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Up for Grabs
By Jenelle Riley
Backstage West
August 18, 2004
If ever there was a show tailor-made for an ensemble award, it's HBO's Western drama Deadwood. The freshman series from NYPD Blue co-creator David Milch features a cast of both new and familiar faces populating a corrupt South Dakota town in 1876 where even the most moral characters have dark secrets. When this year's Emmy nominations were announced, two actors were singled out for their exceptional work in the flawless cast. Brad Dourif is a veteran character actor who scored an Oscar nomination as the sensitive inmate Billy Bibbit in his debut filmOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and is probably best known as Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings and the voice of Chucky the doll in the Child's Playfilms. On Deadwood he does some of his best work in a long career as Doc Cochran, a generous spirit with a few convictions for grave-robbing. Also nominated is Robin Weigert, a soft-spoken actor who seemed to come out of nowhere with her foulmouthed, drunken, no-holds-barred performance as Calamity Jane.
What's most impressive is that Doc Cochran and Jane might just be the most loveable grave-robbers and drunks ever seen on television. According to Weigert, this is largely because both characters find themselves defending and protecting the citizens of Deadwood. "We're both caretakers, in whatever messed-up packages we come in," Weigert explains. "We fundamentally cannot even fight in our own nature the impulse to help people." Agrees Dourif, "We're oddly kindred spirits. We're absolute social misfits which, as far as I'm concerned, I'm completely typecast." In a town where, as Weigert puts it, "everyone's morality is up for grabs," the two lend a surprising sensitivity to their complex roles.
Back Stage West: Congratulations on both being first-time Emmy nominees.
Brad Dourif: Isn't that major silliness? I didn't even know nominations were up; that's the kind of thing that doesn't happen to me, you know? We got these phone calls, and I was, like, something good happened because people are saying congratulations. But nobody would tell me what it was for.
Robin Weigert: There's no way to expect that sort of thing, especially in your first year of a show. If I expected anything, I expected Ian McShane [who plays Al Swearengen] to get a nomination. So with that not having taken place, it seemed like it was anybody's guess what would happen. It's a trip for me; I've pretty much only done theatre before. Brad's had this fantastic career with an Academy Award nomination, but I'm pretty new to this town and feel ridiculously honored by this.
BSW: How did you land your roles on Deadwood? Particularly Robin, who seemed to come out of nowhere: How did they find you?
Weigert: I've been onstage and done a couple little guest spot things. In some ways it was my ambition to just be onstage, or at least I thought that's what my niche would be. I knew I wasn't tailored to the Hollywood scene as I imagined it to be. I never really wanted to come out here, honestly. They actually came and auditioned me in New York; they really cast a wide net looking for the parts. And this was a tricky one to cast. It would be easy to go in the obvious direction, but then it would flatten out. I think you need someone who's actually a softie in real life and then force that chick, whoever she may be, to sort of slam it home with the other side of it. I think they were kind of looking for that contradiction, and it was my good fortune.
Dourif: I had a really easy time; I went in once and read. Then I had to read for HBO, but I sat down and David came in and sat down beside me and said, "Really, you don't need to worry a lot when there's not anyone else here who looks like you." So I don't know what I did; it didn't feel like the best audition I ever gave. But somehow I had what he wanted, and that's really what it is.
Weigert: You're just absolutely right for the part. Can I just say that Brad is the most amazing actor to work with? For some reason, we're scene partners all the time, just by luck. And he's so generous and amazing. We've had some very intense scenes to do together, and you have to stay with that intensity, and it helps so much to work with somebody who's so great.
BSW: Robin, do you find it strange you were cast in this role when Jane seems so completely opposite of you?
Weigert: The thing I'm so protective of with this character is, I know she can be found funny by people. I, however, cannot find her funny. I can't go there; that's going to kill it. And the more overtly comedic the material, the more I have to kick my butt to not play into it. When you're upside down in the mud being a drunken fool, you've got to remember where that came from for her. She doesn't live in a happy place. I foresee that being a challenge this season.
Dourif: Robin is very different from Jane, but Jane has a very sensitive core, and Robin's a very sensitive actress. Also, Robin's good about not being too big, and the tough thing about Jane is that she's larger than life. Jane is someone in life who's chosen to play a part.
Weigert: It scares the pants off me. I'm always afraid of being over the top.
Dourif: And it's so hard to play drunk. It is so hard.
Weigert: I can't tell you the secret to that, but I can tell you that in last season's departure scene I did something to myself. I went out afterwards and had one beer and was smashed. I was stumbling and drunk. So I think the power of suggestion is very strong in actors, and you suggest to your body that it is drunk, and it begins to feel that way. I don't know what that is.
BSW: You both have remarkable stage resumes. Do you notice a huge difference between acting for the camera and acting for a live audience?
