Known for his role as Deacon Palmer, the jovial best friend of nice guy deliveryman Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) on the sitcom King of Queens, Victor Williams is returning to his theatre roots this month with a directorial debut at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood (running through Mar. 14). Yet unlike the comic material we see him master each week with such panache, this project has a darker, overtly political tone. He is mounting Lee Blessings' Two Rooms, about the government's neglect of an American held hostage in Beirut.
"Even though it was written in the late '80s, as we try to find our way in this post 9/11 world, it is a good reflection on how terrorism affects people individually," says Williams. "When I watch the news and I see yet another soldier is dead, and we talk about the victims of 9/11, it's sort of in one fell swoop. We don't focus on the specific husband or child who is directly affected by such tragedies as a result of terrorism or war. So I wanted to make it something more personal, and I thought this is a great vehicle to focus on that."
Casting and being cast: Williams originally intended to cast the four-person piece from the New American Theatre Company he formed in preparation for it. But when two actors dropped out, he placed a notice in Back Stage West. He talks about what he learned from being on the other side of the casting process. "As an actor I always went in with the attitude that if I'm auditioning against 100 people, I just need to get into the top 10. I assumed that there are 10 really good actors, and after that, for whatever reason—physically, age-wise, or level of ability—there were 90 who wouldn't fit the bill, when in fact that's not true. There were so many more actors than I realized that were up to the task. I saw 60 actors who were really good, and five who took it to another level. I realized it's not a difference between being bad and good; it's a difference between being good and great. There are a whole bunch of good actors out here, and so you need to figure out what you can do to come into an audition and make it great."
So what distinguished the actors who got the job? Says Williams, "I think what it is, particularly with plays, is that it's one thing to understand a script and a character, but then there is a person who comes in and says, 'I understand those things,' and yet they are also true to Lee Blessing, as opposed to, 'Well, this is my interpretation.' One's personal interpretation is valid, but there is something about exploring and honoring the truth of something outside of yourself—specifically the playwright."
On getting dealt Queens: "I'm the type of person, I hate to struggle," admits Williams. "I had my first professional audition in New York in 1995, and I got a couple of theatre gigs, some commercial work, some guest stars on hour dramas, like Homicide and Law & Order—so that combined with the commercials, I had a nice amount of money saved.
"I said, 'I'm going to go to L.A. for six months and see how it goes.' I moved out here in January 1997 and got a pilot the first year that didn't make it but that made me say, 'I'm going to give it another year.'"
Unfortunately that turned out to be a very slow year. It wasn't until Williams decided to return to New York that he got called in for a guest star on the King of Queens pilot. And it wasn't until he'd moved back to New York that he received word the pilot had been picked up and that his role had been made recurring.
Houses of representatives: "I went to a program that prepared me. [New York University] had a good reputation and put me in a position to be seen. It's not about just taking classes. You have to do your best to take classes at the best places, because there are agents who know these are the best places and will frequent those places."
In New York, Williams quickly found representation with Ambrosio Mortimer, an agency known for discovering talented young black actors. Says Williams, "When I moved out to L.A., the agency shut down, but I had a resumé strong enough that it wasn't difficult for me to pick up another agent." Though he is now with Gersh, in his first years here, he says, he worked with a number of smaller agencies where he was able to get the attention he wanted: The Artists Group, then Bauman, Redanty, & Shaul. "All of those have relatively small client lists, so you get that personal attention and they allow you to grow," says Williams.
Master planning: "As an actor, you have to have some sort of plan, but you have to be flexible," suggests Williams. "My thing was to be in New York, but being that I was fortunate enough to get a commercial, I knew I could move to L.A. and just give it a shot. So it was about being able to say, 'Well, it looks like my career is going in this direction, so let me go out to L.A. and see what I can do, and if it's not working, fine. I can go back to New York.'" At the moment, however, it looks like Williams will be here for a while.