Send to KindleALAN TUDYK INTERVIEW
By Abbie Bernstein
Alan Tudyk has done all sorts of things. The Texas-born actor is beloved by fans of FIREFLY and SERENITY for playing good-hearted spaceship pilot Wash. He’s also been - among other things - a misunderstood backwoodsman in TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, a psychotic genius with multiple implanted personalities in DOLLHOUSE, an Old West doctor in 3:10 TO YUMA, a helpful medieval squire in A KNIGHT’S TALE, the somewhat delusional Steve the Pirate in DODGEBALL, the motion-capture performance and voice behind the title character in I, ROBOT, a timid British man whose personality turns inside out in DEATH AT A FUNERAL, a carnivorous alien in V, a high-strung bodyguard in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON and a singing knight on Broadway in SPAMALOT. Tudyk will be seen later this year on the big screen as Stephen Douglas in ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. Right now, he’s in ABC’s new hit comedy SUBURGATORY, which has already been renewed for a second season.
But there’s something Tudyk is doing now that he’s never done before - and he sounds thrilled about it. “I’m producing a play,” he announces proudly to several interviewers grouped around him on SUBURGATORY’s high school classroom set. “I’ve always wanted to do it, I’ve always wanted to work with my friend Orlando Pobotoy, who’s a brilliant clown. He’s a teacher at NYU. He was just involved in the production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD, that they did at CSC [Classic Stage Company] that was amazing, with one of the best plays of the year, with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest. Anyway, he and I are doing this play. He does these clown shows. The last one he did was called CREATION, and it got some of the best reviews of any play, that he wrote, and it was a single-person clown show. It was basically the first page of the Bible, and that was what it was, and it had very few lines. He said, ‘Oh, boy!’ ‘Wow!’ ‘No!’ And it was the most entertaining seventy minutes. So this is another original work that he has. It’s going to be three of us and one musician. And we’re going to do it at La Mama [in New York City] for eight performances only for the fiftieth anniversary of the theatre. And it’s called THAT BEAUTIFUL LAUGH. And we’re starting a theatre company.”
THAT BEAUTIFUL LAUGH runs at La Mama’s The Club stage this month from March 16 through March 25. For more information, go to the theatre’s website, LaMama.org.
The fact of SUBURGATORY’s renewal has made this possible for Tudyk. As he explains, “All of that I would not have been able to do had I not had some job security, because there’s a character actor hustle that you’re always working. And if you’re not working, you’re working the work.” In other words, knowing he’s got a job to return to after summer hiatus means that Tudyk doesn’t have to spend his summer taking meetings and doing auditions to get the next gig.
Created by Emily Kapnek, SUBURGATORY is told from the point of view of teenager Tessa Altman (Jane Levy), whose single father George (Jeremy Sisto) has moved them from the joys of Manhattan to the purgatory of an upscale suburb. The move out of the big city was due to George’s sincere desire to provided a safer life for his daughter. This particular suburb was chosen at the suggestion of Tudyk’s character, Noah Werner. Noah is George’s best friend. Married to Jill (Gillian Vigman) and father of teenaged Jenna (Courtney Merritt), Noah is optimistic, a little self-centered and a fan of suburban life.
:”It’s a lot of fun,” Tudyk says of the series. “It’s just a well-executed, funny show. And that’s sadly rare. It’s really tight, it isn’t the type of show where you go, ‘Oh, if it wasn’t for that guy …’” He indicates a series that rises and falls on a single effective star with an indistinguishable supporting cast. “It’s just a really well-done show.”
SUBURGATORY’s premise and style allow for a good deal of comedic freedom, Tudyk says. “I think the way the show is set up, Jeremy and Jane really anchor the show well, and it allows for the characters in that world to have a little more room to stretch. At least, I’m taking that opportunity. It’s the crazy world of suburbia, and we [the supporting characters] are certainly of that world. So we have a little more license to be crazy.”
Where would Tudyk like to see Noah go in Season Two? “Some more work with my daughter,” he says. “Somehow maybe my daughter and Tessa getting involved, or my daughter is helping Tessa, bringing our families a little closer together. Or if my wife got pregnant, because she’s mid-forties, we could have an accidental last baby, just throw that into the mix. Something that would completely oppose his acts of selfish behavior, that he would now have to have an infant baby taking that time.”
As George’s pal, Tudyk spends a lot of his SUBRGATORY screen time with Sisto. “He’s a really nice guy and if you talk to him, you’ll see. He’s the rare actor that doesn’t talk about himself. He likes to talk to people - if you’re an extra, if you’re a day player, if you’re somebody who’s new on set, he likes getting to know people.”
By now, thanks to LORD OF THE RINGS and Andy Serkis’ performance as Gollum, just about everybody has some idea of what goes into a motion-capture performance. Tudyk’s motion-capture performance as Sonny in I, ROBOT was onscreen in 2004, but without a campaign publicizing this fact, his physical work in the role went unheralded at the time.
Tudyk has sympathy for the painstaking work done by the visual effects artists integrating his performance with the rest of the film. “I think that the technology’s getting a lot better. The way we did that one was a frame by frame rendering.”
As for motion-capture acting, Tudyk says he prefers performing in his own skin. “I’d rather just do it. I’d rather just act onscreen where you can see my face and I don’t have to go where somebody goes,” he gestures, imitates a technician working at a computer, “and interprets what I’ve done.”
On the other hand, Tudyk observes, “It’s tricky. It’s awesome to get to do. It was a really cool role and I really liked it. Now that I’ve said I’m done with it, that means I’ll be doing one probably next year,” he laughs.
A lot of fans still know Tudyk best as Wash. Many are still grieving the character’s death in the 2005 feature film SERENITY, which was the big-screen continuation of the short-lived but passionately loved series FIREFLY. How does Tudyk feel now about Wash’s demise?
“If there’s another FIREFLY movie, there will be a moment of me going, ‘Oh, no …’ Because I won’t be in it,” he says. “But since there hasn’t been [another movie], I haven’t had to face that. So as it is, I really liked what it did for the movie. It really raised the stakes in that moment. Like Nathan Fillion says, ‘Wash dies. Still funny,’” Tudyk quotes with a laugh.
Is Tudyk surprised that, of all the shows he’s done on television, SUBURGATORY is the one with the greatest on-air longevity for both itself and his characters? “I didn’t put a lot of thought into what the future of this could be. I think that’s what you get into a lot of times when you’re in pilot season, like, ‘What will this do for my career and how will people see me?’ I was like, ‘This is funny, I like this show, okay, I’ll do it, I don’t know what will happen, it’s out of my control.’ This is the first time I’ve ever done a full season of any television. I’m not surprised, I’m just happy about it.”
By Abbie Bernstien - Buzzy Mag Entertainment Reporter
