Paul Heyman Weighs In On His Character Work, Doesn’t Think He’s a Good Actor

Paul Heyman is considered one of the top managers in wrestling history, but he doesn’t believe he’s a great actor. Heyman gets virtually universal praise for his work on the mic and with his character, from his promo delivery to his reactions and everything in between.

However, Heyman said in his recent interview on Insight With Chris Van Vliet that he doesn’t consider himself a good actor. He explained his process and talked about how much of himself is in his character. You can see the highlights below:

On His Talent With Mastering the Little Things In His Performance:

“I mean, well, thank you for your kind words on that, but it’s just the desire to do something substantive, it’s the desire to do something better than other people do it. It’s the desire to achieve greatness. It’s the adrenaline rush. It’s the dopamine effect when you achieve something that seems to be unachievable, and whether that’s a nuance in a performance, getting that out of someone else, collaborating with someone on their efforts to achieve that greatness. It’s just the pursuit of something that you can be proud of, that you can look back on if you choose to look back on things and say, yeah, that I really enjoyed doing that. That gave me a high that’s not available through any kind of drug, any kind of sex, anything else in life, with the exception of quality time with your children. Outside of that, it’s chasing that high. What makes Mick Jagger and Keith Richards go on stage at their age when they certainly don’t need the money, and tear the stadium down, not only doing classic Rolling Stones music, but new music that they still to this day choose to write, what drives that? What makes them want that? Why is Clint Eastwood directing movies in his 90s and they are Academy Award-level movies? Because there is a need, there’s a yearning, there’s a craving, there is an insatiable lust to go after something that you’re passionate about and want to overdeliver, even past your own expectations.”

On Where His Character Ends & He Begins:

“Depends on the day, depends on what’s needed inside of the performance. The persona of Paul Heyman is carried a lot by the real-life experiences of the person Paul Heyman. So, if I’m asked, I’m not a good actor. I’m not a trained actor. I never went to acting classes. I was never trained to be an actor. I’m not a good actor.”

On People Considering Him a Great Actor:

“Well, thank you. I’m a method actor. I find things that trigger the emotion that has to be presented within the scene that we’re presenting. So I have to rely on things that I can relate to, so therefore you’re getting a lot of me within the character, but it’s clearly a persona that I’m putting forth, and it’s a skin that I’ve learned to be very comfortable walking in. Ric Flair, famously or infamously, has said many times, the day I’m nervous walking through the curtain is the day I don’t walk through the curtain, and it’s funny because to me, the day I’m nervous walking through the curtain is the day I don’t go, because I’m not nervous going out there. I’m a lot more comfortable in the middle of the ring with a live microphone in my hand in front of 20,000, 30,000, 70,000, 5,000 people than I am just sitting here talking with you right now.”