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.
The Chicago Sun-Times picked Ethan as one of Lost’s characters which made the show so memorable. Normally, you won’t find such self-serving pieces here on the pages of ATW, but in this case, it pretty apparent that it’s in the interest of the general public’s welfare. Also, it’s the show’s last day, so, you know, tough. (Thanks, Nancy!)
Excerpt:
“10 underrated heroes made ‘Lost’ intriguing
In the end, my biggest complaint about “Lost” is probably this: It gave too much.
It gave us well-written, character-driven stories. It gave us groundbreaking narrative styles. It gave us Miles and Hurley, the best comedy team since Cheech and Chong. It gave us Egyptian mythology, Enlightenment philosophy, endless literary references, time travel, and a hydrogen bomb. It gave us flashbacks, flashforwards and flash-sideways.
It was too much….”
So some mention must be made of ‘Lost’ ending. I’m sorry to say good-bye to Ethan, to the job, to the other actors, to the show, etc., etc. But I suppose these photos can offer a final reason more eloquently — or persuasively — than I can. I took them while shooting the “Jack, meet Ethan” episode for the short-lived ‘Lost’ web series after season 4 (?)..
Top five things (not in order) about shooting in NYC for the “Love on Ice” episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, airing tomorrow night on USA Network at 10/9C (and whose home page is here):
5. 35-degree runs in Central Park
4. $12 Bergdorf Goodman feathery Xmas ornaments
3. Meeting a few fantastic new people
2. The other actors
1. I can die knowing I’ve tried the slicked-back look with glasses…and it’s not for me.
