Connection: Pass the Plate, Mr. Feynman

Alan Alda went on a journey to find Feynman. Who was Feynman and how could Alda think, act, and do, as Feynman did? Would Alda be able to portray the real Feynman in QED or would he be light-years off, only scratching the surface of someone so complex? Actors go through this process of trying to be another person, to take on the life of a character unlike themselves. Doing so requires a complete change in thinking and doing. The actor must become that character. For example, Heath Ledger as The Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight became an entirely different person who, according to Heath himself, "...couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going," nydailynews.com reported in the article "Jack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger on 'joker' role." With that being said, there are negative and positive aspects to either admiring a person and even wanting to be them. As stated, the negative is that one actually becomes too out of touch and far from their real self that it is impossible to go back. This was ultimately the fate of Heath Ledger. As a result of constantly thinking about the joker and staying up late at night possessed by the thought of this character, Ledger was prescribed numerous pills which could have been a cause of his death. However, there are also positive aspects. Alda, for example, researched Feynman but just couldn't put every single personality of the science genius into one character on stage. This is not a bad thing, even though it may seem that way. Alda knows all the different personalities of Feynman, but just cannot portray Feynman. This is not failure, it is considered to be admiration and honorable.

This subject relates to me, and high school students alike, since we are taught all our lives that we can have a role model but that we should always be ourselves and not lose sight of who we are. Everyone has potential to be a great human being and contribute to the world just by being who they are.