I like to watch a TV series called Inside the Actor's Studio hosted by James Lipton. Since its premiere in 1994, Lipton has interviewed over 200 guests including just about any actor you can think of including Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Paul Newman, Halle Berry, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Stiller and Harrison Ford.
Lipton explains the show's humble beginnings like this, 'At a point and time, I had three lives. I was the dean of the Actors Studio, the writer of the series, its host and executive producer. I maintained a preposterous sixteen hour schedule'. Inside the Actors Studio is now broadcast in 125 countries around the world reaching 89,000,000 homes. From tiny seeds grow mighty trees.
The New York Times sums up the enduring appeal of the show like this, 'In Mr. Lipton's guest chair, actors cease being stars for a while and become artists and teachers.' Each of the hour long interviews with a chosen actor or director is guided by Lipton's trademark index-card questions. Lipton is known known for his impeccably well researched knowledge of each guest's life, often startling some. On one such occasion, Billy Crystal told Lipton, "You know you're scary, don't you?"
Watching the show is almost like watching the fabric of someone's life unwoven - from where the person played as a child, to the influence of their parents, to what they would do on an average Saturday, to whether they finished college, to their failures and successes, chance meetings, hopes and dreams. Life flashing past.
At the end of the interview, Lipton always asks his guests the same 10 questions using a questionnaire concept was originated by French television personality Bernard Pivot. These famous 10 questions are:
- What is your favorite word?
- What is your least favorite word?
- What turns you on?
- What turns you off?
- What sound or noise do you love?
- What sound or noise do you hate?
- What is your favorite curse word?
- What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
- What profession would you not like to do?
- If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
For many of the guests, the answer revolves around how they looked or what they achieved. I wonder though if God is actually more interested in who we are. Why not let me know what your 10 answers are and, what you would like to hear God say?
'You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,' Psalm 139 v14-15, The Message