When I realized that you can’t necessarily be cast in a really great part living in Austin, even when Hollywood comes to town, I got a demo reel together and headed out west.
There’s so much music in Austin, and it’s all so different.
I can say confidently that I don’t think Austin Corbett is going to play tackle in the NFL.
I will say, I’m a great, great, great grandson of Stephen F. Austin. He founded Austin, Texas, which is kind of cool.
We ended up moving out to Texas. We live outside of Austin. We’ve got a couple horses, we’ve got three miniature donkeys, we’ve got four dogs. Miniature donkeys are very warm, loving animals.
I’ve been surprised by Austin. I had a cowboy image of the place. It’s a pretty sophisticated city – in some ways, more sophisticated than Boston. And there’s a lighter feel to the place. It’s very good for my spirits.
I love Austin for vintage shopping, and there are some really good places in L.A., too.
I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem.
I grew up just outside of Austin, and my upbringing was fairly rural.
Of all the places I’ve ever been, Austin is the only place that has felt like home. I fit in here.
I do all kinds of roles – nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho – and occasionally someone kind of normal. It’s weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho.
I just went to your typical public schools, and my dad would take us to the movies every week, or he’d buy scalped tickets to San Antonio Spurs games. I remember I was four or five years old and my parents, who were very young, took us to see The Police in Austin, and Iggy Pop opened.
I would say of characters I’ve created, the one I’ve felt the most connected to emotionally was Adam Austin from ‘The Prophet.’ I think it was the connection to the idea that one decision you make innocently enough can have very serious, drastic consequences for someone else’s life.
Dallas Austin… where do I begin? I adore him – he is one of the kindest people I know.
What did I know about lawyering? I just thought it was another way to stay in Austin for another three years.
I went to WWE to prove something. I had to go through Steve Austin, the Undertaker, Edge; I had to go through all of those guys to prove myself.
That’s one the main reasons we live in Austin. The weather is so nice for the majority of the offseason, and it’s easy for us to get out and ride bikes and get on some trails, to walk together as a family. Sometimes I’ll go out for a trail run. We just like to do things outdoors.
I went to UT in Austin for a year as an undeclared liberal arts student. After that year I applied to the film program but didn’t get in so I dropped out and moved out to L.A.
I was in Austin on 9/11, and there were no flights, so I couldn’t get to New York to cover the story, so I had to find more creative ways.
A guy that I was supposed to face – and I think that he was just plain downright scared to get in the ring with me because he was one of those guys that was on top and saw a huge threat in Brock Lesnar at the time – that’s ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
We didn’t roll credits after ‘Monday Night Raw.’ You know, it didn’t say, ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin played by Steve Austin,’ so all of a sudden people think that’s who and what you are 24/7, you know, 365 days a year.
I met Steve Austin at an airport in 2005, and he gave me the best piece of advice I could ever receive – to keep running my mouth and never stop talking! I took that advice to heart, and it has helped me get where I am today.
Ever since Willie Nelson brought rednecks into an alliance with hippies back in the psychedelic ’70s, Austin has milked its quirky libertarian spirit for a worldwide bonanza of free publicity.
As soon as I got hurt Kurt Angle reached out to me, Steve Austin reached out to me, and Edge, who I already had a pretty good relationship with.
L.A. is kind of flat these days; I guess Austin and other places are like that now. But that’s what I wanted to get across: You could be as crazy as you wanted, and that was OK. You didn’t have to be good; people would still come and hear you.
In the Steven F. Austin Colony, which was the first colony, Texans first established a provisional government in 1835 with the intention of writing a declaration of independence soon after.
Everything I do is autobiographical in some way. ‘Wayne’s World’ was me growing up in the suburbs of Toronto and listening to heavy metal, and ‘Austin Powers’ was every bit of British culture that my father, who passed away in 1991, had forced me to watch and taught me to love.
