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Boxtop presents

Actor Chris Eigeman
"Mr. Jealousy"

June 03, 1998

Chris Eigeman is perhaps best known as the befuddled author in a strange land on the late 90s series “It’s Like, You Know…” He has been in all of Whit Stillman’s films, a series of others, an assortment of plays, and he is still young enough to have the very best ahead of him. Chris stopped by Talk City to discuss his exciting career with us!

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CCCMyst: Talk City Presents in association with BoxTop Live (tm), welcomes you to tonight’s feature presentation and now without further ado welcome Chris Eigeman. Chris, welcome to Talk City!

Chris Eigeman: It's real nice being here!

Mysterygirl: Chris, welcome to Talk City! You're a very versatile actor and look like you had fun doing your movies. Which movies did you like growing up and why?

Chris Eigeman: Wow! Having done press for the past two weeks on my new movies, I've yet to be asked that! I remember seeing a lot of Albert Brooks movies as a young kid, and they were pretty funny. I also grew up in a time when movies were big entertainment pieces like The Poseidon Adventure, The Sting. In Denver, I didn't watch all that many art house Films, except for Cassavettes films, they would come to Denver and I would watch those.

Corey: Who do you admire the most? I think Christopher Reeves has got to be one of the most courageous men in the world.

Chris Eigeman: I both admire and am deeply admiring of Christopher Reeves' courage. I remember I was an apprentice at the Williamstown Theater Festival and he was an actor there doing a play. I watched him do a play every night for two or three months and tried to learn from him and now in this battle everyone is continuing to learn from him.

Terris: Hello Chris, could you tell us how you got into acting? Is that what you always wanted?

Chris Eigeman: Yeah, I guess I'm the product of that 1970's elementary school system of all the kids having to take an arts class where some kids had to take drawing, others took art, and some were in The Wizard Of Oz. I was the kid who took The Wizard of Oz, and somehow it stuck.

Pinktulip: Who most inspired you to become an actor?

Chris Eigeman: I had a High School English teacher who directed a lot of the High School plays and he was one of those great teachers that you always wanted to do well for. One day I heard that he had said that I was maybe good enough to be an actor, although he didn't say it to me personally, I heard it second hand, it was enough encouragement for me to go off and do it.

Latenight Says: Has your family always been supportive of your career decision?

Chris Eigeman: Thankfully, yes! Growing up in Denver I was really lucky. Across the street from us lived the mother of a friend of mine who was an actress and down the block was a painter, my grandmother an opera singer and my mom owned an art gallery so the idea of me going off to be an actor, seemed normal.

The Nanny: You majored in English and Drama in college, did you at one time think of teaching English?

Chris Eigeman: No, it was just something I did. The English degree was just sort of something I did to please my family. It was sort of a backup in case I had to teach in case acting didn't work out. The family was really supportive of me being an actor, but also to have something to fall back on, not that an English degree is any kind of insurance, but it was probably better than being only a drama major. Also the school I went to , Kenyon, had a terrific English department. In High School I spent most of my four years not studying and other things, so by the time I got to college I was ready to try and read some books

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