If any actor belies the myth of the overnight success, it must be F. Murray Abraham, who received a Best Actor Oscar for his searing performance as Salieri in 1984's Amadeus but soon returned to the grind of being a busy character actor onstage and in films and TV.
In a two-decade career before Amadeus, Abraham appeared in featured roles in films like Serpico, The Big Fix, and Scarface (and as the talking leaf in 1970s-era Fruit-of-the-Loom ads); in the decade and a half since his Academy Award, he's appeared in historical epics like The Name of the Rose, Galileo Galilei, Nostradamus, Mighty Aphrodite, and Children of the Revolution (as Stalin), as well as on Broadway‹as Roy Cohn in Angels in America, in Mike Nichols' star-studded Waiting for Godot, and in the Marivaux musical The Triumph of Love. More recently, he appeared (under pounds of alien makeup) as the villain in Star Trek: Insurrection, and will soon be seen behind some similarly funky ancient tattoos as Lot in NBC's two-part Biblical telefilm of Noah's Ark (coming up May 2 and 3).
(Note for the Biblically minded: The telefilm compresses two famous Old Testament judgments, the Great Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that Lot and Noah are in the same story‹and Lot, seen in the Bible as the only innocent spared from the whole Sodom and Gomorrah debacle, is portrayed here as a venal comic foil for the righteous Noah. His wife does get the pillar of salt treatment, though.)
Born Fahrid Murray Abraham in Pittsburgh, Penn., to parents of Syrian and Italian descent, young F. was moved to El Paso, Tex. and raised there till he was around 20, when he left to seek his fortune in Los Angeles, then New York, amassing extensive theatre credits along the way.
Since Salieri, Abraham has been typically cast in larger-than-life character parts‹perhaps because he can bring such delicate shadings to them. His pockmarked Greek mask of a face registers gradations of emotional color in a way that brings to mind Pacino. Also like Pacino, Abraham can go over the top when required (and sometimes when not), except that he always does so with a kind of flavorful precision; he can be hard without seeming cold, sharp without seeming brittle. As he revealed in a recent interview, this may be due in part to his little-known background in comedy, and perhaps also to an approach to acting that's serious‹but not too serious.
Back Stage West: How did you become an actor?
F. Murray Abraham: I began in high school in El Paso. It was one of those things‹the teacher saw something that I didn't know I had. She saved my life, actually. I was a real bad boy; I was running with the pachucos at the time.
The point is, when I discovered it, I knew exactly where I belonged. And then I went to the University of Texas at El Paso on a scholarship for a year, and then decided I wanted to go to L.A., and I hung out in L.A. for a while. My training was mostly on the stage, just simply doing it and doing it and doing it. But I lived here in Hollywood when I first came out, when I was 19 or 20.
I got my first job, I think it was... in L.A. I got my Equity card with Ray Bradbury's show, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. And as soon as I got through with it, I pulled up stakes and went to New York to study with Uta Hagen. But I'm not snobby about New York at all. I like L.A. L.A.'s been very good to me.
I studied with Hagen for a year and I just began doing shows and shows and commercials and soap operas, children's shows and children's musicals and street theatre. I never stopped working. Even if it's free, I think it's the only training‹the best training you have is in front of an audience. I still believe that.
BSW: In terms of getting out there and being seen, when you're advising young actors today...
Abraham: I still do. I'm a professor at Brooklyn College on leave of absence. I teach master classes every time I'm in town. One of the reasons I do it is... the young people keep you going. They remind you of the passion. Because if you don't let yourself be reminded, you forget why you're in it. You kind of get involved in the business aspect of it and you forget the love. And I think that's essential‹that old-fashioned, wonderful word, love. Because I do love it.
BSW: What is it about acting that you love it so much?
Abraham: I have no idea. It was one of those things I was born to. It was a gift from God, I believe. But this thing about teaching‹I don't get paid for it. I do it because I love it, and because it's important, and because of the chance I was given by a teacher. I think it's important that I give it back.
BSW: When you've got those kids looking at you, what is the one thing that is the most important that they take away from your master classes?
