P的许多角色.J. 伯恩96年

今年早些时候，演员P.J. Byrne ’96 jumped on the latest celebrity social media trend. In a video posted to Instagram and set to the catchy Ting Tings song “That’s Not My Name,” he cycled through a highlight reel of his most memorable TV and movie characters. A sampling: the shady stockbroker Rugrat from the Oscar-nominated 《华尔街之狼; Principal Nippal from the HBO limited series 大小谎言; the mutton-chopped record company lawyer Scott Levitt from the HBO period drama Vinyl; and Bolin from the animated sci-fi series 科拉的传说.

他本可以继续下去的. 事实上, with more than a hundred acting credits and parts in films directed by Hollywood royalty such as Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese—not to mention his voice-acting projects and commercials—the bespectacled Byrne is certainly prolific. 难怪他看起来这么眼熟. And you’ll have even more chances to see him in the coming months. Among other projects, Byrne will play a leading role in the new series 不敬的 NBC的孔雀流媒体服务, and also appear in director Damien Chazelle’s hotly anticipated movie 巴比伦该片将于圣诞节首播.

然而，如果不是约翰·霍金的推动, 伯恩在电子游戏软件的戏剧教授之一, he probably wouldn’t have had an acting career at all. Byrne grew up the younger of two kids in a politically connected family in New Jersey. (His mother worked as a press secretary for the former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, 谁是他父亲的堂兄.) He enrolled in 电子游戏软件’s Carroll School of Management thinking he’d get his MBA and work on Wall Street for a few years before heading into politics, 或者像伯恩所说的那样, "家族企业".” But then, on a whim, he auditioned for a student play during his sophomore year. He got the part and later starred in the BC production of 伪君子, in 1995, 在侯钦的鼓励下, 他已经退休了, he decided to pursue adouble major in finance and theater.

当伯恩在BC大学读大四的时候, he had already lined up a post-graduation job on Wall Street. Houchin, 然而, 求他去上戏剧学校, even going so far as to fill out Byrne’s applications for him. “那个人的举动改变了我的生活，”伯恩说. “I think he knew that I understood the music of comedy, that I could come up with a quick joke. 但他也知道我需要接受适当的训练.” So in the fall of 1996, Byrne started at the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.

After graduating with an MFA in acting in 1999, Byrne moved to Los Angeles. To learn the business side of Hollywood, he reached out to the 蝙蝠侠和罗宾 演员兼鹰队成员克里斯·奥唐纳，1992年, H’17, P’22, P’25, 和华纳兄弟有制作协议的人. Byrne worked in development with O’Donnell’s company for a few years in increasingly senior roles while earning supporting parts in television and movies, 还有广告插播. He eventually gave up the development job to focus on acting and auditioning. “那是我事业腾飞的时候，”他说.

It was during the filming of Nora Ephron’s 2005 movie 迷惑了, based on the 1960s sitcom, that Byrne felt like he had truly arrived. 他在电影中扮演一个作家, 在一张桌子上阅读, he began pitching some funny ideas to the movie’s stars, 威尔·法瑞尔, 斯蒂芬·科尔伯特, 和妮可·基德曼. “Will and Stephen started laughing hysterically—and Will is famous for not breaking,伯恩说. “这是一件大事. 那一刻我知道 Oh, I’m allowed to sit at this physical table and this bigger-idea table. 我应该在这里的.”

Byrne approaches every new script with his particular brand of humor, jotting down jokes and identifying places where he can riff. “People know I’m going to bring something extra that’s not on the page,” he said. “我一直在想， What are the first four jokes that came into my head? Someone else is probably going to say them, so I use my fifth joke. My mind now naturally goes to the fifth joke immediately.” This penchant for playful improvisation and Byrne’s nice-guy attitude have served him well in an industry not exactly known for civility. His time at the Carroll School has also come in handy. He drew from his experience interning for a Boston bond salesman while at BC for an audition monologue that impressed Martin Scorsese and landed him the part in the 《华尔街之狼. “They knew I had a finance degree and that I knew the lingo,伯恩说. “But that’s the point: whatever you do, you never know when it is going to be worthwhile. Always be intrigued and interested because I promise you, 它会在你生活中的某个时刻派上用场.”

Though it may seem that Byrne has already had almost every role imaginable, he said he’d like to be cast in a war movie or as a superhero someday. 但与此同时, he can be found hanging out with his family—he and his wife, Jaime, who works as a fundraiser and event producer for nonprofits, have two daughters and a son—and waking up delighted each day that he’s able to do what he loves. “I maybe could’ve been happy going to an office on Wall Street, but I just feel so blessed that I get to play make-believe—and that someone is paying me to do it,伯恩说. “真的，每天都是紧要关头. Right before they said action, Jack Lemmon used to go, ‘magic time.这句话对我来说太真实了.”