No offense to the Dos Equis guy, but John O’Hurley may be the most interesting man in the world.
The 58-year-old actor will be forever best known as Elaine’s mellifluously madcap boss J. Peterman on “Seinfeld.” But he’s also a voiceover actor, stage actor, motivational speaker, classical pianist, children’s book author, game show host, “Dancing With the Stars” contestant and even a businessman, serving on the board of the real J. Peterman company.
In person, stopping into Madison last week on a media blitz to promote “Chicago,” he’s every bit as dapper and eloquent as one would expect, and delivers a quip with a perfectly arced eyebrow. In other words, he’s perfect to play suave lawyer Billy Flynn in “Chicago,” a role he’s played over 1000 times.
77 Square talked to O’Hurley about the role, his longtime friendship with “Breaking Bad”’s Bryan Cranston, and why he hates to watch himself on television:
What do you enjoy about playing Billy Flynn?
He certainly has the greatest entrance and exit of any man has ever been given in the theater. Surrounded by 12 ladies in lingerie and fans, screaming “We want Billy!” If you can’t make a hit of an entrance with that, you’re really in the wrong business.
I’m fascinated by him every night that I do him. He’s a very complicated character, and I think if you don’t approach him from that standpoint, I think you’ve missed the entire evening, and he comes across as a monochrome slick suave attorney. If you just play the words, it’s a pretty vapid role. If you play the complexity of the person, and get into his modus operandi, he’s a very interesting leading man. He’s eloquent, he’s elegant, he’s a very dangerous man. He’s thinking on his feet all the time. But I think there’ s also a paternal quality to him, he fathers these clients. And I think that’s the side of him that endears him to an audience as much as the slickness.
The ads call “Chicago” “Broadway’s Sure Thing.” Why do people still love this cynical, adulterous, murderous play?
It’s a dark comedy that is timeless. It’s one of those things that is always significant. We are a celebrity driven culture, and we allow behavior from celebs that we wouldn’t allow in ordinary human relationships. But we let our celebrities get away with it because they’re special.
I read in the New Yorker that you are good friends with Bryan Cranston. How did that come about?
Bryan and I have been best friends since we were on “Loving” together. We were both married to the same woman, he just didn’t know it. I was the villain and he was the good guy. I think we both cut our eyeteeth in comedy there, because we both had the same sense of humor, and we used to do dress rehearsals for the show every day. There was an understanding that at some point during the day, Bryan and I would do a send-up of a scene. The people at ABC were always tuned in to see what Hurley and Cranston were going to do.
Both you and Cranston achieved fame later in life. How do you think you would have handled it differently if you had been an overnight success?
Well, I always made my living as an actor. 48 hours after I arrived in New York, I got my first show and never had to do anything else. So for me I was always a success from the moment I got there, because all I ever wanted to be was a working actor. I would have been very happy as a repertory actor at the Guthrie or in Louisville. I guess I’ve always been more of a Spencer tracy kind of actor, and I think Bryan is too. At the end of the day, you just do your work and you go home.
I still don’t watch anything I do on television. To this day, I’ve never seen myself dance on “Dancing with the Stars” and I don’t intend to. I’m not entertainment to myself. I never watched “Seinfeld” in its first run, because I like to remember it as theater. Television is an editor’s medium, and they take this stuff and they cut it all up. I find it very frustrating as an actor to be edited so tightly. Especially with Peterman, with these wonderful monologues that I spent so much time crafting, and most of it ends up on the floor.
What drives you to try all these different kinds of things in your career?
I’ve kind of patterned my life by living by my imagination. Whatever these recurring daydreams that I have are, I follow. I rely upon my instinct a lot, and not my rationale, because my rationale lies to me all the time. I’m afraid of too many different things. But my imagination keeps me in the right direction. So when it comes to doing a book, it was because I had this idea and thought “I’ve got to do this. I’ve never written one before, but I also didn’t know that I couldn’t.”
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