'ER' co-star Noah Wyle tries a drama minus trauma

By Richard Huff
Knight-Ridder News
NEW YORK -- Noah Wyle has been in Hollywood long enough to know what happens when a star on a hit television show is cast in a big-budget celluloid bomb.

He has seen folk such as "Friends" stars David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc lambasted by critics for their poor movie choices, and he's determined not to make a similar mistake.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I'm intimidated by the fact that if a big studio release is a bomb, it can really damage an actor's career for a long, long time," says Wyle, in town promoting his first film since he's been on "ER" -- "The Myth of Fingerprints."

Fact is, Wyle aimed small.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The Myth of Fingerprints," is a $1.8 million film about a dysfunctional family getting together for Thanksgiving in Maine. Aside from Wyle, the film stars Julianne Moore, Blythe Danner and Roy Scheider.

"I've sort of always had a fantasy of creating a body of work that I felt solid enough about that if my big shot came, and if it was a hit, it wouldn't be a fluke," Wyle adds. "And if it was a bomb, my career wouldn't be over in a day, because I've had this body of work."

The script, he says, struck an honest chord with him. But, as it goes in Hollywood, the major studios passed on the family drama -- despite its having a respectable cast and a star on one of TV's biggest shows -- and it took 14 months to get the film made. As an associate producer on the project, Wyle found the selling process "humbling."

------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I was offered a lot of romantic comedies from the studios," Wyle says. "I really wanted to be choosy. I did a couple of films before 'ER,' but those films don't count anymore. It's this one that's going to be looked at."

Even having spent the last couple of years working as Dr. John Carter on "ER," Wyle didn't feel he was ready to carry a film on his own.

"I feel very comfortable working in an ensemble, because I find I'm most creative when I have other people to bounce my ideas off of, usually other actors," he says. "While there's always a supporting cast in any movie, if you're the lead and you're carrying the movie, the rest of the supporting cast support your story lines, support your plot lines."That said, he admits he's not comfortable in the "gun-toting, running-after-trains, flipping-cars-and-punching-guys-out" kind of films big studios turn out.

Being on a show like "ER" allows Wyle to go after independent projects. He likes using his time away from TV for film work, he said, because the longer process allows for more rehearsal and improvisation. The tight production for hour-long dramas doesn't provide such a luxury.

"'ER' is really like home base for all of us," Wyle admits. "Having the security that we can always go back to the hospital, that the hospital's doors are always open, makes it a lot easier to chase some of these smaller projects."

------------------------------------------------------------------------ This TV season, the hospital will take on a slightly different look when the first show airs live on Thursday, Sept. 25.

The idea for the live telecast was hatched by cast members George Clooney and Anthony Edwards. Run-throughs started this week. "I thought it was a great idea, but it was probably my ego talking, not wanting to be the one that says, 'Wait a minute, our show live?'" Wyle says. "As the day approaches, everybody's realizing it's going to be a monstrous undertaking."

Sure, early TV shows were done live, but not on the level of a show like "ER," Wyle explains. "None of those ever had 19 trauma cases, 23 speaking parts, 40 extras, shooting 360 degrees around a set that has 27 rooms in it," he explains. "It's going to be a highly choreographed piece of drama."

------------------------------------------------------------------------ The experience, for a guy accustomed to working on tape, will no doubt be memorable. So, too, has a part in a hit TV show and all the trappings that accompany it.

"Everything came a lot sooner and a lot faster than I thought it would," he says. "It's tough trying to acclimate to changes that come in as quickly as these. You sort of take 'em in stride and think, 'Okay, well, I'll figure them out later.' I might as well ride this while I can. I know its fleeting; I know it's going to go away."

Richard Huff writes for the New York Daily News.