Weigert: Probably the lack of rehearsal time, the fact that what you're trying to do is get it really right once or twice as opposed to trying to integrate it into your day for nine months; it's a completely different style. Because this is a series, the thing that carries you through over time is that you have the same character. I suppose it's a little different from doing an episodic or shooting a movie for just one month, where you have to drop into somebody's skin and do it very quickly and get out. So that has a similarity because at least there's that long arc of mucking around in the shoes of one person. But the process is so different. Also, the fact that you're living and breathing it with an audience in the theatre, and you can feel this incredible intangible; you can hear it in the quality of the silence. You can feel your night of being most alive; it's an actual presence. Whereas here you can feel, "Oh, that was a good take." But you don't have that almost empirical sense of, "That happened. That occurred in real space and time." Which is kind of what I live for in the theatre.
Dourif: Also there's some inherent problems that you don't have in theatre. One of them is rhythm. When you do a play, what you throw away is very clear. During run-throughs it becomes very, very clear what to throw away and what to hit. But when you go and shoot, this is all you have that day. You don't have a whole play. And your tendency is to go in and nail it. And things shouldn't be nailed. You have to throw things away. I have a horrible time with that; I always have. Because I feel like I'm being paid, I should go in and really show them something. I have to watch it and remind myself, still. What I like about filming it is that there are certain things that happen when you're rehearsing and they never happen again. And if you're filming, it's captured on film. That's pretty magical.
BSW: Is there any advice you could offer actors who are struggling to find their break in this business?
Weigert: I can just say that out of my own experience, when I got out of school, nothing was happening for me. It felt very much like treading water, and I was wasting my life. I just think that the thing to know when you're starting out is, every so often you go through that, it ends, you start to work, and your life gets better. To keep the faith is very hard to do because it gets bleak.
Dourif: I remember Sanford Meisner, who used to say, "If I can talk any of you out of doing this, that's the best thing to do." It's just not a secure life; it's really only for people who are badly diseased and really need to do it.
Weigert: I hear you, but I don't know. I do think there are people who are called to it, and if they don't fight for it, something's lost. It may not be brain surgery, but imagine if Meryl Streep had decided not to be an actress. It would be a huge loss if she had been discouraged by all the things against her.
Dourif: One of the main things is persistence. Things do happen; it happened to me. I have a friend who is a songwriter, and he's brilliant. But he will never write a successful album. He has written brilliant albums; he's wonderful to watch. In every sense of the word, he's struggling. He lives with his mother; he's not equipped for anything but music. He feels that lack of success really hard. But he is the artist I respect most. He still, to this day, has songs he has to write. And he's doing his job, he's being who he is, when it's really, really tough.
By Jenelle Riley
Backstage West
August 18, 2004
If ever there was a show tailor-made for an ensemble award, it's HBO's Western drama Deadwood. The freshman series from NYPD Blue co-creator David Milch features a cast of both new and familiar faces populating a corrupt South Dakota town in 1876 where even the most moral characters have dark secrets. When this year's Emmy nominations were announced, two actors were singled out for their exceptional work in the flawless cast. Brad Dourif is a veteran character actor who scored an Oscar nomination as the sensitive inmate Billy Bibbit in his debut filmOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and is probably best known as Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings and the voice of Chucky the doll in the Child's Playfilms. On Deadwood he does some of his best work in a long career as Doc Cochran, a generous spirit with a few convictions for grave-robbing. Also nominated is Robin Weigert, a soft-spoken actor who seemed to come out of nowhere with her foulmouthed, drunken, no-holds-barred performance as Calamity Jane.
What's most impressive is that Doc Cochran and Jane might just be the most loveable grave-robbers and drunks ever seen on television. According to Weigert, this is largely because both characters find themselves defending and protecting the citizens of Deadwood. "We're both caretakers, in whatever messed-up packages we come in," Weigert explains. "We fundamentally cannot even fight in our own nature the impulse to help people." Agrees Dourif, "We're oddly kindred spirits. We're absolute social misfits which, as far as I'm concerned, I'm completely typecast." In a town where, as Weigert puts it, "everyone's morality is up for grabs," the two lend a surprising sensitivity to their complex roles.
Back Stage West: Congratulations on both being first-time Emmy nominees.
Brad Dourif: Isn't that major silliness? I didn't even know nominations were up; that's the kind of thing that doesn't happen to me, you know? We got these phone calls, and I was, like, something good happened because people are saying congratulations. But nobody would tell me what it was for.
Robin Weigert: There's no way to expect that sort of thing, especially in your first year of a show. If I expected anything, I expected Ian McShane [who plays Al Swearengen] to get a nomination. So with that not having taken place, it seemed like it was anybody's guess what would happen. It's a trip for me; I've pretty much only done theatre before. Brad's had this fantastic career with an Academy Award nomination, but I'm pretty new to this town and feel ridiculously honored by this.
BSW: How did you land your roles on Deadwood? Particularly Robin, who seemed to come out of nowhere: How did they find you?