Abraham: Don't be afraid. That's my motto. I have to tell it to myself all the time. Go with your instincts. Do what your heart tells you‹but do it with a strong support of technique. Don't just be flying around in your mind, letting anything happen. You've got to have a solid technique for those nights when you just don't feel up to it. And there are many nights like that.
Also, you really have to read. You have to be aware of what's going on and you have to be aware of the classics. You have to, because there's a reason they're classics.
BSW: There is the impression in Hollywood that when a non-star wins an Oscar, it can be a curse as much as a blessing, because it's hard for that person to live up to the level of the work for which he's then most recognized. Have you felt that?
Abraham: It's never been a problem for me. When I won the Academy Award, the scripts that came to me were nothing I really thought that demanded my performance‹child molesters, stuff like that. I thought that I was better than what they were offering me. And it was a lot of money, but I said no. And because the film was such a huge success in Europe, they were coming through with great offers of good money for wonderful, wonderful characters. So I did a lot of work in Europe and I never stopped working.
The point is, that stuff has never been seen here, so the impression, I guess, was that I just wasn't doing anything, and it's not true. But in Hollywood, as in any place, if you're not available, people think there's something wrong, and they stop even thinking of hiring you. And that's bad, because I'm really fun to work with.
BSW: What are some of your favorite classics?
Abraham: Oh. I've done almost every great Shakespearean role. I suppose the modern classics are as good as the ancient ones‹Tennessee Williams, O'Neill, Miller, Pinter, Beckett. You've got to do all of them, to see what it's like. You've got to read and find out what's right for you.
BSW: And what's right for you right now?
Abraham: Right now? Just about anything. I'd like to do... There's a wonderful character in Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest... A wonderful female... I'd love to play her, just for fun.
BSW: Lady Bracknell? Why?
Abraham: She's a great character, and, you know, you get to a certain point where you can change sexes. What the hell? Besides, I'm really funny. I was a comic actor for the first 15 years of my performing life, and then suddenly, it's all tragedy. I prefer comedy.
BSW: Which is harder?
Abraham: They're different. It just a different approach. If you were to read a line as a comedy, as something funny, you use the same line and make it tragic. It's just an attitude, and you either have comic ability or not.
BSW: I've heard it's a lot easier for a comic actor to become a dramatic actor and do drama well, but not as easy for people who do strictly drama to make the switch to comedy.
Abraham: I don't know if that's fair. I think the problem that you face is being identified with one thing so long that you forget how to do the other thing, and people won't accept you in that role because they have you cast in their minds a certain way‹typecast. Which is true in life: People typecast all the time, not just in the business, but everywhere. It helps; they don't have to think if they typecast you. That's what typecasting's about.
But you have to do more of it. You can't just do one and if it doesn't work, quit. If you really want to do comedy, you've got to do it and do it and do it. That's what the theatre's about‹the repetition. It's very helpful. You find out what works and doesn't work.
BSW: In Noah's Ark, you're playing Lot as fairly comedic, as the comic relief.
Abraham: He's pretty funny. And he's also very mean at the same time.
BSW: What's funny about a guy whose wife turns into salt?
Abraham: That's a pretty funny scene. It's a guy who really is from the streets and a tough guy who has a cynical idea of life, a very selfish idea of life. But he's so completely honest about his selfishness that he's refreshing; you find it charming. He's the kind of man that you think, Oh, that's reprehensible, but you can't stop smiling because his company is so enjoyable. In other words, he's a very good villain.
BSW: Are there differences in the way you approach building a character for a long stage run and building a character for a film or a TV movie like this?
Abraham: No. It's always the same. The truth‹it's always got to be the truth. And there's only one truth you can ever rely on, and that's your instinct and your idea of the truth. Not on somebody else's, but your own, within the context of the script‹you are in their world. There are some actors now, quite famous, who are applauded for their work, and in fact they're acting quite alone. They could be doing that performance in an empty room and it would be exactly the same. I don't believe in that. I believe in working with the actors.
