
much you know you only get one chance to
make a first impression kind of thing
and it wasn’t I would I was in a sort of
a trajectory I didn’t really I see how
it happened in hindsight but it wasn’t
particularly my choosing I mean it was
very fortunate no but it wasn’t wouldn’t
have been what I I started out I want to
be a little theatre actor you know
anyhow I do that did that no but it was
so it was an interesting complex time
you know so how did travel writing enter
this equation it entered because at a
certain point in my life I was about
thirty I looked up and said huh you know
well I’m a big believer in sort of the
gap year people going backpacking around
the world or whatever and after college
or after high school and I’ve been
running around a lot making a lot of
movies and things and I just started
traveling basically I started reading
Paul Thoreau’s books which I probably I
suppose changed my life I thought his
books his travel books I like it’s not
what I think his travel early travel
books particularly are really fantastic
and so I started getting reading a lot
of travel literature and I thought it
was very interesting genre you know it’s
sort of a malign genre in a certain way
with but there’s certain when people do
it well they can really capture the
essence of a moment in time in a place
in themselves and in the place so I just
started traveling I just started buying
tickets to places you know buy ticket
into Cape Town and out of door a Salaam
two months later and the rest I just
fill in and I’d go to Southeast Asia and
just go for a while and so I every year
I would do you know cook a couple months
and do that and I started just sort of
writing little things well I wasn’t even
keep a journal in any way but I would
write little scenes
encounters I had with people this for
myself I’d write to sort of scene
between because that’s what I knew how
to do is being seen so I’d write the
scene between me and the kid who picked
me up you know on the moped in Hanoi and
took me around for the day and I would
write that scene I did nothing with them
i sat him in a drawer so it seems like
it was pretty organic for you that the
the notion of how to craft a travel
store how to get a yeah i mean i’m i’m a
feel everything i’ve done it sort of
learned by feel first and then okay now
how do i do it
Jesus okay I have the sort of core
intentions or passions or sort of and
then learned how to make the box mm-hmm
do you travel differently as a travel
writer than you did back when you
weren’t a travel right yeah I talk to
much more people as a travel writer
because you have to you need quotes from
them really I would go to places and and
never talk to anybody sometimes instead
of a great time but I would feel very
just sort of watch and feel what was
going on but I’m much more involved and
engaged when I’m on assignment and much
more sort of pursuing a story you don’t
just land somewhere and go gosh I wonder
what I’m gonna write about this place
what am I gonna write about Vienna it’s
really nice here you know I mean what
taxi driver
yeah I mean what’s my strength so I find
that gives me a purpose you know when
I’m at a in a place and so I’m much more
involved and engaged when I’m on it
Simon yeah but now I never just go
somewhere without thinking either on
assignment or thinking I’m gonna write
about it anyway it’s or I’m ruined in
that way yeah yeah way don’t you I mean
don’t you yeah I’m always thinking
whatever here yeah what’s the story yeah
yeah no vacation doesn’t exist any yeah
but you can write them off now which is
no no I didn’t want to be in Vail skiing
with my family I had this is work it was
recess when you are on the ground in a
place do you find yourself consciously
shaping your your you’re vacuuming up of
information and encounters or are you do
you sort of let yourself go into the
universe and see what serendipity brings
you away yeah I make sure I nail down a
few things when I get there a few lamp
posts along you know sort of hooks along
the way that I know I can swing from one
to the other and then I go I got it I
got to get from here to here
not sure how and then Oh suddenly I meet
the guy selling ice cream who grew up
where you know and then that’ll swing me
to where I’m gonna Lynch pin me to the
next one you know so I’ll have you know
John Gielgud said about acting build a
strong scaffolding and leave the big
moments to chance hmm you know it’s a
bit what I do with the truck you know
get a scaffolding know something so I’m
not suddenly going the day before I
leave Jesus where is it where’s the
story I’ve got all these interesting
counters but what are they add up to so
initially I’m very much in service of
what I think I’m going to write about
and that always alters mm-hmm but
initially I have a pretty good idea and
