Dan Seed (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Big Ideas, a podcast from Texas State University. I'm your host, Dan Seed from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. This month we're joined by one of our newest faculty members who is also likely a familiar face to fans of television and film. It's Richard Robisho, a veteran actor and Texas native whose credits include the films, oceans Eight, Bernie Boyhood in the Book of Love and on tv, big Shot Law and Order, and Better Off. Ted Richard has a couple of film projects in the works, coming to a theater near you, which we'll talk about, and he is also the newest member of the Department of Theater and Dance Faculty. Welcome Richard Robo. Thank you so much for being here.
Richard Robichaux (00:38):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad to be at Texas State,
Dan Seed (00:41):
And I'm sure you get this question whenever you talk about your career, but we'll start off. We'd like to get to know our guest. Is there a moment that you remember when you decided, yep, this is for me. I want to be an actor, this is what I want to do?
Richard Robichaux (00:54):
Oh, well, absolutely. I think there's a great question. William Stafford, who's a great poet, was asked the question of when did he decide he was going to be a poet and he responded to the interviewer. When did you decide you wouldn't be a poet? Because I think all of us were actors. I think all of us were poets at some point and just some of us stopped and some of us kept doing it. I just kept doing it. I was convinced that the ice cream man was sort of the job to have, so the ice cream man would come and I thought that looks like something I'd be interested in and then took, I remember the day there was a long look at the ice cream man, and I was like, maybe that's not the career choice for me, and I wanted to be an actor.
(01:35):
I remember watching The Jeffersons and I was interested in the show. I loved it so much. I loved television so much, but I was watching the credits. This was me growing up in East Texas and I thought, now I wonder who made this up. I look and it said makeup and the name was Kathleen something, something, and I thought, oh, she makes it up. Okay, that's the woman who makes up the show. That's when you know this person really has an affinity for this of I was the kid who was waiting for the credits to see who makes up The Jeffersons. I think it's been since I was very, very young.
Dan Seed (02:11):
So a Lifelong Love, and then you progressed through school and do you remember that first time you were on stage, what that was like? I assume it was a play in school at some point.
Richard Robichaux (02:22):
Yeah, it was, and I tell you that's why I still do education. My background was my parents were very young when they had me. They were both 16, 17. They then split and it was mostly it was my mom and and my dad, but never, we didn't go to the theater. That's not like what we did. I found the theater in school. So many of the students here at Texas State, they found it in their schools, which is why arts is so important in education. I also had a speech impediment that was a teacher that helped me get rid of that, and then now I speak for a living just so the debt I owe teachers has yet to go on pay. It's just not paid yet. So I just keep teaching and hopefully I'll pay it off today. Do
Dan Seed (03:05):
You have a role or a project that stands out to you throughout your career that you point to and say, this is my great achievement, or this was the most fun I ever had, or something that you really look back fondly on?
Richard Robichaux (03:18):
Oh, it's like, that's Sophie's choice, Dan. They're all my babies. Every single project is so personal and it's so tied to my personal development as a man and as a family man, as a son, as an uncle, it's all tied up in that. So every project has special memories. I will tell you that I recently, my son really wants to be in film and he wants to be a filmmaker. He's not interested in being in front of the camera. He's 15, so I guess he was about five when I shot my first year on the film, boyhood that was nominated for six Academy Awards. That movie was about a boy growing up. Well, that movie is I'm so proud of. I'm so proud to even just be in it. Well, then a cut to just a few months ago, my son, who's now 15, wants to watch Boyhood and I sit there next to him and we watch Boyhood, and I remember when he was five when I was shooting it, and now he's a young man wanting to, it was like a Russian doll. I mean, it was so meta in so many different ways. I thought, wow, what an amazing life that I have that I have these time capsules that I can share with my children. But also that movie particularly, I just bawled like a baby. I don't know if you're a parent, but was a pretty big moment for me. Yeah,
Dan Seed (04:53):
It's a fantastic film. It predates my children coming into the world, but I think you're right that once you have children, you look at that film very differently. I was going to ask you about it later in our interview, but since you brought it up, what was that experience like? I mean, to shoot a movie over the course of time like that? I mean, that was just such an innovative process that Link later went through with that film. Walk us through that.
Richard Robichaux (05:17):
Well, I knew he was doing that project. I had done a film with him called Bernie, and we all knew that Rick had this secret movie that he was doing that was at that point was titled The 12 Year Project, and I just thought I kind of knew the idea of it. I thought, oh man, I want to be a part of that a, because I'm a fan of film and I want to do good work, and it just sounded like something that would be so memorable. Well, when we started, whenever he asked me to do it, he called and said, Hey, the boy in this movie is 16 now, so he needs a car, I think in this year, and if he has a car, well then he probably needs a job, and if he has a job, well then he probably needs a boss and if he needs a boss, Richard Rob show, right.
