I had to know if I could make it somewhere else. I did not want to go through the rest of my life wondering what might have been without putting myself to the test. ↗
As for poker, I've stayed away from that, even though when I was in Vegas for Ocean's Eleven, I would get accosted by these guys begging me to play. They just want to take my money. They see me, think "actor" and see some easy money. ↗
You can still have chemistry on screen without getting on with the person. But it just makes your job a lot easier if you don't have to gird your loins, if that's not quite the right phrase, every time you're going to do a scene with that person. ↗
Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fortunately for the world, a longer working career than most of his brethren. ↗
Anyway, I went out and bought thousands of dollars worth of mature clothes so I'd look like a person to be taken seriously, instead of a pretty little twit. ↗