Our Visit With Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn: The Master Builder—a series of films curated by John Early and Lucas Kane, actors in Shawn’s new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days—starts today at Metrograph and runs through May 22.

Wally stopped by Posteritati this week to graciously sign some posters (and also check out some Jean Renoir). Watch a video of his visit and enter to win a signed poster for Jonathan Demme’s A Master Builder (2014) on Instagram.

Update May 18: A nice mention of Wally's visit to Posteritati in The Guardian.

Film fans agree that Shawn is a treasure. Earlier this afternoon I tagged along with him to sign film posters at the nearby Posteritati gallery, where the entire staff – including those not on-shift that day – had come in to see him. When informed of this, Shawn batted the praise away with his hand. He was thrilled to see an original British one-sheet for My Dinner with Andre, then asked if signing a postcard for Toy Story 2, in which he voiced a toy dinosaur, would decrease its value. When they heaped praise on to Jonathan Demme’s A Master Builder (2013), which Shawn adapted from Ibsen’s classic and starred in, he noted its dismal box office.

Original 1981 U.K. double crown poster. Signed by Wallace Shawn.

Original 1981 portrait photo. Signed by Wallace Shawn. 10 different photos newly added, six signed by Shawn.

Original 1979 U.S. one sheet poster by Joe Caroff and Burt Kleeger. Signed by Wallace Shawn.

Original 1995 U.S. one sheet poster. Signed by Wallace Shawn.