PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 24, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Actor and writer Thomas Middleditch wasn’t totally confident in his analogy.
“This is going to be a really weird metaphor, but I like it,” said Middleditch, best known for “Silicon Valley” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“Think of yourself as an octopus…. Think of yourself like if you don’t have all eight tentacles out, waiting to like suck on something that takes you down the current, you’re not using all of your abilities.”
Middleditch and actor/director John Krasinski, known for “The Office” and “Away We Go,” spoke Sunday on a Sundance Film Festival panel.
“The octopus thing, I don’t know if I agree with it,” Krasinski said. “I don’t know if I totally understand it.”
“Tentacles, bro,” Middleditch answered. “If you don’t have eight tentacles out you’re not being a full octopus.”
Middleditch advised beginners to generate content by doing live shows and make videos with friends to generate exposure, “so someone might see you and put you in their stuff.”
Krasinski liked the idea of diversifying and working on a number of projects he really cared about.
“You keep all your irons in the fire, you don’t necessarily use them every day,” he said. “My metaphor’s better.”
Middleditch scowled.
“It’s just like someone else’s metaphor, that’s all,” he retorted.
“Like Hemingway,” Krasinski asked, as both men laughed.
Krasinski recommended college, which is where he said he grew up and was exposed to valuable ideas and interesting people.
Middleditch, who dropped out after two years, said nothing is more valuable than real-world experience and making contacts.
Krasinski urged his listeners to focus on creative projects they believed in.
“Do things that are all you, that nobody else has,” he said. “Don’t do things you think people want to see. Do what is you.”
Krasinski also suggested bouncing ideas around, a skill that was practiced in the writers’ room of “The Office.”
“Think of an idea as almost like a ping pong ball,” he said. Keep playing with it “and keep it up until it goes somewhere or it fails.”
Writing is hard for everyone, Krasinski said.
“Keep going until it until the idea says, ‘This is what you want to dedicate the next six weeks to.'”
Not every idea will be good, Krasinski said. “If you get discouraged, you are going to stop.”
Keep at it, he said. Believe in your projects and keep pushing them, Krasinski said.
“That’s the kind of moxie old Hollywood is known for.”
