Random Reminiscing: Looking Back at my Many Random Roles Interviews (Part 17 of Quite a Few)

Back in 2021, when I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my first Random Roles, I was feeling a tad nostalgic, so I decided that I wanted to start looking back at my contributions to this A.V. Club feature, since it’s the portion of my freelance career of which I’m most proud.

If you accidentally missed the previous part of this reminiscing (and you may have, because it was in 2021!), you can check it out by clicking right here…and if you missed the part before that, well, each installment has a link to the previous installment in the intro, so just keep on clicking back until you’ve read ‘em all!

If you’re all up to date, though, then for heaven’s sake, why are you wasting time with this intro? Just dive right in!

Matt Frewer:

PSI Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal (1997-1999)—“Matt Prager”

Matt Frewer: Uh, yeah, that was… [Long pause.] That was okay. I mean, there were some good episodes and some bad episodes, and I was on the receiving end of lots of mail from people saying, “I have an alien in my back yard. Is there any way that you can come fix this?” [Laughs.] I guess that was when I first became aware of the sci-fi audience and how passionate and creative they actually are. They’re really quite sensitive and talented. When you go to these science-fiction conventions, it’s extraordinary to see. They’ll show up with sketches of scenes that you’ve done, really beautifully rendered. A lot of them are very shy and sensitive, but they’re very talented. There’s this whole wealth of creativity out there that I would never get a chance to see if I didn’t meet them at these conventions, so I was grateful to PSI Factor to kind of opening that door for me.

The greatest bit in the Wikipedia entry for the show is the revelation that, “in 1997, the Committee For Skeptical Inquiry, then called the Committee For The Scientific Investigation Of Claims Of The Paranormal, awarded [host Dan] Aykroyd a ‘Snuffed Candle’ award, for ‘contributing to the public’s lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry.’”

[Bursts out laughing.] You know, you mention that, but—I can’t remember exactly how many episodes they did altogether—I think I did about 50 episodes myself—but in the first season of it, I think they said, “Ripped directly from the files of the Office Of Scientific Investigation And Research!” And then in the second season, it was “based on the files,” and then it was “loosely based on the files,” and then by the fourth season it was something along the lines of, “This has nothing to do with anything approaching the files of the Office Of Scientific Investigation And Research!” [Laughs.] “The Office Of Scientific Investigation And Research doesn’t exist! We’re making it up! We’re making it all up!”

At last, the truth can be told.

That’s right. The truth is out there. Nowhere near here, but it’s out there! [Laughs.] Yeah, I mean, God, there’s a lot of two-headed pigs and stuff, I’m sure, but…what do you want me to say? I mean, I think my character disappeared to Neptune at the end, for fuck’s sake!

Elijah Wood:

Sin City (2005)—“Kevin”

Elijah Wood: Oh, dude. That was a dream come true for me. As soon as I discovered Frank Miller and Sin City the graphic novel, I, like, devoured them in a three-day sitting, completely just so enamored with the storytelling and the art style. The sort of hard-boiled, pulpy stories were so fucking awesome, and as I was reading them, I was like, “Man, someone has to adapt these!” [Laughs.] And I thought, “Well, fuck, there’s no way to do it live action. It’d be an amazing series, potentially. Like, an animated series, kind of like what they did with Spawn on HBO. And I thought, “Man, it’d be so cool!”

And literally, I’m telling you, not three days later, I get a call because [Robert] Rodriguez had come to town, and as had happened many time before—because I’d worked with Rodriguez before—a mutual friend called me and he was, like, “Hey, let’s go to dinner, Robert’s in town!” And I’m, like, “Awesome!” So we met up and went to dinner, as we’d done before, but over dinner he’s, like, “Dude, my next project is Sin City.” And I was, like, “You’re fucking kidding me!” [Laughs.] “I literally just devoured these things and was thinking to myself, ‘God, it’d be so incredible for someone to adapt this material, it’s so good,’ and you’re literally telling me exactly what I was just thinking.” And he’s, like, “Not only that, dude, but… do you wanna see some of it?” And I was, like, “Wait, what?” “Yeah, man, we shot a test with Josh Hartnett.” And I was, like, “Yeah, I want to see it!”

