Mark Rylance is a bad-ass [this is awesome]

People go coo coo over awards.  Kathy Griffin has unabashedly dedicated the last few years of her life in pursuit of winning every award possible  (See: Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony).  One can only imagine that Natalie Portman passes her newborn baby off to the nanny, and cradles her Oscar statuette every night, singing it sweet, sweet lullabies.

Mark Rylance is not one of those people.  He won the Tony Award in 2008 and 2011, and both times instead of listing off the obligatory thank-yous to everyone in his life, he chose to recite obscure poems.  And now Rylance has given his Tony Award away to a 71-year old builder in a village west of London, who he had consulted with while creating his Jerusalem character.

Rylance says, “I think he’d really like it. He was very generous with me and invited me into his house and talked with me for six hours or so on different occasions about his life as a Romany gypsy man in England.”

Mark, you are awesome.  I’m going to give you TheCallboard Award.  Come over, we’ll crack open a few beers, you can recite poetry, and then you can give away the fancy cork-board plaque to Jakarta, the homeless lady who live on my corner, just ’cause.

Read more at The New York Times.