Trivia

Inside the Actors Studio

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During Robin Williams's interview, a man in the audience had to be removed from the theatre by ambulance. He'd laughed so hard, he'd acquired a hernia.

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The ten questions by Bernard Pivot that host James Lipton asks every guest are:

1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on?
4. What turns you off?
5. What is your favorite curse word?
6. What sound or noise do you love?
7. What sound or noise do you hate?
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
9. What profession would you not like to do?
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

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During Robin Williams's interview, a man in the audience had to be removed from the theatre by ambulance. He'd laughed so hard, he'd acquired a hernia.

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Once, while a guest on British talk show host Stephen Merchant's show, the comedian Louis CK joked about the students in the audience on "Inside the Actors Studio" who ask famous actors for career advice: "it always occurs to me, you know, when an actor stands up - one of the people in the audience - 'I am an actor what can I do' and asks Sean Penn or whoever 'what can I do to reach your level,' you just want to say 'you will never be famous!'" In 2013, Louis CK costarred in American Hustle with Bradley Cooper, who was not only one of those Actors Studio students in the audience in several episodes (including one featuring Robert DeNiro, who was also in American Hustle) but also specifically one of the students who asked Sean Penn a question during Penn's 1999 episode.

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James Lipton has actively tried acquiring numerous guests for the show, such as Brad Pitt, Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Connery, and Michael Keaton, among others. Jennifer Lawrence declined an invitation at the age of 22 (which would have made her the youngest guest to appear solo), feeling that she was too young and inexperienced to speak at that point of her career.

Any and all prospective guests that elude the opportunity to visit the Actors Studio are given a standing invitation every year. Brad Pitt finally accepted in 2012.

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Although every single seat is filled at each of the Actors Studio seminars featuring a celebrity, James Lipton recalls the auditorium was filled beyond capacity when Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford were guests on the show.

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