AVC: How did the show function after he died?
SR: I was surprised we got to do another year. Just doing the fifth season, and getting to do a show about Phil dying—about Phil's character dying—was very tough. But it was a nice closure too. Then I got to do a couple of story arcs in that fifth season that I really enjoyed. On the whole, it didn't work. It wasn't the same with Jon [Lovitz], even though he tried, using the same rhythm as we were. But as I say, four years, and five with Jon, is unusual. Most shows maybe last one or two. I was on one that lasted five, and I was very thrilled about it.
AVC: Now you're on one that's lasted 12.
SR:That's my family, now. It's the same as going to NewsRadio every day. Hopefully, we'll get to continue. Every year we're surprised they let us do it again. We hope that it happens, but we don't expect it.
White Oleander (2002)—"Michael" (scenes deleted)
SR: I was sad about that. I had a lot of scenes, but it was a three-and-a-half hour movie, so the ended up starting the movie right after my five scenes. Too bad. It was some good, serious work that I was trying to do then. It's okay; I've put some of it on the reel, and people have called me because of it. Everything you do has consequences.
AVC: When did you know that your scenes had been deleted?
SR: When the director called me up about two weeks before. [Laughs.] "Uh, you're not in the picture anymore." It's a sad thing, but it's happened to me before. I was cut out of Kindergarten Cop. Every actor you talk to has been cut out of three or four movies.
AVC: Weren't you were cut out of Anchorman?
SR: Yep, I was cut out of Anchorman. I'm in the second, little movie [Wake Up, Ron Burgundy], but I'm not in the first one. It's okay. It was fun to go play with those people. I was one of the newsmen, a drunk newsman. I've been a lot of drunks lately. I don't know why.
AVC: You looking for those parts these days?
SR: No, but I'm playing one in George Clooney's new movie, Leatherheads. I'm playing one in Eva Longoria's new movie. They just came along at the same time.
AVC: Do you have any method-actor preparation to play a drunk?
SR: No, I lived through my 20s. I recall it very easily. [Laughs.]
AVC: Wake Up, Ron Burgundy seems to traffic in the same kind of circles that Idiocracy would, as far as cast members.
SR: Sure. You can see that in the Coen brothers' movies—they like to work with the same people—or in the Redford movies, or whatever. It's comforting to work with people you know. You know they aren't assholes, and you don't have to direct them.
AVC: In Idiocracy you just had a quick part.
SR: Yeah, that was a quickie. I just did it for Mike [Judge].
AVC: With that movie, were you thinking, "The studio must have learned from Office Space. They'll give this a chance"?
SR: Yeah, you'd think they'd learn. They didn't seem to. Mike had such a great relationship with King Of The Hill and Fox. Why that can't happen with the movie division of Fox, I don't know. But I will do anything for Mike, as well as the Coen brothers, because I think he's a really talented man.
Ghost (1990)—"Police Sgt."
SR: That was fun. It was one of the first couple of films that I did in New York. Doing Broadway, you are able to get in to some film auditions at the same time. I did Ghost and Crocodile Dundee II within two or three months of each other. It was great to work with Demi. We both had little kids at the time. We talked mostly about that. It actually showed recently on one of the HBO/Showtime things. I found out, because somebody called me the other day and said, "Wow, you're in Ghost?" Yes, I was young once, too.
AVC: You did a lot of television work around that time, as well.
SR: Well it was when I first came out to New York. I was on the national tour of Driving Miss Daisy, and all of the casting directors saw me here. So I wasn't just a piece of meat. I said, "This is the time, while they know your work. Come and jump into TV." That worked. I was guest-star boy for about three years, and was in a lot of things. Then I got a couple of series.
AVC: Murphy Brown; Eerie, Indiana; Night Court –
SR: Oh sure. Roseanne.
AVC: Home Improvement. Was any one particularly enjoyable?
SR: I enjoyed doing Night Court, because Harry [Anderson] actually wrote me a second episode that I came and did for them. They were all fun. I did a lot of [Steven] Botchco stuff—Civil Wars, NYPD Blue. It was all fun. I got to do Star Trek. I was a lawyer one day and a Klingon the next.
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