The actor: David Morse, who from his first extended exposure to the public as sensitive doc Jack Morrison on St. Elsewhere to his villainous turns in the likes of Disturbia and Dancer In The Dark has specialized in playing the kind of solemn, finely shaded characters that seem to exist just beyond good and evil. Currently, Morse can be seen playing George Washington—complete with prosthetic nose and bad teeth—in the HBO miniseries John Adams, now available on DVD.
John Adams (2007)—"George Washington"
David Morse: The first thing that comes to mind is my nose. It was my big idea to do that nose. We didn't have a lot of time, because they asked me to do this about three weeks before they started shooting, and I just kept looking at these portraits and thinking "This man's face is so commanding," and I did not feel that my face was very commanding in the way his was. So I convinced them that we should try the nose, and we tried it on, and everybody went, "Wow, that's Washington." But it's one thing to stand in front of some people not doing anything but looking at a nose and hear them say, "Wow, that's Washington," and another thing to actually have to live it and see it on film. I worried that it was too much. I would look at myself in the mirror when I would have all this makeup on and think, "I don't know if this is working right now." It was amazing to take a picture of it, because I would look at those photographs, and there's no doubt that it looks like Washington. But then again, as soon as you get it on, you have to blow your nose, and you have to blow your nose for the next 14 hours. It's incredibly hot with all those clothes on, and this thing's made out of gelatin and wants to melt. And I'd sit there next to my wife, and all she can see is the nose.
The A.V. Club: When you're wearing a prosthetic like that, do you feel like a person with a big nose, or do you feel like a person with makeup on?
DM: Well, in truth, there were times when I didn't think about it so much. But it's not just the nose, it's everything. The accent back then was probably nothing like what we think of as a Southern accent now or a New England accent now, so we tried to find the root of the accents. For Washington, it was a little bit of Cornwall, that western country English accent with a trace of farmer.
Apparently, there was none of that posh sort of accent that we're all familiar with now, no BBC accent, really everybody had a very regional accent, so that's what we went with, and it was tricky for everybody to learn. Even the English actors struggled. I had to learn that accent so quickly, and in those first few scenes, it felt very, very self-conscious, between the makeup and the accent, because there just wasn't time to live with the character, or to feel comfortable. Over the next couple months, I started to feel much more comfortable with it, and didn't think about it so much, but the beginning was a little difficult.
St. Elsewhere (1982-88)—"Dr. Jack Morrison"
DM: Well, pain and pride come to mind. The pain was the experience of playing that character over all those years. Being one character in the beginning, and then really becoming such a victim, and never really getting any release from that. Maybe a little bit at the end, he sort of came around, but he was not the character that I originally believed in. He was a character the producers enjoyed tormenting, and it was not fun to play that. I liked the character much more in the beginning. But the pride? That was being a part of such an extraordinary show, and really, a lot of that is owed to those same producers.
AVC: Did you make lasting friendships with your fellow cast members? Could you call up Howie Mandel today and say, "What's going on?"
DM: [Laughs.] I haven't talked to Howie in probably 15 years, but I wouldn't say I'm unfriendly with anyone, either. I think it's just the way our lives go. I'm back here on the East Coast, they're all still out there. Ed Begley Jr., I'd probably feel very comfortable with him if we saw each other. It's just our paths don't cross.
AVC: Did you have a certain level of confidence being young and on a hit show, or did you feel less confident because of your relative inexperience and the pressure of being on a major network?
DM: I don't know if "confidence" would be a word I would associate with myself at that time in my life. I guess I had a certain amount of it, because I couldn't have gone in front of the camera if I didn't. The conversation we're having now would've been very difficult for me then. I was very embarrassed by that part of the business, yet I got a lot of attention those first few years on the show, press-wise. My character was the one that was singled out, and I was not comfortable with that. I was much more comfortable with having other people do it, Ed Begley or whoever, because that would suit their personality more. I certainly wasn't confident in that part of the business. I just loved the work, and wanted the work to speak for itself.
Hack (2002-04)—"Mike Olshansky"
DM: I was disappointed in some ways that the show didn't last longer. I was disappointed for Philadelphia, because we shot the whole thing here, and that had never happened. There were a lot of people in Philadelphia proud and excited to have that show in their city. Literally in every episode, we were in different neighborhoods all over the city, and this is a city that is made up of very distinct neighborhoods. I'm very fond of the people in those neighborhoods and of this city. I truly am. But I did not sleep for two years doing that show, because I didn't feel like we ever got the show I imagined when I agreed to do it, and I never felt satisfied with what we were doing. I think it's a very difficult process, doing a network television series. I think there was a lot that was good about it. Andre Braugher, I thought was tremendous, and I thought we told some pretty good stories, but I never felt like we ever reached the level where I could say, "Okay, now this is the show, and this is the world that I think we should be talking about and representing."
AVC: When you have those kind of concerns about the direction of a series, do you go to the producers and try to work it out, or do you resign yourself to the fact that you've been hired to do a job?
