"It's SH#@T !!!" said Alice Winston, Master Technique Teacher,as Chris presented his monologue on stage in his first year at Stella Adler New York."Honey, I'm not saying this because you're a bad person...I'm saying it because you're a bad actor." she taunted with a wry smile. Chris knew exactly where she was coming from.Some other favourite sayings from Alice included "If you're retarded I'm nice, and today I was nice to you." & "I was on Broadway at 21 ...without a lesson". After 2 hard years at Stella Adler New York, Chris was described by Alice as one of her most teachable students. His roommate in Washington Heights never talked to him, unless they were playing ice- hockey on his playstation and then it was limited to "Yehhh!!!!" or "hmmm". It was just as interesting sharing apartments as it was studying. Other brilliant and gifted Adler teachers included Tommy Oppenheim (Stella's grandson), Joanne Edelmann, James Tripp, Donna Lee Kelly, Nicholas Kepros (Amadeus), Robert Perillo, Charles (soap director who was in Deniro's class at Adler)... and Alice who was there when Brando was there.The two years finished too soon for Chris. In May 1995 at the end of the course, Chris performed in the school's two Off Off Broadway productions, playing a handful of characters in Pericles, and co-lead in Cloud 9 where he said to James Trip "I can't stand my character Clive" to which Jimmy replied "Just find one thing you like about him." Returning to Australia in 1995, Chris was cast as the Lead in the Brisbane production of Man of La Mancha. At the time the Director couldn't find the right person for Lead, and said let's not panic, maybe he's not even in the country. The day Chris returned from NY he called the company & asked about any roles. In Qld. Chris was still driving the car he had in Melbourne keeping his Melbourne plates as a reminder he would always return to the city he loved so much. After various excuses to police why he had Melbourne number plates Chris After a role in Bush Patrol in W.A. he finally returned to Melbourne and was cast as Flan, the lead in Six Degrees of Separation. Credits include a regular as Agent Cummings in Thunderstone 3 TV series; a cop in an ep of U.S. TV series Timetrax and the Timetrax Telemovie; various roles on Stingers, Blue Heelers, Neighbours, Pacific Drive, MDA, Animal Park, Ratbag Hero , the Film The Line, and various others outlined in the resume on his Actor Page with a selection of viewable clips. |