I guess I don’t trust myself as much to
wing it you know I have a theory that
every everybody a bit especially every
writer has a trip that changed their
life do you have a trip that changed
your life
yeah about 20 years ago now no not less
18mm some around 18 years ago I was in I
walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain
that changed my life yeah and I was in a
bookstore waiting for my girlfriend the
time I just sort of picked up some book
you know and it was some guy who walked
the Camino de Santiago in Spain I just
sort of know that’s kind of weird guys I
bought it and then it sat on my
bookshelf for months and I got on a
plane was getting on a plane I wasn’t
agreed I just grabbed it read it on the
plane when I landed I said I’m going to
do that so I went to and
weeks I guess I I but I know then there
was no internet or anything to find out
anything and I didn’t know I never heard
of the Camino de Santiago which is this
old pilgrims route across the north of
Spain that started in the 8th century
you know the Crusades and reconquest of
Spain from the Moors and so I it was
written by a guy named Jack hit who I
didn’t know I don’t know anyone who
wrote books and so I said he wrote for I
think Harper’s magnum something anyway
called up whatever magazine it was I
said hi I’m looking for jacket hold on
yeah jacket hi jack Wednesday I read
your book it was so cool he’s like you
read my book I said I want to go do that
how do I do it and so he started to tell
me and then he sort of told me and then
I thanks a lot by and I had two more
questions the next day I called him up
again because I can’t talk call me at
home later with that was a mistake and
so he gave me his home phone number so I
called him that night a good listen how
do you how do you I need a backpack and
you know so anything I called him pretty
much everyday and fun his wife saw
dancing phone and Jack’s not in that’s
not it
I so I went to Spain and I walked across
Spain for a month and it was yeah it was
just a transformative experience for me
I found it terrifying and I was lonely
and miserable for most of it and then
something happened and I had sort of one
of those experiences that you have and
it’s just I I went there to see if I
could take care of myself in a certain
way and I didn’t know that at the time
but and I sort of I just discovered that
I was taken care of in a certain way and
we wasn’t a religious experience but it
was some kind of experience that I had
or I felt I weren’t afraid in the world
for the first time be on a deep level
for the first time I had the experience
of being unafraid and I didn’t I was
carried so much fear with me in the
world all the time that I didn’t even
know that I carried it until it was
suddenly absent for
short time and that changed my life and
that started me traveling that
experience yeah that’s great it was
great yeah I’d love to do it again
someday with my son if you want to do it
or my daughter but do that but it’s one
of those things do you really want to go
do those things again you know I don’t
know but it was good yeah it changed my
life
mmm how long did it take a month and
you’re staying in little staying in
little little refugio this little sort
of pilgrim hostels which you know truth
be told at a certain point I was a gold
card pilgrim I just said I can’t where’s
the Pensione you know and then my I
justified this but I want to meet the
locals I don’t want to meet the Germans
walking I want to meet you know the
people who live here and I’m gonna have
that experience that’s you half the time
I slept with the sweaty pilgrims and you
know with my back I’ve rolled out in the
bunk beds and half the time I checked
into little it was great it was great I
much preferred sleeping beans yeah yeah
what is it about travel that just got
inside you and kept you wanted to keep
going to places
what is it the travel does for you I
don’t know I well I dunno I you know
that Mark Twain line that travels fatal
to prejudice bigotry and narrow
mindedness I think that’s a great I
think I my whole soapbox is that if
Americans traveled the world would be an
entirely different place
good twenty-eight percent of Americans
have passports half of those have ever
used them or something like this most of
them go to Mexico or Canada something so
I think Americans are incredibly fearful
of the world and the way we react to
things so when you’re out go out in the
world you realize you have to lay
yourself vulnerable to the world and ask
for help and you become much less
fearful in the world and so I think the
country would be and if our country is
different the world would be a different
place much less fearful place but so for
me travel that’s my soapbox and for me
I’m a great believer I’m sort of drunk
the kool-aid the Tran transformation
