4 minute read
Steven Ogg
I reach for. It feels interesting to wanna pursue it. As you get older, sometimes it’s a little more difficult to feel that burn. The exuberance of youth wears off, but that kinda keeps me young, that I’m someone who’s excited about things and passionate about things. That means I also feel great pain and depression and anxiety, but then I also feel great love and joy. The pursuit is what keeps you young. It doesn’t mean it’s always fun, but the moments you do feel high, you keep going back to it. I’m not advocating drugs. I don’t do drugs. S SPOILER: Do you think because you’ve built this larger than life persona, that’s what’s expected of you? STEVEN OGG: I mean, I don’t know what people necessarily think of me. Not that I don’t care—it’s easy to say you don’t care if you’re liked. But you gotta take both. I just had a meeting the other day with a friend who was dealing with some negative things going on on social media. And the advice: Just ignore it. They don’t know you, they don’t know the reality. They’re just trolls. For some reason, people love to knock people down—especially people who’ve succeeded. The dream is always to succeed, and yet once people do succeed, there’s other people who love to knock them down. I don’t understand that. Kids, we know, go through a horrible time with bullying. It’s just sad. Just choose to be nice, man. So people’s views of me, I have no control over. People can think what they want. But people who know me and are close to me know who I am. And that’s all I really give a s**t about.
Advertisement
SPOILER: Do you feel that social media is a good thing or can it be dangerous? STEVEN OGG: It’s a false sense of getting to know someone. Everyone can engage on social media in the way they wish to. That’s everyone’s choice. It’s rarely true in reality. It’s just someone’s opinion or thought or idea, and you have to take it for what it is. The only true way of knowing someone is being with someone and talking with them. You can get an idea of someone on social media, but that’s all it is. I love a good chin wag, but now I think social media has really made any civil discourse really difficult. Because people now are judging instantly. Now we know everything that’s going on and it’s an overload of our brains and emotions. I don’t know if we’re built to handle this overload. If you’re getting upset about what people are commenting about, then don’t read the comments. I would probably take stuff personally if I engaged more. Because I’m sensitive.
SPOILER: What advice can you give someone trying to get into acting? STEVEN OGG: “Good f**kin’ luck.” [laughs] Nah, I’m joking. You know, generally I think the advice I give is not necessarily what I do. You gotta get involved and get out there and create your own stuff. And I don’t. I’m not writing my own script or developing my own projects. But I think that’s your best bet, because then you can have control over what you do. And you’re not waiting for someone else. I wish I did that more. Get out there and do it...not like me.
Steven Ogg/Snowpiercer/TNT/Warner Media SPOILER: If the world froze over like in Snowpiercer, would you wanna be stuck on a train like that? STEVEN OGG: I don’t think so. Confined spaces aren’t really my thing, so I can’t imagine enjoying being stuck on a train. I used to sometimes have anxiety attacks on the New York subway, so I biked everywhere. I don’t know if I’d be the greatest being stuck on the train. I’ll just freeze outside.
SPOILER: Your character Pike has evolved tremendously in season 2. Do you have to get into certain mindsets for him? STEVEN OGG: I’m not a method actor by any means. I’m about the words in the scene and serving the story. But certainly the transformation scene was a lot, and I wanted to get into that as much as I could. You go where you need to go for that. But then you leave it.
SPOILER: Does acting a certain way affect you sometimes? STEVEN OGG: Yeah, you sometimes need to decompress, even just after work. I remember back in my theater days—which I miss so much—that high after performing, it’s why you usually end up having to go for a drink or something. Because your adrenaline is up. It’s not necessarily because you’re doing an intense scene, but just performing. When I was shooting the Grand Theft Auto stuff, that character was very impulsive and I had to do some crazy things. I remember sometimes riding on the train from Long Island, after doing that for eight hours, you do sometimes have in your muscles some reaction when someone is rude to you or bumps into you. Because you were just acting out your impulses for eight hours, so you do have to keep your emotions in check. But other than that, I don’t carry much around with me. My head’s already full.
SPOILER: If you can give one message to all your fans out in the world, what would it be?