So he went out to his car, and on his laptop he had basically what amounted to the first sequence in the first Sin City movie, with Josh Hartnett and—on the balcony of that building, he had already shot that. And as the story goes, he shot that as basically a proof of concept, primarily for Frank Miller, to prove to Frank that he would adapt his work in a way that would keep the integrity of the animation style or the drawing style and bring it to life in a way that looks very similar. So I literally saw that for the first time outside of Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles. [Laughs.] We’re in the back of his car, on a laptop, and I was, like, “Holy fuck! You’ve done it!” And that night, my friend George was like, “Dude, you should be Kevin!” And I would never be so presumptuous to be, like, “I should be in your movie, Robert!” But he said it, and I was like, “Oh, that’d be fucking nuts!” But that was all that was ever spoken of it.

But then when he actually starting casting the movie, he called me and was, like, “Dude, do you want to come in for Kevin?” I was like, “Yeah! That’d be incredible!” And my audition was literally—I went to the Four Seasons, and Robert was just meeting people, actors were just coming into his hotel room. And he put me on tape, but because Kevin’s a mute—he obviously doesn’t say anything in the movie—he just had me sit there with glasses on, and he read parts of the comic. [Laughs.] That was my audition!

But, man, it was a joy. Being a huge fan of Frank Miller’s work, seeing it come to life in a way that literally was as if the pages of the comic book were leaping onto the screen was so exciting. And, obviously, to play a character that is so fucking evil and demented was a blast. Just a blast. It was so much fun. And it was only two days, dude! I worked only two days on that film. That’s it. It was all green screen, and it was so amazing.

Dan Lauria:

Lombardi (2010-2011)—“Vince Lombardi”

How did Lombardi come about?

Dan Lauria: Lombardi came about because I didn’t listen to my agents. We did a play, The Guys, where we didn’t get paid, and while I was doing it, I met Tommy Kail, who was this young director who knew Ann Nelson, the author of The Guys. She liked what I did, so she brought this kid down, and I thought, “This kid’s gonna make it.” He was broke and living in New Jersey with his parents, and I said, “Well, I’m going back to L.A. Here’s the key to my apartment in New York.” It’s just one little room, I’ve had it 30 years, but I said, “You don’t have to pay me rent. Just do what you gotta do.”

I came back a few months later, and he said, “You’ve got to see my group. We’re in the basement of a bookstore.” And I went down, and I never saw anything as electric as that. I don’t know shit about musicals, but these guys were great. So I said, “What’s happening?” And he said, “Well, we can go off-Broadway with this, but we have to fire the lead,” [Lin-Manuel Miranda] who wrote it, and who was phenomenal. I said, “Hey, you fire him, you’re next. It just goes right down the line.” I lent him a couple of bucks to do a few more backers auditions, he calls me, he sends me my money back, and he says, “We’re moving to off-Broadway. We raised the money!” It’s the biggest hit off-Broadway, it moves to Broadway, it wins Best Play. It was In the Heights.

So now Lombardi comes. My agent says, “We mentioned your name, but they want a movie star.” They wanted Martin Sheen or Anthony LaPaglia, I think. So they said, “Okay, you’re out.” So who do they hire to direct? Tommy Kail. And then Tommy says, “I want Dan!” They said, “We tried! The theater owners don’t want him. He’s not a movie star.” So Tommy says, “Well, look, Dan’s crazy. He’ll fly in on his own money and just read it for our writers.” Because they had to cut it down. It was too overwritten. And after the reading, the writers—David Maraniss and Eric Simonson—kept saying, “We want this guy!”

Then it was Tommy’s idea to read it for the NFL and for the theater owners, and they had Jo Beth Williams read the female lead. That’s when Roger Goodell said that if I didn’t do it, they weren’t going to support it. And old Ted Mann, who owned Circle In The Square, said, “If you’ll do it in the round…” And he goes [Growls.], “In the old days, we used to just hire the right actor!” [Laughs.] I thought Tommy would never direct it in the round, but then he said, “I have a great idea if it’s in the round!” I said, “Hey, go for it!” Then we found out that Jo Beth couldn’t do it, which is when they asked me for five names and didn’t like the names I gave them because they didn’t want two TV names, even though Tommy loved the idea.

Well, you clearly won out in the end, as did Judith [Light], since she pulled a Tony nomination for her performance.

DL: Yep. [Hesitates.] The only one. Which was really disappointing to me and Tommy and the lighting guy, because they were all people who had been nominated. But the theater community didn’t like us, because all the old jocks who’d never gone to plays were coming, and then the wives of those guys were going home and calling other wives, saying, “There’s something playing that you’ll be able to get the old guy to go to… and you’re going to like it, too!” That was all Judith.