that happens when you travel I am a
better version of myself when I travel
I’m happier when I’m trapped
I I come home a better person I just
it’s it’s been great for me in the way I
just bask in being in a place even when
you’re lonely especially I’d like to
travel alone I prefer to travel alone I
get to do less and less of it now but
when you’re lonely and miserable that’s
a full-throated write a lot about just
the drudgery and misery of just being
alone in these places like why am I here
what’s the point
and that’s always the next day you wake
up and suddenly have a start having a
good trip but for me it’s just have been
very transformative experience travel
and I find it very energizing don’t you
I mean oh yeah know what you just said
about being vulnerable in the world is
exactly what I believe that’s what it’s
all about is learning the to be
vulnerable and learning how people will
take care of you if you like yeah and
I’m much less defensive when I’m away
and on the road and you know I’m much
less of a know-it-all and much less I’m
trying to be in control of my world and
because you can’t fit you’re just
absolutely have no idea right sorry can
you can you speak English can you help
me very realize anybody ever said no
right I can’t remember anyone ever
saying no you know and people generally
have a pride about where they live so
they’re kind of into showing you were
healthy unit so I find very interesting
I think those are the four most powerful
words in the English language can you
help me people respond to that totally
yeah these people want to help too
generally outside of Spain what’s been
the most singularly rewarding or FF anak
travel experience that you’ve had
revelatory I had a lot of them you know
I I had a trip across Southeast Asia
that I just I remember 15 years ago I
remember it like was yesterday just very
vivid very Russian
you know sensuous and what is it that
you remember in particular this woman
you know it just you know the kindness
of strangers dawn I mean I find a lot of
my trips er you know like that that’s
like that but you know revelatory you
know I I travel across Africa sort of
alone and without a plan and I found
that just you know blew my mind you know
yeah and you just see the way people
live and you see what people don’t have
and how well they get on with what they
don’t have and you know it’s just being
a citizen of the world you know just
engage and get out of away from staring
at my little life you know and I all my
trips changed my life really you know I
mean accumulation of the trips I’ve
taken really right you know that’s great
yeah what is the hardest part of travel
for you I’m not a good flyer and I hate
flying you know flying sort of I just
don’t fly well I decided a long time ago
wasn’t gonna stop me but I don’t fly
well and I always get jet lag and I’m
miserable on a plane and I can’t relax
on a plane and fall asleep because the
plane might crash if I fall asleep
that’s true
so I don’t have any control issues done
so I don’t know flying um you know horse
parts coming home unpacking you know I
love going I love going anywhere when
I’m out the door and I’m on my way that
first it’s like yeah I miss everybody
but yeah who knows what’s gonna happen
in the next X amount of days I love that
feeling right when you look at your life
do you feel like you’re more an actor or
a director you know I’m just a guy I
don’t know I don’t I don’t think of it
that way my life sort of transitioning
you know I’ll always be the guy was in
pretty pink you know I mean so that’s
that’s that’s okay you know hopefully
I’ll be it some other things too you
know but that’s certainly a part of who
I am and what I you know I wouldn’t be
here sitting here if I didn’t wasn’t in
those movies you know what I mean I may
be a traveller you wouldn’t be just
talking to some travel writer you know
what I mean so it’s part of its given me
opportunities and opened doors for me
and you know certain so it’s it’s just
part of my story yeah it’s all is on
this leading towards something god I
hope so let us know well thank you
Andrew for
you
with you on stage and talk to you about
the facets of your career I wanted to
begin by going back to the original
professional facet of acting and just
ask you how did acting enter your life
how did you become an actor how did you
get started good grief I had just gotten
cut from the high school basketball team
and I was moping around the house and my
mother said why don’t you go try out for
the play dear oh my god I want to be in
a play and so I did and it was a musical
Oliver and I was cast as The Artful
Dodger and it’s the best I’ve ever been
it’s that experience I’ve say changed my
life I had that experience that there’s
a famous Tennessee Williams line of a
room that was always half in the dark