Weigert: I've been onstage and done a couple little guest spot things. In some ways it was my ambition to just be onstage, or at least I thought that's what my niche would be. I knew I wasn't tailored to the Hollywood scene as I imagined it to be. I never really wanted to come out here, honestly. They actually came and auditioned me in New York; they really cast a wide net looking for the parts. And this was a tricky one to cast. It would be easy to go in the obvious direction, but then it would flatten out. I think you need someone who's actually a softie in real life and then force that chick, whoever she may be, to sort of slam it home with the other side of it. I think they were kind of looking for that contradiction, and it was my good fortune.
Dourif: I had a really easy time; I went in once and read. Then I had to read for HBO, but I sat down and David came in and sat down beside me and said, "Really, you don't need to worry a lot when there's not anyone else here who looks like you." So I don't know what I did; it didn't feel like the best audition I ever gave. But somehow I had what he wanted, and that's really what it is.
Weigert: You're just absolutely right for the part. Can I just say that Brad is the most amazing actor to work with? For some reason, we're scene partners all the time, just by luck. And he's so generous and amazing. We've had some very intense scenes to do together, and you have to stay with that intensity, and it helps so much to work with somebody who's so great.
BSW: Robin, do you find it strange you were cast in this role when Jane seems so completely opposite of you?
Weigert: The thing I'm so protective of with this character is, I know she can be found funny by people. I, however, cannot find her funny. I can't go there; that's going to kill it. And the more overtly comedic the material, the more I have to kick my butt to not play into it. When you're upside down in the mud being a drunken fool, you've got to remember where that came from for her. She doesn't live in a happy place. I foresee that being a challenge this season.
Dourif: Robin is very different from Jane, but Jane has a very sensitive core, and Robin's a very sensitive actress. Also, Robin's good about not being too big, and the tough thing about Jane is that she's larger than life. Jane is someone in life who's chosen to play a part.
Weigert: It scares the pants off me. I'm always afraid of being over the top.
Dourif: And it's so hard to play drunk. It is so hard.
Weigert: I can't tell you the secret to that, but I can tell you that in last season's departure scene I did something to myself. I went out afterwards and had one beer and was smashed. I was stumbling and drunk. So I think the power of suggestion is very strong in actors, and you suggest to your body that it is drunk, and it begins to feel that way. I don't know what that is.
BSW: You both have remarkable stage resumes. Do you notice a huge difference between acting for the camera and acting for a live audience?
Weigert: Probably the lack of rehearsal time, the fact that what you're trying to do is get it really right once or twice as opposed to trying to integrate it into your day for nine months; it's a completely different style. Because this is a series, the thing that carries you through over time is that you have the same character. I suppose it's a little different from doing an episodic or shooting a movie for just one month, where you have to drop into somebody's skin and do it very quickly and get out. So that has a similarity because at least there's that long arc of mucking around in the shoes of one person. But the process is so different. Also, the fact that you're living and breathing it with an audience in the theatre, and you can feel this incredible intangible; you can hear it in the quality of the silence. You can feel your night of being most alive; it's an actual presence. Whereas here you can feel, "Oh, that was a good take." But you don't have that almost empirical sense of, "That happened. That occurred in real space and time." Which is kind of what I live for in the theatre.
Dourif: Also there's some inherent problems that you don't have in theatre. One of them is rhythm. When you do a play, what you throw away is very clear. During run-throughs it becomes very, very clear what to throw away and what to hit. But when you go and shoot, this is all you have that day. You don't have a whole play. And your tendency is to go in and nail it. And things shouldn't be nailed. You have to throw things away. I have a horrible time with that; I always have. Because I feel like I'm being paid, I should go in and really show them something. I have to watch it and remind myself, still. What I like about filming it is that there are certain things that happen when you're rehearsing and they never happen again. And if you're filming, it's captured on film. That's pretty magical.
BSW: Is there any advice you could offer actors who are struggling to find their break in this business?
Weigert: I can just say that out of my own experience, when I got out of school, nothing was happening for me. It felt very much like treading water, and I was wasting my life. I just think that the thing to know when you're starting out is, every so often you go through that, it ends, you start to work, and your life gets better. To keep the faith is very hard to do because it gets bleak.
Dourif: I remember Sanford Meisner, who used to say, "If I can talk any of you out of doing this, that's the best thing to do." It's just not a secure life; it's really only for people who are badly diseased and really need to do it.
Weigert: I hear you, but I don't know. I do think there are people who are called to it, and if they don't fight for it, something's lost. It may not be brain surgery, but imagine if Meryl Streep had decided not to be an actress. It would be a huge loss if she had been discouraged by all the things against her.
Dourif: One of the main things is persistence. Things do happen; it happened to me. I have a friend who is a songwriter, and he's brilliant. But he will never write a successful album. He has written brilliant albums; he's wonderful to watch. In every sense of the word, he's struggling. He lives with his mother; he's not equipped for anything but music. He feels that lack of success really hard. But he is the artist I respect most. He still, to this day, has songs he has to write. And he's doing his job, he's being who he is, when it's really, really tough.