Welcome And Meet Geoffrey Cantor

Geoffrey Cantor 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment in life with your host, Greg Staffa.

Greg Staffa 0:28

My guest this episode is Geoffrey Cantor a veteran actor whose career has taken him from the Marvel Universe and Daredevil and The Punisher to memorable roles across television, film, and stage. Geoffrey thank you for joining us today.

Geoffrey Cantor 0:41

Thank you for having me.

Early Theater Roots And First Roles

Greg Staffa 0:43

Tell us a little bit about your upbringing. Where are you from and what got you started at an early age of acting?

Geoffrey Cantor 0:49

My father introduced me to theater really because he did community theater. And part of my upbringing, musical theater was a big part of our life. We um we listened to a lot of folk music, early rock, and show tunes. And I knew all of Westside's story by heart when I was in second grade. The first big musical I did was Most Happy Fella. I played a little boy in my high school's version of that with two wonderful performers, Steve Pollitz and Kathy Marath would go on to do Broadway. And Steve was this amazing opera singer, and so that was my exposure to musical theater uh at that level. And that was just high school. But yeah, I thought I was gonna be a lawyer. Then when I was in college, I was at Amherst and I auditioned for Summer Stock up in Weston. And when I got back, Amherst was doing West Side Story, and I was just gonna audition. You know, I saw some other people auditioning, like choosing to audition for specific roles. And so the role I wanted to play was action, and I got it, and it was a great production, some really talented people, Billy Kalora, who is now I think an agent at CESD, and some other really talented people, including Jonathan Brooke, who went on to have a and is still having a musical, like she's like a singer-songwriter. But we had a really wonderful cast, and and it was a great production. And the head of the theater department over at Smith, a guy named Len Berkman, who's uh now like a leading dramaturg uh throughout the world, he probably was then already, saw my performance and wrote me a handwritten note about my work and used references and language that I had never sort of considered. I was sort of a just do the best I could. I hadn't had any training. And I still was thinking I'd be a lawyer while I was at Amherst, but there's no pre-law uh major. So you could be anything, right? You could be a social, you know, you could sociology, political science, history. So I chose or English, so I chose theater, so I became a theater major and was doing summer stock, and then went to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, did NTI, and worked uh with uh some of the most remarkable teachers on the planet at the time, Morris Gronowski specifically, who had helped start the group theater. And there too, I got sort of a positive reinforcement for my work from people whose work and sort of life achievements I greatly respected. And

Training, London, And Finding Steady Work

Geoffrey Cantor 3:35

the next thing I know, I'm going to drama school in London and got a job right out of school, and then came back to the States and couldn't get work. So I was briefly a social worker at a long-term care facility in Jersey City. Went back to England and then came back to the social work position and then started doing theater with theater for new audience. I did Julie Tamore's Titus Andronicus, and then I worked with Longmorph. And the next thing I know, I'm starting to do commercials and starting to make a living as an actor and gave up my social work position. And I'm I'm not look, I'm not a famous person, right? I'm a I'm just a work-to-day actor, but I've managed to have a career of sorts, and that's sort of where it's at.

Greg Staffa 4:22

One of

Bullying, Belonging, And Theater As Shelter

Greg Staffa 4:23

the things that I've realized or gleamed from talking to various actors is a lot of them found acting to be an escape. And I'm just wondering, and I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but you moved around a lot as a child, it sounded like because of your your dad's work and stuff like that. That must have been hard to make friends, that must have been hard to uh I was tsunami, I guess, to kind of socialize if you're always kind of moving around. Was acting a part of that that allowed you to kind of escape into a different world, or the am I just overlooking that?

