ALAN TUDYK

Loudon Wainwright III’s Grown Man—it’s hard to narrow down to any one album, but that album is important as far as when it came along in my life. And it’s a classic Loudon album.

I was shooting a movie in North Carolina. It was the first movie I did where I had a larger role, a movie with Sandra. It was about rehab. Viggo Mortensen was also in it and Margo Martindale and Steve Buscemi, and Loudon Wainwright, who’s role was “Guitar Guy.” I wind up going to set every day in a van sitting next to him. He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t have anything to say to him. We were just quietly going to work. So there was another actress named Susan Krebs, who’s also a jazz singer, who was in the movie, and her and I got along. And Susan and I were talking about music all the time, because she’s a singer and I love music. And one day she’s like, “Do you know who Loudon Wainwright is?” And I don’t. I have no idea. And she’s like, “Come by my room. I have his new album. I’ll play it for you.” And she played . And I was blown away. It was the perfect kind of music for me. He’s a troubadour. He’s a poet. The way that he uses language. He just does that thing with my brain where it just gives me glee and joy. I become that annoying guy going, “Back up, back up. Listen to the words. Listen to what he just said. You gotta hear how he says it. He coulda-said-this-but-he-didn’t-he-saidthat.” So I after that first listen I went out to a music store, which used to exist before the Internet, and bought six other albums. And of course the next day when I sat in the van next to Loudon I’m like, “So, ha ha, Loudon. Alan Tudyk. Good to meet you. Uh, can we talk a little bit about real quick?” He was very patient with me and talked through everything.