The United States of Tara
Posted on | February 13, 2009 |
What a sweet gig for an actor. Â If you haven’t seen it, The United States of Tara is a new show on either HBO or Showtime (I’ve been drinking and I can’t be bothered to look it up) where Toni Collette plays a mom with multiple personalities. Â I’ve only seen one episode and quite a few previews as it is being heavily promoted. Â What I’ve seen seems pretty damn good. Â Which is surprising since Spielberg is involved. Â Sure, he’s a genius, but he’s so far over the hill it makes me sad. Â AI, crap. Â Saving Private Ryan, crap (I’ve got a whole treatise on this if you doubt me, just ask for it) Â Indy 4? Â Indy 4? Â For the love of Pete’s Dragon, that movie was a huge steaming pile of elephant dung. Â And it wasn’t even Sia LeBouef’s fault if you can believe that. Â But beyond that, as I mentioned at the outset, what a sweet gig for an actor. Â Every actor fears being stuck in one role for years and then unable to get other part. Â They want to show their range, to prove they aren’t simply playing themselves (95% of actors are doing just that, playing themselves), so how great would it be to get one part that allows you to play four or five totally distinct characters? Â A sweet gig.
Jefffrey Donovan has a similar gig in another of my favorite shows, Burn Notice on USA. Â He’s got his straight up spy on the lam persona, of course. Â But, he gets to create characters on many episodes when he goes undercover. Â Different personas, accents, wardrobes, etc. Â An actor’s wet dream. Â That Donovan gig is one I could do well in. Â I’d have to get a hair cut of course, but that’s a reasonable request for my own tv show. Â Jackasses over on HGTV made requests that were far from reasonable. Â Fuck ‘em. Â
I guess I did that already. It’s workin out real well.