was suddenly in the light and that’s the
way I felt about my life at that moment
when I did that play it my life suddenly
made sense to me in a way it hadn’t
before I felt like I belonged in a way
I’d never experienced before I felt
powerful seen and I wanted to be seen
whereas opposed before that I’d been
very reticent than shy and I knew it was
important because I told no one I told I
didn’t tell anyone helpful I just yeah
it was good I liked it yeah when’s the
next one and so then I went to college
for acting and I took it more seriously
it took me more seriously and after two
years of college I was kicked out of
college and got a job as an actor and
then it sort of happened very quickly
for me so that’s how how it began and
after I was kicked out did my first
movie the university called me up and
said do you want to come back right you
can use that as independent study and
you just pay the thirty thousand dollars
and you could just pick up we left off
and that’ll be a semester of independent
study and I said no thank you
what was the first movie and how did
that happen
it was called class it was 19 years old
it happened because a friend of mine I
just gotten kicked out of school because
I didn’t go frankly was the reason I was
in the acting theater program and I went
to all my theater classes but I didn’t
go to my other classes because they just
didn’t interest me and I was 19 and I
didn’t really occur to me you know I
just wanted to do what I want to do and
I didn’t really even notice I was kicked
out of college in a certain way you know
and so anyway there was an ad in the
newspaper called backstage which is the
unemployed actors sort of guide about
wanted 18 vulnerable sensitive to play
lead in the movie and I thought and so I
went and waited with but this many other
18 vulnerable sensitive kids and met a
casting director and chatted for two
minutes and they said come back tomorrow
okay and I went back and back in ten
meetings auditions later I had to lead
the movie this couldn’t happen now I
mean it was different then but that it
wouldn’t happen like that now generally
huh so it was one of those experiences
again of I was completely thrilled and
over the moon but not at all surprised
in a certain way of like well this was
what I just thought my life would be you
know what I mean once acting sort of
asserted itself into my life it just it
just was I didn’t have to make any
decisions I knew and I don’t know how
anything would happen but I didn’t worry
about that at 90 it didn’t occur to me
that I have to figure out how this is
gonna happen I just knew what I wanted
and why I wanted it and just sort of it
was clear and then when it happened it
was like oh my god that’s amazing yeah
cool and then I was utterly unprepared
for it when it did happen because I
wasn’t really bred for success you know
what I mean I didn’t grow up a Kennedy
where you plan for these kind of things
and you know I was utterly unequipped to
handle being successful at very young
but anyway it’s another story that’s how
it started and then one role led to
another but I didn’t work for you
and then I got a job as a Burger King
boy in commercial and I was a Pepsi boy
in the Burger King commercial the Pepsi
boy in a Pepsi blue and white you know
out of outfit with the hat and there was
a girl Elizabeth Shue and access was she
was the Burger King girl and we fell in
love over Pepsi and burgers you know and
so that supported me for a few years
that commercial and then event then I
got another job and then suddenly I got
some jobs very quickly and I was
suddenly a 22 year old star which was
utterly baffling and great you know
great I had to suddenly had a sexual
identity I didn’t have before you know
women very attractive noises great and
there you go you know and then but at no
time did I feel like I was sort of in
charge of my life or my decisions you
know I was just sort of along for the
ride in a certain way and in hindsight
I’ve often said I wouldn’t with success
on anyone under 30 you know because I
just I was clueless about what people
approached me with opportunities to
start planning production companies and
buying material and I’m like yeah huh it
just didn’t occur to me how to build a
career really at that point I mean kids
now are much more savvy and have much
more sort of they’re just more on top of
it at that time where I was I got
another job oh great I got another job
great oh cool I mean I wasn’t offered
movies like people are now you just sort
of know those days you always audition
for jobs and sort of we’re happy to get
the next one so in hindsight and end the
whole thing with all the brat pack stuff
started and all that and that was a very
that’s like where did that come from and
suddenly that took on its own kind of
life mm-hmm and that’s terrified me so I