(06:05):
It was such a great compliment, and he said, so what do you think? So I met with er, Eller Coltrane who played Mason, and I met with Rick Linkletter, who's the director, and discussed where he would work, what it would be, and we really had a sort of brainstorm session. Rick is a great listener. Then Rick goes off and comes back a few months later and then it's written and then it is what it is, and we shot that, and then that movie came out and I was doing a little press for it. One of the things that I said was, at first I thought, oh yeah, if you've ever had children, this is a really important movie. And then I changed it because I was like, if you've ever been a child, this is a really important movie because Gus, my son 15, when he watched it, he said to me, he said, I think it's the most human movie I've ever seen.
(06:51):
And I thought, what a compliment to this film, because he said, because it sneaks up on you. He was like, it just felt like human beings. That's just a special movie, special special movie. And then to be working at Texas State, this is so brilliant, Dan, and I'm so happy to be here. So I'm teaching on camera acting to some of the students in the theater program, and we have Boyhood Alley on the Square, which was named after the Great Long Walk and Talk that one take scene. So I had the students do that scene in that alley directed by an actor who's from the movie again, another Russian doll. It was just like, do all these nesting dolls. But oh man, it was so meaningful for us to do that, and then I sent that to Ethan Hawke and to Linkletter and let them know that we had done it. They just loved it. I sent it to Ella and told them all, but that's why it's special to be here.
Dan Seed (07:45):
Well, I was going to say, what a great experience and a great segue into talking about your teaching. You gave a quote in an interview where you said that your acting career is meaningful, but then you went on to say, I want a life that had meaning, not just fame. That's where your teaching career comes in. What for you is so meaningful about teaching that not necessarily you can't get from acting, but just differentiate that makes that full Richard Robes show?
Richard Robichaux (08:14):
Well, for me, the personal one-on-one impact of, I'm a first generation college student. I love Texas State because of its high population of first generation college students, and so many of my students, I feel like, which I say to them, the distance between the chair I'm currently sitting in and the chair you're sitting in feels like the Grand Canyon right now,
(08:41):
But it's possible. And I stand here as a model of that I'm not rich and famous. It's not that idea of what we think of as actors when we're young. It's not all fame. It's not being fancy to strangers. It's about the day-to-Day. Like I live my life as an artist and I'm a kid from East Texas, first generation college student, literally like many of the students I talked to this afternoon. That's what means so much to me that I can be a model for them to say, Hey, I have a family. I have a great life. I live here in Texas. My kids know their grandparents, and I'll be off shooting somewhere soon. I can have it all.
Dan Seed (09:26):
And you've taught for our audience, you've taught it at schools that are well-known, Julliard, Yale, Penn State, uc, San Diego. You chaired the number three acting program in the country and now you're here. You've talked about why you love it, but what about Texas State made it a place that made you come here and you brought your family with you to be back in Texas and to work at this place? Why this university?
Richard Robichaux (09:54):
Well, I think I remember seeing shows here 20 years ago, and I've been a guest here. This theater department has brought me in as a guest artist to teach on camera acting workshops for a weekend or something like this. Then when I was the head of these big grad programs at Penn State and at UCSD at Penn State, I recruited two students from here, Janique Mitchell. And then whenever I went on to UCSD, I recruited another student from here, Jada Owens, who's also from Texas, I mean, who's from New Orleans. And then she was just on campus last week and now I'm here. I was looking at this amazing full circle moment, but so I was always a fan of this program. Then many working individuals. Covid made me rethink my relationship to my work and my wife's family is from South Carolina. My family is here in Texas and Louisiana, and they hadn't seen their grandkids in a year.
(10:53):
We had a lot of really hard conversations about what is this for? And I just felt like I was fancy enough that PBS was not going to carry my coffin and that I wanted my kids in the last few years that I have them in the house, I want them to be closer to their grandparents and have those sorts of family experiences. So I told, I have agents in New York and LA and all that stuff, and then thanks to the new world of Zoom, my team was very supportive and they said, Hey, I think you can do this from there, you've got a reputation. You're a known entity, you're not some new startup, so I think we can still get you work. And so I came here and then Texas State found out I was here and asked me to teach a class, and then fortunately there was a position that was open that I applied for. I went through the whole process and I got it. It's just a miracle.
Dan Seed (11:48):
And what has the experience been like? You started in the fall, correct. And here we are in the spring. You're relatively new here, but you have all that experience. Walk us through how has the experience been so far?
