The Actor’s Coffee Talk this past Saturday at the LA Festival Festival was a blast. Shohreh Aghdashloo and James Cromwell were, as expected, both fascinating and generous with stories and advice. The only difficulty for me was remembering to participate myself, as I kept getting caught up their answers.
Okay, so this is what I really look like. Now you’re prepared for the previous post..
Okay, my agent is going to kill me for posting this — so look for me in a bikini in my next role — but over to the right is a shot of me from my never-seen guest spot on the 2005 Fox show The Inside.
There I recline as Ronald Ewing, an 800lb cannibal. Yes, an 800lb cannibal. I lured my victims into my home..and they never left. My only mode of transportation? A motorized lounge chair. My favorite food? Anorexic women.
Yes, dark, and yes, disturbing. But also very, very funny. Few minds in Hollywood are able — or willing — to conceive of something like this, but Tim Minear (Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, etc., etc.), god bless him, is one of them.
I wore a 60lb rubber suit, a wig, fake teeth, and prosthetic hands and cheeks. (All created by the renowned Rob Hall, who also created my prosthetics for The Burrowers.) The make-up required four hours to apply and nearly two hours to remove. They had to build an air-conditioned tent for me, because if I perspired — not unexpected in the L.A. summer under 60 pounds of rubber [insert [insert joke here] joke here] — my face and hands would start to slide off. ‘Access Hollywood’ devoted a segment to the freakiness of it all.
My ep, Skin and Bone, was the show’s 13th and final. It never aired in the U.S. and isn’t available on DVD, as far as I know. However, Tim has just posted short five clips from it on Facebook: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You may need to friend Tim first to see them. For god’s sake, don’t tell him I sent you or you’ll get nowhere with him.
Fans, friends and family often want to know, “William, oh, William, Why don’t you do more comedy?” Well, people, you asked for it.
I think my feelings of adoration Randy Newman are well established (post here). Evidence of universal justice, if not a Supreme Being itself, was offered a few weeks ago when Randy was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the 2,411th star, to be exact). He also has two Emmys, five Grammys, and an Oscar. A Hollywood Reporter article is here.
His music for movies tends to be very sweet and straightforward. Would you have heard it? Well, if you’re ever seen a Pixar film, you have.
His work on his individual albums, though, is a bit quirkier. He usually sings from the point of view of a character, and they’re often funny and heartbreaking. If you’re a curious sort who wants to learn the best of what this world has to offer, check out his works on the iTunes store. A link to his Best of album is here.
I’m sometimes asked what it’s like to face an audience. It’s not something I can put into words, but that’s never stopped me from trying (and wasting people’s time as while I do). However, this may help. At last weekend’s film festival at the KY Center for the Arts, I wandered onto the stage and took a photo of the empty house.
