Best of: How Shakespeare gave actor Michael Patrick Thornton his life back
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2023
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This weekend, we bring you a conversation with actor Michael Patrick Thornton, who is currently in a buzzy Broadway production of A Doll's House alongside Jessica Chastain. When Michael was 24, he had a series of spinal cord strokes. Reciting Shakespeare's sonnets taught him how to breathe and speak again, and continue his career. Michael is at present the only actor on Broadway who uses a wheelchair. The interview was recorded a few months ago, while Michael was on stage in Macbeth with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. Then, we learn about Melissa Dring, Britain's top forensic artist, from journalist Will Coldwell, and the techniques she uses to catch criminals — they are surprisingly cute, and include a jar of strawberry jam.
--------------
Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
--------------
Links and mentions from the episode:
– Will’s profile of Melissa Dring, ‘To catch a criminal: what a forensic artist knows about the mind’: https://on.ft.com/3rw0lht
– Michael Patrick Thornton’s theatre company, The Gift: https://thegifttheatre.org/ – Michael is on Twitter @ThorntonMPT, and Will is on Twitter at @Will_Coldwell
– A Doll’s House is on Broadway through June 10 https://adollshousebroadway.com/
– Select coverage of the war in Ukraine is free to read at https://www.ft.com/freetoread
—-------------
Special offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.
Our. US edition of the FTWeekend Festival is back! Join Jamie Lee Curtis, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alice Waters, your favourite FT writers and more on May 20 in Washington, DC, and online. Register now and save $20 off using promo code weekendpodcast at ft.com/festival-us
--------------
Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi listeners, it's Lila. I'm here to say that we're working on some great stuff for you, |
| 0:05.9 | so this week we've decided to bring you one of our favorite episodes. It's a conversation with |
| 0:11.5 | the actor Michael Patrick Thornton. Michael is on Broadway right now in a doll's house alongside |
| 0:17.9 | Jessica Chastain, and I just saw it, and it's excellent. And seeing him on |
| 0:22.3 | stage reminded me of this wonderful conversation that we had when he was here. So here it is. |
| 0:28.6 | Next week we'll be back and we're talking all about tequila. But in the meantime, we hope you enjoy. |
| 0:34.9 | When the actor Michael Patrick Thornton was in middle school, he saw the play that made him fall in love with theater. Is it permissible to swear on this podcast? Sure. Okay. So my first production that I saw, we were bused in, I think I was in seventh or eighth grade, and it was 12th night, and the first line of 12th night if I remember correctly the |
| 0:54.6 | person comes out and says if music be the food of love play on and the actor came out it was like 10 |
| 0:59.9 | in the morning it was a school show you know and he said if food yeah fuck and they blacked out on them |
| 1:07.2 | and I was like what just happened know? And then lights came slowly back |
| 1:11.8 | up sort of music. And I think in that moment, like, the sacred, the poetic and the profane |
| 1:17.7 | were married for me. It was hilarious. It was vulgar. It was wrong. An accident was turned |
| 1:23.6 | into an opportunity. And I think that was kind of the seed, you know. |
| 1:32.8 | That's Michael talking to me in our studio in New York. Michael actually lives in Chicago, |
| 1:37.9 | where he has his own theater, The Gift. You may also know him from the show Private Practice. |
| 1:44.0 | He played Dr. Gabriel Fife. He was also in Madam Secretary and has been in a lot of other TV shows. |
| 1:47.4 | For 15 weeks this spring, Michael is in New York. |
| 1:52.5 | He's in a new production of Macbeth on Broadway, alongside Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. |
| 1:57.9 | But Michael's relationship to Shakespeare goes way back, and it runs deep. |
| 2:00.9 | Shakespeare practically saved Michael's life. |
| 2:03.6 | It definitely saved his career. |
| 2:12.9 | And I remember reading Shakespeare in grammar school and like, you know, not understanding what the hell they were talking about, but it was just so attractive that, well, I know this is English. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.