The Tao of Lance

The Tao of Lance
by Sue Myatt

Having an interest in Taoism and recognising that Lance Henriksen seems to be a particularly decent human being, I thought I would bring the two together in a celebration of the Man! Below you'll find a selection of quotes from the Tao Te Ching alongside pertinent quotes from Mr Henriksen.

Quote

"The Tao person never strives to appear great which is how true greatness is achieved" Tao 34

Lance still has to make B movies but he gives his total commitment to each role: "I realized, this is my life, make the most of it. Even if the people around me are bullshitting, I'm not. You do your work as fully as you can, and the ones who hear the sound join in. And some of those B movies turned out pretty good. There were scenes in all of those movies I was never ashamed of." Uncut May 2001

"I appreciate the idea that anybody would think of me as a star. But I'm really not career oriented in the sense that I want to be a star. It's not in me. It's not what I do. In fact, I'm amazed that I've even gotten this far." fango 129

"When people call one thing beautiful,
They see something else as ugly.
By calling one thing good,
Its opposite becomes evil." TAO 2

"That's what I see [Frank Black] as, this incredible ability to stay with it, to not give up, to not judge. If you judge, you run out of energy. It's like a boxer holding his breath when he's throwing a punch, that's what judging is like. He runs out of energy because he's holding his breath. And you get a guy like Frank Black, who doesn't judge so he has that energy to stay in the fray. And that's what i loved about him. I lived that role." Videoscope Winter 2002

"To me rites of passage through life, that's a wonderful, beautiful thing. [Joseph] Campbell didn't sit there and say, 'You're bad, you're good, you're bad.' What he was doing was saying that all men go through this and then we die. And he finally died." Videoscope Winter 2002

"Hold to the Tao within and joy will surely follow" Tao 35

"Looking at pottery from the outside world would never let you understand what it is. It's like a whole organic lifestyle. It has a demand of its own that you cannot defeat. You can't rush anything. You can find ways of cheating and rushing stuff, but when you do, you're cheating yourself out of the experience. Clay has to be dug out of the ground, it has to be cleaned, it has to be mixed, it has to be the right texture in order to make something. When you finally do make it, it has to be dried at a certain rate, then when it finally dries you have to know how to fire it in such a way where it won't explode. Anything you do, beginning with picking up the clay to the end of the firing can alter the outcome. It's literally recording every thought, every move you make. Anybody that lives a lifetime doing pottery, they become masters of a portion of that - not all of it, just a portion of it. It's exquisite, it really is." Videoscope Winter 2002

"I don't like galleries because i think they're just too expensive. It's beyond the pale, it's just ridiculous. They get snobby and they start talking about it in that snobby-ass way." Videoscope Winter 2002

"The Tao person lives fully in every moment" Tao 14

"This isn't a rehearsal for life. This is life." SFX july 2001

Lance on Frank "I can see him having slipped into a level of Chi, or spiritual energy, that grants him a certain amount of serenity and inner peace. Partly I feel this comes from knowing that you're closer to the back door of life than you are to the front. There's a certain serenity that starts to move in on you, and there's a certain reality to it as well. You realise that you don't need to be thinking about building a giant giant building anymore. You'd be quite happy in the lobby, and that's where Frank has been growing towards over the three seasons - there's a phenomenon of serenity coming over him, and with that comes authenticity and wisdom. This is being shown more as he's becoming a mentor to those people around him without talking down to anybody. There's no snoot music - he's just being absolutely authentic with people."

"The wisest person trusts the process, without seeking to control; takes everything as it comes, lives not to achieve or possess but simply to be all he or she can be in harmony with the Tao" Tao 2

"I was disheartened, wasting myself, doing fartcatcher roles, I wasn't investing in the personal things in my life. I wasn't artistic. And I decided 'Fuck this. I'm going to work the way I know I should, but have never had the courage to. If it goes down the toilet, if I don't see it on the screen, that's the end. And it was there. After that I just worked." Uncut May 2001

"Look, there's an element in acting where they hand you a script, and you know everything there is to know about this character. You know what's going to happen at the end of the movie. That in itself gives you a sense of world-weariness. It's like knowing your own death, every time. There must also be a world-weariness in me that people pick up on." Lance adds. "I'm nothing like that - I'm really not, man! But there are things that we see in each other that we never talk about. And they must see that in my soul."

Interview by Nick Hasted in Uncut, May 2001.

"Hold to these principles: seek simplicity, grasp the essential, overcome selfishness and wasteful desires" Tao 19

"After a while people have to take responsibility for their own actions for what they do in this world. I'll take responsibility for what I do. But political correctness and V chips and telling me to wear a styrofoam helmet in the bath tub 'cos I might slip and fall doesn't do it for me. I love the feeling that I am making my own choices and living by them. Leave some room for the human condition. We're not perfect and never will be." E@H

"I will not sit back and wait for somebody else's call to live. That's a big mistake. If I've got a movie to do and I've got a month to get ready for it, I do it organically. So it's very important for me to have a good sense of time, time being used well and time just lived. I'm not waiting to live any more of my life." Cult Times

"The Tao person embraces the one and lives in peace by its pattern, do not dwell on your ego and you will discover your soul. Avoid prideful acts and your work will endure, if you do not compete no-one on earth will compete against you. Follow the ancient wisdom 'Yield and Overcome', true peace is achieved by centering and blending with life." Tao 22

Lance sees Frank Black's development as part of a "cosmic journey. There's no time for him to hold onto anything except for his beliefs from one moment to the next. He has to believe that his core is basically right on."