DM: Well you always have to say, "I've been hired to do a job." When you walk on the set, whatever it is, you commit yourself to the job. You're committing yourself to doing the best you can do with it, no matter what you feel about it, and that never changes. The producers and writers on Hack were all in Los Angeles and never in Philadelphia, so everything was back and forth through different time zones, but they all worked hard to make a good show. I think the problem is that David Koepp, who created it, is really a movie guy, he had this fun idea. But David never intended to stay with the show, and that left a big void of who was the creative center. And as soon as there's that void, everybody wants to fill it with their own ideas. Especially the network. So we had all agreed during the pilot that the show would be one sort of thing, but then the reality of having to sell it to advertisers led to a lot of pressure to go with a much safer product. Everybody tried to jump into that void, and we never had a really strong central voice there. I think that was the big problem.
House (2006-07)—"Michael Tritter"DM: It's going to sound so weird saying this, but I had so little responsibility on that series, other than to go in there and give House a hard time. It was really fun. David Shore, who had worked on Hack and created House, called me and asked me if I would be interested in doing it if they came up with a character, because they really needed somebody that could go toe-to-toe with House. And I wasn't sure, because I hadn't watched the show. When I flipped through the scenes, I just thought, "This guy House is a total jerk. Why are people watching this show?" Then we were on vacation with some friends who we had known for a long time, and I told them I had gotten this phone call, and they were all like, "Oh, you gotta do this show, it's the most brilliant show, it's such a great character, you're going to have to do this." So I called up David and said, "Okay, I'll do it, my friends are all crazy about your show." It was really so easy, in the best sense of the word, because I had no personal pressure on me. Just to go in there and be with all these people who had worked on Hack, now having success with this show House. We had all struggled so hard. There are a lot of writers on House who were on Hack, and to be around them and enjoy their success, it was just a comfortable place to work. Now, of course, I'm suffering because people will tell me how much they hate me and what I did to House. [Laughs.] That's the only downside. House is so beloved.
Disturbia (2007)—"Mr. Turner"
DM: Disturbia was a surprise. And I don't know why I was surprised, because I knew when I was asked to do it that there were good people involved. D.J. Caruso and Shia LaBeouf and Carrie-Anne Moss. And Steven Spielberg, obviously, who was producing it. I had been asked to do a lot of those movies that are made to make a lot of money on the first weekend—there's a franchise of "first-weekend movies" that are not very good. And I turned all those down. But this was a horror movie that I thought was a little smarter than everything else, and because of the people involved, it had the potential to be something good. Still, just the success of it, and the numbers of people… I thought we were just making a movie for teenage boys, but all kinds of people have seen that movie, and all kinds of people had fun watching it. So it was just a nice, pleasant surprise, that success.
The Indian Runner (1991)—"Joe Roberts"
DM: That was another total surprise, to have someone like Sean Penn be interested in me for the lead in his first film. It was totally unexpected, and just an amazing honor. I knew his father Leo and his brother Michael, because they had both worked on St. Elsewhere, and Sean, whom I had never met, actually sent regards to me when Leo was directing our show, which was a surprise since Sean was one of the biggest movie stars in the world at the time. And then I got that script for The Indian Runner, and I couldn't even believe that he wrote it. I don't know why, because he's obviously a very talented, smart man, but there just seemed to be something so mature and just a beautiful poetry to that script, and then to go and meet him up at his house, and have him ultimately fight for me when there were all these other movie stars who were interested in doing it… For some reason, he felt that I was the fellow that should play that role, and he fought like crazy for me to do it. It was one of the greatest experiences of my career, and in some ways my life.
AVC: You worked with Penn again on The Crossing Guard four years later. Have you found him to be more focused on the performance than other directors, or more hands-off?
DM: Well, it depends. Obviously, you think he's such a wonderful actor, that's where his focus is going to be. But if you look at all of Sean's films, he has a great visual sense. Everything he went through to get to that first day of filming on The Indian Runner was an incredible effort, which is true of most films, but he had been to every studio in the city, and everybody had turned it down. He'd found his money in Japan, and he had to fight for these relatively unknown actors like Viggo Mortensen and Patricia Arquette. And myself, even though people knew me from television. And he got to that first day, and then took a look at the dailies, and it was not good. Didn't matter how good our work was, when you looked at that film itself, it just wasn't good. And he knew it. He literally took control of the whole visual look of that film and how that story was going to be told. Then you look at Into The Wild or The Pledge, and he just has grown, every movie. Into The Wild is, for me, spectacular and beautiful in its storytelling. But yes, he is great with the actors too, with every performance. With Crossing Guard, Indian Runner, The Pledge, or Into The Wild, everyone is clearly working at their highest level, and I think part of it is that people want to do that for Sean. Sean knows what it's like to go out there, and with his actors, he'll go out there with them, and make sure they're okay in taking those chances. You feel safe with him.
- Comments