Last week, when I attended the Bentonville Film Festival's opening reception, I found kinship in an unusual place: with actor Jamie McShane.
We had both been in casual conversation with other people and once those chats ended, we looked around bemused by the hubbub of actors, directors, filmmakers, media and festival sponsors that surrounded us.
"Eric O'Bannon!" I cried, suddenly realizing that this guy who asked me where the bathrooms were half an hour ago looked so incredibly familiar because he was. I've spent hours of my life watching him as a character on "Bloodline," a Netflix thriller series about a complicated family that owned a hotel in the Florida Keys Islamorada.
McShane seemed delighted to be recognized, then stepped closer and asked, "Did you have to look it up?" There was no end game here. I admitted that yes, I did have to look it up, but that didn't change how good I thought the show was, or his performance in it.
Not having a line of people behind me waiting for their turn to speak to him, I took my chance to have a conversation with the actor who's in the limelight again as Sheriff Donovan Galpin in Netflix's comedy horror "Wednesday," based on the Addams Family character.
I asked McShane what he was looking forward to. Not in regard to the film festival or anything in particular; I was simply curious. That openendedness intrigued him, so he took a moment to really think about it and answered honestly. He was looking forward to having a more peaceful life, being more zen. Coincidentally that's what I want for myself, so that was our initial connection. He invited me to sit down and talk more.
Was this his first time at the Bentonville Film Festival? It was, but more surprising-- it was the first time he'd attended a film fest outside the Los Angeles area. Why? "I've never been invited before," McShane laughed.
The woman who had taken a photo with him just a few minutes before had actually hoped he would take a picture of her and her friend. She'd had no idea he was a celebrity. That's what keeps him humble, he joked.
We talked about where our sons wanted to go to college, and whether they would take after our own professions or plot a totally different course through the world. He spoke of the difficulty of the writers strike, saying he felt lucky to continue to make a living through his chosen line of work.
I asked McShane if it was his goal to be the main star of a big movie or hit TV show one day, since we ordinarily see him in supporting roles. "When I was younger, I would have said yes," he admitted. Growing up with a love of movies, it was the animated "Robin Hood" and "The Addams Family" that cultivated his interest in acting. But back then, it wasn't the main character that drew him in as much as the others.
What made me want to go into journalism? he asked. I guess it was a thousand little things, but when I was a kid it was mostly TV related: from "Dateline" to KATV news; it was "World News Tonight" as much as it was "Entertainment Tonight." I liked it all. And I'll never forget Diane Sawyer achieving weightlessness during a zero gravity parabolic flight for a segment she produced about the training it takes to become an astronaut.
Would I ever want to do it that way, then? Be on TV to report the news? No, not especially, though my younger self would have said absolutely.
Sometimes things don't work out the way you plan. Sometimes they turn out more suited to who you really are, or who you became. I think Jamie McShane would agree.