A multiplicity of roles in one production is common place with Dan Aykroyd. With the famous Second City improvisational troupe at the beginning of his comedy career, followed by his residency as one of the original "not ready for prime time" players on Saturday Night Live, he has always been at home with comic "disguises."
At long last, in his fifth feature film, "Doctor Detroit," Aykroyd is able to utilize his diverse talents in a movie playing a dual role, each the antithesis of the other. As Cliff Skridlow, he portrays the quintessential mild-mannered college professor -- innocent in the ways of the world outside the halls of ivy. However, a series of curious circumstances transforms him into the title role character, a Runyonesque crime lord.
Aykroyd was born in Ottawa, Canada, and then raised in a town called Hull in the province of Quebec. He and his younger brother, Peter (who also appears in "Doctor Detroit"), were constantly reminded while growing up of the importance of the work ethic by their father, a Canadian Government official. That did not stop Dan from attending, and being thrown out of, some of the country's finest schools, including a seminary.
"However," he points out, "my parents sensed a kind of hyperenergy in me when I was 12 years old, and believe it or not, sent me to study with a little theatre group, learning improvisation and basic drama. What has been retained from that early experience is difficult to determine, but basically it sent me into a tangent I haven't quite been able to come back from."
His fierce independence, however, aided his outlook on financial matters. "I always paid my own way. In fact, when I was 13, I lied about my age and worked in a railroad ware-house, unloading box cars, doing the same thing every summer until I was 17." He also paid his way through college (Carlton University in Ottawa) where he studied sociology leaning towards criminology. "I don't know what kind of vocation I expected from that!"
His comic gifts were first influenced by the team of Wayne and Shuster who appeared frequently on The Ed Sullivan Show. "In fact," Aykroyd mentions, "I eventually worked with Frank Shuster's daughter, Rosie, who was a writer on Saturday Night Live and was married to Lorne Michaels (the show's producer)."
Dan (and his brother pursued their interest in comedy and joined the Toronto company of the Second City group. His acting and writing were -- and are -- equally important to him, and getting started was tough. "Being accepted as a professional actor/writer is difficult. You send your material in and so many people approve or disapprove. I know, because I'm forced into that situation how when struggling writers offer me material." He had a partner then, a gal named Valerie Braumfield -- a capable writer who works on the West Coast now. She really got me started in the business."
And he remembers, too, of going on at Second City at night and doing improvs that no one understood or cared about. "But it was the best possible way of learning the craft. The whole premise was to go up there and be completely free. You had to associate and ad lib on basically what your spirit felt. That gave us much license, so we weren't afraid to change characters in mid-sentence or even challenge another actor on stage. It was during this period that Aykroyd and a couple of I friends ran "the best bootleg booze joint that there ever was in Canada, the Club 505." And it was there he first me Lorne Michaels, who later asked him to audition for Saturday Night Live.
He points out that many of the original members of SNL came out of improvisational groups. But although the content might have had similar origins and viewpoints, the form was completely different. Aykroyd says for that experience, one had to be a "Video commando. Without exaggeration, it required a 72-hour work week. It reached the point where we had to stay in the offices there and get bunk beds. It was a grueling, touqh experience with 'ust a part of Sunday off. That's all.
" What many people have never realized was that homework assignments were part of the tense schedule. The producer would would say someone had to do Kissinger or Jimmy Carter or whomever, and the performers went away and worked and worked and worked on it. "That was part of the machinery of the show, Lorne knew the capabilities of everyone there and assigned them to respective tasks."
But the rumors that the "old gang" broke up because the kick was gone were not true. "It was exciting right up until the end, but John (Belushi) and I felt we had fully explored the parameters of late night TV. Moreover, I had written a script of 'The Blues Brothers' which, for economic and technical reasons, had to be made when it was made." And so, another phase took shape.
The Blues Brothers themselves were born due to the friendship of Belushi and Aykroyd. According to Aykroyd, "He turned me on to heavy metal music such as Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers while I brought his attention to the likes of Sam Cook and James Brown. We were both lacking in parts of American classical music, so we exchanged our individual knowledge and that resulted in the Blues Brothers." Their album, "A Briefcase Of Blues," sold 2 -and- a- half million units and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
But the trade he's in now, as he puts it, is movies. He admits he rather likes the discipline and refinement of getting just the right look from the right take on film. It's quite different from before. Second City was like a junior high school, Saturday Nigh was high school and this is college. Perhaps I'll graduate one day, sit behind the scenes and help others who want to do the same things I've done."
In addition to "Doctor Detroit" and "The Blues Brothers," Aykroyd has appeared in "Neighbors," "1941," and a Canadian feature (his first) called "Love At First Sight." Next, he will co-star with another Saturday Night alumnus, albeit a more recent one, Eddie Murphy, in "Black And White." In "Neighbors," he and Belushi switched roles for which they were originally intended -- Belushi became the serious put-upon schnook while Aykroyd enacted the pushy, exasperating, liparty-maniac" as Dan calls him. The two friends changed parts not only to prove their versatility but, also, and more importantly, to create additional humor from the aspect of sur- prise. Although movies could easily permit an expansion of his talents into more dramatic roles, he states, "Whatever I do will have to have some aspect of humor in it. Even with characters that have believable credentials and aims, the humor can and must be extracted."
Aykroyd admits he tends to mask himself in disguised voices and looks. "And I like the anonymity. I can walk down Fifth Avenue and not be recognized. If too much of the spirit shines through and I let people in, then I'm depriving myself of a certain strength. I think.
That "chameleon" qualtiy in his work is something he would like to utilize in movies beyond the contrasting dual facets of "Doctor Detroit." "I would simply apply the knowledge I learned from the Saturday Night era and hopefully do a half dozen characters aspiring to the likes of Peter Sellers. I'm not saying I could be as powerful on the screen as he was, but I would love to attempt it."