Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael Stuhlbarg is an American actor. He is best known for playing organized crime boss Arnold Rothstein in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire, troubled university professor Larry Gopnik in the 2009 dark comedy film A Serious Man, Griffin in Men in Black 3, Dr. Flicker in Blue Jasmine, and computer scientist and inventor Andy Hertzfeld in the biopic Steve Jobs...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth5 July 1968
CityLong Beach, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming.
I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.
A miracle is something that seems impossible but happens anyway.
The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie.
I was raised in a reform synagogue. I think we all bring with us a sense of when hard things happen to us, we find ourselves asking questions of why are these things happening to me at this time in my life. I think in that sense, there's a certain resonance that I carry. It's more of a spiritual resonance as opposed to particularly of Judaism.
My mom and my dad are ebullient people, and I think I carry that with me.
Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.
I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was one of those kids who sat around and drew in my room all the time.
I've found in my own life, if you try to struggle against what the universe is telling you, you set yourself up for more of a battle.
I love a sense of humor, I love intelligence, I love specificity, I love surprises. I'm inspired to get out of bed in the morning and fill my day with good things.
Most of the people in New York are very often from somewhere else.
I think the theater work and the on-camera work feed off each other. My theater work has become more simple, and my on-camera work has become more energized or more spontaneous.
I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be.