Geoffrey Cantor 4:58

No, it's it's an interesting thing. I you know, in kindergarten and nursery school, you're not thinking. So like everything's fine, you know. When I got into third grade in Woodcliffe Lake, it was the first time I'd been bullied. And you know, I found my I found my people, but um grade school was not great, it was very tiny. So it wasn't an an escape, but it's interesting. There were specific bullies, I remember them by name. And you know, I didn't really tell my parents about it, but I did a play in grade school called David and Lisa, and it's about a boy on the spectrum in a group home, and it was the first sort of serious play I did. Um, and what was interesting was a guy who had bully whose name I will not reveal came up to me after the show this is in seventh grade, so we're I don't know, 11 maybe 12, and he apologized. And first of all, the the theater community, the acting community in grade school, like it's all the misfits because anybody can do it. Anybody can be an actor. I'm not saying everybody should be an actor and that everybody is cut out for the life of an actor, but the art itself is something that is it's a great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, skinny or fat, beautiful or or less so, even your you know, whether you're able or or otherly abled, color your skin doesn't matter. It all has to do with your curiosity and your desire to investigate. It's the only thing that teaches teamwork and independence and leadership. It teaches you have to have extraordinary confidence in order to have enough humility to let go of your ego so that you can empathize with the character you're playing. So it was, I wouldn't say it was an escape, but it was certainly a safe place and buttressed me against the the parts of that life that were less pleasant because I had a a great place to go, everybody was working together. And then when I got to high school, because our mus our our shows, our musicals especially were so good, the jocks started doing the musicals and the the the boundaries that separated out a lot of cliques of a lot of schools disappeared at Pasquite Hills, certainly for our class and some other classes where jocks and we used to call them like like the burnouts, people used to smoke pot and cigarettes in high school. There's a long time ago. But everybody could do it, and everybody did do it. And the high school musicals at at Pascal Kills were really community-building. And so for me, I that I that was sort of the superpower of the art reform. And I can tell you there was another friend of mine, so flash forward. So in high school in grade school, I've been bullied, and some of the kids who had been my friends, this is what happens when you're bullied, sort of backed off, right? Because bully is there's contagion and they didn't want to get bullied themselves. It's one guy, Jim Rubin, was my was my best friend, and he sort of moved away from me. And we we sort of were a little bit friendly in in high school, but not the way we had it in early grade school. And flash forward, so that was we finished high school in '80, and I finished Amherst in '84. And in 1986, I'm doing a play at the Edinburgh Festival with my drama school. And after the play, Jim Rubin, who I had not seen in six, seven years since graduating high school, found me. He and his parents were in Edinburgh, and he took me out for a beer and apologized to me for abandoning me in grade school. So those two stories I think highlight both what it was for me, but also what the art form does. So I wouldn't say it was an escape. Like I didn't escape into my imagination because I was feeling traumatized by the moves. That I wasn't traumatized. I didn't mind the moves. I think the thing that the moving around did so much was it didn't make me attached to any space or home. Made me a little like I I have friends who have homes, family homes that have been in their families for many years. I I I never had that. But I didn't feel traumatized by that. I I the bullying was tough, and doing theater became a safe place to exist, but also informed what I believe theater can offer. So in a little bit, I did some teaching in the early 2000s, and I had two students, one had brittle bone disease, and uh the other uh was on the spectrum, and they were both extraordinary to sort of shows anybody can do this. And that's I think probably one of the reasons why I still love the art form so much at the ripe old age of 63. I'm not jaded, it's a very horrible business, but I think the art form is just extraordinary.

Greg Staffa 10:28

You had mentioned that a couple people, after seeing your work, came came to you and you know apologized and stuff like that. There must have been some kind of realization or seeing your performance to kind of spin it onto you then. Was there anything about other people that helped you learn about them through acting with them?

Geoffrey Cantor 10:48

I I don't know that I ever acted with anybody who I didn't like. You know, I didn't I was not a bully, so I don't think that I ever did anything to anybody where seeing their work would make me rethink who they are.

Greg Staffa 11:02

I didn't mean to imply that you were a bully. I just meant about human nature, about other people, about I mean, here you had mentioned that the jocks were suddenly performing. And to me, that might be intimidating because here I had my own safety group and the jocks were coming in.

Geoffrey Cantor 11:20

So I no, not at all. I I I I it didn't it never occurred to me that anybody couldn't do it. So if the jocks did it, it just validated my my position that it's for everybody, right? And and it supports my my view of the art form that when you're working together in in a place of discovery, even if it's something like bye-bye birdie, right? If everyone's working to to a similar goal, but everybody has the ability to achieve in that space, because everybody is the theater is is the art form itself requires human beings of all types and all sorts. A musical theater, yes, in in New York you have to be able to sing and dance, you know, and and those are quantifiable skills. But in high school, most people can carry a tune, not everybody, but most people can carry a tune. And sometimes the dancing is just walking. And so it it just sort of reinforced my belief that theater is is uh the art form that anybody who really wants to do it can do it. And yeah, it's uh it's a place where empathy is is a requirement. You learn radical empathy because you have to literally walk in somebody else's shoes. And whether you're a townsperson or the lead in South Pacific, you have to step out of your own belief system and your own judginess and your own biases so that you can fully embrace the thought process and choices of the character you're playing. And if if that's not the best teacher, then I I don't know what is. You know, teaches no book can teach that, no teacher can teach that. It's the experience itself. And uh yeah, that's that's that's my feeling about that.

