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Since graduating from Juilliard in 1990, Tim Blake Nelson (Group 19) has appeared in more than 30 feature films, including Syriana, Meet the Fockers, The Good Girl, Wonderland, Holes, Minority Report, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and directed three (two of which he also wrote). This year he will be seen in The Moguls, The Big White, Come Early Morning, Fido, Hoot, and The Astronaut Farmer.

Tim Blake Nelson and Laura Linney in a Juilliard production of Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw in the 1988-89 school year. (Photo by Jessica Katz)

Nelson's New York theater credits include The Beard of Avon, in which he portrayed William Shakespeare, at New York Theater Workshop; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest at N.Y.T.W. and Manhattan Theater Club; Oedipus, with Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup, at C.S.C. Theater; Troilus and Cressida and Richard III at New York Shakespeare Festival; The Innocents' Crusade at M.T.C.; An Imaginary Life at Playwrights Horizons; and Mac Wellman's Dracula at SoHo Rep. As a playwright, Nelson's produced plays include the award-winning The Grey Zone, Eye of God, and Anadarko. Nelson wrote and directed a film version of The Grey Zone, starring Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Mira Sorvino, and David Arquette, which was honored by the National Board of Review with its prestigious Freedom of Expression award in 2002. Nelson also directed O, a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, starring Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Josh Hartnett, and Mekhi Phifer, which premiered at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival and earned him the award for Best Director. Nelson's first film, Eye of God, released by Castle Hill Films, appeared in competition at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the American Independent Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (1997), as well as the Tokyo Bronze Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival (1997).

Nelson lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with his wife, Juilliard alumna Lisa Benavides (Group 20), and their three sons, Henry, 7; Teddy, 3; and Elijah, 1. Nelson recently took some time out to tell The Journal about his Juilliard experiences.

What was behind your choice to attend Juilliard?

I wanted to be in New York City, and I wanted to be closer to Zabar's than to Washington Square Park, as the bagel is my drug of choice. Coming from an undergraduate experience that was fairly liberal—I have a bachelor's degree in classics from Brown—I also craved a more conservative actor training program. Since Juilliard's boasted a former R.A.F. pilot and prisoner of war at its helm [Michael Langham] and demanded four years of my life instead of three, I knew it presented just the sort of torture I was after.

How does what you learned at Juilliard shape your daily life?

I've found that the "liquid U" is a great mollifier if I'm in a tight spot. When making airline reservations, as an example, if I can say "Tyuesdi" instead of "toosday" the attendant on the line is going to know he's dealing with a serious person with specific needs, not some sap he can stick in a center seat back near the lavatory. Robert Williams, one of our voice teachers, once asked me if I had sex the way I acted. His question implied either that I was extraordinary in the rack and needed to improve as an actor, or that I was a phenomenal actor and needed to do better between the sheets. Thanks to Juilliard, where I met my wife of 10 years, I get to work regularly on both skills.

When you were at Juilliard, what was your plan for the future? How has that plan turned out?

Like most actors, I went to Juilliard to meet a young violist who would serve me cookies late in the day and lull me to sleep with Bach string solos. This didn't happen. In fact, I never even got a date with one as I was clearly too homely and this insufferably diligent breed was always needing to practice. Barring that, I was hoping to land "heavy" roles in big-budget international action pictures. This hasn't occurred either, because I'm hopelessly unconvincing as a high-stakes killer. I then imagined opening a dry-cleaning business where I would clean condiment stains from the monogrammed shirts of hedge fund managers and adorn my walls with autographed headshots of my classmates. What I never imagined was that I would remain in love with and marry a woman from Group 20, that we would have three boys, and that we would live happily a mere 10 blocks from Juilliard, where we met.

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