Conchata Ferrell:

Heartland (1979)—“Elinore Randall Stewart”

Conchata Ferrell: The role that I can really talk about is Elinore Randall in Heartland. All my life, I have said, “If I had lived in those times, I would’ve gone west on the wagon.” Well, let me tell you something: I might have gone west on the wagon, but I would’ve gone right back east on the stage. [Laughs.] I mean, we shot that film in Montana in seven weeks, and in seven weeks, we had three days of sunshine. And it was spring! But that’s the way it was. I had to learn to ride a horse, and I had to learn to drive a team, which I got fairly decent at. I never got good at riding a horse, though. I was just really good at getting on and really good at getting off.

But I delivered a calf on camera! This was a long time before Billy Crystal did anything like that in City Slickers. I slept on calf alert. I would finish a day of shooting, and they’d take my wig off, they’d braid it, and put it back on my head, and I’d sleep in the character’s sleepwear. We’d all gone through the training, but this I didn’t know: The herd cattle must be helped to deliver the first calf. They can’t do it by themselves. After the first one, they can do it. We cheated in the movie, though: We had a cow who’d had a calf before. But we were on a calf alert, so I went home and went to bed, and the call came at four in the morning.

So we went out, and Richard Pearce, who was the director—a wonderful director—was also one of the best handheld cameramen around. He had done lots of documentaries. And Fred Murphy was the director of photography, and he’s great. So we went out to birth this calf, and Rip [Torn] and I had gone through it. You have to reach up inside the cow and hook a rope to the front legs of the calf as it’s being born. So we’re out there, we’re going through this and doing it, and at one point there was a conversation going on between Fred and Dick Pearce about where they should shoot this from, and Rip looked up and went, “Guys? We can’t put it back. We’ve got to get this done!” [Laughs.] And I was so terrified that something was going to happen to this life, so it was maybe the realest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t have act anything. It was just, “Get this baby born!” And I felt really triumphant when the baby was born. Oh, God, was it an exciting thing!

And there were funny things. We were shooting on a train, a steam locomotive, and we’re up there in Montana, so, you know, it’s either mountains or plains, one of the two. So we’re going along, and we’re losing the light, but as we went, the sparks from the train would set a little bit of the prairie on fire, so we’d stop, and the grips and the electricians and whoever would get off and put the fire out, and then they’d get back on and we’d go a little bit more. Finally, we were really losing the light, and there was a little fire out there, and they started to stop, and the D.P. said, “Gentlemen, it’s the film or the fire!” [Laughs.] So we finished shooting the scene, and then everybody got out and put the fire out.

It was such a wonderful story, and it was so interesting. Elinore Stewart’s son was there, and he said to me at one point, “This is like watching my mother come riding home.” I had so much material to draw from, because she had written books, and it was like a childhood dream, being a pioneer woman. Playing her was a great experience, and I’m still close with a lot of people who worked on that. Megan Folson, the little girl, who was 10 years old at the time, she and I are still very good friends.

Given your comments about the conditions, how tolerant was Rip Torn of the mountains and the prairies?

Well, Rip was actually very good at it. I will tell you, though… [Hesitates.] I shouldn’t tell this story, but it was my first or second day, and we were rehearsing, and when we were leaving rehearsal, Rip had a car, and he said, “Do you want me to show you the town?” I said, “Sure!” So, you know, he’s driving around, he’s showing me this and showing me that, and I said, “My God, how long have you been here?” And he said, “Oh, I just got here two days ago.” And I went, “How in the world are you so familiar with everything?” He goes, “I make it a point to know every way out of town in any town I’m in.”

That question was designed strictly in the hopes of getting a good Rip Torn story, so mission accomplished.

[Laughs.] Yeah, you know, I was a little in awe of him. But that really worked very well for the character. Barry Primus was also in the film—he played the cowhand—and Lilia Skala was the neighbor, and she was a gem. I tried my best to get my dad to come up to the set. I would’ve loved for him to have been part of it, and they said, “If he comes up, we’ll put in the film. We’ll put him on a wagon or something.” But I think he’d reached the point in his life where he was afraid to fly, so he didn’t come. I think maybe that’s my best work on film, though.

