By Michael Buckley
31 Jul 2005
Career highlights include "my first foray into films," playing Al Pacino's eccentric law partner in "And Justice for All" (1979). The part, he notes, "was dangerous. It was either sink or swim." Another high point was "a 600 pound character I played on [the debut of] 'Tales from the Crypt' — it was very dark, a total transference. I did that with Demi Moore." Regarding his sixth Emmy nomination, he claims, "I'm up against some great actors, but I didn't go into [show business] to get awards."
Last December, Tambor and his wife, the former Kasia Ostlun, became parents of a son, Gabriel, "and four days after he was born, my daughter gave me a grandson, Mason." In the enviable position of being an actor whose next job awaits him, Jeffrey Tambor concludes, "And I go from this [Glengarry] to 'Arrested Development.'"
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Arrested development would hardly be the term to describe Frederick Weller's burgeoning stage career; however, he wouldn't mind having a series waiting in the wings, as does Tambor. "The financial security [in TV] is incredible. I'm married and would like to start a family, and nothing's better for that than a television show. It keeps you in one place."
Grateful for the Drama Desk Ensemble Award, Weller enjoyed the DD ceremony, especially the moments involving the winners of Best Featured Actor in a Play and Musical. "[Juilliard colleague] Michael Stuhlbarg's [acceptance] speech was sincere and humble, and it was great that Denis O'Hare [a Take Me Out cohort] also won. He's a brilliant actor." (Stuhlbarg was honored for The Pillowman; O'Hare forSweet Charity.)
How does Weller enjoy making life miserable for Shelly Levene (Alan Alda) eight times a week? He laughs. "One of the unpleasant parts of the role is steeling my heart against Alan Alda. He's a sweet, humble man, the nicest guy in the world. But [his character] says a lot of [nasty] things to me, so that makes it a little easier."
Research for his role included watching a tape of the original production at Lincoln Center Library's TOFT [Theatre on Film and Tape] and numerous viewings of the 1992 movie version (with Kevin Spacey as Williamson). During rehearsals, says Weller, the cast "knew that the play worked, but we didn't know how it would be received. You never know."
That was also the case with Take Me Out, the journey of which — from London to Off-Broadway to Broadway — Weller describes as "quite a wild ride. It was great to be with the play as it progressed, and to see all the different flavors of audience that you got."
The biggest changes, he claims, "were between the Off-Broadway and Broadway audiences, and then between Broadway early-on and Broadway in summer, after we won the Tony. It had to do with the subtlety of the audience, and their sobriety. They get a little drunker, and a little less urbane in their taste. But they were still wonderful and very appreciative."
To date, Shane Mungit remains Weller's "most interesting role. I thought Richard [Greenberg] did an amazing job of writing such a strangely sympathetic, but dangerous, narrow-minded young man. He was an amazingly complicated character." Was it difficult for Weller to find a balance in Mungit? He replies, "I just worked on the sympathetic part. To me, what made that character wonderful was his intense, emotional need. That was the main challenge."
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A native of New Orleans, Weller can trace his choice of career to a kindergarten experience. He sang "I'm Gettin Nuttin for Christmas" in a holiday show, and recalls, "All the other kids were nervous; I wasn't. All these older, seventh-grade girls kept coming up to me and telling me how great I was. I thought: 'This is a good way to get approval.'"
Following Juilliard, Weller's first New York stage job was understudying four characters in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation. "It was near the end of the run, and I got to go on for everyone." In 1996, a week-and-a half before the start of previews for Stephen Bill's Off-Broadway play, Curtains, Weller took over for an actor who lost his voice.
Also in 1996, he played Villebosse in the Roundabout's revival of Jean Anouilh's The Rehearsal. The next year, he portrayed Leo Hubbard in the Lincoln Center production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. During that run, Jennifer Dundas (who played Alexandra) introduced him to her friend, actress Ali Marsh, now Mrs. Weller. "We've been together eight years, and married a year-and-a-half."
Other plays in which he's appeared include Safe as Houses, Hurrah at Last (both by Richard Greenberg), Douglas Carter Beane's The Country Club and Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things. The last took Weller from London to Off-Broadway to the 2002 film.
Among Weller's TV credits are the 1991 pilot of "I'll Fly Away"; 1993's "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (playing Eliot Ness, supposed roommate to the title character); a 1993 "Law & Order" (with Lindsay Crouse, the first Mrs. David Mamet, playing his unorthodox shrink); the 2000 telefilm "The Beach Boys: An American Family" (in which he portrayed Brian Wilson); "Law & Order: SVU" (2003); and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2004).
He was cast as Officer Johnny Sandowski in the 1993-94 ABC series, "Missing Persons." Remembers Weller, "Daniel J. Travanti, from 'Hill Street Blues,' played the captain of the department. It lasted one season. We limped along, extended six episodes at a time, but it was fun working in Chicago [the show's locale] for a year."
Weller's most recent role (prior to Glengarry) was in Hartford, as the latter half of Peter and Jerry, Edward Albee's reworking (and expansion) ofThe Zoo Story. "I really hope that comes to New York. They lost their funding, or it's possible that the producers didn't want to compete with [the revival of] Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It was great working with Frank Wood [Peter].
"I just got an offer to do Edward's next [Broadway] play, which is a revival of Seascape," Albee's 1975 Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner. "I'd play the Lizard [for which Frank Langella, in his Broadway debut, won a Tony]. I'm waiting to see about something else, but I'd be very excited to work with Edward again."
Another future possibility is a Beth Henley play, Ridiculous Fraud, "at the McCarter [in N.J.] in the spring." That offer has a special significance. Notes a happy Frederick Weller, "My wife and I would be working together for the first time."
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Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.com, and is the author of the book "Between Takes (Interviews with Hollywood Legends)," to be published later this year.
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