Lexx actors in other roles
A great list Lee, although I would want to insist that Maury Chaykin should be more noted for his work with Atom Egoyan than Paul Donovan. Both he and MM have worked with one of Canada’s great directors in so called art films – Speaking Parts (MM of course), The Adjustor and Sweet Hereafter(MC). Its hard to believe, for example, that the actor who played Pa and Vinnie could be so great and unsettling in the Adjustor: one of the few Egoyan films where you mostly feel troubled by the performance of the actor. (Egoyan also wanted him for Exotica, but he was unavailable at the time). He steals the Adjustor, and towers over everyone else on this list in an already remarkable and disquieting film (excepting Hauer in Bladerunner, perhaps).
THE ADJUSTER
“The Adjuster was one of my favourite film experiences. (Director Atom Egoyan) and I had such a wonderful collaboration with that character. One of the amazing things about Atom is that he inhabits his characters. He also lives inside of them the way an actor would so that when he speaks to you about the character, whispers something, it’s almost as if his voice is inside of you as the character as opposed to less-inspired directors who whisper things that completely throw you off right before you do the take.
“One of my favourite scenes that I’ve ever done on camera is in that film. The character I’m playing poses as a (film) locations manager and he’s taking pictures (in the main characters’ home) and they want to know what the film is about, so he sits down and tries to be extremely cordial and polite but he’s actually someone who’s planning his own suicide and the demise of his sister.
“It’s very much my sensibility.”
*****
LEXX: THE SERIES
Chaykin played a cannibalistic, oversexed hillbilly called Pa and his sadistic twin called Daddy. “Ironically, I found that Susannah was pregnant and I was going to be a pa (of a now toddler daughter, Rose) right when I was doing that show.”
The Halifax-made show’s cartoonish characters and excessive sexual innuendo make it pretty silly. Having grown accustomed to seeing him in quality, independent films and strong supporting roles in Hollywood movies, I tell Chaykin I was surprised he bothered to appear in it, especially as such an over-the-top character.
“I don’t have any dignity. It’s too much to hold dignity. …. You know we’re not always dignified. I think that as an actor and as a person … I’m happy that I did it and I had fun doing it. … If I can have fun doing something, that’s more important than preserving the dignity that I feel Maury Chaykin should always have with his roles. I think in fact that dignity is not something that serves an actor. There are actors that I watch and they are always very dignified and they always play dignified roles and they always keep their cool and I don’t find that particularly interesting.”
Paul Donovan, the executive producer, “is an old friend of mine from Halifax who I started doing independent films in the early `80s with in Nova Scotia, which is how I was introduced to Nova Scotia, that beautiful province.
“The role got me to Nova Scotia. It has nostalgic value for me to go back and work with Paul and work in Halifax and to work on something light, silly.”
[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]