I say yes to almost anything.
Ron Perlman on saying yes. (The Commonplace Book Project)
The Commonplace Book Project is a daily post based on Ray Bradbury’s advice to aspiring writers: read a poem, a short story, and an essay every day for 1000 days. These posts start with a quote and go wherever the rabbit hole leads. Follow The 1000 Day MFA publication so you don’t miss a thing.
“I say yes to almost anything that comes my way.” — Ron Perlman, The AV Club
I’m almost done watching the 1980s series, Beauty and the Beast. Ron Perlman’s breakout role was playing the beast — Vincent — an lionesque man who falls in love with a pretty New York City lawyer (Linda Hamilton.)
Perlman spent much of his early career playing characters that required him to wear heavy make-up or masks. It seems that he struggled with self-acceptance and the mask work allowed him to grow as an actor.
“I probably appreciated mask acting more when I was a younger man than I do these days, because I wasn’t real comfortable in my own skin in the early going. Putting that few inches of rubber between me and the camera sort of freed me up to be more me than I was able to be as me.” — Ron Perlman, The Today Show
There’s so much advice out there about learning to say no. Especially for women. But I’m excited about the idea of saying yes. For the last couple of years I’ve used a Ray Bradbury quote as my life motto — it ends “Just see what happens.”
Yes. Say yes. And see what happens. Be the person who says yes when most people say no. And then see what happens. There’s a kind of bravery in the idea that appeals to me.
Failure might happen. I mean — Babe Ruth was both the home run champion and the strike out champion. He hit so many home runs because he swung so often. He said ‘yes’ to so many pitches.
Perlman shared this quote from his memoir on his Twitter feed recently that has made me definitely add his memoir to my reading list. Anyone who understands stories this well is my favorite.
After a week of listening to his growly voice in Beauty and the Beast, I might need to listen to him read this one to me on audio. In fact, I had an Audible credit. It’s done.
If you’ve never seen Beauty and the Beast before — give it a try. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime right now. Just be warned that I fully own that it’s entirely possible that I love it so much because I fell in love with it in 1987 when I was sixteen years old. Maybe, if you’re not a sixteen-year-old girl, you might not have the same experience with it that I do.
But I do love it. And I’m super excited that watching it again (for, maybe the fourth or fifth time in the last thirty years) has helped me to see what was missing from a story I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. It’s the settings that have inspired me this time around. The lush, fairy tale underground world is just what I needed to be immersed in.
In case over the top romance and candle-lit caverns aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other places where you can check out Perlman’s work.
Everyone on Earth loves Sons of Anarchy, right? Perlman plays a biker dad who is really not a good person at all in that one.
I also truly loved the Hand of God series.
I didn’t realize until right now that the first time I saw Perlman was in Quest for Fire when I was a little girl. It’s a movie that’s stuck with me. I remember watching it with my dad on our VCR when I was maybe eleven. It’s the first time I can remember being enthralled with the story in a movie.
Today’s Poem:
According to the Gospel of Yes By Dana Levin
It’s a thrill to say No. The way it smothers everything that beckons―
Any baby in a crib will meet No’s palm on its mouth.
And nothing sweet can ever happen ―
to No― who holds your tongue captive behind your teeth, whose breath whets the edge
of the guillotine —
N, head of Team Nothing, and anti-ovum O.
And so the pit can never engender the cherry —
in No, who has drilled a hole inside your body —
No. Say it out loud. Why do you love the hole No makes.
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.