anderswolleck

Donal Logue is one of my favorite character actors turned lead actor. He first came to recognition with the famous Jimmy the cab driver commercials on MTV in the early 90s. Soon after he started turning in marvelous supporting performances in films like Blade, Jerry Maguire and Men with Guns. His first lead role was in the wonderful indie hit The Tao of Steve which eventually led to the hit sitcom Grounded for Life. The first season of which has just come out on DVD. I got a chance to talk with Logue about his long running sitcom, his upcoming new sitcom and directing his first feature.

Buy the first season of Grounded for Life

Daniel Robert Epstein: I would imagine that by the time you did Grounded for Life you probably had been in quite a few pilots.

Donal Logue: Yeah, I'd done a bunch of pilots. Some that had gone for a while. One that went for 13 episodes. But I had never been on a show that had lasted more than that.

DRE: Were the other pilots you had done sitcoms?

DL: I had done a show for FOX called Medicine Ball that was kind of a drama-comedy about doctors. We did 13 episodes of a show called Public Morals for Steven Bochco called Public Morals. It was a sitcom in a kind of Barney Miller style, but it only aired once then was yanked. I did a pilot with Marcia Gay Harden that was stopped midway through shooting.

DRE: Why is that?

DL: We started it and they stopped because Marcia Gay was pregnant so they decided they would come back to it, but they never did. Luckily for her, she went off and won an Oscar for Pollock. I did pilots here and there but mostly I was doing little bits in movies. Then I did The Tao of Steve and that was at Sundance in 2000 where it did really well. I had a little boy and another one coming so I talked to Carsey-Werner about doing a development deal and creating a show. Thats how Grounded for Life came about.

DRE: I bet the guy who played your father, Richard Riehle, had probably been in more pilots than you.

DL: Oh sure. Richard's been in a trillion movies, a thousand pilots, he's a great guy. What happened was Stephen Root was originally cast as the dad and we did the pilot with him. But Stephen was under contract with CBS and they held him. Then we cast Richard, who I thought was fantastic. He's just a great guy.

DRE: Did he audition?

DL: We did audition him and what was funny about it is that there's a groove with those guys who work all the time. He was so funny, I was literally laughing in his face, breaking character during the audition, which is not cool. Afterwards, I apologized to him, and he said, "Don't worry, I'm as blind as a bat. If I don't have my glasses on, I can't see a foot past my face." That's a pretty cool trick for an actor to have; blindness.

DRE: I was surprised that Kevin did the show. You had worked with him before, right?

DL: Yeah, Kevin and I were friends from Steal this Movie. I think he was ready to do a show. He had done some pilots before. It was odd because he's such an indie movie guy, but he was game to do it. I always felt semi-guilty for having dragged Kevin Corrigan into the world of television, but he assures me not to feel bad about it.

DRE: I'm sure he doesn't feel bad when the checks show up every month.

DL: Actually Kevin Corrigan's one of the least materialistic guys that I know. Kevin's married and has a kid so it's nice to have a steady gig. Kevin Corrigan is a unique and fantastic actor. Hopefully there'll be another 100 films we'll get to see him in the future.

DRE: Did Grounded for Life feel special in any way in that you knew this one was going to stick around?

DL: There was a calm confidence. I honestly feel like we never had a bad episode by TV standards. Every week I felt there were so many strong components of the show, especially the writing. Kevin was hysterical, Lynsey [Bartilson] always made me laugh and Megyn [Price] was great. We didn't have cringe moments that you have when you're on a sitcom where you're like, "All right dude, I'll do it. But I think it sucks."

DRE: Since you developed the show, was it in any way autobiographical?

DL: Well Bill Martin and Mike Schiff were the creators and they knew we had to do a family show. Everybody came at it from the angle of having been a kid and a teenager. It was more stories from our youth as opposed to stories from our parenting. It was all that stuff about taking your parents' car when you're 13, sneaking booze into rock shows and ditching school with your friends. I could relate to that as a former teenager, rather than as a present parent.

DRE: When the show moved from FOX to The WB was everyone freaking out?

DL: Nah, our bosses were always unbelievably calm about everything. I've always managed to hustle; since the show ended, I did probably ten movies. I always feel like I can stay busy and do stuff. I just feel like if it's time, it's time, whether it seems fair or not. We were all pretty mellow about it. What happened was FOX had a certain date by which they had to re-up the contract and they were hemming and hawing so much that I guess Carsey-Werner wanted to deal with the WB. I don't think a show's ever changed networks in the middle of the season before, but it was cool because they gave us those extra couple years of life that was necessary to get us to syndication.

DRE: As a veteran actor, what's it like working with these young people, especially when you're not that much older than them?

DL: Young actors are pretty fantastic. I can't even imagine doing stuff like that when I was a kid. You naturally have a weird mentor relationship that happens when you work with them. I remember working on movies like Gettysburg and feeling that Jeff Daniels was kind of a mentor. I'm sure in some way we have a little bit of a mentor vibe to the younger ones, but also weirdly in this circus world of performers, there this hierarchy that isn't like in normal life. We're all performers so there's a peer relationship that transcends our natural age differences. You can have an eight-year-old kid and a sixty-year-old man relating in a way that they don't normally in life. In some ways it's weird and other ways its fantastic. Not to say that I didn't act like a protective, possessive parent of some of the kids of the show but we were also peers and friends.

DRE: Blade is one of my favorite movies of all time and its the first DVD I ever bought.

