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BILLY Hearing people warming up their voices in the alley--

CHRIS I get butterflies just talking about it. And the butterflies are the best part.

LAURA At 7:30, you know where you're going to be. The ritual of theater is great, and as the show goes on, it gets deeper and deeper. There's a sense of passing-down in theater that I love. A tradition of the character actors helping the ingenues, of the--

BILLY Don't you mean hitting on the ingenues?

LAURA Well, that too! But there's a real pride in older actors helping younger actors, and it just doesn't happen in film. There isn't time.

JEFFREY That's the way I learned, really. Watching them work. About 10 years ago, I was doing Shakespeare in the Park, Othello with Raul Julia and Chris Walken. And I played the third cypress tree from the left. A good part, because I got a good view. Every day I watched, and got a lesson in personalizing Shakespeare.

EW Do you partake in the rituals and superstitions of theater?

LAURA It's like I turn into Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets. There are certain things I have to do every night, or else I'm terrified the whole show is gonna fall apart!

JEFFREY Wait, last night, did I put my left shoe on first...? CHRIS I have a lot of quirks, and it carries over into the theater.

JASON You're still wearing the same socks you wore in Scent of a Woman, right?

CHRIS Actually, the same thong. But it's in fashion now, so it's okay.

EW Do any of you ever get scared?

CHRIS Oh, yeah. The first night we did [Luck] last summer. I didn't sleep for four or five days. I was a wreck.

JEFFREY I used to get really worked up. Now, fear is a component, but it's not the largest component. I just kind of start vibrating.

CHRIS [Slightly alarmed] Kind of like this building? What is that?

BILLY, LAURA, and JEFFREY [Simultaneously] The subway.

CHRIS Ohhhh.

JEFFREY What's most frightening now--because I'm doing a few other things at the same time--is being stuck in traffic at 7:24....[Screams of laughter from all]

BILLY No! No! I can't handle that!

CHRIS What time do you guys like to get to the stage?

LAURA I'm always there at six. I'm always the first one there.

JASON I get there about 6:30. Nobody beats Kathleen Turner.

CHRIS She gets there early, huh?

JASON Way early. It's cool. She does yoga on stage.

LAURA You're like a homing pigeon. It's your whole day. The one thing I always forget is, I think, Oh, I'm gonna do a play, I'm going to have my days free, I'm going to be so relaxed. And then you wake up, and it's like, Countdown to 7:30. It's like an undertow.

EW How aware are you of the audience?

BILLY That's why I go do the play--so I can watch the audience!

JASON The opening night of American Pie, I stood in the back and watched the audience reaction--and that's all you can get from a movie. I remember thinking, God, I want this day in and day out! I mean, it's nice when 40 crew members are laughing, but to be able to perform for people every night is amazing.


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