One Thing Christopher Guest Taught Me About Life
Today’s blog is different. It’s personal—so if it’s all right, I’ll share something memorable: some sage advice that altered my thinking.
Christopher Guest, also known as Lord Haden-Guest in the UK, is a very funny human. You may know him as Count Rugen (the six-fingered man) from The Princess Bride, Nigel Tufnel from This is Spinal Tap, Harlan Pepper from Best In Show... There are so many films where he's made us laugh. I’ve done his makeup on many occasions and watched his genius up close.
While working on some press for Best In Show, I and the rest of the crew were having a hard time holding in the laughter so we didn’t ruin a take. As the director, he would let the camera roll, let the cast improvise, and take the scene wherever it went. He knew he’d find magic. We were laughing our arses off—suppressed laughter is the best kind, isn’t it?!
I wondered how in the world he could edit all that comedy gold. It was all funny, hilarious even. And to cut all that down to a 90-minute movie seemed impossible.
Later in the day, when he was back in the makeup chair to be freshened up after lunch, I said,
“Chris, how do you do it? How do you cut any of that out?? It’s all hilarious; how do you decide what stays in the film and what gets cut? ”
He has very blue eyes, and they looked right at me—without skipping a beat, he said:
“Well, that’s easy, Loa. If it tells the story, I keep it. If it doesn’t, it's out.”
His words landed on me, and I have thought of them often. Out of all that golden footage—he kept only what had the value he was looking for. To tell the story.
Value. I’ve always searched for it.
Even as a little kid, I would rather have a small, silly thing that I really wanted rather than a big, shiny toy. I’m that way with everything: clothes, food, people, and energy.
I’m still chasing value, I guess. And still living my own story. As we all are.
There’s just so much of everything in the world—so much emotion, news, noise, people, events… yadda yadda (did you catch the Seinfeld reference? Another show I worked on).
Just so much. Too much.
And it’s up to us to be the editors of our own stories.
To make sure we don’t hang on to clutter:
— Old ideas
— Past grievances
— Emotions that don’t serve us
— Worries about things we can’t control
— Other people’s opinions
— Conversations that already happened
— Regrets over what we didn’t say or do
— Imagined scenarios that will probably never happen
All that noise takes up space where peace and clarity could live. And they're valuable!
It’s up to each of us to find what we value and honor it in our story.
There’s really no big motivation or offering here in this blog post today.
I guess I just wanted to say—I hope you’ve found value. And if your story isn't what you want, write a new one. When you change your energy, you change your story.
Have fun storming the castle!
Love you Buttercup!
