At the end of OK Computer we were playing big, big arenas and it wasn't right. You can do those things occasionally but at the time it didn't feel right.
You don't have a face to work with, so your voice has to do all the work until you see the animation. So, a lot of it I had to pull back because it was too big.
I'm not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.
It's a tough transition really for theater actors to adjust to television or film, and all of these years later, I still have a tendency to play it too big.
When you're in a big theater, you want to reach the very top of the place. Up to the highest seat, so that each person feels like you're talking to them. There's really no difference when you're in a smaller place; you just don't overdo it. It becomes far more personal.
I loved doing 'Rock of Ages' in N.Y. and that, but its such a large scale, and so many things go into it.
What appealed to me about the whole production is how big it is. I don't do musicals because I don't sing very well. But this is the biggest stage thing I'll do that's not a musical.
If we had an audience to play to, the performance would have gotten too big. Sizing our performances to the camera was an important journey for me at least.
Though television is a smaller medium than the stage, you can't be afraid to be big.
Initially we performed in halls with capacities of 1,000.
I think when you evolve into a headlining act and things get bigger, the intimacy, and some of that energy gets lost a little bit.
It was so strange, coming from Nashville, Tennessee, where I was playing to 15 people, to going to London and playing in this crowded little dive pub. I know Tom Petty had a similar thing - I realize, on a lot larger scale.
It is not very practical in today's world when you tour all over the place having a big band.
I never thought the orchestra should be big.
Say the average arena is 20,000 people. You're in the very center of that arena, and you're playing to the worst seat in the house up there. So everything is very big, very large. It's like a very violent form of Broadway in a 20x20 ring.
You get to bring your own sound system when you play an arena, all the lights and visual stuff, which I think is really cool. There's something about those old arenas, where it feels larger than life.
Acting must be scaled down for the screen. A drawing room is a lot smaller than a theatre auditorium.
You need to find the size of performance that's appropriate to the material, appropriate to the shot, or appropriate to the scene.
