Listen Now: Armin Shimerman on Gratitude and Trusting Fate

Take the small opportunities as well because you never know what project you encounter now may branch out to be a much larger, beneficial, and profitable project later. —Armin Shimerman

Armin (@ShimermanArmin) is perhaps best known to audiences for playing Quark on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series.

I consider myself quite fortunate to count Armin as a teacher, peer, and friend. He’s been instrumental in my Shakespeare studies and we’ve also worked together in theatre, in full productions and staged readings. He’s a truly giving and humble person, and a great addition to this podcast!

Armin has been working 50 years in the business and has amassed 200+ credits on IMDb, with 4 projects in post-production. He was a long-running recurring character on Beauty and the Beast, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Boston Legal.

He has voiced Dr. Nefarious in the video game Ratchet and Clank, and has done many other voiceovers, video games, and commercials.

He’s also a Shakespeare scholar, teacher, director, and actor. In recent years, he has played Leo Tolstoy and King Lear’s Fool onstage. He’s also a writer, and has written a few novels with a sci-fi/Renaissance twist in the Merchant Prince series.

We talk about him acting in high school, studying and working at the Old Globe in San Diego, finding a mentor on Broadway, many of his ups and downs, what he believes has kept him working, and even dive into some Richard of Gloucester.

Please enjoy my chat with Armin Shimerman!

Total running time: 1:43:20

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Want to hear more from another Shakespeare teacher and actor? Check out my talk with Dakin Matthews, an actor, teacher, dramaturg, and scholar, currently appearing on Broadway!

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Show Notes

Armin Shimerman around the web

Highlights

How he came up with the voice for Dr. Nefarious
The heroic act his mother did for him
His personal philosophy toward acting
His fear of auditioning after all his theatre success
The one role he actively pursued and how he did it
“Getting lost” in a character in high school
How theatre helped with his feelings of insecurity
What drew him to Shakespeare, and has remained part of his life’s work
How he got his “big break” with acting roles at the Old Globe, and then really screwed it up
The masterclass he watched every night while in Saint Joan on Broadway
The special nickname Philip Bosco had for Armin
How fate played a hand in Armin’s first commercial agent
The pact he made with himself when he turned 40
How teaching came into his life
His main approach when teaching Shakespeare
What he wished he had done as a younger actor
What he shares with students about being a working actor
What he believes actors should ignore

Selected People and Items Mentioned

Armin’s Monologue from Henry VI, Part III (Act 3, Scene 2) by Shakespeare

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER
[accordion clicktoclose=”true”][accordion-item title=”click to view/close the monologue” id=richard state=closed] Ay, Edward will use women honorably.
Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all,
That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring,
To cross me from the golden time I look for!
And yet, between my soul’s desire and me—
The lustful Edward’s title buried—
Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,
And all the unlook’d-for issue of their bodies
To take their rooms, ere I can place myself:
A cold premeditation for my purpose!
Why then I do but dream on sovereignty,
Like one that stands upon a promontory
And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,
And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
Saying, he’ll lade it dry to have his way:
So do I wish the crown, being so far off,
And so I chide the means that keeps me from it,
And so, I say, I’ll cut the causes off,
Flattering me with impossibilities.
My eye’s too quick, my heart o’erweens too much,
Unless my hand and strength could equal them.
[ARMIN BEGINS HERE, AND CUTS LINES]
Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;
What other pleasure can the world afford?
I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap,
And deck my body in gay ornaments,
And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
O miserable thought! And more unlikely
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns!
Why, love forswore me in my mother’s womb;
And for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither’d shrub,
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size,
To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlick’d bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.
And am I then a man to be belov’d?
O monstrous fault, to harbor such a thought!
Then since this earth affords no joy to me
But to command, to check, to o’erbear such
As are of better person than myself,
I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,
And whiles I live, t’ account this world but hell,
Until my misshap’d trunk that bears this head
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home;
And I—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way, and straying from the way,
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out—
Torment myself to catch the English crown;
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry “Content” to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall,
I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk,
I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,
And like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colors to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machevil to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.

[/accordion-item] [/accordion]

Armin teaching Shakespeare back in 1993!

This may be the audition where Armin tripped!

Copy and share: bit.ly/waj-armin

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Ep #2: Armin Shimerman (Star Trek DS9, BTVS, Shakespeare Actor/Director/Teacher) on Gratitude and Trusting Fate