Q: What is it like to be a star?
Peter MacNicol: I don't have any sense of myself being a star. I'm really
a character actor. I just try to fulfill the requirements of each job, and
then some of course. I want to make myself indispensable to whoever's hired
me, but I don't feel like one (I'm not paid like one or treated like one).
But thanks for thinking that I'm one. I don't really wish I was one. Stars
have a shorter shelf life. All of my favorite actors have always been
character actors.
Scroll down to read the full transcript...
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Good evening everyone. We are chatting live with Peter MacNicol of the hit
Fox series Ally McBeal! Peter, it is great to have you here with us. :)
Let's take our first question.
Question: Where did you get the name Biscuit?
EA PeterM: I have a very disappointing answer. I have no idea where that
name came from. I don't think David Kelley knows either. At this point, I
don't think I want to know. There's no possible application of that word
that is flattering to the human body. Puffy, doughy, brown and serve, none
flattering...
Question: I loved you on Chicago Hope... now on Ally. Don't you miss Mandy
Patinkin??
EA PeterM: I do miss him. He just sent me a birthday note. We do keep up.
I keep up with several members, Adam Arkin I just saw two nights ago.
Thomas Gibson, you'll remember, I participated in a reading with him. And I
want to see Hector Elizondo. I miss him. But Mandy is just a great guy. We
share a lot of interests. Model trains... singing at inappropriate times.
Question: Hi Peter. Do you think the Biscuit and Ally will ever hook up?
EA PeterM: Ally and I-- we did attempt a coming together of sorts. I got a
kissing lesson, I was pursuing her. EA Jane gave me a kissing lesson,
really it was a suction lesson, and I learned too well. I 'sucked' Ally
off her feet. SO I think that relationship is over. It's not going to
happen in my mind. But we're cosmically joined. It's more than a romantic
attachment
Question: Peter how long have you been acting?
EA PeterM: I've been acting, professionally, quite some years... I really
started acting when I was six. I played a statue of St Peter that comes
alive on Christmas morning. It was in my church. A Christmas miracle play.
And that's when the bug bit. Then I was in high school plays, any
opportunity.. I was emceeing for Marathon Dances.. all of it was preparation.
I really got my legitimate start in classical theatre at the Guthrie
Theatre in Minneapolis. Then I moved to NY and continued working in the
theatre there. In high school I was a librarian and I checked in a magazine
that arrived every month called plays and players and I'd study all these
British actors, how they did what they did. I was completely absorbed by
info about them. I wanted to be a classical actor. A.C.T. in San Francisco
or the Guthrie would've provided that classical education. I went to
Minnesota because I had relatives there.
Question: Do you have fun participating in the show?
EA PeterM: I have more fun on this show than on any other professional
engagement of my life. I love the show. I couldn't love it more.
Question: Do you know if David E. Kelley is going to give John a love
interest?
EA PeterM: Tonight's episode is going to provide an answer to that for
you. And I will say no more... 9:00 pm ET and PT. Fiji Islands, you're on
your own. Probably yesterday--
Question: What is your fondest memory from Chicago Hope?
EA PeterM: I had many fond memories but... I had a breakthrough episode, I
think episode 10, when I adopted this baby and I think that was the
brightest moment for me on that series. It laid the groundwork for my
character to go in some interesting directions. It was the most important
episode of my short tenure on that show.
Question: Are you anything like your character?
EA PeterM: We contain multitudes. In a way, I contain everyone I've ever
met. I keep a kind of mental jot pad, noting behavior. You never know when
I'm going to use it. He's a composite of two - a collage really, of three
people that I've met in my life. I think John Cage is probably the most
removed from me of any character I've done in my life. Well.. I wasn't like
that insane camp counselor from Addams Family Values.
Question: What is it like to be a star?
EA PeterM: I don't have any sense of myself being a star. I'm really a
character actor. I just try to fulfill the requirements of each job, and
then some of course. I want to make myself indispensable to whoever's hired
me, but I don't feel like one (I'm not paid like one or treated like one).
But thanks for thinking that I'm one. I don't really wish I was one. Stars
have a shorter shelf life. All of my favorite actors have always been
character actors.
Question: What was it like working with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline in
"Sophie's Choice"?
EA PeterM: I forgot about Sophie's Choice when I said Ally McBeal was my
happiest. That was glorious. It was my first wonderful experience. It was
early in my career. Meryl was not a big star at the time. She had been in
Kramer vs Kramer. That role certainly vaulted her into the Pantheon. Kevin
wasn't a star then either. He'd been on Broadway. I was on Broadway then
too in Crimes of the Heart.
Question: How's it like working with Calissa Flockhart?
EA PeterM: She's hilarious. Interesting, hardworking, disciplined. She
reminds me a little of me. To explain that.. there's a sense in which
Calista and I, on the outside, not looking in but looking out, unlike the
character I played on Chicago Hope, someone who wanted to be in. John isn't
trying to be in the club, neither is Ally. They're content with their
oddness. As people, we're similar. We've got the same 'baking time', we're
ready on the same number of takes. Some people need or like more. Kevin
Kline liked to go for more takes, to find more things.
