Anthony LaPaglia focuses on plot in new TV job - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TJ · 02-12-2003, 08:06 PM

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/PK197087.DTL

Los Angeles -- In the film "Lantana," Anthony LaPaglia portrays a neurotic cop battling a midlife crisis by cheating on his wife, berating his children and beating up suspects. He also solves a murder, but it is the cop's complicated personal life that drove the story and earned LaPaglia the 2001 Australian Film Institute best-actor award.

On "Without a Trace," LaPaglia again plays a detective, but this time around viewers know next to nothing about his character when he's off the job. The series stars LaPaglia as Jack Malone, leader of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad. One of the few new network dramas to find an audience this season, "Without a Trace" recently ranked among the top 15 most-watched shows during the week of Jan. 20 and even beat its venerable time slot rival "ER" in the ratings when the hospital drama aired a repeat two weeks ago.

"Based on the success of the show so far," LaPaglia says, "it's hard to argue with this theory about procedural drama: The shows where you don't go home with the characters will survive and work better on a certain level."

The formula has certainly worked for "Law & Order," "CSI" and their myriad spin-offs. "Without a Trace," which also features Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano and Eric Close, executes the formula with elan.

Guest actors including Charles Dutton, David Paymer and Philip Baker Hall have helped raise the dramatic ante, LaPaglia says, while executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer has invested the show with feature-film-quality production values.

"Jerry has certain criteria for how the show has to look," LaPaglia says. "The Bruckheimer organization has every great postproduction facility in town available to them, and they use them."

As carpenters hammer away on the renovated Los Angeles house LaPaglia shares with his wife, actress Gia Carides (cousin Nikki in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), and their infant daughter, the 44-year-old actor says "Without a Trace" has given him a surprisingly unparanoid perspective on criminal behavior.

"If anything, doing this show has actually made me relax more. Do you know how many children were kidnapped by complete strangers last year? Six. Most kids are kidnapped by people they know -- their parents, uncles, aunts. The media makes it seem like there are these random bogeymen out there who swoop in off the street and swipe your child. But when you look at the true numbers, the chances are very remote."

And though LaPaglia finds the realm of missing persons investigations fascinating in its own right, he wouldn't mind seeing a juicy back story or two for his character.

"Of course I would like to see more character-driven stuff about the people that you're dealing with, and that's a point that's kind of under negotiation at the moment. But there's this whole new drive toward procedural drama that has only to do with the case and nothing to do with the personal lives of the people who are solving the case. For both the writers and for the actors, it can be tricky to keep it fresh and not have it fall into a formula where you rattle off the same stuff every week."

LaPaglia, who at age 21 moved from Australia to New York to study acting with Kim Stanley, isn't shy about expressing his feelings when each new script is delivered.

"I spend a lot of time on the weekend reading scripts, making notes, trying to figure out what this line means, what they're getting at, what they're looking for, why is this scene here," he says. "Then you exchange phone calls. I have to say, the guys I'm working for are enormously open to suggestions and criticisms. They really do try to rewrite it in a way that accommodates your concerns."

Hank Steinberg, executive producer for "Without a Trace," says he cast LaPaglia after seeing his performance in "Lantana."

"He was so brilliant in that," Steinberg says. "Anthony does a lot with his eyes, without speaking, and then when he does open his mouth to say something, you think, 'I should listen to this.' Anthony's smart and edgy and really keeps the show grounded. He pushes us to make sure we keep things real."

Occasionally LaPaglia gets a scene that showcases his laserlike intensity at full strength. In one episode last fall, LaPaglia as Jack delivered a riveting monologue in the backseat of a car, pretending to sympathize with a pedophile in order to coax a confession. Mission accomplished, Jack vomited on the side of the road.

"That was something the writers initially came up with," LaPaglia says. "We had a very good director, Peter Markel, and Hank Steinberg and myself. We all got together and realized there was this potential to do a protracted interrogation and take it as far as we could on network TV."

It's the kind of bravura turn that makes one think that LaPaglia is a tad overqualified for a role that more often calls for a just-the-facts-ma'am approach.

LaPaglia, after all, won a Tony Award for the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge." He's made nearly 40 feature films since 1987, earned an Emmy for his guest spots as Daphne's brother Simon on "Frasier" in 2000, and starred for a season as a moody lawyer in the critically successful 1996 ABC drama "Murder One" (which aired opposite "New York Undercover," starring his younger brother Jonathan).

Given his track record, what attracted LaPaglia to return to series TV?

"The main decision was based on the fact that my wife and I were having a baby," he says. "I didn't want to be traveling all over the place and miss out on my daughter's life if I had to go on location somewhere. I wanted to come home every day. TV seemed to be the best option, though I went into it with a great deal of trepidation."

The show's potentially grisly subject matter also gives LaPaglia an opportunity to champion bolder storytelling choices.

"One of the things about television is, they like to create a certain comfort zone; they don't want anybody to go to bed too disturbed, even though I think people really like thought-provoking stuff. Look, it's a 10 o'clock show. It's adult. Why not compete with HBO, why not open it up, why not see how far you can take it till someone says stop?

"So one challenge I've set for myself for the next couple of years, if we run that long, is to see how far I can get them to push it. You can always pull it back, if you have to. I always urge them to push it further."