Greg Staffa 13:28

Well

The Long Game Of Being A Working Actor

Greg Staffa 13:29

said. Now you mentioned that you classify yourself as a working actor, and you've been a working actor for decades. Was there a certain point where you realized that the kind of the pendulum was swinging in the right direction? Because you you mentioned that you'd gone back and forth for another job to kind of pay the bills and stuff like that between acting. What was the point where you realized that this is gonna be the long-term trajectory?

Geoffrey Cantor 13:55

Well, that's that's a great question. You know, I don't know that any actor of any age ever feels fully comfortable. I remember I did um Death of a Salesman with Judd Hirsch. Judd Hirsch is a very accomplished, well-known actor with an extraordinary career in in stage film and TV. And we were we had just done Death of a Salesman, and I was visiting him up in New York State, and he was he was still hustling. And I I don't think that any actor that I know ever feels completely comfortable, like you're always looking for your next job. You're you live a life, an insecure life of gigging. And sometimes those gigs last a really long time, and sometimes they last a few months, and sometimes they don't last at all. And I've had a range of jobs that have done all of those things, and some have paid a lot of money, some haven't. I think there's two different questions, right? One is I I still never feel completely secure because the job is you're you're not in charge of your schedule, you're not in charge of who hires you. But in terms of my commitment to the life of an actor and my being okay with the pendulum swings and okay with having less money than maybe some of my Amherst classmates or even some other actors I know. Uh that I I don't um I'd like to think anyway, that I don't base my idea of success on my sort of financial success, although paying bills is super important. I managed to do that and have insurance for many, many years, and that's I guess an accomplishment of sorts. But I'm very fortunate that when I'm that I get to do what I love to do, and I don't think a lot of people can say that. So I think and and I don't know, there was I don't think there was one moment. I think it was when I was making enough money that I didn't have to do other things. That's what I did. But there have been times, you know, during COVID, was very little acting work, and I've had dry spells, and I find myself finding other other income streams that are sort of connected to the art form that may not be acting. I've directed a little bit, a little film and some theater that have paid. I've done creative consulting for people on their projects, and so I I am less, my ego is less bound by identifying as an actor, which is it's my favorite thing to do. 100% my favorite thing to do. But I really enjoyed being fulfilled by the creative process, and sometimes that looks like directing or script fixing or workshopping things, even a little bit of producing. So very little bit, by the way. Uh, and a little bit of writing, also very, very little bit. So I don't know that there was ever a moment where I'm like, okay, I made it. I think every year it's like, oh, I'm still doing it. And the older I get, you know, the less likely it is that I'll I'll get a different job. So yeah, I I I feel fortunate that I've been able to make a living primarily as an actor. Uh that's uh that's just my good fortune.

Greg Staffa 17:27

An

Risk, Vulnerability, And Loving The Craft

Greg Staffa 17:28

outsider, the the actor, I don't want to say lifestyle, but the idea of that constant rejection, that constant hustling, it has to be scary and intimidating. When I think of like skydiving, that is also equally scary and intimidating. Is there almost an adrenaline kind of thing with acting that it forces you to hustle more? It forces you to take chances on roles. Is there or is it just surviving to to pay the bills? Do you find like there's a rush in the the uncertainty of having to be the best you can be at every audition?

