not to be in my parasocial panda hours, but I’m listening to the Jensen episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You from 2019.
Q: I mean growing up were your parents always supportive, were you always - did you - did you always want to be an actor? Because you were an athlete.. you were an athlete in high school.
Jensen: Yeah - I mean I kind of - I kind of walked both paths, I was…I was doing drama, and I was, like performing in the you know, the annual spring plays.
Q: Did you love it back then? Did you love acting?
Jensen: I don’t know if I loved it because it wasnt - I..wasnt really living in an environment that…really nurtured that, as much as it did sports, you know what I mean. Growing up in Texas, like it’s all about what — organized sport you’re a part of and how good your team is and how, you know - if you’re going to get scouted by, like college scouts. And - there’s a lot of pressu - [trails off] I think that’s changed dramatically since I grew up here, but the arts weren’t really focused on as much as sports were.”
why am I sitting here silently weeping about baby Jensen wanting to act but feeling like he had to focus on his athletics instead because That is How It Was. why.
this is not normal behavior
Q: Did people look down on you…were they real hard on you? Did they call you names, did they call you “fairy boy” who wants to do theater?
Jensen: Yeah. And that was - you know, that was certainly more of an acceptable behavior back then, I mean I’m glad that those times have changed because you’ll get raked over the coals if you ostracize somebody to that degree - and good you should! Because there were some people that I was in theater with that really, really got bulled bad…and it was at time, and it was a culture then…and I wish, I wish there were more opportunities that I could have stood up for that person.
***and then he sings a bit of West Side Story
***and then he reenacts his sports buddies’ reactions
***AND I LOVE HIM EVEN MORE NOW. Go listen to the podcast if you haven’t.
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