By Tom Provenzano
TV actors Lawrence Monoson and Craig Ferguson are making the leap from the small to the big screen by way of the typewriter.
While entertainment journalists, casting directors, and some producers still fret and pontificate over distinctions between actors' pursuance of television, film, or theatre careers, the artists themselves simply sigh with frustration and ask to be taken seriously for the craft--not the medium. The best character actors today move in and out of the various media with surprising agility, readily adjusting techniques to match the requirements of live audience or tight cameras.
Although this fluidity between media is a hallmark of contemporary acting for supporting roles, it is not as easy for those reaching for the rewards of movie stardom. Eccentric actors well-trained and popularized in television series are often welcome additions to big-budget films. However, serious performers with their sights set on leading feature roles still find themselves facing frowns of disapproval and doubt as they take that leap from television to the big screen. John Travolta and Bruce Willis made the leap look easy with their celebrated careers. But there are many more disastrous stories, like those of Shelley Long and David Caruso, whose perceived presumptuousness as they left popular series to test their TVQs in features produced vindictive responses from both communities, which reveled in their failures.
There are other avenues, however, which some very talented artists are taking on their journey from television success into features. Lawrence Monoson is enjoying tremendous and growing prosperity on television. Though his career began in features when as a teenager he landed the lead in The Last American Virgin, it is television that has given him steady employment. He starred in the short-lived Prince Street, but was not blamed for the show's demise, and quickly landed high-profile recurring roles on Chicago Hope and The Practice. His professionalism, good looks, and acting abilities keep him busy, but it is another skill that is moving him into the next career level.
Unwilling to wait for the perfect screen role, Monoson wrote one himself. Psychological self-perception and a sharp knowledge of film structure helped him create a script that sent the young actor on an incredible ride via Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. Competition for a place in Sundance writers' labs is always fierce, and for international labs it is even tougher. Monoson's Flying With One Wing landed him a cherished spot in a 1995 lab co-sponsored by Canel-Plus in Bordeaux, where he was the only American.
"You have hours and hours of story meetings with all different kinds of artists," he recalled. "Mike Figgis was one of my advisors! Some incredible screenwriters. There is so much to digest. I got back to the U.S. and let it sink in."
But there was not much time for sinking in. William Morris was impressed with the script and became highly involved. Monoson showed the script to Rosanna Arquette on an MOW shoot and she immediately agreed to co-star. The screenplay follows the fast rise and precipitous fall of an actor. "It's an awakening to consciousness from the illusion," said Monoson. "The actor is just coming upon great success and as things are seemingly coming together, he has a melt-down. He descends into an abyss: a mythic story of the descent before the rebirth." The script also attracted director Tim Hunter, who made the very dark River's Edge. Monoson added, "My script is more bleak than River's Edge, but funnier."
The film begins shooting this fall along with a resumption of The Practice. However, the actor is taking no time this summer to rest and prepare. Instead, he is continuing to sharpen his skills with a stage appearance in director/adapter Simon Levy's new version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon at the Fountain Theatre. Why did he take time in the middle of his frantically busy film and television career for an Equity Waiver production?
"It has to be about the work," said the actor. "You have to stay focused on why you first got into this. It is too easy for all of us to lose our way through the journey and get caught up in playing somebody else's game. It is incredibly important to stay true to what your passion is. Acting is an unbelievably difficult art. The only hard part about writing is figuring what to write. The act of writing is easy."
Getting Out of the Mouse
An actor who can create his own role and sell it is an actor who controls his own fate. One of the best and brightest examples of this rare facility is Craig Ferguson, whose career quickly caught fire in Hollywood. A native of Glasgow, Ferguson is a former standup comic and classical actor who toiled in the acting fields of Britain with some success but very little financial reward for years. Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, the actor's charm and talent quickly won him a lead in the Disney series Maybe This Time with Marie Osmond and Betty White. But he was horrified by the series and did the unthinkable--he quit. Disney couldn't quite grasp what he was doing, but ultimately let him go without rancor.
"I just couldn't take the scripts any more," said Ferguson. "The Disney exec said, 'It's all right. I am going to pay you to the end of the season. You've got a very big career ahead of you in this town. I don't want to be the bad guy.' If Disney ever wanted me back to work on anything, I'd do it in a heartbeat." His bold step paid off well, as he was picked up for the second season of The Drew Carey Show to play the foolish British boss, who has become an extremely popular character.
It is the combination of extreme nerve and remarkable talent that pushed Ferguson so far. Now he has taken it another step with his newest project, Je M'Appelle Crawford, a feature comedy in which he plays a gay hairdresser from Scotland who takes on the Los Angeles establishment when he fights his way into the Freestyle Hairdressing Championships. He wrote the film, which he describes as "Rocky in curlers," with friend and co-producer Sacha Gervasi.
On the set, Ferguson is transformed. He is no longer the tweedy, slightly twittish Brit, but is dark and sexy as his new character with a great sense of style. He is enjoying his move to features as a producer, writer, and star, and swears it is worth it even if it stops after this project. Coming from Britain, where actors are likely to be shooting film or television by day and acting in the West End by night, he finds it natural to move from sitcom success to film work. But he also understands the difficulties he faces making that leap in this country.
"There is no formula," he said. "Look at the cast of Taxi. Who would you say would have gone on to movie work from that show? Would you have said Danny DeVito? I have no time for convention in that sense. An actor is an actor is an actor. One thing I will say: American sitcom acting is an extremely different discipline to any other acting I have ever done. TV is a factory; a different kind of vibe."
All the work, however, whether television acting or screenwriting, is vital to Ferguson's well-being. He freely admits his past as a hopeless cocaine and alcohol addict and credits his art with saving him. Said Ferguson, "Acting is about getting out of myself. I think that there are no real shortcuts or magic formulas to the truth. The truth for an actor should be intelligence and imagination. To have an affinity with the human race--that sounds really wanky and pretentious, but you have to be able to imagine yourself as different people."
In writing Je M'Appelle Crawford, Ferguson was also trying to show America a different version of Scotland than we have been getting. "I had been watching with interest Braveheart, Rob Roy, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, all pretty tough--that's not my experience of Scotland," he said. "Glasgow is actually quite a twee place--kind of camp. It is a very beautiful and artistic town. Part is very rough, but part is very fine, with almost a smell of Victorian elegance hanging about it. I wanted to show something else about my home town--an effete, gentle side." BS