Geoffrey Cantor 18:06

Or is it just paying the bill? That's a very profound question, right? So I have I've I've gone skydive once, and that that was nuts. And and I I would not compare acting to skydiving in terms of the adrenaline rush at all. Um I think for me the audition process is an opportunity to play, and to to get to play is it's a rare, it's it's a rare thing for grown-ups to be able to do. I I I'm not excited by living paycheck to paycheck. I don't like that part of this, and I don't like the necessarily the way the industry is going in terms of who gets roles and AI. There's a lot of parts about the business that can make one feel defeated. I happen to be a person who is generally optimistic. Uh, the evidence support that I can evidence supports that I can earn a living in this industry, because I I have done. And I love it. Uh so I don't get an adrenaline rush at all from the instability. I I don't like the instability. I am willing to put up with the instability because the reward is so great for me from a fulfillment, from a personal fulfillment standpoint. I I would I would like to my my I think the the favorite thing I've done probably is Daredevil because I had over three years and Punisher, because I had over three years of working on a character that didn't exist in the comic books. I had no preconceived notions of who he was, and they wrote, I think, really, really well for me and gave me a lot of freedom within the writing to make it my own. And that was the most fulfilling because that was the most consistent work I had. So it paid the bills. I loved the people I was working with, Debrahan Wall was so great, and the whole cast of Daredevil. I really loved being part of it. And so, and the writers were just terrific. And so I and like I'm friendly, saying I'm friends is tough. The business doesn't really allow you to be friends, friends, but Steve Dnight and Marco and Marco Ramirez, you know, I'm I'm so friendly with these people. They wrote, they wrote brilliantly for me. So I I liked that gave me everything, right? That gave me the joy of doing the work. It is risky, like every time you put yourself out there as an actor, that's a risk. It's not a skydiving risk, but to be to be able to do anything fully, you're you're really leaving yourself open. You're very vulnerable, you're leaving yourself open for criticism and judgment, and you have to sort of quiet that noise in your head to just do the work. And I I guess I've managed to be able to do that. And when I audition, I I think I make fairly bold choices, and I don't get every job, but I I probably think that I'm going to. I probably think in my head somewhere that every time I audition, if I've done my work, I'll I should get the job. And I don't. Clearly, I don't, otherwise, you'd see a lot more of it. But I I work enough, but yeah, there's there's no thrill. I don't love the business. I love the art form more than I dislike the business. And and the way the business is, and the uncertainty and the gig lifing is the price I pay to do what I love to do.

Same Process For Every Role

Greg Staffa 21:50

Interesting. You ruined one of my future questions, but I'm going to ask it anyway to allow you to expand a little bit on it. You've done shows like Bowl or Priscilla. Of interest where you you're involved in one episode. Does your acting approach change when you're just doing one episode versus Daredevil, where you're able to really create a character and get involved in that character and have a storyline and create a backstory in it? Does the way that you approach each role change because of that, or do you approach it similarly?

Geoffrey Cantor 22:23

That's a really good question, Greg. I approach everything exactly the same. The longer you have with a role, the more deeply you can investigate. You know, and whether like whether when you're recursing a play for the theater, you have a lot more time than you do for film or TV. But the doorway in for me, the way I was trained and the way I've developed as an actor, it's it's always the same. And I I can tell you, you never know. So there was a TV show called The Street. I want to say like 2001, maybe, and I auditioned this happened twice, two different shows. I forget one of them, but it was with Oliver Platt. But The Street, I auditioned in the part, it was like for a small one-day part in this TV show by Spelling. And although the show did not last because they had us up against West Wing, which we had no chance. But I ended up being in like five of the seven episodes that they shot, and they they wrote an episode around, they didn't write it for me, but they gave my they they were expanding the size of my part. And it came from one line, and that happened in this again in the show that I did with Oliver Platt, and the name is escaping me. But I had I was playing a lawyer, and my audition was literally one line, and the next thing I know, I'm in, you know, a number of scenes and then a number of episodes. And so I I tend to approach everything the same way because that's the only way I know how to do it. I'm not a I'm not a great shortcutter, and you never you never know what might come of you showing up fully, right? So if you show up fully every time, no matter what size the part is, only good things can happen. It might mean that the part expands, it might mean that that director will hire you for something else, it might mean that the writer might write something for you and something else. So, but it's also the only way to do it anyway. Like you have to do things with integrity, or why do them at all? So I don't I don't approach things the way I approach things for results, in that I'm not doing it so that people like me better. I believe that I have a process, and my process usually ends up giving me the best results anyway. And so I just think about doing the work with as much time as I have available. I just do the best I can.

Greg Staffa 25:06

And how does that approach, I mean, it sounds great on paper to say that. I'm curious of how that approach that you mentioned applies to the roles that you audition for. Is any role open to you? I mean, because I would think to myself, well, I'm not a leading man type, so I'm not gonna audition for that, or I'm not the action star type, so I'm not gonna addition to that. Is I mean, given what you just said, do you you know, do you look at a role and say, I can do that until they tell me I can't? Yes, that's exactly right.