I don’t have the talent of Daniel Day-Lewis. I’m Steve Austin, so when I get to hang out and be who I am, and I live on set, it’s like a paid vacation, man.
Our creative communities in Nashville, in L.A. and New York, and in Austin, those are communities you want to see stay viable.
When I turned 11, my dad decorated a room at the Standard hotel in Los Angeles in a ’60s, Austin Powers style. There was human bowling: You run inside a giant inflatable ball and try to knock down pins. To this day, adults say it was one of the craziest parties they’ve ever been to.
For a long time, there was this rumor that I turned down doing ‘Austin Powers,’ which is not true. While they did send me the script, I don’t think I was ever a serious consideration to direct it. I’m sure they probably sent it to 20 others as well.
Austin is home in a lot of ways. Both my kids were born here, and my wife’s side of the family lives here.
What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist’s performance on whether or not they had a good seat?
I am lucky to live in Austin, so I can enjoy the live music.
We already do a couple numbers with chairs – chairs being a classic, Bob Fosse-ish, showbizzy prop, but the punk element is that it’s just me and Stephanie and this funky band from Austin.
In Austin, the eco-capital of Texas, residents tend to favor native plants and wildflowers to the sculpted lawns of the Palm Springs variety.
We are here today because of grass-roots conservatives all over the place. That’s the way the democratic process is supposed to work. It’s not supposed to be a bunch of guys in a smoky room in Austin picking the next Senator.
I played Jonathan Livingston Seagull in a musical version of ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ in Austin, TX. It was pretty special.
Kevin Sullivan? He’s Anthony Hopkins. The Prince of Darkness. The devil himself. Against the ‘American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, the chubby plumber’s son from Austin, Texas. My God, those billboards go up, and you’re going to want to go see it.
You know what I’m realizing? I always love a place if I like the movie I’m doing there. I’ve heard people say, ‘I hate Pittsburgh,’ and I’m like, ‘I love Pittsburgh so much!’ I loved what I was doing there, and I loved Austin for the same reason.
We played in Texas about a year ago, at Emo’s, the famous country and western club in Austin. And I figured, well, if I’m finally gonna die onstage, that’s where it’s going to be!
The success of the second ‘Austin Powers’ caught us by surprise a little bit. We had decided not to do even a second one, unless the audience wanted it and we could do something better.
I’ve worn some particularly baggy jeans and cowboys boot combinations after coming back from Austin, Texas. This was ill-advised.
I went to film school at UT Austin.
Austin Trout is just a name to me. He beat Cotto, so what?
I’ve been Austin almost half my life. In almost every public setting, that’s why I’m there – to be Austin Aries.
Mike Tyson was probably – positively or negatively – the most recognizable face on the planet: the ‘baddest man on the planet.’ And you had our new resident baddest man on the planet, Stone Cold Steve Austin, whom fans were just gravitating to in a way they’d never done before, walking out and flipping off Mike Tyson.
I was at the AMC Century City movie theater with my mom, and we were walking through the lobby, and these girls came up to me, and they said, ‘Are you Dallas from ‘Austin & Ally’ – and I was like, – yeah, yeah. And they were like, ‘Can we have a picture with you?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah sure of course.’
In 2013, I did a TEDx talk in Austin. Until then I had sort of a following online but this was completely different – it went viral.
I’ve never crossed over to be a big star. I’d like to be in a big $100 million movie, though. ‘Cause I was in an ‘Austin Powers,’ I think I had two lines, and every once in a while, I get a check, a really nice check, for that movie.
Working on ‘Austin and Ally’ has been an absolute dream! We literally have fun every single day! Whether it’s scaring each other or singing together or just hanging out in each other’s dressing rooms, the cast and I are super close! I feel really lucky to be with everyone on our set!
I love watching live music. It’s one of the reasons I love living in Austin, Texas, because there is so much live music.
For ‘Way Down Low’, I was particularly inspired by a breakup I was going through and a transition I was making from Austin to New York.
