Keeping It Real

Erin Walsh Hello Paul! Thank you so much for taking time from your schedule to wander the streets of NYC for your photo shoot. And for agreeing to let us bother you with some questions. Here at SBJCT, we concern ourselves with individuals we find to be extraordinary, who are doing extraordinary things. I would love to get into your process a bit. But first, tell us about your beginnings. And training as an actor, I understand you went to NYU Tisch for acting like I  did. What was that like for you, especially arriving here from Oklahoma?

Paul Sparks I was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in the 1970’s. My mother and father, Mike and Jane Sparks, were both school teachers. My father was a high school history teacher and an administrator, my mother taught elementary school. I had an older brother, David. We moved quite a bit when I was young. I lived in 7 or 8 different small towns before we moved to Marlow, Oklahoma when I was going into the 5th grade. I would live in Marlow until I graduated high school. Notably, my father was also the head football coach in town. This was sort of like being the Mayor, at least it felt like to me. We always had a certain celebrity in town, not the type of celebrity that provides advantage and free stuff, though, the type that makes you feel separate and scrutinized. That said, it was a pretty great place to grow up. I had a lot of freedom, spent a lot of time outside, played sports, and lived a sheltered childhood without much trauma. When I was a freshman in high school, my dad made me take a speech and drama class. Ultimately, that decision would shape my life profoundly. A string of people and events would combine to create my circuitous and totally normal-abnormal route to becoming an actor. I won’t bore you with the details. Most working actors have a complicated and totally outrageous story about how they got here, mine is like theirs. I moved to New York in August of 1992. I had transferred from Oklahoma State University to New York University Tisch and studied acting at the Circle in the Square school. I would later also study with Playwright’s Horizons and the Experimental Theater Wing. I think it was helpful being 20 years old when I arrived in New York. I arrived full of fear and humility but also with a fair amount of awareness as to the opportunity before me. It was immediately clear to me there was so much to learn and to say that I was in shock was to underestimate how overwhelming living in Manhattan was, there were more people living in my dorm than lived in the town I grew up in, but it worked out. My experience is that people are people no matter who you are.

EW What were your first impressions of New York City? How has your relationship with the city evolved over the years?

PS I loved New York City the moment I arrived here. It felt like I belonged from the very start. It’s a city that feels like a small town sometimes. It’s a conflagration of stories like mine made up by a community of people that celebrate differences in people. I have always felt welcome here. I have been young, middle-aged, with a family, a bachelor, I have been poor and had money and everything in between, and the city has always supported me. It challenges you and demands of you and it feels like there is a big hand on your back pushing you through the streets and as a person with somewhat reclusive instincts, those forces were and remain essential ingredients on the quest to be my best self. As an actor, I travel a lot, and I enjoy traveling but I also love coming home to New York City.

EW What do you most like about being an actor? Currently, in any case? And at the beginning?

PS When I was in high school, I wanted to be a Chemical Engineer. And specifically, I want to solve problems in a lab. I loved the idea of taking things and pulling them apart in order to discover their essence and at the same time, combining things thoughtfully in order to create substances that were used to solve problems. About mid-way through my freshman year at Oklahoma State I realized I was going to be a pretty average scientist and perhaps more importantly, I realized the lab can be a lonely place. Acting is the same in many ways, but it’s not lonely. There is analysis and creation and problem solving but there are also connection between people. In the beginning I couldn’t have predicted how life changing and enriching it was going to be to connect with others. You look in their eyes. Windows to the soul and all that, looking inside a person and sharing yourself with that person, it’s life changing. Strangely that exchange doesn’t happen very often in real life.

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EW I ask this often of actors- what are you thoughts on the POINT of acting. Why act? Why be an actor? Why is it relevant and why does it resonate with  you?

PS I’ve always appreciated the absurdity of acting as a profession. I’m not sure what the ‘point’ of acting is- that said, I am fairly certain it’s not ‘pointLESS.’ And I don’t know why others do it. I guess if you look at the enormous demand for actor filled content it leads one to believe it must be relevant, and essential to Western civilization. But we also devote a lot of resources to professional football and soft drinks so….

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EW What do you consider your social responsibilities as an artist?

PS This is a hard one. I was speaking with someone I admire and they asked me if was possible to “do what you do and also do good?” It’s not immediately obvious to me what I am supposed to be doing with regard to social responsibility. People often talk about passing down stories, being a mirror and reflecting who we are to ourselves – and I agree, I think those things are important. To entertain seems to be of some social value. Personally, I do believe there is something inherently political about performance, for better or worse. To some extent, you are responsible for what you present to the world. But that is a slippery slope for me to reflect upon. Mostly, I keep my head down and work on what’s in front of me. Perhaps I should do more that is socially responsible, I don’t know.

EW What social responsibilities are you trying to instill in your children?

PS Be a good neighbor. It all starts with being a good member of your community and taking care of yourself, your family, and your neighbors.

EW Do you find parenting in New York City to be challenging?

PS Parenting is challenging. I’ll leave it at that.

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EW What are you thoughts on universal consciousness and interconnectivity- like in terms of human existence. Sorry for the left field question, but you are a man who bares his soul on film! I am curious if you see a reason to us being there, if you believe in God, you know, your thoughts on the WHY of it. And  perhaps that related to your chosen vocation in some way. I hope this isn’t a leading question.

PS I’m not sure why we are here. Regardless, I think we, humanoids, are always in search of that which makes us feel ‘at home in the world.’ Subconsciously, my guiding principle is: ‘find ways to feel like I am supposed to be Here.” I’m a counter-enlightenment existentialist, gulp, and I also believe in the theory of Eternal Recurrence -that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space- (double gulp) therefore, I make choices and risks in an effort to live my best life. As for God, nah, but I do believe it is an elegant universe, I believe in karma, and I believe the buddhists seem to have a point. All that is to say, the absurdity of being a professional actor makes a lot of sense to me.

EW Favorite dinner companion?

PS My Annie.

EW Favorite smell?

PS Patchouli, and I’m not sorry about it.

EW Last thoughts as you lie awake at night?

PS Nothing consistent enough to list as an answer to this question.

EW What are you most passionate about besides your vocation?

PS My family.

EW Whats your relationship to running? How far can you go?

PS It’s a pretty good relationship. Mostly, we like one another, although I need her more than she needs me. I’ve run a couple marathons but I like to think I could run farther.

EW Talk to us about Arts in the Armed Forces and its mission… And its running. And Adam Driver.

PS My pals Adam Driver and his wife Joanne Tucker started this charity back in 2008 and I have had the good fortune to participate a couple times and it is a really special organization. It brings plays and monologues from plays via casual, no-bells-or-whistles, staged readings right to the Armed Forces Base. and is focused on the artistry of the writers and the performers. And not only is there the performance but the Artists spend the day with the servicemen and servicewomen learning about and from each other. It’s pretty cool. So I raised money for them by running the NYC Marathon. As for Adam Driver, he is a good fellow. We did a movie together a long time ago. Now he’s in everything and great in everything he’s in. I like and respect him a lot. My oldest is impressed that I know him.

EW What is really moving you these days? What is your SBJCT? Meaning, what really is IT that kind of sums up what you are seeking, at least at this moment in time?

PS I am thinking a lot about minimalism. Being more ‘materialistic’. Meaning, I pay attention and am picky about the material in my life. I want surround myself only with the things I love, those things that bring me joy and have meaning to me. I think I have too much stuff I don’t need or use. I long to be more focused and make a smaller footprint. It’s aspirational, I know, but I should make haste. I mean, the ocean’s are rising. At the very least, it’s less to carry as I run inland from the shore.

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