After switching her major from photography to acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Katherine Waterston began following professionally in the footsteps of her father, actor Sam Waterston. With a career that spans stage, television, and film—including “Inherent Vice,” “Steve Jobs,” the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, and “Alien: Covenant”—Waterston has worked alongside directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Ridley Scott. Now, she returns to television on the HBO limited series “The Third Day” starring alongside Jude Law and Naomie Harris.
I imagine being aware of what your father did played a part in your decision to be an actor, but what was the moment you decided you wanted to be an actor?
People often ask me, “Did you always know?” There's a distinction between always knowing you want to do something and choosing to do it as a profession, right? Those were very different moments for me. When I was a child, I just sort of knew. I never thought of anything else. But in your late teens, early 20s, when you attempt to commit to some kind of future path, it’s a different thing to decide it then than to decide it at 4. So, there was a very clear moment, because I was studying photography at New York University at Tisch. I had chosen that school because I understood I could double major in the arts there. I could study photography, which I’d done a great deal of in high school, and acting—not much to fall back on there with those two majors. [Laughs] When I got into the film degree program, I remember asking, “Where can I take the acting lessons?” And they said ask your advisor, and they said this will take you a decade to complete. I had to choose. When I decided to transfer to the acting program, that was it, and I never looked back.
Do you have a history with Backstage from your early days?
I definitely went through the castings. I’ve definitely waited for hours in corridors to audition for things. I don’t think I ever went to an open call. I think I used Backstage to assess whether my first manager was really doing his job. Just to check and see: Were there things I was right for he didn’t know I was right for?
How did you land your first manager and agent?
I was in Tisch in the drama department and we had a showcase. Some manager was there and he took me on. I didn’t have an agent for quite a while. I did have a manager right out of school, which was incredibly lucky. During those years, to make money, I did headshot photography. I had done so much photography and I was OK at it. I obviously had the connection; word of mouth was really great because I was an actress and all my friends were coming out of acting school, as well. I got a portfolio together and I started making decent money pretty quickly as a headshot photographer. It was just so depressing. [Laughs] Everybody thought, “If I have a really good picture, I’m going to be able to get representation.” We weren’t taught about the industry in school. Nobody knew how to get an agent or a manager. It was a wonderful and exciting but sort of bewildering time for me and a lot of my friends.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I guess you [might] say, “Don’t worry,” but actually, worrying is a fantastic motivator. For some, it can be really debilitating, but for me, it makes me work harder. A lot of these feelings get a bad rap because they’re unpleasant to experience, but they can keep you going. But also, I was awfully serious in my 20s. I could’ve had a bit more fun. [Laughs]
What is your worst audition horror story?
I have a really bad memory for unpleasant events in my life! But there are so many. I think it would be incredibly entertaining and horrifying to have a reel of all of the auditions. I would say at least 95% of them would be unbearable for me to watch. I would say at least 95% of them were really bad auditions! I find it to be a really bizarre and uncomfortable thing to do. It’s not like the job. It’s not the same thing. It’s a different job. Acting, you have a costume, you have shoes that make you walk a different way, you have brilliant colleagues who raise the bar [and are] really fun to play with. They’re in costume, too, and there’s a set and a whole world, a rich and brilliant script you’re deep into. Auditioning is standing in a strange room you’ve never seen before, often windowless, with people who look fatigued, bored, who aren’t happy to see you. A number of things can go terribly wrong from there. I don’t enjoy it. And I don’t have a lot of positive memories from doing it.
Have you ever done anything wild to get a role?
I think I wrote a few letters about plays, these great plays you’re going to age out of being able to do, and the stakes feel incredibly high. When’s the next “Miss Julie” going to happen? So you feel like you might die if you don’t get to do it. I’ve dyed my hair, I’ve written letters. I remember, when dyeing my hair, I thought, I can’t lose this part because of the arbitrary loss of my genetic makeup. This is such an easy change. So I did that for a part once—and I got it, so that worked out.
What performance should every actor see and why?
I think everyone should watch the films John Cazale made. I think everything he did was nominated for Best Picture [at the Academy Awards]. Growing up, my sister and I incessantly watched my dad’s—I don't even know if this is anything anyone can find nowadays, [but] they made a TV production of “Much Ado About Nothing” that had started in Central Park. I think in one night, or in the television airing of the stage production, more people watched it that night than had ever seen the Shakespeare play before—I can't remember. But it was one of those moments in the late ’70s when the world was changing so quickly because of TV. That production, I could recite the whole thing, and it definitely shaped me in, God knows, strange ways.
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