BSW: Do you find that directors in general allow you to bring your own truth to the role or impose their own vision of the performance‹who say, "I see Hamlet this way and want you to conform to that"?
Abraham: Before you do a Hamlet, or any role like that, you really have to talk to that director and get things straight. Otherwise you shouldn't take that kind of a project on. But many of the great roles will get into your life. It will affect your life. I know. When I did Macbeth, you didn't want to be around me. I was not a happy man. The same thing happened when I did The Caretaker; I was miserable. So you have to be careful about that kind of thing, and if you have a director who disagrees with you, you shouldn't be doing it, because it's monumental and you're playing this very important, delicate instrument.
And as far as directors nowadays who want things their way, I don't know that I've run into too many. My complaint is that they're not that well-prepared. Some of them don't really know what they want. They're depending on you so much to give them whatever you come up with that anything you do is OK with them. And I don't believe in that. I like to let things go and allow the inspiration, if there is any, to happen‹and it's not always right. It's always maybe honest and free. But if it doesn't work, if it's just wrong, I can't see it. I'm not editing myself. I'm depending on that director to say, "That's crap." And not many directors are willing to say that‹at least not to me, and I think I miss that kind of restraint.
BSW: Do you think they are intimidated by you?
Abraham: I guess. I don't know why, because I'm a worker. I'm really ready to try anything. I would like to see directors with more imagination. But, you know, when you make films or television films, in that expensive world, you haven't got time to horse around. You can understand their problems with time. They've got to get this done in this amount of time, so you have to come in really prepared and ready to deliver on command.
BSW: What kind of research do you like to do, generally? Do you like to read and let it settle? Or do you try to read everything there is and maybe try on the role and that sort of thing?
Abraham: Unfortunately, it's another time problem. This year, I did those five films around the world, and a musical comedy at the beginning, so there wasn't much time to do the research that's necessary. But when I do have the time, it's a pleasure. I really do it if it's a costume piece, for example. I really do listen to the music of the time, look at paintings that came out of the time, whatever is available to me. That's a real luxury, but it is necessary.
BSW: But how do you compensate when you don't have the time to do the research?
Abraham: You fake it. I mean, let's not take it too seriously. It is a play, after all. That's what people don't understand. It's play. It becomes so serious and there's no fun anymore in the world! You've got to have a good time. And this year, I've had nothing but a good time. I keep insisting on it for myself, and it's been an eye-opener. I wish I'd learned this 25 years ago.
BSW: Are you at the point in your career where you can afford to insist on it?
Abraham: I insist on it for myself; I don't impose this on anyone else. I'm talking about my frame of mind, and I'll tell you, the happier I am, the happier the people around me are, you know? And that sounds like an obvious thing, but it's a great discovery to realize that the whole world does not rest on your shoulders‹that it's going to get done. So, if you look at it with the idea that you can be a little more light-handed with yourself, not so self-critical and not so angry at not getting it exactly the way you want, other things open up and reveal themselves to you about yourself. And if you can get that revelation on camera, it's pure gold.
BSW: You talk about acting as self-discovery.
Abraham: Yes, I do. I believe that. I believe art is self-discovery.
BSW: And yet, when you're acting, you're literally taking on the persona of someone else.
Abraham: You're not taking it on. You're endowing it with qualities in yourself that reflect what you think that character is. It's quite a difference. You can't invent something that does not exist within your imagination. It's got to be something that's conceivable. Not that you know everything about yourself, but to discover those things about yourself, ugly as they may be‹now that's the danger.
If you're going to do Medea, you have got to investigate within yourself the possibility of killing your children‹I mean the absolute, actual reality of that. How many actresses are willing to do that? Because it's a dangerous, dark place. A couple of years ago, a woman killed her two children for love of a man. That's Medea. I mean, she did it: She locked them in the car and put them in the lake. So we know it's possible, and this woman is not a huge character. She's a housewife, a person like so many Americans, and if she's capable of doing that, then anyone else who calls herself an actress is capable of it, and that's got to be examined.
The problem is the danger you feel about not ever coming back from that dark place, but that's what separates the great ones from the good ones. BSW