LACK OF COMFORT
Liev Schreiber on acting
If you happen to run into Liev Schreiber on our streets in the coming days, you can take your chances in addressing him by his nickname Huggy. But those of us who have caught the 6-foot-3 actor in a series of diverse, though intense and imposing, roles over the years, might not choose to risk possible dental surgery for so doing.
Hey, this is the man who played the aptly named Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the bruiser Ross Rhea in the Goon hockey series and the sociopathic fixer in the title role of the fab Showtime series Ray Donovan. Oh, and can’t forget his Tony Award-winning turn as salesman Ricky Roma — described in the New York Times as “a shark in a sharkskin suit” — in the Broadway play Glengarry Glen Ross.
This scribbler can attest to his volatility: I was cast as an impatient customer at a TV-repair shop in the Montreal-made A Walk on the Moon (1999). Schreiber played the irate shopowner, consumed with far more pressing matters than giving me back my TV so I could watch the moon landing. Schreiber’s character was none-too-amused that his bride (Diane Lane) was cavorting with a hipster (Viggo Mortensen) at the Woodstock fest while he was fiddling with tubes. His glare alone scared the bejesus out of me. (It’s safe to say our acting careers went in opposite directions after that film.)
What Schreiber does so well is called acting. No accident that he had been hailed as “the finest American theatre actor of his generation” by The New York Times. Regardless, this can be one terrifying dude in action — save perhaps for his role as the understated, earnest Boston Globe newspaper editor-in-chief in the Oscar-winning Spotlight.
It will likely be a far more mellow Schreiber who shows up Monday evening at the Palais des Congrès as the featured headliner for the closing event of Federation CJA’s 100th fundraising campaign. He will be discussing his life and career with CTV anchor Tarah Schwartz.
Schreiber is also much more mellow in a phone interview from his New York home. This might be due to the fact that, despite taking a swan dive from a highrise in the closing episode of Season 5 of Ray Donovan, he will be back to do more sinister fixing with his compromised A-list celeb clients in Season 6, which will be set in New York.
Schreiber, 50, concedes that no one role makes him more comfortable than another.
“I don’t think truly comfortable people become actors,” he says. “If I really knew who I was or where I was most comfortable, I don’t think I’d be acting … But I know I’m a dad — that’s one thing for sure. Everything else is negotiable.”
Schreiber has two sons, Sasha, 10, and Kai, 9, with actress and former partner Naomi Watts.
What sustains him as an actor is not necessarily the onscreen, onstage interaction with fellow thesps.
“I think I enjoy the organizational clarity of scripts, of the life of a story told with structure and brevity. I think that’s probably the most addictive (part) of acting.
“But having said that, it’s no fun doing the same thing over and over and over again. So I try to look for varied projects. On paper, some of the characters I’ve played are not the most desirable people in the world. But they have something underneath that makes them vulnerable and compelling.”
That certainly applies with Ray Donovan, to whom, in spite of the character’s myriad flaws, Schreiber manages to bring a measure of sensitivity — even though Donovan has spent five seasons trying to terminate his even more morally bankrupt pop (Jon Voight). Thanks to growing up in his oh-so-dysfunctional family, Donovan might be hardbitten, but he’s brittle as well.
“You could argue that Ray Donovan is repetition, but you could also argue that it is ongoing narrative. We’re trying to grow the character and we’re trying to grow the show — which is a really hard thing to do. This is probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and, at times, the most satisfying and compelling thing I’ve ever done,” Schreiber says.
He is also able to understand Donovan’s unsettled upbringing as Schreiber’s family life was hardly functional.
“I think I can absolutely relate to Ray, unfortunately,” Schreiber says, “but I’m nothing like him — I hope.”
Born in San Francisco to a Jewish painter mother and Protestant actor father, Schreiber was one when the family uprooted to B.C. After four years in Canada, his parents divorced. Custody battles and abductions ensued. Private detectives were engaged. His mother and Schreiber ended up living as apartment squatters in New York for a spell.
His mother, who had her share of issues and who took to driving a taxi, brought him up to speed on some matters cultural, but forbade him from seeing movies in colour. So he grew up on silent and black-and-white film classics.
Schreiber found his way studying drama at Yale.
“Really, it’s not the acting that’s difficult for me,” he says. “It’s the hours and the life. It’s about keeping it fresh for yourself and keeping it fresh for the audience. About keeping things coherent and contemporary. It’s hard work. But the real heroes are the writers.”
Making matters more complicated is the fact that Schreiber has also directed numerous
episodes of Ray Donovan.
“It is very difficult, directing, especially for TV. So much of the directing is about transitions, and if you’re not able to look at compositions, it can be really tricky. Fortunately, we have an amazing director of photography, (Canadian) Robert McLachlan, who deserves so much credit for the quality and content.
“There is a lot of great television out there these days, and the standard keeps on getting raised. I’m particularly proud of Showtime (TMN airs Ray Donovan in Canada) and (Showtime president) David Nevins is one of the most visionary, creative handson leaders of any company I’ve ever worked for.”
Schreiber’s talk here on Monday will also focus on issues outside the acting realm.
“As far as I’m aware, it will be about Jewish identity, about the understanding and culture of Jewish life, too. This has always been a facet of my life and my creative drive, and is something I feel connected to,” says Schreiber, who starred in Defiance and who wrote and directed Everything is Illuminated, both acclaimed, Holocaust-themed films.
Having worked the two Goon flicks — as hardly a huggable character — Schreiber is aware hockey is a religion in these parts. But he doubts he would do a third Goon.
“I’m still pretty beat up from the last one,” he cracks. “But I’ve become a hockey fan as a result. I took the job, even though I was reluctant at first, because they offered to send me to hockey camp for five weeks. I thought this is why you become an actor, to go to places like that. And I was skating at the end,” he recalls.
“Really, it’s so much fun to learn something, anything at my age.”
Really, it’s not the acting that’s difficult for me. It’s the hours and the life. It’s about keeping it fresh for yourself and keeping it fresh for the audience.