Monday, February 13, 2012

Television and Cinema Verities: In the Words of the Creators #6



"You make the choice that the material is laying out the premise and the information that, yes, this guy is in fact an arm of evil and can be destructive.  Therefore you get out of the way of that and don't play that at all.  You let the writing take care of that.  If you play the character trying to be dark and menacing to people, it's not as interesting and not as menacing. It's much more disturbing to see someone smiling and patting people on the back, knowing that he can destroy them at any moment with a smile on his face.  Most of the character or dialogue was with Shaun [Cassidy].  He was the source of it, so he gave me a great note.  It said: 'Nothing is a problem for this guy.  Anytime you feel like he should be panicking, remember that nothing rattles him.'"

- Gary Cole describes his creative choices when portraying Sheriff Lucas Buck in American Gothic (1995), as reported in my 2004 book The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi, page 298.

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