I've always known from the beginning of my acting career that you only get an acting job if you've got something to learn about it. If you don't do it well, you'll be condemned to doing the same role over and over and over again. If you do it mediocre you'll have to do it again. Once you've done the role really well, you don't have to repeat it , you don't have to go back there."
Dreamwatch Magazine, #44

"The best people are like water, they benefit all things and do not compete with them. They settle in low places, one with nature, one with Tao" Tao 8

"We called her Sage because my wife and I always run up in the hills and there's a lot of wild sage up there. When she was born, I thought about what made me happiest, and sage is one of those things. So we agreed to name her Sage." fango #191

"I've never tried to have a career where I've calculated [everything]. It's been more like a farm where you get up in the morning and you step out and you smell the air and you get out there and you try to grow something." Cult Times

"The thing is... I don't really look at the things that have come out, not in any kind of longing way because for me movies are an absolute adventure. They had their adventure, but mine are still happening and still going so I have no longings. I've never had the fantasy that I wish I had been married to Marilyn Monroe for instance. I have no longings otherwise I would be called a bride at every wedding and a corpse at every funeral; and I have some wonderful projects coming up so I'm real happy. As long as these movies don't take me away from my pottery and that's the truth. " Sideshow Collectibles transcript 2005

"I hold three treasurers close to my heart: the first is love, the next simplicity, the third, overcoming ego" Tao 67

"Everybody needs labour. There's rest in labour, there's pride in labour. You've gotta be able to do something even if its just digging a garden, but you gotta do it everyday when you're not doing the thing that makes you a living. Now acting is certainly an art form, but pottery for me is spiritual." Cult Times

"Now in between [movies] I'm in my pottery - god, my great obsession -it heals. Labor is meditation for me."

"Tao people know themselves and make no display. Accept themselves and are not arrogant" Tao 72

"I have a great wife and daughter and dogs and a life - and I make pottery. I have things outside of [my work] that keep my feet on the ground. I'll never buy into [fame]." E@H

After his big cinematic break in Dog Day Afternoon, Charles Durning warned Lance prophetically: "You'll never work 'till you're older 'cause you look kind of goofy." Film Threat June 95

"The way to greater light leads through the darkness. Going ahead feels like falling back. The even path seems rugged and hilly, the highest power a yielding valley" Tao 41

"I'm a little bit like a boxer. You put the opponent in front of me and I'll deal with it ... What we do, acting, is a combination of a love affair and sport. I'd try anything and I'll go for it. I'm not afraid of anything" Cult Times

"Acting is still tough for me on a certain level. Every role for me is like going back to zero. I have to decide what I'm going to do, or if I can even act anymore. It's rough when you're constantly challenging yourself to do better and better work, rather than merely go through the motions." Fango #129

"There's so much lack of rules about things that directly affect our lives in major ways, like Bill Gates, the attitudes that allowed mad cow disease to affect humans, and corporate nationalism. These are the things we have to fight against and they are the fights we'll be faced with more and more in the next millennium." TV Zone 105

"But tilting at windmills is not a bad thing because, even as Cervantes said, you can either get thrown into the mud or up into the stars. It's the risk we really all should be taking. It's what he meant by that. If we don't start living by those things I think we're gonna end up in a lot of trouble as a planet. We have been - we've had wars. Corporate nationalism to me is a little bit like what would have happened if Hitler had won. It's scary stuff. It's totalitarianism in a different from, under a different flavour.They're just spoon feeding it to you in a different way." Dreamwatch Magazine, #44

"When a conventional person hears about Tao he breaks into loud laughter. If there were no laughter it would not be Tao" Tao 41

Lance took a 1973 military truck and restored it to sell his wares and painted 'Screaming Red Ass Pottery' down the side! "Pottery just takes itself so seriously, I like to be more blasphemous about it. I don't wanna be one of the old ladies that are making teacups. And that truck, I sell pottery right off the back of it, I get to meet people and talk to them about what they like." Cult Times

"All life embodies Yin and embraces Yang, through their union achieving harmony" Tao 42

"There's no money to be made in helping a young director out of the gate. But in honesty that's never been an issue with me." Shivers

"Follow the Tao and live in harmony. Cultivate character (te) and develop your highest potential. Te and Tao are the way of life, abandon either and the Tao abandons you." Tao 23

"Every movie I make changes me, makes me a different person, forces me to grow and think." Shivers

[on the meaning of life] I guess the only thing I can say about that is that I don't want to be Peter Pan - I know it's all going to be over eventually, so I'm going to try to enjoy every minute of my life." Dreamwatch #123


Many thanks to ChinesePaintings.com for the beautiful thumbnail art.