DL: Right on.

DRE: My favorite moment in the movie is when Blade lops off your head, then grabs the sunglasses. How was your experience on it?

DL: I thought that me, Stephen [Dorff] and Arly Jover had a blast on it. I had a lot of fun. I thought working with Wesley [Snipes] was a lot of fun. I always remember Blade as being my creative high point and joy in my career. I remember laughing a lot, I really liked working with Stephen Dorff which is why he did me a favor by being in my movie Tennis, Anyone...? which is coming out on video this month at Blockbuster Video.

DRE: I heard that [Blade director] Stephen Norrington went through a hellish time on that movie.

DL: Norrington makes things tough because he's a mad tortured soul and artist. He's so out there and so fantastically talented. I love the guy. I showed my movie at a small theater in Berkeley and I did a Q & A in front of 22 people and Norrington was there. Norrington's dropped out of society, dropped out of Hollywood and now he's up in the Bay Area writing a novel. Hes given up on movies altogether.

Stephen Norrington doesnt suffer any kind of foolishness at all. Since he's so clever, he could do everybody's job better. He lets people know that so he runs into some problems. There was one scene where I was burnt to a crisp in the hospital and I had to attack N'Bushe Wright. He wanted me to jump over a full operating table in this full latex suit. Not even from a running start. That's insane. Olympic athletes don't do that. He said he could do it and I watched him just jump over the table and I said something like Something is so wrong with you both physically and mentally.

DRE: Youre also in the Ghost Rider movie, right?

DL: I am in Ghost Rider but I'm not sure when it's coming out.

DRE: I think they pushed it to next summer.

DL: It was such a fun experience. I hope it's as fantastic as I think it could be.

DRE: What's your part in it?

DL: I play Mack who is Johnny Blazes best friend and mechanic. Mack is unaware of Johnnys deal with the devil. I think I play the nice guy who you hope doesn't get it from the bad guy, but does. You're like, "Oh, geez! Don't kill Mack!"

DRE: [laughs] Are you a comic book fan or is it a coincidence that you're in two comic book movies?

DL: No, I'm not a comic book guy. I'm pretty fascinated with the subculture though and I do think that the world of comic books is such a natural transition into film. People have to respect comic books. I present an award every year at the Saturn Awards for fantasy, sci-fi and comic books. Also I did a movie called Comic Book Villains which is about a guy who was obsessed with comic books.

DRE: I liked that movie. I interviewed James Robinson about it.

DL: James Robinson is another fantastic and brilliant guy. The movie was like an existential question after he had been so lionized as one of the great writers of comic books. That was a great movie to work on; it was fun to get it from James Robinson's perspective.

DRE: Whats your new sitcom about?

DL: Its a half-hour one camera show in New York which was created by Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman. It's basically about the geekiest group of guys who get together and decide they've had enough of being your janitor or being your doorman or being your mechanic. They want something of their own so they decide to rob a celebrity they see on MTV Cribs.

DRE: How is that a sitcom?

DL: Well, because it's not Ocean's Eleven. It's as if my character from MTV, Jimmy the cab driver, decided to go into a life of crime.

DRE: What is Tennis, Anyone...? about?

DL: It is incredibly dark. Paul Rudd plays a porn star and Jason Isaacs plays the meanest character in film history. Jason says it's the meanest character he's ever played and he plays the guy in The Patriot who kills all of Mel Gibson's children and he's Lucius Malfoy. So if this is the most despicable character he's ever played, it's pretty awesome.

DRE: Do you want to direct more?

DL: I'm directing a movie next year whenever schedules open up. I'm directing Bill Paxton in an adaptation of a Walker Percy novel called The Second Coming.

DRE: What is that about?

DL: It's a heady, intellectual art film. Its quirky love story between a suicidal depressed widower and a younger girl who's escaped constant electro-shock therapy at a mental institution in North Carolina. It's about how love saves. It's a book I've been obsessed with since college and now I'm getting to make it.

DRE: Do you have a small part in Zodiac like everyone else in Hollywood or do you have a bigger part?

DL: I think I have a smaller part. Its more of Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jrs movie and it seems fantastic. [David] Fincher likes to do a hundred takes and I was watching Mark Ruffalo and Downey go at it. I thought, man this is cool. Both those guys are such fantastic actors, it's just fun to be around. It's fun to just sit back and enjoy the work. It's not really a job. The only job part of it is showing up at five and being on time. The rest is all gravy.

DRE: Does having a successful sitcom thats gives financial freedom free you up from taking the roles that people might consider only for character actors?

DL: It's not like I was on Home Improvement and I bought airplane but to some degree that's true. You just have to do something because you like it. If you do it for money and you don't like it, your career is going to be shot anyway. Say you do a bad sitcom, like a Small Wonder or Charles in Charge. When you come out of it, its not like you can now you can do all these tasty, dramatic parts because no one's offering you those things. You just have to do good stuff and be very careful. I remember when Bruce Davison got nominated for an Oscar for Longtime Companion and at the same time he was doing the Harry and the Hendersons sitcom. He's an actor and he has a job, but it's a tough situation when you're finally boom there, but you're on a show that you can't leave.

DRE: Do people still recognize you as Jimmy the Cab Driver?

DL: Not really. It seems like that generation has past a bit. Although, I hope I don't look like Jimmy walking around in real life all the time, but people do see it sometimes. Now people recognize me from Blade and Grounded for Life.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck