JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Magic

Being the guy who doesn’t know

May 6, 2025

I was on a tour for an ancient structure today and I didn’t know anything about it. As I went up to buy the ticket I felt the impulse to play cool and nonchalant and purchase the ticket.

Feeling a little allergic to the impulse to try and be cool, I decided instead to just ask what the heck it was I was about to see. I was afraid the person selling me the ticket (who already looked a bit foreign and aloof) would roll their eyes because I’m the annoying tourist.

So what is this ticket actually for?

To my delight, her face changed and she was more than happy to explain it all to me.

Being in a non-English speaking country is forcing me to be the guy who doesn’t know, the guy who will probably look dumb, out of place or do the wrong thing.

And I’m so okay with it. I want to use my time in these countries to condition a comfort in me with being this person.

Resist it when you feel yourself think “Hmm, no I won’t ask that I’ll look dumb”

Ask away and be brave enough to look a bit silly. You’ll be stroger for it and will probably make a nice little human connection.

Why do I act?

May 4, 2025

My good friend and mentor Jon Hunter interviewed me today about my recent experience on tour with Mrs Krishnan’s Party.

It was so exciting to have such a vibrant conversation with my friend- it really does feel like we could talk for eternity together, stopping only to bathroom and snack breaks.

To end the discussion today, he asked me “why do you act”.

And just then the bell tower across the street did it’s mid day ring and I had to wait through about 24 dings before I could answer. I like to think it was the universe ‘chiming’ in to say it’s glad I act.

My answer still feels a little fumbled but it was something about the magic of feeling real feelings for fictional characters. If we can understand one character’s story then we can understand any person’s story. Being able to exert all my work and become the best I can be in the craft in aid of that is a worthy endeavor in my eyes.

All the plates spinning

May 3, 2025

I remarked to my friend today how much I’ve been enjoying reading and he said “Yeah, you know all the plates of life are spinning comfortably when you can read consistently”.

I liked it. Reading for me has been one of those things that seems to drop further and further down the list. In recent days I’ve noticed how much of a recharger reading is. It resets the mind, takes you out of life for a second in a very relaxing way.

And maybe you don’t have to have the ‘ all plates spinning’ in order to read.

Maybe it’s the reading that gets the plates spinning.

Vanya in Italy

May 2, 2025

My friend and I watched Andrew Scott’s Vanya on his balcony today. We marveled at Andrew Scott’s complete command and control of his craft.

He seems to simultaneously have a firm grasp on what he’s doing AND be not holding on at all.

It was fun to have a lively conversation about acting with my drama school buddy nearly 10 years on since we studied together.

Waving at Itallians

May 1, 2025

I’ve been sick the last few days and part of my recovery program has been reading in the sun here in the mountains of Liguria- I’m not complaining.

The house I’m in is right on a main road, so all day long people potter on past on their merry way like a Richard Scarry book.

A pair of French cyclists.

One of those silly little three wheeled trucks.

A modern car with tourists.

A local heading to a village further up the mountain

As seems to be the way here, some wave hello to me as they pass. Well most wave out to me.

It’s gotten to the point now where as I hear the vehicle ambling up the road I have this whole internal conflict, or meeting of myself.

Do I initiate a wave or do I just not look up from my book? Do I look up expecting a wave?

Am I feeling cheery and confident or sick (literally) and “engrossed” in my book.

Well I’m never so engrossed that I don’t hear the car, so not waving becomes a very deliberate choice. I tell myself I don’t need to wave and I’m making myself unnecessarily vulnerable by baring my wrists and initiating the wave to the stranger.

I decided it’s most in line with my chosen identity to wave. That’s a human who is near me, so it makes the most sense to wave.

With every car that cruises by I get to cast a vote for the type of person I want to be.

I’m pretty okay with being the type that waves at strangers and not the type who stays with my head down in self protection.

Sure, some people don’t wave back, but there I remain happily reading my book in the sun.

What you call it matters

April 27, 2025

The labels we give things affect how we feel about them.

I’ve chosen to call my daily films ‘films’ very much on purpose. I feel better about that than a ‘skit’ or (god forbid) a Tik Tok.

Is it a job or a calling? Do you have to do it or do you get to do it?

Change your label change your life.

Painting a fence

April 25, 2025

Today I helped paint a fence at my friends house in the mountains of Italy.

We simply chatted and simply worked. Then we strolled in the evening and admired our handy work from across the village.

Another language

April 22, 2025

I’m in France and I realised how easy it is to take a shared language for granted.

I can’t read any signs and people I don’t understand shop keepers.

With this kind of vulnerability comes a massive opurtunitity for growth.

Solo travel

April 17, 2025

There’s something very special about travelling alone. 

Dining by yourself in an unknown city has a certain romance to it. (You also feel like an undercover food critic.)

These people live their lives here, parallel to your experience of novelty is their experience of the mundane; they know these streets, they may have grown up going to this same restaurant. Their grandma lives up the road.

You’re calling all the shots:

Smiling at strangers. Or not.

Leaving the hotel. Or not.

Connecting to the place. Or not.

Who are you when no one is watching? 

Useful, inspiring and cool things

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