Rip Torn Says Drinking Helped Him Be A Better Actor

[Brian Damage]

Rip Torn tells the New York Post that he's been sober for nine months but credits drinking with allowing him to hone his craft.

The actor says that drinking gave him "that little pause where you get a little laugh just before you deliver the line that gets the big laugh."

Tom didn't explain why he could not have learned that without alcohol

Torn, 79, was arrested in January for breaking into a Connecticut bank while drunk and carrying a loaded pistol, the story says. While a felony bank-robbery charge has been dismissed -- Torn claimed he mistook the bank for his house -- he's scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday to face the charge of carrying a loaded gun while intoxicated, the article adds.

Asked about his health, Torn responds, "I'm fine. Do you want to Indian wrestle?", although the actor does appear a bit frail, the story says. Torn, whose character on "30 Rock" had been cryogenically frozen, has started acting again with parts in a film version of Eugene O'Neill's play "Anna Christie" and in a movie being made by his filmmaker daughter, the article notes.

Torn becme well-known to TV audiences when he played the producer on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show," a part for which he won an Emmy.

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/

[catlover79]

YIKES.