Michael
Marisi Ornstein plays Chucky Marstein, an almost entirely fingerless, ex-con,
motorcycle gang bookkeeper, who makes a mean bowl of chili on Sons of Anarchy. So fans might be
surprised to learn that in real life, the actor is also a very talented
painter, musician and writer. In a recent conference call interview, Ornstein
talked about his various artistic pursuits.
Michael
talked about how he approaches all of his creative outlets. “I feel it's all
coming from the same exact place when I get a script and do my work and then
show up on set and work. It's the same zone that I'm in when I'm in front of a
canvas or when I'm writing a story about one of my paintings or playing music.
Whatever I'm doing at any given time it's the same exact zone. I'm a creative
person and I use painting, and acting, and writing and writing songs or
whatever as tools to just get a point across in order to communicate a story or
an emotion or something like that.”
He added
that he let’s the feeling direct him to the right form of release for his
creative impulse, saying, “So if I'm feeling something, I know if it's a song
or if it's a little story that I'm going to write or if it's a painting or if
it's a play. I might sit down and write a play. I have. I used to write and
perform a lot of my own materials with my friends.”
The Sons of Anarchy star explained that
sometimes this leads him to some unexpected projects. He recounted, “I made a
film at one point about something I was going through. I didn't want to make a
film. I didn't say, ‘Hey, I want to make a film now.’ I was just going through
something and I said, ‘Wow man, this is a film.’”
He
described the very low-key production of the movie. “So I got together with my
friends and shot a feature length film on a budget of like $500, I think I
spent, to shoot a feature film. I used digital video and it was actually the
first film ever to be shot on digital video, like in the world. And I did that
by accident because I didn't want to spend any time trying to raise money for
the film and started shooting on Hi8 and I just didn't like the way it looked
and I went to be in B&H Camera in New York City and bought a digital video
camera and went to work.”
Michael
continued, “I actually shot the film by myself and all the actors acted as crew
and it was awesome. So that could have been a play, or that could have been a
painting or a story. But it was a film. So I went and made a film. So what I'm
saying is that it all comes from the same exact pool of creativity.”
But
painting seems to be one of Michael’s greatest passions. He revealed that fans
will be able to see his work in a city near them sometime soon when he takes
his art on a very high tech tour. Ornstein explained, “I'm working on that. What
I'm doing with my oil paintings is really interesting. It's like the first time
it's ever been done actually. I'm using hand-mixed oil paintings and I'm
linking media that I've created and I'm adding music to it. So it's very much
like rock 'n' roll. I've written these stories that go along with the paintings
and I've been working this way for quite a while now, many years. And I'm using
QR codes, which is really cool. It's cutting edge modern technology.”
He
described what fans can expect to see and hear. “Basically in the live show, I
have a QR code next to the painting and people can scan the code and get the
media delivered to their phone in a matter of just a couple of seconds. And
they can listen to the story of the painting; actually hear the painting
talking to them. So I'm trying to tour that and also work out some kind of live
performance because that's how these stories originated.”
Michael
noted that he’s mounted these types of performances before. He recalled, “I
wrote the stories and I used to get together with my friends in New York and
L.A. and stuff. And we would perform these stories in little cafés and bars or
wherever we could find a space. And it was a whole lot of fun. So that's what I
think the tour would be. It would be the exhibition and then some element of a
live show. I was even thinking about going to London with it.”
Catch Michael on Sons of Anarchy on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. Central on FX.
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