would do that anyway
when you want to literally you stopped
well withdrew both I mean I my energy
withdrew from it because I felt ill
equipped for it and I didn’t like the
parts that I was doing you know I could
talk about that later when get to the
writing bit but because I had no idea
when I was young that the way you enter
us
a scenario or a scene is very important
you know and that sort of launches you
want a certain trajectory and pedigree
and I just took whatever job came along
and then I started to look back at a
certain point where with this aren’t the
kind of movies I want to be doing but I
didn’t have the wherewithal and/or the
opportunity to sort of alter that too
much you know you only get one chance to
make a first impression kind of thing
and it wasn’t I would I was in a sort of
a trajectory I didn’t really I see how
it happened in hindsight but it wasn’t
particularly my choosing I mean it was
very fortunate no but it wasn’t wouldn’t
have been what I I started out I want to
be a little theatre actor you know
anyhow I do that did that no but it was
so it was an interesting complex time
you know so how did travel writing enter
this equation it entered because at a
certain point in my life I was about
thirty I looked up and said huh you know
well I’m a big believer in sort of the
gap year people going backpacking around
the world or whatever and after college
or after high school and I’ve been
running around a lot making a lot of
movies and things and I just started
traveling basically I started reading
Paul Thoreau’s books which I probably I
suppose changed my life I thought his
books his travel books I like it’s not
what I think his travel early travel
books particularly are really fantastic
and so I started getting reading a lot
of travel literature and I thought it
was very interesting genre you know it’s
sort of a malign genre in a certain way
with but there’s certain when people do
it well they can really capture the
essence of a moment in time in a place
in themselves and in the place so I just
started traveling I just started buying
tickets to places you know buy ticket
into Cape Town and out of door a Salaam
two months later and the rest I just
fill in and I’d go to Southeast Asia and
just go for a while and so I every year
I would do you know cook a couple months
and do that and I started just sort of
writing little things well I wasn’t even
keep a journal in any way but I would
write little scenes
encounters I had with people this for
myself I’d write to sort of scene
between because that’s what I knew how
to do is being seen so I’d write the
scene between me and the kid who picked
me up you know on the moped in Hanoi and
took me around for the day and I would
write that scene I did nothing with them
i sat him in a drawer so it seems like
it was pretty organic for you that the
the notion of how to craft a travel
store how to get a yeah i mean i’m i’m a
feel everything i’ve done it sort of
learned by feel first and then okay now
how do i do it
Jesus okay I have the sort of core
intentions or passions or sort of and
then learned how to make the box mm-hmm
do you travel differently as a travel
writer than you did back when you
weren’t a travel right yeah I talk to
much more people as a travel writer
because you have to you need quotes from
them really I would go to places and and
never talk to anybody sometimes instead
of a great time but I would feel very
just sort of watch and feel what was
going on but I’m much more involved and
engaged when I’m on assignment and much
more sort of pursuing a story you don’t
just land somewhere and go gosh I wonder
what I’m gonna write about this place
what am I gonna write about Vienna it’s
really nice here you know I mean what
taxi driver
yeah I mean what’s my strength so I find
that gives me a purpose you know when
I’m at a in a place and so I’m much more
involved and engaged when I’m on it
Simon yeah but now I never just go
somewhere without thinking either on
assignment or thinking I’m gonna write
about it anyway it’s or I’m ruined in
that way yeah yeah way don’t you I mean
don’t you yeah I’m always thinking
whatever here yeah what’s the story yeah
yeah no vacation doesn’t exist any yeah
but you can write them off now which is
no no I didn’t want to be in Vail skiing
with my family I had this is work it was
recess when you are on the ground in a
place do you find yourself consciously
shaping your your you’re vacuuming up of
information and encounters or are you do
you sort of let yourself go into the
universe and see what serendipity brings
you away yeah I make sure I nail down a
few things when I get there a few lamp
posts along you know sort of hooks along
the way that I know I can swing from one
to the other and then I go I got it I
got to get from here to here
not sure how and then Oh suddenly I meet
