Bleibtreu: Thank you. No, this is not my first time in L.A. This is--I don't know; I haven't counted. I think this is my fifth or sixth time. I did parts of my acting studies in New York City.
AboutFilm: Where in New York?
Bleibtreu: I did them privately. I worked [odd jobs] at The Actors Studio and took some classes at the HB Studio, but I was always trying to find teachers. I believe that you can only learn from people that you like and that you look up to. I don't believe in acting being a craft that everybody can learn from everybody, like, you know, cooking.
AboutFilm: It takes talent.
Bleibtreu: Yeah, and it takes also a personal relationship between two people. Otherwise, I think it's not going to work. So I tried to find private teachers that I can relate to.
Bleibtreu: Not particularly. I just had this one experience I remember. I went to the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute--by this time I was 19 years old. They have this full time program that costs, I don't know, fourteen hundred dollars a month. I said, "How am I ever supposed to be able to pay this? There's no way for me," and then I said, "Listen, can I observe the class just once?" And they said, "No!"�K"What do you mean, no? I can't pay fourteen hundred dollars not knowing what to expect." That was the first day. They said, "Okay, go in that room and Lee is going to talk to you." I'll never forget that. "Lee is going to talk to me? I thought Lee is dead." So then they put me in this room. There was a VCR and a TV in the room and they put a VCR tape inside, and then on the screen came Lee Strasberg. He says, "Dear future student, I'd like to address these words to you." I said, "Wow, this is kind of strange." So I said, no.
AboutFilm: Too strange for you?
Bleibtreu: Yeah, that was too strange for me. So I tried to find people that I respect as actors. And then I just went up to them and said, "Listen, are you giving classes?"
AboutFilm: For example?
Bleibtreu: For example, people like, ah�Kwho did I ask? I think I asked Burt Young once, but he didn't want to do it. And other actors that were not so known. And I found someone. One of the teachers I worked with for a long time, her name was Susan Benson. She's also a member of the Actors Studio, and I did a lot of private classes with her.