Geoffrey Cantor 25:41

I might, there's two different heads, right? Like if I look at something like if I look at something that seems really distant from me, I might have a moment where I go, why why am I being put up for this, or why are they thinking about me for this, or I would hire my friend, my friend Jimmy, or you know, some somebody else for this role. That said, it's not my that's not my job, right? So once I start working on it, I I I treat it all as any actor I believe should, which is fully committed. And sometimes one changes somebody's mind. I I can tell you an early movie I did with um James Kahn's son, Scott Kahn, but it was a long, it was a very early, very early in my acting career. And the part was according to the breakdown, was a an Asian woman. It was a teacher in a high school, and it was supposed to be an Asian woman. And for some reason the casting director called me in, and I just did the best I could with he's it's just a teacher, right? It really doesn't matter whether it's a male or a female, what ethnic or cultural background they have, it's just a teacher teaching something, and so I just did the best I could, and I got the part. So it yeah, that's a great lesson there. You know, it's not your job as an actor to judge whether or not you're right for the part. That's that's up to the casting director, the director, the producer. I mean, there are a lot of people who weigh in on why somebody does or does not get a role, and and probably too many people now. One can only you have no idea, and this is a good life lesson too, but you have no idea what a casting director or director or a producer might see in you or might see in a performance. What the only thing over which you have any control is the work you do. You you can't control how it's going to be received. And so if you continually do your best with every audition and commit fully every time, then that's what will show up. And those casting directors will call you back, and those directors will want to work with you, even if you don't get that part. And that's the only thing over which you have any control, and so that's where you should exert control. You shouldn't worry yourself about whether or not the role is right, or why the casting director has made the decision to see you, or why your agent put you up for it. It's too many, it's too much noise, and it's a waste of time.

Greg Staffa 28:31

There was an interview I saw recently, and I wish I could remember who did it, but they were talking about an audition that they went in, and he's like, I absolutely nailed it. I was just, I had everything down, I was at the top of my game, I had this role locked, and then I didn't get it. And he went on to say, you know, I was upset and disappointed, but then I went and saw the movie and saw the person that got the role, and I was like, Yep, I was the wrong person for it, because that wasn't the direction, and this person was great in the role because that was how the director envisioned the role. And so just because you think that you're a lock for something, it really depends on what other people are looking for in their mindset that that helps get them the role.

Geoffrey Cantor 29:17

Yeah, I mean, you there's so many things that that go into the casting of a project. It could be somebody was promised a role, it could be they're famous, it could be they have more followers. Or it could be that they're as as you just mentioned in that in that little story you told, it could be that the vision that the director had or that the writer had points to this person. I can tell you I did a short film a couple of years ago where I had no idea why they cast me without an audition. And I had no idea why. Nothing in my work would have suggested that I would have been right for that role, in my opinion. And there I did it anyway. It's called the Dinner Planet, and the cast is amazing, and I was very happy to be part of it, but I don't know why they cast me in that. I still am not entirely sure, but I that doesn't matter, right? So um, again, you have no control over those decisions, and there are a lot of factors that that go into the the why somebody getting cast. And if you dwell on that, you will drive yourself crazy because you'll never know. And so I don't I don't bother to waste my time in that space.

Greg Staffa 30:41

You've also

Coaching Actors Through The Script

Greg Staffa 30:42

done some acting coaching and some mentoring and stuff like that. And when I think of acting, there's just it's like a buffet. There are so many different styles, there's so many different, you know, there's the Marlon Brandles, there's a Tom Hanks, they all have different approaches. When it comes to coaching, what exactly are you teaching these kids? And if you were president of Hollywood for a day, what is something that you would instill on these young actors that are coming in that you're seeing?