the guy selling ice cream who grew up
where you know and then that’ll swing me
to where I’m gonna Lynch pin me to the
next one you know so I’ll have you know
John Gielgud said about acting build a
strong scaffolding and leave the big
moments to chance hmm you know it’s a
bit what I do with the truck you know
get a scaffolding know something so I’m
not suddenly going the day before I
leave Jesus where is it where’s the
story I’ve got all these interesting
counters but what are they add up to so
initially I’m very much in service of
what I think I’m going to write about
and that always alters mm-hmm but
initially I have a pretty good idea and
I guess I don’t trust myself as much to
wing it you know I have a theory that
every everybody a bit especially every
writer has a trip that changed their
life do you have a trip that changed
your life
yeah about 20 years ago now no not less
18mm some around 18 years ago I was in I
walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain
that changed my life yeah and I was in a
bookstore waiting for my girlfriend the
time I just sort of picked up some book
you know and it was some guy who walked
the Camino de Santiago in Spain I just
sort of know that’s kind of weird guys I
bought it and then it sat on my
bookshelf for months and I got on a
plane was getting on a plane I wasn’t
agreed I just grabbed it read it on the
plane when I landed I said I’m going to
do that so I went to and
weeks I guess I I but I know then there
was no internet or anything to find out
anything and I didn’t know I never heard
of the Camino de Santiago which is this
old pilgrims route across the north of
Spain that started in the 8th century
you know the Crusades and reconquest of
Spain from the Moors and so I it was
written by a guy named Jack hit who I
didn’t know I don’t know anyone who
wrote books and so I said he wrote for I
think Harper’s magnum something anyway
called up whatever magazine it was I
said hi I’m looking for jacket hold on
yeah jacket hi jack Wednesday I read
your book it was so cool he’s like you
read my book I said I want to go do that
how do I do it and so he started to tell
me and then he sort of told me and then
I thanks a lot by and I had two more
questions the next day I called him up
again because I can’t talk call me at
home later with that was a mistake and
so he gave me his home phone number so I
called him that night a good listen how
do you how do you I need a backpack and
you know so anything I called him pretty
much everyday and fun his wife saw
dancing phone and Jack’s not in that’s
not it
I so I went to Spain and I walked across
Spain for a month and it was yeah it was
just a transformative experience for me
I found it terrifying and I was lonely
and miserable for most of it and then
something happened and I had sort of one
of those experiences that you have and
it’s just I I went there to see if I
could take care of myself in a certain
way and I didn’t know that at the time
but and I sort of I just discovered that
I was taken care of in a certain way and
we wasn’t a religious experience but it
was some kind of experience that I had
or I felt I weren’t afraid in the world
for the first time be on a deep level
for the first time I had the experience
of being unafraid and I didn’t I was
carried so much fear with me in the
world all the time that I didn’t even
know that I carried it until it was
suddenly absent for
short time and that changed my life and
that started me traveling that
experience yeah that’s great it was
great yeah I’d love to do it again
someday with my son if you want to do it
or my daughter but do that but it’s one
of those things do you really want to go
do those things again you know I don’t
know but it was good yeah it changed my
life
mmm how long did it take a month and
you’re staying in little staying in
little little refugio this little sort
of pilgrim hostels which you know truth
be told at a certain point I was a gold
card pilgrim I just said I can’t where’s
the Pensione you know and then my I
justified this but I want to meet the
locals I don’t want to meet the Germans
walking I want to meet you know the
people who live here and I’m gonna have
that experience that’s you half the time
I slept with the sweaty pilgrims and you
know with my back I’ve rolled out in the
bunk beds and half the time I checked
into little it was great it was great I
much preferred sleeping beans yeah yeah
what is it about travel that just got
inside you and kept you wanted to keep
going to places
what is it the travel does for you I
don’t know I well I dunno I you know
that Mark Twain line that travels fatal
to prejudice bigotry and narrow
mindedness I think that’s a great I
think I my whole soapbox is that if
Americans traveled the world would be an
entirely different place