Richard Robichaux (11:59):
If Texas State to the listeners, if you know the campus at Texas State that it's beautiful, but the theater department, sort of the arts wing of the campus, it's pretty spectacular. And then we have a brand new TV studio of a live oak building, plus there's going to be a new large film and TV studio in San Marco itself. So I feel like I'm at the right place at the right time, and I can't wait to use the context that I have and that some of the doors that I've opened in my life for these students here and for the faculty here, and so how can I support them and support the new studios, et cetera.
Dan Seed (12:37):
And again, we're joined by actor and Texas State faculty member Richard Robes show. So what do you bring to the classroom, Richard? What is a Richard Robes show class? Put us in the seat in that room for our audience.
Richard Robichaux (12:50):
Well, the students will laugh because we always start each class with a poem for a few reasons. First of all, as actors, they usually know the word I really well. So I like to start with a poem because there's always a song before the sermon, and I feel like a poem is heightened language that is inherently truthful. I also want to sort of give them a veil to pass through from their civilian life into their artistic life so they can make artistic choices in the classroom that aren't related to their civilian choices. The poem helps sort of become that. It also reminds them that there are other artists in the world asking questions and trying to figure this thing out. It's not just us. So we start with a poem. We start with a few moments of nothing. I have them rely on the floor. We just have a few moments where I say to have the privilege to not see or be seen and to not have an opinion. That's a nice way to start class, especially if you're a teacher. And then I say, okay, who's up? It would be brutal to have them coming from the sort of hustle and bustle of campus, their head and their phone or whatever grade they just got on something, and then make them go jump right into those artistic choices. I would say that my classroom is unapologetically artistic.
(14:13):
I want the class to build them up. One of the notes I give actors as I'll say, more butter. I want more butter. I want them big and rich and buttery. I want to build them up so that they walk out of here bigger than they were when they met me.
Dan Seed (14:30):
Where's that phrase come from? I've never heard
Richard Robichaux (14:32):
That from my brain. It comes from my brain, it comes from my Texas brain. It's just because I talk about acting when I'll talk about them, I'll say what kind of acting I like, like expensive acting, and then they all laugh and I said, no, I'm serious. I like the kind of acting that costs something. I said, I want it to be rich. So I was like, I want it to have a little butter. And then they sort of like, oh, okay. They get it and they sort of get it, but I'll say, there's a certain kind of acting that you could get in any town and you can buy it by bulk. I was like, and then there's the kind of acting that's wrapped in Tiffany Blue. Well, if you want a degree in this, then your acting is going to have to cost something. And so I want it to be expensive, and that's a way of allowing me to push them without it putting sort my taste on it. It's allowing them to be bigger than maybe they think they can be,
Dan Seed (15:31):
And that's going to be really difficult to take people and get them to that point. I would imagine that's a big part. Less so not the performance is less, but getting them there. How much time does that take?
Richard Robichaux (15:46):
Oh, Dan, you're so right. So because one of the hardest things to do is to convince them, well, you don't have to convince them, but to invite them to understand that even an audition, if they get an audition, they have been invited to the party as opposed to You've been invited to the party now hang on the wall and apologize for being there. And I think from your career and from the media and everything that you've done that same feeling, absolutely. Being in rooms where you sort of have to stop yourself and go, wait, I was invited in this room. One of these things is not like the other. I remember early on in my career when I was meeting with my first few casting directors in New York, one of the things I talked to them was about, I'm very open about what it feels like and I'm transparent about it.
(16:35):
I was like, one of the things was I didn't feel like I wasn't talented, but I felt poor. I felt poor. I looked at the way people were dressed in New York at these auditions I looked at when I was on my first TV set, I could just see how much money was being spent and growing up where I grew up, I just thought, how did I get here? How did I get here? So who cares if I know how to act or not? I just didn't even know how to be at the party. I think once I learned that I had been invited to the party and it was time to party, boy, my career changed a lot and I started to take up the space that I had earned, and I started to work without apology. My head was up a little higher and my opinions got to extrovert themselves as opposed to just saying, yes, ma'am, no ma'am. Which I remember my first acting teacher in New York, I'd say, yes, ma'am, to her. And so she really got me on that one, but I couldn't imagine that you wouldn't say yes, ma'am to the person who was in power above you. I mean, I would say, yes ma'am, to a waitstaff, right? I mean, that's how I grew up. But she just like, okay, well that's very sweet. I get where you're from, but be careful because up here people think you're stupid. So of course I said, yes, ma'am.
Dan Seed (17:56):
It took you a while to learn that lesson, right?