02-12-2003, 08:06 PM	#1
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,669	Anthony LaPaglia focuses on plot in new TV job http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/PK197087.DTL Los Angeles -- In the film "Lantana," Anthony LaPaglia portrays a neurotic cop battling a midlife crisis by cheating on his wife, berating his children and beating up suspects. He also solves a murder, but it is the cop's complicated personal life that drove the story and earned LaPaglia the 2001 Australian Film Institute best-actor award. On "Without a Trace," LaPaglia again plays a detective, but this time around viewers know next to nothing about his character when he's off the job. The series stars LaPaglia as Jack Malone, leader of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad. One of the few new network dramas to find an audience this season, "Without a Trace" recently ranked among the top 15 most-watched shows during the week of Jan. 20 and even beat its venerable time slot rival "ER" in the ratings when the hospital drama aired a repeat two weeks ago. "Based on the success of the show so far," LaPaglia says, "it's hard to argue with this theory about procedural drama: The shows where you don't go home with the characters will survive and work better on a certain level." The formula has certainly worked for "Law & Order," "CSI" and their myriad spin-offs. "Without a Trace," which also features Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano and Eric Close, executes the formula with elan. Guest actors including Charles Dutton, David Paymer and Philip Baker Hall have helped raise the dramatic ante, LaPaglia says, while executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer has invested the show with feature-film-quality production values. "Jerry has certain criteria for how the show has to look," LaPaglia says. "The Bruckheimer organization has every great postproduction facility in town available to them, and they use them." As carpenters hammer away on the renovated Los Angeles house LaPaglia shares with his wife, actress Gia Carides (cousin Nikki in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), and their infant daughter, the 44-year-old actor says "Without a Trace" has given him a surprisingly unparanoid perspective on criminal behavior. "If anything, doing this show has actually made me relax more. Do you know how many children were kidnapped by complete strangers last year? Six. Most kids are kidnapped by people they know -- their parents, uncles, aunts. The media makes it seem like there are these random bogeymen out there who swoop in off the street and swipe your child. But when you look at the true numbers, the chances are very remote." And though LaPaglia finds the realm of missing persons investigations fascinating in its own right, he wouldn't mind seeing a juicy back story or two for his character. "Of course I would like to see more character-driven stuff about the people that you're dealing with, and that's a point that's kind of under negotiation at the moment. But there's this whole new drive toward procedural drama that has only to do with the case and nothing to do with the personal lives of the people who are solving the case. For both the writers and for the actors, it can be tricky to keep it fresh and not have it fall into a formula where you rattle off the same stuff every week." LaPaglia, who at age 21 moved from Australia to New York to study acting with Kim Stanley, isn't shy about expressing his feelings when each new script is delivered. "I spend a lot of time on the weekend reading scripts, making notes, trying to figure out what this line means, what they're getting at, what they're looking for, why is this scene here," he says. "Then you exchange phone calls. I have to say, the guys I'm working for are enormously open to suggestions and criticisms. They really do try to rewrite it in a way that accommodates your concerns." Hank Steinberg, executive producer for "Without a Trace," says he cast LaPaglia after seeing his performance in "Lantana." "He was so brilliant in that," Steinberg says. "Anthony does a lot with his eyes, without speaking, and then when he does open his mouth to say something, you think, 'I should listen to this.' Anthony's smart and edgy and really keeps the show grounded. He pushes us to make sure we keep things real." Occasionally LaPaglia gets a scene that showcases his laserlike intensity at full strength. In one episode last fall, LaPaglia as Jack delivered a riveting monologue in the backseat of a car, pretending to sympathize with a pedophile in order to coax a confession. Mission accomplished, Jack vomited on the side of the road. "That was something the writers initially came up with," LaPaglia says. "We had a very good director, Peter Markel, and Hank Steinberg and myself. We all got together and realized there was this potential to do a protracted interrogation and take it as far as we could on network TV." It's the kind of bravura turn that makes one think that LaPaglia is a tad overqualified for a role that more often calls for a just-the-facts-ma'am approach. LaPaglia, after all, won a Tony Award for the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge." He's made nearly 40 feature films since 1987, earned an Emmy for his guest spots as Daphne's brother Simon on "Frasier" in 2000, and starred for a season as a moody lawyer in the critically successful 1996 ABC drama "Murder One" (which aired opposite "New York Undercover," starring his younger brother Jonathan). Given his track record, what attracted LaPaglia to return to series TV? "The main decision was based on the fact that my wife and I were having a baby," he says. "I didn't want to be traveling all over the place and miss out on my daughter's life if I had to go on location somewhere. I wanted to come home every day. TV seemed to be the best option, though I went into it with a great deal of trepidation." The show's potentially grisly subject matter also gives LaPaglia an opportunity to champion bolder storytelling choices. "One of the things about television is, they like to create a certain comfort zone; they don't want anybody to go to bed too disturbed, even though I think people really like thought-provoking stuff. Look, it's a 10 o'clock show. It's adult. Why not compete with HBO, why not open it up, why not see how far you can take it till someone says stop? "So one challenge I've set for myself for the next couple of years, if we run that long, is to see how far I can get them to push it. You can always pull it back, if you have to. I always urge them to push it further."