FOREVERMORE
Denis O’Hare plays Edgar Allan Poe
ON series such as “True Blood” and “American Horror Story,” actor Denis O’Hare has proven his affinity for roles with a Gothic feel. On Monday night’s “American Masters,” the Tony Award winner goes deeper than ever into that Gothic good night by interpreting the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 to 1849) — just in time for Halloween. The creator of the detective story and such spine-tinglers as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe lived a life filled with reversals of fortune and doomed love affairs, yet he inspired many writers with his explorations of madness, fear and obsession. O'Hare, 55, spoke to The Post from his home in Brooklyn.
Did the prospect of playing Poe intimidate you?
Absolutely. He was such an iconic figure, with one of the great recognizable faces. I’m not sure anybody knew what the man sounded like. There are no recordings. We have descriptions of what his voice was like. Once I started reading his criticism, I said, “This guy is really smart and biting and wicked.” He had obsessions. He decided to go after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which makes no sense. He went after the pillars of society.
I read that you read his work when you were 12 years old. What was it like to go back to the stories as an adult?
It was weird. What I remember is the most horrible of the horribles. “The Masque of the Red Death.” “The Pit and the Pendulum.” “The Black Cat.” In my mind, it all gets mixed up with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre from the movies. It became a well of horror. But I was a poetry major for two years at Northwestern and got a fairly rigorous education in structure. Poe's poems are a product of a certain time and taste level. They can feel childish, but the more you read them, you can respect what he was doing.
You read Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven,” on the show. What was that like?
I ended up recording the whole thing for a podcast for PBS. It’s really hard. There are long thought lines in a stanza and tricky wordplay. The lines are fairly lyrical. Until they’re not. So you can really bollocks it up. When we were doing it for the TV show, the goal was a little different. We were trying to evoke what Poe would have done in the salons of the day. He was trying to entertain. It was about him thrilling the ladies [in the audience]. It was his dog-and-pony show. The guy must have read “The Raven” 50, 60, 70 times. It was like Aretha singing “Respect” over and over.
How did the costume and wig help you get into the part?
They were really great. Period clothes fit your body in a weird way. People were smaller. People were sweating away in wool and dark clothes all summer long. The wig was a great shortcut. I didn’t want to mess with a fake mustache. I grew a great Poe mustache.