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Andy Griffith: ''Any time I get a chance to work in North Carolina, I’m going to take it.''
"It’s hard to leave, and it is wonderful to go back."
Everyone keeps telling you that there’s no place like home; however, Andy Griffith took his dedication to his home state to an entirely new level. The actor based the fictional town of Mayberry on his North Carolina hometown of Mount Airy.
During an interview with Knight-Ridder, Griffith revealed that though he often stayed in Hollywood due to the demands of his schedule as an actor, he frequently visited his home state of North Carolina.
“I don’t go back to the town I was born in (Mount Airy),” said the actor. “But I go back to Manteo (on the Outer Banks). And when I have to leave Manteo, I feel like I’m leaving a woman. My wife feels the same way. When we get in the car and start driving out of the driveway, we always say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to do this.’ It’s hard to leave, and it is wonderful to go back.”
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“Any time I get a chance to work in North Carolina, I’m going to take it,” said the actor. “I’ll be honest with you: Any time I get a chance to work anywhere else, I’m going to do that, too. I’m just an actor. I’m not an activist, okay? I’m an actor, and I look for things that interest me, and if I can find somebody who wants to hire me to do that, that’s what I’m going to do.”
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