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STAR POWER: The two comic actors have an onstage repartee about their respective upbringings, their shared friendship, their separate Hollywood careers and paths to fame. The audience hang on their every word. (Photo by Ryan Morrill)
Jason Alexander couldn’t have given a more flattering introduction of Tony Shalhoub when they appeared together on the Surflight Theatre stage on Friday afternoon, June 12.
“This is a treat for me,” said Alexander. “I’ve known this gentleman for a very long time, but this will probably be the longest conversation we’ve ever had where I get to ask him all kinds of things that I would be embarrassed to ask him otherwise. …
“His brilliant career is making my career look paltry; that’s what it is. Just so you understand who we’re dealing with, this is a career that spans 40 years – that’s no small thing – in every medium we could name, including voiceover and recordings and all that. I’m going to try to remember this: He has five Emmy Awards; he has six Screen Actor Guild Awards; he has a Tony Award; he has a Golden Globe Award; and he was nominated for a Grammy – I don’t know who beat him out, maybe, you know, Whitney Houston, I have no idea. He’s one of the most highly decorated actors that I know, and he’s very, he’s very – it’s so interesting because when you know Tony, he’s the most unassuming guy, you know, just a guy, just a sweet, lovely family guy who does his job, doesn’t make no big hoopla, right, and he’s one of the most highly accomplished and decorated actors, artists, that I know.
“So I think you’re in for a treat. Let’s bring him out and have a conversation.”
Shalhoub entered the stage to a huge round of applause.
“I’m interested in people’s journey’s and how they kind of got to where they are,” said Alexander. “So, you’re one of nine siblings, is that correct?”
“I’m one of 10 children,” Shalhoub answered.
“So, you have nine siblings and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin,” said Alexander.
Shalhoub said he had a sister who got into theater before he did, going off to the Pittsburgh Playhouse at the age of 18. His parents, especially his father, weren’t exactly thrilled with that decision.
He told the audience she’d done a lot of things, including being in “Stranger Things” for a number of years, and still does a lot of theater. But …
“By the time I came along – I’m the second youngest of 10 – so by the time I was coming up, my parents were so tired of child rearing, they said, ‘Do whatever you want; get a job; cook for yourself.’”
Alexander asked when Shalhoub had his first experience with acting. It turned out that same sister, 10 years older than Tony, had been in a production of “The King and I” in high school, and they needed little kids. Tony was 6 at that time, and his sister recruited him.
“A quick story,” said Shalhoub. “This probably started my long and crazy journey. It’s the dress rehearsal of ‘The King and I.’ There’s a musical number that ends the first act; all the children are onstage in a circle around Miss Anna or whatever. So the song ends, the act ends, the curtain comes down and I’m in the farthest downstage position – that’s the one that’s closest to the audience – and the curtain comes down and I’m the only one on the outside. Of course, I burst into tears. I couldn’t find the slit in the curtain. I’m 6 years old, but somewhere in the back, in the deepest recesses of my brain – ‘I got laughter.’ Maybe the hook was set; it’s been one humiliation after another.”
By the time he got to high school, Shalhoub would be in theater productions, and he enjoyed being noticed. After all, in his huge family it was difficult to get noticed – “I’m over here.”
Shalhoub said he had been a middling student in high school. When he graduated, his father said, “You can go to work or you can go to college.”
“So I went to college because I didn’t want to get a job.”
He took an acting class or two – “It’s an easy A” – and appeared in plays. But he still couldn’t imagine being a professional actor. He didn’t have what Alexander said was “a moment,” like when Alexander saw a production of “Pippin” on Broadway when he was a young teen and saw Ben Vereen get on stage. “From that moment on my fantasy was a life as an actor.”
Shalhoub did have sort of a “that-moment lite” when he was a freshman in college in Green Bay and a professional troupe came into town, either from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis or the Milwaukee Rep; he couldn’t remember which one. It wasn’t kids acting, it was trained adults who were devoted and “all in.” Green Bay had only community theater. He hadn’t realized adults could make a living on stage. “I was just knocked out.”
Still, he didn’t declare a theater major until his junior year after he had transferred to the University of Southern Maine.