Richard Robichaux (17:58):
I know. So I had to wait. But what I think what she was telling me is, Hey, you are here to offer something. You're not here with your begging bowl. This is a mutual exchange of services and benefits, and I have something to offer and they have something to give me in return.
Dan Seed (18:17):
How much do you learn from your students in the classroom then you look at it? I know I do it all the time teaching video. I teach video production, video storytelling, and they'll come up with something, whether it's a production technique or an editing technique or even in the way they approach a story, and I kind of go, I've never thought of it like that, or I've never approached it like that. And then I carry it into my teaching. I carry it into the work that I do. How does that happen for you? Does that happen for you where you see something in a student you're like, oh, I like that, or I've learned from you?
Richard Robichaux (18:51):
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And it has happened. The way I teach has changed so much in the past 18 years. I mean, I almost feel like sending a condolence card to my first few students to apologize for what I put them through because I'm just a better teacher now. And I tell the students right before we go to break, anytime we break, the last poem I read to them is Archaic Torso of Apollo by the poet Rka. At the end of this poem, it comes out of nowhere. He's got the love, he's seeing this Greek statue, and then suddenly the poet just sort of turns his gaze to the reader and says, you must change your life just like a skillet to the face. You are like, bow, bow. So I always tell the students before we break, and I read that poem and I said, Hey, just so you know, next time you see me, I will have changed my life.
(19:45):
I expect you to as well. And then I say, I'm sorry, but the next class I will be a better teacher. So you got the inferior version of me because over break, I will have changed. I will have learned things from you. I will have tweaked that exercise we did because of something you said and something you did, and I will make it more accurate. I'm constantly in the state of, there's no right or wrong in art, but there is accuracy. I think there we go, oh, is that as accurate as I can be to my experience? And so I'm constantly seeking more accuracy in the exercises and efficiency in them to produce the maximum benefit for them, and that comes directly from how I see them perform in class. They teach me every single day.
Dan Seed (20:35):
Does teaching help keep you fresh in your acting life and that you're having to remain relevant in the classroom? Does it allow you to have that mental separation between being an actor that's thinking about acting 365, 3, 6, 5 days, but then you get to do your work and then it's like, now I'm in the classroom and it helps me become a better actor because I do get that separation. I do have this other vocation that I'm involved in.
Richard Robichaux (21:05):
Yeah, it does. What it really helps me with is it helps me verbalize what I believe, and I think sometimes we believe we don't even know what we believe sometimes until it's extroverted, having the students and having to verbalize things. For instance, give a student a note and then I'll go, well, Richard, that was a good note. Too bad you didn't do that on your last audition. So it's like, yeah, I need to kind of listen to what I'm saying. And I do find that it keeps me intellectually sharp because being an actor, I want to make sure that this, well, you can't control how context and how people take things, but being an actor solely doesn't use enough of my intellect. I teach because I have more that I want to research, and I look at myself as we sort of race to one at Texas State, I still look at myself as the lead researcher and my students are the researchers, and we are there to do the research that it's not the guru sitting on the mountain, and then they come up and ask me questions, and I dispense answers that we are there to do research.
(22:14):
So I constantly feel like I'm doing research and learning things. I was just in our camera class today talking about how to set up shots and how you do that as an actor, and I'm going away to shoot something next week. And I thought, oh yeah, I need to remember that. I'm so glad I'm teaching this right now because I need to remember it because the actors were on strike for almost a year last year, so I didn't work. So this will be my first time on set in a year, which has never happened since I started working in 99.
Dan Seed (22:42):
You brought up the strike. I was going to ask you about that. You're a Remember SAG AFTRA for the audience, that's the union that represents actors along with folks in my line of work, journalism, radio performers as well, that strike over the summer as an actor, as an educator, AI was really a big deal in that and with the writer's strike as well. I'm curious about that, your thoughts on that, how it's impacting the industry down the road, how it's impacting the industry now, and do you ever touch on that kind of stuff with your students and have those discussions about what might the reality be for them in 10, 15, 20 years?
Richard Robichaux (23:22):
Yeah, it was really important. I think this is one of the things that I do bring to the classroom that is unique. We all know from athletics that you don't have to have been a great player of the sport to be a great coach. Some of the best coaches of baseball weren't great baseball players. Some great baseball players have made some pretty despicable coaches.
(23:44):
For me, though, the fact that I work and work currently in the industry is sort of integral to my methodology and my teaching because I think it bridges the gap between theoretical and practical. So I am constantly talking about what's happening in the news, what's happening in film and tv, what's happening in the theater, what's happening in casting, and so we talked a lot about the strike. They were able to understand a lot of the reasons why we were striking. I had some complex feelings about the strike that I shared with them that I was not able to share, that I probably couldn't have shared publicly, but so that they could get some of the fear that I think a lot of us were really feeling. And I talked to 'em about AI and why it was so important to them that we fight this fight.
