Michael Balogun on finding his purpose in prison and the power of belief
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Channel 4 News
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“I don't think you can expect someone to change their life by putting them in a room and locking the door.” Michael Balogun might not believe that prison “helps” people to turn their life around, but it was undoubtedly his experience serving time that led him to where he is today - a star of the West End, currently appearing in a version of the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre.
But there’s more to Balogun than a zero to hero story; his is one of extraordinary resilience, the power of manifestation, and a chance encounter with someone who saw his potential that changed everything.
Michael Balogun joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Ways to Change the World to discuss how he turned his life around through acting, and why the power of your thoughts matter.
Produced by: Imahn Robertson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome two ways to change the world. I'm Krishnam Garry-Murthy and this is the |
| 0:08.6 | podcast in which we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas in their lives and |
| 0:13.6 | the events that have helped shape them. My guest this week is an actor. He's currently |
| 0:19.1 | in the National Theatre's production of the Liban Trilogy. It's a take on the founding |
| 0:26.0 | and disaster involving one of the most famous banks in the world. It's contemporary given |
| 0:31.9 | that we are still covering bank collapses even this week on the news and Michael Balaghan has got |
| 0:40.2 | one of the most inspiring personal stories as an actor I think I've ever heard so thank you |
| 0:46.3 | very much indeed for coming in. Thank you for having me. Well tell me about what you're doing |
| 0:51.1 | at the moment first of all because it's bizarrely contemporary. So essentially the Liban Trilogy |
| 0:56.8 | is a play about people always think that it's going to explain how the banking collapse happened |
| 1:01.7 | in 2008 but it's not really about that what it's about is like how that how that institution |
| 1:07.4 | first started. As an actor what do you enjoy about being on the stage? That's a good question. |
| 1:13.0 | I just like telling stories I like to tell stories it's something about being on stage to me |
| 1:18.0 | it's almost like a kind of a spiritual experience sometimes because you've got all these people |
| 1:22.4 | in the audience who are all there to kind of watch what you're doing. They know you're not |
| 1:27.3 | King Lear they know you're not I'm not Emmanuel Lehman they know that we all know that but there's |
| 1:32.5 | this kind of collective agreement that we have where we all go you know what as long as you do a good |
| 1:37.3 | enough job we will surrender and we will believe you're that person and if you do a good enough |
| 1:41.8 | job they just forget that this belief and they kind of surrender to it and their observation of |
| 1:47.1 | the play also becomes a part of the performance there's an element of magic that's involved |
| 1:52.7 | you know that there's an element of I have to convince myself that I am this person |
| 1:57.4 | and when I if I can do that well enough then something else kind of takes over and my subconscious |
... |
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