M*M* 2

OK, look, last time we probably didn’t get off on the right foot
I didn’t mean to sound the way I did, some days are
harder than others, and I guess you caught me
on one of those days, So, let’s start over. You want
to know the background story, right? What it‘s like
inside the character? Smart angle. OK, I’m an actor
all I’ve ever cared about was a steady paycheck
and the opportunity to do good work. What you have
to understand is there was no guarantee the Mouse
was going to work. Oswald was huge, a bigger audience
I think that was in part what drove Mr. Disney to make
my character strive to be better; it was a thing between him
and Oswald. You could tell it was personal.

I couldn’t be as funny as Oswald, I mean watch him
he’s a natural, but Mr. Disney encouraged me to be
myself, “show us the courage that keeps you going
Mouse! remember! you’re tough as any alleycat …
and twice as good.” He always called me Mouse.
No one else called me that if I had anything to do about it
but when he called me Mouse — it made me feel special
I think that comes through in a lot of the performances
the sense that Mickey is important because of who he is
the common mouse capable of being a hero — think about it
the Mouse is the first superhero — those are big boots to fill
but that was all Mr. Disney’s vision, that, and his belief in me
from the start he told me I was the one. Because of that
I knew he expected me to live up to that belief.

Me? I’m an actor, I show up every day, read my lines
do what I can to help, then collect my pay cheque
at the end of week, nothing more, nothing special.
I could have been any mouse … but now that I say that
I’m not sure of that; anything I did was a result
of a bond between Mr. Disney and me. In fact,
now that I say that, I don’t believe anyone else
could have been the Mouse, no one other than me.

(I receive a phone call directing me to go back to Mr. M’s mansion to speak to him again. GG)