Maura Tierney:

The Van Dyke Show (1988)—“Jillian Ryan”

Maura Tierney: That was really fun. I mean, it’s Dick Van Dyke! And Jay Sandrich was the director, who directed The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I was really lucky to be able to work with super-talented people early on. And Dick was so sweet. We had a lot of fun. But that show was kind of—I don’t think anybody was watching that show. [Laughs.] In addition to Jay, Kari Lizer was also on the show—as an actress, but she went on to create The New Adventures Of Old Christine. The most fun thing about the show for me was that I got to have curly hair. My hair is straight, but the character had curly hair.

The Van Dyke Show was your first gig as a series regular, right?

Yes, it was. That was right after I got fired from Growing Pains.

Um—this is the first I’m hearing of you being fired from Growing Pains, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for further details.

Yep. I was fired from Growing Pains.

So did you actually…

Get fired? Yes, I did.

I was going to ask if you actually did the show and it’s just not on IMDB, or if you never made it on at all.

Well, I was hired, I rehearsed, and—it was a multi-camera, so it was on the second day of rehearsal that I was fired.

Is it worth asking why?

I don’t know why! I think maybe I had a bad attitude. [Laughs.] I really don’t know. The director kept saying, “Watch Kirk [Cameron]! Watch Kirk! Kirk knows what he’s doing! Watch Kirk!” And then I got fired. So that’s what I get for watching Kirk, I guess. Or maybe I didn’t watch him closely enough. Either way, I don’t think I’m welcome in his bunker.

Minnie Driver:

GoldenEye (1995)—“Irina”

Even though you’re not in GoldenEye for long, you certainly make an impression, but how did you end up in the film in the first place?

Minnie Driver: I’d made Circle Of Friends, but it hadn’t come out, and I was totally broke. I was living in Uruguay on a beach, and I had 10 dollars to my name, and I got a call at the post office from my agent. I hadn’t worked in a year and I was utterly broke, and she said, “Do you want to come and be in this Bond movie? They’re paying, like, five grand.” And I was, like, “Fuck, yeah! Sure!” [Laughs.] So I came back and did that. But that’s why I’m so suntanned in that, because I’d been living on a beach for a year.

Well, they certainly provided you with a lovely wardrobe to accent it.

MD: [Laughs.] Yeah, that was good. And it was fun. I mean, being in a Bond movie? It was great!

Martin Starr:

Yo Gabba Gabba! (2010)—actor
The Aquabats! Super Show! (2013)—actor

You were on The Aquabats! Super Show, but IMDB only credits you as “Actor.” Who or what did you play?

Martin Starr: Oh, that was really fun. That came through… I had done Yo Gabba Gabba! so the same producer reached out to see if I was available. I wasn’t too familiar with them till I went up there, but they were the nicest guys, and that show was such a fun experience. It was a battle of the bands, and there was one weird band, and a whole lot of different things, and I got to riff around and have fun. I remember they gave me free range to just play, and I knew it was a kids’ show, so I played in their really silly world.

So were you in one of the bands?

MS: Oh, sorry, no, I was, like, the emcee hosting the whole thing, so I was introducing all the bands, which made it even more fun.

And, actually, IMDB doesn’t even list you as having been on Yo Gabba Gabba!

Oh, yeah! John [Francis Daley], Samm [Levine], and I were in an episode. We found out they loved Freaks And Geeks, so we did an episode, the three of us, doing a rap. [Laughs.] It was really fun. Very easy, simple fun. After that, we went and did a live show in L.A. as well. That was the second time I met “Weird Al” Yankovic, and he remembered the first time, which was 10 years prior. And it blew my mind. We had met in a bowling alley right around the time we were shooting Freaks And Geeks. I was a bowling fanatic, so I used to take my bowling ball to the lanes three times a week. I had my own ball, I had my own shoes. I was just—well, I know you can’t use the word “fucking,” but…

Sure you can. This is the Internet.

All right! Well, I was fucking bowling up a storm. [Laughs.] I was dominating those pins. And there was this one day that I happened to be in there that I saw “Weird Al” Yankovic. And I was a huge fan—and still am, but at that point it was, like, I knew it all. So I think I may have said “hi” to him, and he said “hi” to me. I think he said that he liked the show, Freaks And Geeks, which was rare for someone to have seen it, because we weren’t watched a lot in the early days. Our numbers were—they seemed intentionally low. [Laughs.] It seemed like NBC was trying to get low numbers, by switching us around or showing episodes on Sundays, when that wasn’t our time. So he was very nice, and he clearly probably remembered because of that connection he had to our show, but I was still amazed that he remembered meeting me. He’s the nicest guy. I can’t say enough good things about him.