From NYT

The Travel Advantages of a Brief Stint on ‘The Sopranos’

ALMOST all my travel is for the Nobelity Project, either shooting a film, promoting and showing a film or working with our partners on projects. I traveled to 20 countries on five continents for our feature documentary “Nobelity” and its sequel, “One Peace at a Time.”

Though the trips were sometimes grueling, it was incredible to meet with Nobel laureates like Muhammad Yunus, Steve Chu, Helene Gayle and Desmond Tutu to get their take on how we can provide basic human rights like food, water and education to every child on this planet.

Currently, I’m traveling quite a bit to Haiti, where we’re starting a school reconstruction effort in partnership with Architecture for Humanity, and Kenya, where we’re building Mahiga Hope High School, a model school for rural Africa.

It seems like I’m constantly in the air or at an airport. Because we’re a nonprofit, I’ve learned to make do with economy seating even though I’m 6 feet 7 inches tall and have to wrap my legs around my body to try to get comfortable. Fortunately, I try to stick with one airline to rack up points, and a lot of times I can snag an upgrade.

When I’m on a film trip, I bring tons of gear. I’ve seen people take a look at my carry-on and then make a beeline to another checkpoint.

I don’t take it personally. My bag is big, filled with two high-definition video cameras, a small digital still camera, batteries, chargers, tape and audio equipment. I can never check it all. If my bag got lost, I couldn’t replace this stuff quickly since I’m almost always in remote locations.

Most of my flights are long haul, and I’ve set some personal records.

I used to fly a lot from Dhaka, Bangladesh, back home to Austin, Tex. With all the layovers, it was 44 hours. I thought that was the longest flight ever. But then I beat that time when we screened “One Peace at a Time” at the Maui Film Festival.

I asked Willie Nelson, who is in the documentary, to sing before the screening. He told me he would sing if I showed up. So I flew from Nairobi to London, then on to Chicago and then Austin, to drop off my camera equipment. Then, I boarded a flight to Los Angeles and then another one to Maui. Total time: 54 hours.

I don’t mind talking to seatmates on flights. I always carry a couple of DVDs with me and hand them out. Sometimes people are really interested in the work, and that’s always rewarding.

Other times people are interested in hearing about what it was like to work on “The Sopranos.” I’m always surprised when people recognize me. I had only a small role in the series, playing Janice Soprano’s crazy boyfriend Aaron Arkaway, a born-again, narcoleptic hippie. People love the show, and no matter what part of the world I’m in “The Sopranos” always has a fan base.

I was in Nairobi recently, and I was wandering around downtown looking for a music store so I could buy some instruments for our school. I wasn’t having any luck. Then a young Kenyan man came up to me and said, “Have you heard the good news?” — one of Aaron’s most memorable lines. Turns out, he was a huge Sopranos fan and he was more than happy to help me out.

It was a fun encounter. And the good news for our school? I was able to get them a keyboard and a guitar.