Easy Street (the Hard Way): A Memoir

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Overview

The engaging, passionate, always-honest, and often-hilarious memoir of actor Ron Perlman—his triumphant story of perseverance and determination navigating the slippery slopes of Hollywood, with a foreword by Guillermo del Toro

Ron Perlman was a kid who had a myriad of self-image issues, yet he triumphed in an industry that trades on image and self-confidence. He landed a leading role in Quest for Fire. He won a Golden Globe for Beauty and the Beast. And he played the title role ...

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Easy Street (the Hard Way): A Memoir

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Overview

The engaging, passionate, always-honest, and often-hilarious memoir of actor Ron Perlman—his triumphant story of perseverance and determination navigating the slippery slopes of Hollywood, with a foreword by Guillermo del Toro

Ron Perlman was a kid who had a myriad of self-image issues, yet he triumphed in an industry that trades on image and self-confidence. He landed a leading role in Quest for Fire. He won a Golden Globe for Beauty and the Beast. And he played the title role in two Hellboy movies, becoming along the way an icon among sci-fi and comic book fans worldwide.

Although his name may be unknown to some, most people know Ron Perlman's face, despite the fact that for nearly half his career he's been disguised under feature-altering foam-rubber prosthetics. On his offbeat path to success, Ron has amassed nearly 200 stage, TV, voiceover, and major motion picture credits, including roles in Drive, Pacific Rim, and a six-year gig as the badass biker boss Clay Morrow in Sons of Anarchy.

In Easy Street (the Hard Way), Ron shares his life story, starting with his up-by-your-bootstraps background in New York's Washington Heights. His father, a Swing Era drummer, gave up his dream in order to feed his sons while his mother worked as a municipal clerk. Ron's hard-earned road to Easy Street included bouts of abject poverty, heartbreaking familial episodes, and a long, often uncomfortable struggle for self-acceptance.

He sheds light on his life as a working actor and also offers behind-the-scenes insight into the working styles of internationally famous directors, including Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy and Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth). He provides his own peek into Hollywood, up close and personal, where he has encountered the likes of Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. Plus, he turns his eye on the trajectory of American culture—the good and the bad—as observed by a man who started out in a mom-and-pop world where the arts were disseminated by individuals rather than corporations.

Easy Street (the Hard Way) will inspire anyone who has ever dared to dream and offers a roadmap to the next generation of dreamers.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Ron Perlman can definitely not be described as just another Hollywood pretty face. Best known for his title roles in Beauty and the Beast and Hellboy, he has carved out a most unconventional career in hundreds of movie, television, and video game appearances. In this wonderfully informal and candid memoir, he describes a rough Washington Heights childhood; an uphill struggle for acting roles; and his somewhat unexpected stardom. The humanizing autobiography of film's most famous monster.

From the Publisher
Praise for Easy Street (the Hard Way)

"Reading Easy Street (the Hard Way) is like breaking into your uncle's stash of his best booze and cigars. Ron stands up like the Statue of Liberty. Inspiring, towering, reassuring, beautiful, intimidating, and should charge more for tours. Easy Street is one part odyssey of an artist, one part handbook for manhood, and one part love letter to acting that chronicles the struggle through the gauntlet of a life steered by creativity. If you don't like this book, you don't like ice cream."—Ryan Gosling

"I knew that Ron Perlman was a wonderful actor and also a man of great passion and appetite. What I didn't know was the muthafucka could write! Easy Street (the Hard Way) is a deeply human memoir filled with hilarious show biz stories as we see Ron awaken to the beautiful man he is, inside and out."—Dana Delany

"A face that's unmistakable, a career that's indisputable, and a charm that's irresistible. Ron's story, and the way he tells it, makes this read truly one of a kind."—Marc Forster, director of World War Z, The Kite Runner, and Monster's Ball

"Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, always entertaining, Ron Perlman's Easy Street is a lot like his performances—brazenly honest and full of surprises. This is why you can't take your eyes off the man when he's on screen, and you can't put this book down once you start reading."—Ben Watkins, writer and producer, Hand of God and Burn Notice

Kirkus Reviews, 8/1/14
“The cult favorite looks back. Perlman, the veteran character actor perhaps best known for his starring roles in TV's Sons of Anarchy and the Hellboy film franchise, recounts his life and career in an engagingly off-the-cuff manner…The actor’s voice, full of casual profanity, vintage hipster slang and an endearing tendency to overreach with elevated vocabulary, is as distinctive as his craggy features and imposing screen presence. He’s good company on the page.”

USA Weekend, 9/28/14
“[A] a must-read memoir… an insightful look at his 35-year journey to stardom”

TechGuru, 9/25/14
“We’re dying to read it.”

Kirkus Reviews
2014-08-06
The cult favorite looks back. Perlman, the veteran character actor perhaps best known for his starring roles in TV's Sons of Anarchy and the Hellboy film franchise, recounts his life and career in an engagingly off-the-cuff manner. Unfortunately, the details of his personal life aren't particularly noteworthy, and his admirable focus on positivity renders most of his showbiz anecdotes rather bland. The exception is his amusingly baffled account of the filming of the notoriously troubled remake of The Island of Doctor Moreau, which was essentially hijacked by the inscrutable and monumentally frustrating star Marlon Brando—for whom the author expresses boundless affection and respect. Perlman is candid about insecurities regarding his unique looks and oddly paced career—in which unusual properties, such as the caveman epic Quest for Fire, the medieval mystery The Name of the Rose and the hit supernatural soap Beauty and the Beast, would lead to enormous buzz followed by long periods of unemployment as Hollywood struggled to consistently service the difficult-to-categorize actor whose appearance changed radically from project to project—but the book would have benefitted from a greater emphasis on the creation of Perlman's cult favorites and less on his personal emotional struggles. Still, the actor's voice, full of casual profanity, vintage hipster slang and an endearing tendency to overreach with elevated vocabulary, is as distinctive as his craggy features and imposing screen presence. He's good company on the page, and fans may wish for further musings on the stories behind the vivid monsters he has so memorably brought to the screen. In closing, he writes, "just so I get off on the right foot, here's a little tip for you talent out there: make sure your people show you everything that is offered." A likable but inessential showbiz memoir.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780306823442
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press
  • Publication date: 9/30/2014
  • Pages: 328
  • Sales rank: 765
  • Product dimensions: 6.10 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Ron Perlman is best-known for his titular role in the Hellboy movies and his long run on the TV series Sons of Anarchy, as well as scores of other iconic performances, including The Name of the Rose, City of Lost Children, and Pacific Rim. He won a Golden Globe for his role in Beauty and the Beast and is a star and executive producer of the Amazon series Hand of God. Perlman lives in Los Angeles.

Michael Largo is the author of seven bestselling reference books, including God's Lunatics, Genius and Heroin, The Portable Obituary, and the Bram Stoker Award-winning Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die. Largo is the former editor of New York Poetry and the researcher/archivist for the film company Allied Artists. A native New Yorker, he currently lives in Miami.

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