good twenty-eight percent of Americans
have passports half of those have ever
used them or something like this most of
them go to Mexico or Canada something so
I think Americans are incredibly fearful
of the world and the way we react to
things so when you’re out go out in the
world you realize you have to lay
yourself vulnerable to the world and ask
for help and you become much less
fearful in the world and so I think the
country would be and if our country is
different the world would be a different
place much less fearful place but so for
me travel that’s my soapbox and for me
I’m a great believer I’m sort of drunk
the kool-aid the Tran transformation
that happens when you travel I am a
better version of myself when I travel
I’m happier when I’m trapped
I I come home a better person I just
it’s it’s been great for me in the way I
just bask in being in a place even when
you’re lonely especially I’d like to
travel alone I prefer to travel alone I
get to do less and less of it now but
when you’re lonely and miserable that’s
a full-throated write a lot about just
the drudgery and misery of just being
alone in these places like why am I here
what’s the point
and that’s always the next day you wake
up and suddenly have a start having a
good trip but for me it’s just have been
very transformative experience travel
and I find it very energizing don’t you
I mean oh yeah know what you just said
about being vulnerable in the world is
exactly what I believe that’s what it’s
all about is learning the to be
vulnerable and learning how people will
take care of you if you like yeah and
I’m much less defensive when I’m away
and on the road and you know I’m much
less of a know-it-all and much less I’m
trying to be in control of my world and
because you can’t fit you’re just
absolutely have no idea right sorry can
you can you speak English can you help
me very realize anybody ever said no
right I can’t remember anyone ever
saying no you know and people generally
have a pride about where they live so
they’re kind of into showing you were
healthy unit so I find very interesting
I think those are the four most powerful
words in the English language can you
help me people respond to that totally
yeah these people want to help too
generally outside of Spain what’s been
the most singularly rewarding or FF anak
travel experience that you’ve had
revelatory I had a lot of them you know
I I had a trip across Southeast Asia
that I just I remember 15 years ago I
remember it like was yesterday just very
vivid very Russian
you know sensuous and what is it that
you remember in particular this woman
you know it just you know the kindness
of strangers dawn I mean I find a lot of
my trips er you know like that that’s
like that but you know revelatory you
know I I travel across Africa sort of
alone and without a plan and I found
that just you know blew my mind you know
yeah and you just see the way people
live and you see what people don’t have
and how well they get on with what they
don’t have and you know it’s just being
a citizen of the world you know just
engage and get out of away from staring
at my little life you know and I all my
trips changed my life really you know I
mean accumulation of the trips I’ve
taken really right you know that’s great
yeah what is the hardest part of travel
for you I’m not a good flyer and I hate
flying you know flying sort of I just
don’t fly well I decided a long time ago
wasn’t gonna stop me but I don’t fly
well and I always get jet lag and I’m
miserable on a plane and I can’t relax
on a plane and fall asleep because the
plane might crash if I fall asleep
that’s true
so I don’t have any control issues done
so I don’t know flying um you know horse
parts coming home unpacking you know I
love going I love going anywhere when
I’m out the door and I’m on my way that
first it’s like yeah I miss everybody
but yeah who knows what’s gonna happen
in the next X amount of days I love that
feeling right when you look at your life
do you feel like you’re more an actor or
a director you know I’m just a guy I
don’t know I don’t I don’t think of it
that way my life sort of transitioning
you know I’ll always be the guy was in
pretty pink you know I mean so that’s
that’s that’s okay you know hopefully
I’ll be it some other things too you
know but that’s certainly a part of who
I am and what I you know I wouldn’t be
here sitting here if I didn’t wasn’t in
those movies you know what I mean I may
be a traveller you wouldn’t be just
talking to some travel writer you know
what I mean so it’s part of its given me
opportunities and opened doors for me
and you know certain so it’s it’s just
part of my story yeah it’s all is on
this leading towards something god I
hope so let us know well thank you
Andrew for
you
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