In his senior year, he didn’t have a clue as to what he would do next. But a young woman who had graduated the year before had been accepted at the Yale Drama School, a graduate school, and loved it there. She told her boyfriend, who was a classmate of Shalhoub, that she thought it would be perfect for Shalhoub as well. That boyfriend pushed and pushed and pushed Shalhoub to apply.
Now, Shalhoub said it was a long story, but the audience wanted to hear it. It was indeed a long story, but he did audition and got accepted at Yale, and that made all the difference.
Shalhoub talked at length about his experience at Yale.
Robert Brustein had been dean of the Yale School of Drama when Shalhoub was there. He moved on to Harvard and launched the American Repertory Theater, which still exists today. Shalhoub was hired for the company and spent four years there. He had become like the pros he saw in Green Bay – a dedicated, all-in professional actor. As Alexander said, “It was the jump from student to ‘I’m a working professional.’
“That jump, it was a huge gift, right?” asked Alexander.
“It was a gift,’ answered Shalhoub, “because the truth is some of my classmates wanted to go right to New York, and they did go. I couldn’t go right to New York. First off, I had no money. I was in debt from school – not like today’s debt (which leaves graduates struggling for years) – but it was a lot, undergrad and graduate school debt. I was being offered a 10-month job in regional theater by the guy who had brought me up, so it was kind of a continuation of the program.
“He brought designers and directors and playwrights, actors that I was familiar with, and now instead of paying to do it, I get a small paycheck. It was 1980, so I started at 300 bucks a week, and I was like yes! I fainted.
“They’re actually giving me a paycheck. Plus, I’m working with great people, world-class directors. You know, The New York Times came out to view the things, New York actors were brought in to work with the company, so that meant that agents were coming up to see their plays, which meant they were seeing me.”
Shalhoub eventually graduated to films and TV. He and Alexander basically broke out at the same time, and they busted each other’s chops about losing auditions to each other.
“Jason got that, oh great, I’m so happy for him,” said Shalhoub sarcastically, to Alexander’s delight.
Alexander’s significant break toward film and TV came when a role in “Pretty Woman” fell into his lap. He asked Shalhoub what he did that made him realize he had a solid entree into the world of cameras.
“I would have to say that was ‘Barton Fink.’ Not because ‘Barton Fink’ was a big commercial success. I don’t really know those numbers (it wasn’t; it lost money), but it went to Cannes, and it won the Palme d’Or, you know. I only knew the Coen Brothers. A couple years before I had seen “Blood Simple,” and I said, “Oh my God, these guys are really changing the landscape, and I would love to get in there. When I was doing that movie, I knew they were poised to become rock stars. That was a big deal.
“But ‘Big Night’ (which had been screened at Surflight immediately before their conversation) was the one that really shifted things. Before ‘Big Night,’ I auditioned.”
After “Big Night,” filmmakers came to him.
The talk was scheduled for an hour, so there wasn’t enough time to talk about all of Shalhoub’s successes. When Alexander asked about them, Shalhoub had time only to give thumbnail responses. But there was one verbal exchange that must be mentioned.
“So Tony’s of Lebanese-American heritage,” said Alexander. “In ‘Big Night’ he played an Italian; in ‘Wings’ he played an Italian, he played a Jew. You’ve crossed ethnicities; your wonderful face allows you to really convey a lot of ethnicities. I’m going to preface this by going I don’t have an issue with this, but there is a thing now in our industry where actors can’t play anything they’re not. … So what is your response to it, your feeling about it?”
“It’s just like everything with political correctness,” Shalhoub said. “You know it starts out with the germ of a good idea, but then it is just taken to the extreme. … I’ll give you the broadest possible example: Mickey Rooney doing the Asian in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’
“I get it. In the past it was stereotypes, it was mockery… but now you’re slicing the damn ham real thin. … I get it; I don’t want to see someone playing ‘the lazy Mexican’ – that I can’t have. But I was trained to do characters. … I would have had no career. I’d have to play a Lebanese kid from Green Bay, Wisconsin.”
That one got perhaps the biggest laugh of the afternoon.
— Rick Mellerup
