From the Publisher
"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.”
Washington Post, 10/5/14
“Disarmingly candid memoir.”
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
NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
You don’t need to be familiar with Ron Perlman's TV or movie career to appreciate this entertaining audiobook. Perlman’s down-to-earth memoir takes you backstage—way backstage—into the mind of a struggling actor sorting out a life that intersects with some of the great talents of the last 30 years. What really sets this audiobook apart is the engaging honesty of the narration. Perlman has an excellent reading voice, has great comic timing (check out his chapter about the making of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU), does accents flawlessly, and is a superb mimic (listen to his Sammy Davis, Jr., and Marlon Brando). Plea to Ron: Considering all the voice-over work you do and considering the occasional lean times described in your memoir, couldn’t you fit in a few more audiobooks? PS: Language alert, Perlman makes regular (and effective) use of swear words. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
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.