Question: What would you play on the show if you couldn't play John Cage?
EA PeterM: Greg's got a great part, but I couldn't do it better than him.
I love his wardrobe, I might add. I'm a little envious. Spiteful. He's got
the vests. He always looks well turned out. I feel a little drab. I don't
know if that answers your question. I'll never be Gill. I'd most be drawn
to the role of Richard Fish.
Comment: My mom went to school with you but my uncle graduated with you at
Mac in Irving Texas.
EA PeterM: I nearly fell down at my Graduation. There were flowers
bordering the path. I actually tripped down a culvert. I almost knocked
over a planter. I was only relieved of my mortification when I learned that
my family left early. I think during the C's and the D's.
Question: Did you imagine the great success of the show when you first
started?
EA PeterM: No, I'm always surprised. Theatre has taught me to expect the
worst. Usually you'll get it. That was my experience in NY.
Question: From two 3rd Year Law Students: What kind of preparation or
training did you/do you have for your role, especially the legal ease, and
litigation tricks?
EA PeterM: I did intensive study of the late Raymond Burr in Perry Mason.
That was about it. I did study Norman Belli in the Star Trek episode, he
played some sort of being in a Giant Robe. It's funny to think that he was
on Star Trek. A lot of the lawyer's I've observed are not particularly
comfortable in the public setting. The mannerism of placing my hand to my
nose was more or less accidental, but David Kelley noticed and wanted me to
keep doing it.
Question: How much of John Cage's character came from David Kelley and how
much from you?
EA PeterM: David Kelley and I have a jazz musician-like relationship. I'll
lay down a lick and he'll respond in kind with a lick of his own. Let me
give you an example: He writes in the script John pours a glass of water.
Well I poured the water like noone's ever poured it before. I did it so
slowly, like Chinese Water torture. So he wondered if I should do
everything slowly. Long, drawn out and deliberate. A signature
characteristic. That was me kicking him off, then him responding in kind.
Then I'll build on those and so on. I'm so deeply boring. My answers are
so long!
Question: What was that pink stuff in Ghost Busters 2? What was it made of?
EA PeterM: It was a word like methyl cellulose! I felt like that woman in
Goldfinger who didn't survive. It's something they use in ice cream. Pink,
gelatinous. And you couldn't remove it. It would shift around. Even in a
hard shower. Like the exxon valdez slick... Nothing would melt the stuff.
Everybody had broken for lunch. I was covered with this pink cloud. To my
horror, I didn't even have a towel. I rolled on a rug - alone - I locked
the door. I rolled on a scatter rug. That's the only thing that took it
off. I was covered with a pink glow. I was a little angry. I guess because
they deserted me. And had a nice lunch.
Question: I would like to know how you keep from cracking up while you're
saying your lines in bare feet or whatever situation your character is in
at the time?
EA PeterM: I have had some laughter problems. I had the worst case when
they used this 9-year old genius lawyer. You can only work children a
certain number of hours a day. So we worked longer, and we were talking to
a doll! They dressed it up in a black suit. Someone was moving him so you
could see his back move on camera. I think I cost the unit thousands of
dollars. It was just me, Calista too. But we do laugh. I'm shamefaced about
it. It's never happened before, stage or another movie. First time.
Question: The show takes place in Boston, do they ever film there?
EA PeterM: We don't ever film there. It's a beautiful city. I worked on a
movie there, Housesitter with Steve Martin. David Kelley's funny, he
doesn't really value location shooting. I don't know if we're ever going to
get there.
EAMC Host: Here is a question from Margo19NJ.
Question: I love your character on the show... he's so weird. How did you
know you were right for the part?
EA PeterM: Hello Margo. I didn't know I was right for the part. I think I
probably thought I was wrong for it. The first episode, the character was
very different than John is now. As I see that episode now, I'm uneasy
about it. It's like those early Star trek - another Star Trek reference -
episodes when Leonard Nimoy was a little emotional.
Question: Was it hard working with things that weren't there on
Ghostbusters 2?
EA PeterM: Any actor on stage is working with things that aren't there.
Any actor playing M-A-C-B-E-T-H (there's a superstition about saying it
out loud) have to fill in things with ghosts and acting off hallucinations.
It's all pretend. What if that thing were there, how would I act?
Question: Do you think that if Ally and Billy get together the show will
lose its charm?
EA PeterM: Yes. Well, no, I don't know about charm. But something would be
lost. It's important to keep your leads in flux. To keep the dramatic
tension, that uncertainty provides. Will they ever meet the right person? I
don't think that would be dramatically sensible.
(c) 1998 Entertainment Asylum & America Online.
Transmitted: 05/12/98 21:22
(
geocities.com/televisioncity)