Geoffrey Cantor 31:13

I love that president of Hollywood for a day. That's a really funny idea. I think I have been exposed to teachers from one would argue very different schools. So Maris Karnowsky was definitely method, but not the way Udaagan might have been or the way Strasbourg might have been. The whole notion of having a way in from a technique standpoint, I think, is a very dangerous thing because absurdist theater or Shakespeare or film, the requirements of the script are very changeable. And I think for me, my my way in is the text. That I I read the words and I do my best to be a behaviorist. Why is the character doing what he's doing? Um, there's a lot of very easy questions that any acting teacher will tell you, whether it's technique-based or method-based. I I hate to even to use those those terms, so I think they're silly, but who you are, where you are, and what you're doing. And I'm not a big fan of focusing on feelings, everybody's got feelings. I am a much bigger fan and a proponent of using the script to be sort of a blueprint of behavior. Right? All all when I'm speaking to you, all I'm doing is sharing my thoughts. So, what are the thought processes? And then the more time you have with it, what are why might somebody think that way? Why might they say what they're saying? Why are they doing what they're doing? And what you know, then you get into motivation and objective. And I think all of those are are it requires that level of analysis. It's not, it shouldn't be guesswork. It should you become a behaviorist as an actor, and so as an acting coach, I think I do some of that. And I think when I'm coaching, I try to guide my students to use the scripts to find the clues. And it's everything from punctuation. So if a speech is punctuated a certain way or unpunctuated, not punctuated, I don't know if unpunctuated as a word, but lack of punctuation might indicate a way of speaking. That might be the director's way of suggesting how he hears that character uh speaking, and maybe people who ramble without taking pauses, people who speak in very short sentences, people who uh give one-word answers as opposed to long explanatory answers. These are all clues into the psyche of that person. And so uh, and also what are they doing, right? Are they what are they doing in the moment? And I think the work I do as a teacher, but also the work I do as an actor, is all based on unraveling what the script is telling you about that character's behavior. You're hearing through the lines and you're seeing through their actors. It allows for people of all sorts of backgrounds and experience before they come to me, whether they've worked, you know, the American school or they, you know, are people say they're people more technique based in England. For me, it it's all all that language is nonsense. How you approach Shakespeare, if you don't understand the text, you can't do Shakespeare if you don't use his uh punctuation, and if you don't use what what there is of it, and if you don't use the meter to help you discover where breadth is, you may never unpack what he's having the character say. And and some people are much more facile with that than others. But yeah, I would say everything I do from commercials to one scene in a movie or TV show to being on stage is all based on what the script is telling me. And and there are required different requirements. I mean, if you're doing stage work and you're doing audience address, that's very different than doing a scene in a movie with somebody where it where you're living in real time with that person, right? That requires very, very different, a different mindset and it and and it and a different it's gonna have a different result, but your your way in is pretty much the same because if you're talking to somebody else on stage or on screen, or you're talking to the audience, you're still still talking to somebody. So that's what you're doing. So that's the that's the common threat, I guess.

Greg Staffa 36:17

I know we're

Video Store Picks And Hidden Gems

Greg Staffa 36:18

running out of time, so I'll try to wrap these questions up fast. If you're over 30, used to know of a thing called a video store, and a lot of video stores would have employees suggest, and the employees would take a handful of videos that they would recommend, and they could be popular movies or ones that people hadn't heard of. If Jeffrey Cantor was running a video store and he had his employee suggest of Jeffrey Cantor films, what would be on that little wall section of Jeffrey Cantor recommends?

Geoffrey Cantor 36:51

How many do I get?

Greg Staffa 36:53

Uh we'll make it a quick of five.

Geoffrey Cantor 36:55

Top five. Okay. The third man, Godfather, one and two. I think Apocalypse Now. I think the film adaptation, the first one, not the most recent one, of West Side's Story and Love and Death, Woody Allen's Love and Death.

Greg Staffa 37:20

Now, if the role below it was gonna be just Jeffrey Cantor films, what are some films and roles that you've had that you wish more people had a chance to see?

Geoffrey Cantor 37:30

Also, I if I had a number six, it would be Animal House. Movies to that, so Creepbox is a film that I did that I'm I'm proud of. Hail Caesar. I think the dinner plan, that short film, definitely is worth seeing. Uh, I do think that watching the three first seasons of Daredevil on Netflix, I think that's worthwhile. And I did a thing called Carl Manhair Postal Inspector that nobody ever got a chance to see that I was pretty proud of.

Greg Staffa 38:03

I'm

Daredevil Breakthrough And Behind The Secrecy

Greg Staffa 38:04

gonna limit to three more questions because I know we're wrapping things up. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask a specific Daredevil question. You know, you did Daredevil before your role was one that was created. There wasn't a history behind it. It was an unknown project as far as you know how strong audience would embrace it uh because it was Marvel TV on Netflix. At what point did you realize that the show really had something special?