(24:30):
One of them is, let's say we've got Denzel and Meryl Streep. They're in a scene and then there's a waiter and the waiter comes in and says, spaghetti is the special. Well, if they can make that ai, they're not going to make Denzel and Merrill ai. They still need them, but boy, the producer sure would like to not pay that actor, not worry about them getting covid, not have to costume them, not have to feed them, not have to pay for their travel, and not have to give them a note, worry if they've memorized their lines or not worry if they're going to be difficult or not, or worry about anything else. They could just go, oh, we'll just do AI and then it doesn't affect anything. This is the problem with that theory. I understand that from a marketplace idea and that they're a for-profit industry.
(25:14):
However, for our students at Texas State, that's their role. Our seniors are going to graduate and go be that waiter who says the specialist spaghetti tonight, and that's their entree into the business. That's them getting their foot in the door. If we take that out and give it to ai, we have really, really lost a future generation of young Denzels and Merrills, some of which should be coming from this university. And I think that's why we fought that fight, and I think three years, the contract will be up again. I think we'll fight it again.
Dan Seed (25:47):
Yeah, it's something that's prevalent. We touch on it in my journalism classes, and it's one of those things that you and I are on the same page with that because now we're able to create video using ai, which is what I teach, and you lose that human touch, you lose that experience, that artistic feel to it. And so I think I'm glad to hear that you have those discussions, and that's the beauty of education is that we're here and we're able to talk about all that stuff and bring our expertise into it and invite our students to think about these things.
Richard Robichaux (26:20):
And their responses are a part, Dan, of our research. Yes, sure. Yeah. We're like, Hey, what is your point of view? Because let's research it together. And they have said things to me that they've really enlightened me about technology, certain things that I didn't know just because I wasn't clear. It's not the kind of technology I'm using constantly where they're using it much more than I am. So that kind of is exciting. It's taking place on campus and not just in test tubes. That's really important that that story be told that a lot of the research happening on this campus is the exchange of questions.
Dan Seed (26:55):
Agreed. Right. It's that back and forth. It's the discussion. It's having these open discussions. It's incredibly important, especially nowadays in everything.
Richard Robichaux (27:05):
Absolutely.
Dan Seed (27:06):
Absolutely. We are running up on our time here, so I do want to wrap up with you. I could go an hour with you, Richard. You're really interesting. Your thought processes are very interesting. You have a couple projects upcoming that are coming to theaters. You're teaming up again with Richard Linklater, talk about those projects that Linklater film or one of the films, not the Linklater one was partially shot here at Texas State as well.
Richard Robichaux (27:34):
Yeah, this is amazing. And this was before I was a faculty member here. I booked that movie if the movie is called The Long Game, directed by Julio Quintana, and it's based on a true story of the spectacular story in Texas sports history where three first generation Mexican immigrants who had their family down in Del Rio won the 1957 Golf Championship, the ncaa. Its this incredible story of how they did it and why, and Che Marin is in that, and Dennis Quaid, Jay Hernandez, Janea, Lee Ortiz, Paulina Chavez, all kinds of great, Julian Works great, great, great actors in that. So I'm so happy to be in that. I played the president of the country club who's not exactly thrilled about this new prospect that will be out in theaters in April. That's called The Long Game, and then Hitman with Glen Powell that will be in theaters in June, and then it rolls out into Netflix in June as well, I think. And that's really funny and really entertaining and it's really great. And Glen Powell, who also is a Texan native Texan, he's one of the biggest stars in the world right now. So funny, and I have a very funny scene in that that's just a little cameo that we did set in New Orleans that you'll get to hear some of my family's Cajun accent in that one.
Dan Seed (28:51):
Looking forward to it, Richard, and after hopefully our audience will too as well, and keep an eye out for you in those and any other projects upcoming.
Richard Robichaux (29:00):
Well, I'll be shooting next week, something for Hulu that it's kind of under wraps right now, but oh, it's going to be great. The script is spectacular and I'm so excited and just be there shooting that. That should be out in the fall, and I'm going to tell everybody about that later.
Dan Seed (29:18):
Please keep us all updated so we can check it out. Richard Robo, thank you so much for joining us.
Richard Robichaux (29:23):
Thank you,
Dan Seed (29:23):
And thank you all for the privilege of your time in downloading and listening to this month's episode. We'll be back next month with a new guest and a new topic. Until then, stay well and stay informed.