Cup 42
Name: Damon Gupton
Age: 40
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Location at time of interview: Los Angeles, CA
Drink: No beverage today. "I don't drink coffee unless I absolutely need to for work."
How did you manage to be so well-versed in both music and drama? How did you get yourself into these fields?
"I started acting in high school, and even when I went to the University of Michigan for undergrad in music, I always managed to keep doing plays and exercise different parts of my mind, body, and spirit."
Mr. Gupton double majored in Music Education and Trombone Performance at UoM, and had planned on going to grad school for further study in Conducting.
DG: I couldn't get into grad school for conducting though.
HK: Why's that?
DG: Because I was dumb and only applied to one school.
HK: Can I ask what school it was?
DG: Michigan. I wanted to study with Gustav Meier, who is a phenomenal conducting teacher, but he also knew that I had other stuff going on. So I took a year off, took some more music classes and played trombone. Emotionally, it was also a very hard time for me.
He entered the Drama Division at the Juilliard School the following year, and 4 years later received his diploma.
DG: It was ridiculous how long we had to be there. It was the longest program for drama at a school with as high of an acclaim as Juilliard. You couldn't get an MFA at the time, that program was implemented much later. Now you can get an MFA in usually 2 or 3 years. My girlfriend is actually doing a program right now in San Diego.
HK: Do you think it would've been better if the program had been less than 4 years?
DG: Well, I did learn a lot and I'm grateful for the connections I made during my time there.
What was the transition from 4 years of heavily studying music to 4 years of concentrating on drama like?
"In music school, you always had time to practice. In drama school, you're constantly around people. Drama would take as much as 11 hours out of my day.
There's a different sense of ensemble as opposed to an ensemble like orchestra or chamber music. They [actors/actresses] feed off of each other interestingly. Hands-down, it's the busiest division in Juilliard, but dancers have it pretty hard too - they're using their bodies all the time."
Courtesy of Flickr
What do you appreciate the most about music and drama?
"Music, there's a sense of focus. I appreciate communicating without words. People putting in hour of practice, the sheer art and passion behind what music is universally, while drama I esteem, music there's nothing like it. There's a sense of focus and togetherness which is just not achievable in theater. Music can be so penetrating.
Drama, you vocalize more and present more of the human experience on a tangible level. You present heightened circumstances. There's an immediacy to making people feel things with acting. Music is a little more removed. You could be playing a Mahler Symphony but one may not necessarily know how a performer feels about the music at its deepest core. It is hard for actors to restrain or hide emotions."
What would you say were the most pivotal points in your career as a musician and actor?
"2002. I had been out of music for 9 years. I went to the Aspen Music Festival because my girlfriend at the time was going there but I hadn't applied for any of their programs. But looking around, I liked what I saw so I applied and went back to Aspen the next summer and this set me on the path of a conductor. It felt great to be back in music again.
In drama, I'd have to say these last couple of years, the last couple of TV shows that I've been in. I'm so grateful to be meeting the people that I'm meeting and to be working with the people that I'm working with. Let me put it like this: If you're lucky enough, you can see it. If you're really lucky, you get paid."
NBC's Prime Suspect (2011) Courtesy of IMDb
Who or what influences you the most as an actor, musician, and person?
"Actor: Robert DeNiro. The power that he has, being a successful entrepreneur ... wow. He was in Raging Bull, and I think that's one of the most extraordinary films in the world.
Musically, [Leonard] 'Lenny' Bernstein. He was his own person and he owned that. Training and growing up, we learn that we have to hide things, that we have to fit. Duke Ellington, people like that make me think a lot about saying who you are. Yo-Yo Ma is arguably the single living embodiment of what classical music is all about, his giving of music, technical wizardry ... one time when I was Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, we were rehearsing with Yo-Yo Ma, and at one point, he took me aside and told me, 'Damon, you need to carve out who you are. You need to create a skill set for yourself.'
As a person, to be determined. I have a lot of influences from family, my mom, honorary sisters, but I've been hungry for other mentors, as well."
Courtesy of Broadway.com
What's the most important thing you've learned from being a musician?
"Daily routine and ritual of practice. I'm not as good at it as I want to be but music teaches that discipline."
What's the most important thing you've learned from being an actor?
"Releasing inhibitions. It's very rare to find actors who do that, making it in front of strangers, really. People like Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Robert DeNiro, and Daniel Day Lewis."
From the time you were in school to this very day, have you noticed any similarities or differences in the people entering the performing arts, as far as quality of work, attitude, and personality?
"I think we all recognize differences from generation to generation. It's marginally different now from when I was growing up. I think we are freer as a society and in social media.
I get a kick out of young folks. Sometimes I'm envious because there's a sense of freedom, a hunger and thirst that the younger generation has.
The state of artistic institutions, no one knows what's going to happen. The climate is always changing. I think we're more vocal, vulgar, judgmental. Everything is bombarding us in the media. There's cross-race, cross-gender ... Dialogues are happening but we haven't done anything yet.
Nothing is valued about our craft lately. We want results quicker and it's always 'me, me, me!' When some young people, or even older ones, become famous, they often let it get to their head and their head just gets huge, but once that fame disappears - and especially for actors, it disappears quickly - you start thinking, 'Oh my God. What am I doing with my life?!'
Clybourne Park (2012)
Courtesy of AP/The O+M Co., Nathan Johnson Photography
Please describe yourself in 6 words.
"Complicated, sensitive, unsatisfied, hungry, loving, passionate. I'm also angry and restless. I want answers to questions."
What's your biggest pet peeve?
"Physical proximity. I'm talking like, not respecting that someone else is in your space. It's rude. Proximity. Actually, an example of this happened right before your interview.
I was walking down the street and this man was walking his dog and he just took up the whole sidewalk, didn't bother to move just a little bit to the side to make room for another person. And just as I was about to pass him, he bumped me! I said, 'EXCUSE me.' I was so angry at him. Kept walking ... then a few minutes later, I hear quick footsteps behind me and it's the man again, and he comes up to me and asks if I'm OK, and I said, 'No!' Then he just walked away. No apology. I'm telling you, some people are just plain rude.
I also don't like smoke. I have friends who are smokers but I abhor the smell."
Courtesy of Chamber Music Today
Hobbies: "I love playing Madden on XBox. I love watching football, hiking, meditating from time to time, and eating healthy. I've lost a lot of weight since Prime Suspect. Prime Suspect was the biggest I had been in awhile."
Favorite Movie: "Raging Bull. Coming in close 2nd is the original Superman."
Favorite Book: Siddhartha
Favorite Composer(s): "Tchaikovsky is near to my soul, John Williams - absolutely - Duke Ellington, and Mahler."
If you could have dinner with one person, who would you choose and why?
"Martin Luther King, Jr. Why? Because I'm so fascinated by him. I've been dying to portray him. He was 39 years old when he died, but had the heart of a 60 year old. This was a darker time in his life and you just have to wonder what it must've been like to have so much weight on his shoulders. Like, who are you for real?
And President Obama, too."
Any other life lessons?
"I always say, 'Do what you want to do.' Diversify your portfolio. It's going to be hard but it's worth it. Do YOU. Really do you. Don't do anyone else."
Courtesy of playbillvault.com
-HK