Geoffrey Cantor 38:31

That's a fun question. So I auditioned for that uh on a Monday. I had the Thursday previous slipped in a stairwell and dislocated my shoulder, punched it back in, and broke two little bones, had an x-ray on Friday, and my surgery was going to be the next day, and I didn't know it was Daredevil. It was an untitled project, and if you watch the first, my first episode, which is episode three of season one, you see me holding a file in my left hand, and as much as I could in that first season, I had that arm in that position because I was doing it uh immediately after having had this surgeries when we started shooting. So I was um I I had not expected to be in multiple episodes. I auditioned for this part and and was not guaranteed anything. And I I don't I don't know when it hit me that it was as big as it was, but I do recall towards the end of the season when we hadn't we weren't allowed to read the whole scripts at the time, I wasn't anyway. And in the last episode that I was in, my character Ellison is accused of doing something, and I didn't know whether or not I had done what I was being accused of because I hadn't seen the script. And so I went to the writers and the producers, and they took me behind about six doors, literally, like into one room, and then another room and another room to show me this the script. And from from that I realized that my character had not, in fact, done what he had been accused of. But the level of secrecy made me understand. Also, by then I knew it was Daredevil, and it was already my fifth episode, and that's I think when I began to understand how much scrutiny there was by how secretive they were. And then it wasn't until the second season they started sharing full scripts with me. And then in the third season, I was doing table readings, and so but I knew when that first season hit and my IMDB number, you know, became the smallest it it ever was, and and people were stopping me on the street after season one. I I understood the full scope of um of this wave that I was now in the middle of, right? Because Daredevil was the temple, and and it it it was big. It was very big. It certainly was.

Greg Staffa 41:36

One

Dream Projects, Identity, And Closing Thoughts

Greg Staffa 41:37

last question, and then I have a final wrap-up question. Again, I appreciate you coming on. You had mentioned you'd done some writing, you've done some acting. If Steven Spielberg came to you and says, I love your work, I've seen you from Daredevil to all your other stuff. I want to give you Steven Spielberg money. You can write, you can direct, you can act. What's the story that you want us to tell? Wow. What would it be?

Geoffrey Cantor 42:02

Wow, that's a great question, Greg. There's something I'd written that I I would like to expand on about a blue puppet who's navigating the business in a world where puppets exist, that I I would like I would like to flesh that out because I think it would be very funny and I think it would be good. But I I also think that there are uh I think there are stories about tenacity and survival on Jewish, and I think um a lot of the stories that are told of Jewish history are specifically about us being victims, and I I think it'd be interesting to investigate some of those stories where we're not victims, but we are just other people who happen to be Jewish, but that they are specifically Jewish stories. There's one I'm not gonna say them here because if I ever write them, then I don't want to share them. But I have a couple of ideas that I've written down that uh I I think I'm going to at least start to investigate.

Greg Staffa 43:13

Final question. So much when we say Jeffrey Cantor, especially nowadays, it's hard to not mention Daredevil. It's hard not to mention roles that you've done, and it's kind of always linked to you now. But when you get up in the morning and you go into the bathroom, you splash a little water on your face and look in the mirror, who is it that you see?

Geoffrey Cantor 43:36

I just see a a working actor who's trying to make it every day, and I'm a dad. Uh uh I'm an advocate around mental health. For I I did a one of the films that I directed was about youth and suicide loss, and so I've spent a little time in in that space. I'm Jewish and the way things are for the Jewish people right now in this country and around the world, it's very challenging, especially in my industry. And so I'm I'm all of those things. Um but I'm just a guy living in New York. I have my hobbies, I like making community, I like meeting new people, I'm I'm curious. I I don't I'm I'm not defined. I love acting, and I am an actor, and I am being in a creative space and being fulfilled by that is my favorite way of spending time. But I when I go up in the mirror, I'm just like, I'm happy to be awake. I'm happy to be alive. I'm happy that I have an apartment in New York that I can look at on a sunny day, which it is right now, and see greenery to live in New York and have greenery around you is is remarkable. And my parents are still alive and am relatively healthy. My father's still working at the age of 89. I have great family. I just saw my daughter today for a quick cup of coffee. So yeah, I'm just a just a guy. Just a guy doing the best he can and you know, trying to live a life of integrity. And every day, you know, uh I I make a lot of mistakes, and every day I just sort of hope I don't make the same ones again. And I hope I'm learning and I hope I'm a good influence and a good example for other people. And and that's that I, you know, that I that I walk through the world trying to do the best I can. That's really all I think about.

Greg Staffa 45:24

Well said. Well, Geoffrey Cantor , thank you so much for coming on. Um, you on again some other time because I still have about 10 more questions. But uh I'm sorry we ran a little late and uh look forward to seeing what the future has for you. Great. Well, thank you.

Geoffrey Cantor 45:39

And I'm honored and and and flattered that you wanted to talk to me in the first place.