|
Last CLaw & Order: SVU Hour Long Feature
CTV, April 13, 2002 |
||
 |
Chris' interview transcribed by trasker
- A clip of L&O: SVU is shown - Pamela Wallin: That's detective Elliot Stabler at work of course in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit". The actor, Christopher Meloni, joins us now and just in case you're wondering where we are we're actually in the Riker's jail. Well, the set, okay, the set piece of Riker's Jail. That's why you see all these bars and the sign behind me which says: "All inmates must be pat/frisked entering and leaving the area." We tried to do that-- frisk you, when you came in today but you kind of resisted. Christopher Meloni: Well... you just gotta say please. PW: (laughing) I didn't say please. This is a very difficult role that you play. You're the straight cop, you're the nice guy with kids at home. CM: Right. PW: And here you are everyday in the face of some of the most horrific crimes that any of us can imagine. Do you actually get into that as a character? CM: Uh, well, I gotta say that that combined with the fact that we've been doing it for 3 years now, I think they do a great job with writing the scripts and kinda portraying, you know, all the dynamics of these horrible crimes. Combine that with the fact that I'm a father of a 1-year-old and, you know, I can't-- like now I can't read about children disappearing or dying, that sort of thing. I can't-- on the personal side of things I don't deal with it anymore. I just-- I don't read the paper. I don't read those stories in the paper. On the set, you know, we actually have a very light set, everyone likes each other. There are very funny people on the set and so our hand's always close to that comedic safety belt. PW: You need a bit of black humour to deal with this. CM: Yeah, you do. Or, you know, or even if it's just humour that pulls you away from the subject matter. But, you know, when I was doing the research all these guys, all these detectives, be they in homicide or SVU they really have gallows humour, except when it is a crime that deals with children, and then there's a real quiet, somber focused attitude. But you know, you gotta-- PW: How did you guys deal with the-- and I know there was some technical problems and shooting problems on the set post-9/11-- but also when you have that kind of real-life horror and tragedy and you're creating television programs about fake horror and fake tragedy. How did you even-- how did you respond to that as a group, as an individual actor? CM: I think that everyone, you know, we hiccuped for a beat. You take a deep breath and you just... I think like everyone, as everyone did, you take stock in what you are, how you're living your life, what you're doing and in the end I think, for the most part, everyone just kind of looked at each other and said: You know, we're truly, from our hearts, trying to entertain people and we're trying to give compelling entertainment on TV, you know so that old adage you know, that people walk around saying "Oh well, we're not curing cancer, it's not that important". Well, you know, it is that important. It's important to give, to give everything that you have and we've been given this opportunity so we do our best work, we try to do our best work. So I think after that tragedy everyone kind of refocused or rededicated themselves to the best parts of what we're able to do. PW: There's also that sense of responsibility that everybody who plays a cop or a firefighter these days is now portraying what your nation and ours see as true heroes. CM: Mm-hmm. Yeah and, you know, we had a lot of cops stop us on the street and... I don't know, there's a connection. Even if I wasn't-- even if I weren't doing this, you know, there's just a connection. I'll give you an example, a true life connection. I was walking down the street with my wife and my baby past a-- I can't do it. I can't even go there, I'm going to get-- (looks down, kind of choked up) Never mind. PW: Well, think about it. (CM shakes head) PW: You mean in the area. CM: Yeah. PW: Yeah. (CM starts again and then stops) PW: That connection that you have with those guys, do you do it in a practical sense? I mean, do you go and talk to the real life cops that work in the Special Victims Unit? CM: I have, yeah, and unfortunately they have said to us that we-- that we can't even scratch the surface of what they deal with and what they see. So, you know, we do the best we can with the limits. You're always taking creative license and liberties because of the-- by virtue of the format but yeah, they deal with some pretty rough stuff. As a matter of fact, a Special Victims detective averages 2 years they can't-- PW: They can't cut it anymore. CM: They're done. PW: You're on season 3. (both laugh) CM: I hope I'm not getting fired. PW: Are you surprised that this show has really connected? There was a lot of heat at the beginning that this was a knockoff, that Dick Wolf was kind of pushing the franchise too far. Who wanted to watch about sex crimes, which was the original title and it was cleaned up a little bit. Are you surprised the connection it makes? CM: Yeah, I was one of those people. I said when I signed on I said, well, Dick Wolf, that's a good thing but, uh... a show that deals specifically with sexually based offenses. Okay, what are we going to have, rape of the week? And, um, God bless Neil Behr, our head writer and Ted Kotcheff our producer here and just everyone-- PW: Another good Canadian. CM: There you go. Good man. You know, these guys saw it in a greater framework. They saw that you can do a whodunit, you can give a show that gives you a moral dilemma, one that maybe tries to teach lessons. You know, they're all ways to tell a story. PW: Unlike the mothership, Law and Order the original, we get to know you. We find out about your personal life, about your partner's personal life. We hear about your wife and your kids on the show. And it's always been the gospel at Law and Order the original it's all about the police work. It's all about the story. Was that a real conscious decision to do something different, to let us get to know you because of the nature of the work you do onscreen? CM: Yeah, I think that's actually been our biggest growing pain, trying to find the correct balance between the character's personal life and the crime that we're following. And I think -- and I actually agree with it-- that they've had to cut down on the personal life because you-- I've often said this-- that the crime is one of the stars of the show. You have to follow that. You have to be invested in this crime. PW: And if you're getting all upset, you're the distraction. CM: Yeah. And, all of a sudden, you're following down this road and then you take a left turn into my driveway, into my personal life. You know, unless you're carrying that crime with you so it has some connection, you're sitting there going: So why are we home? Why are we-- what do we care about the person's life because we haven't been-- we haven't invested the audience in as much in this guy's personal life. So now what they're doing-- and I think they're doing a very good job-- is it's through just small comments, someone will make a comment and, you know, if you catch it, you catch it. Or even subconsciously if you catch then by the end you get a kind of fuller picture of the character that you're watching. So, all in all, I've had a really good time with it. PW: You've got this other identity on the show "Oz" in which you are.. a piece of work. A bad piece of work. And then there's Coach Bob in "Runaway Bride" (CM laughs). Okay? Julia dumps you for Richard Gere, and then the sensitive cop here. It's hard and these 2 shows you're shooting at the same time. It's hard for the audience-- is it hard for you? CM: Yeah, it's been difficult to go from because you live with-- I think especially because I live with Elliot Stabler for 9 months of the year and then I do about a 2 1/2 month sting with Chris Keller on "Oz" and if you live with someone for so long and then you're asked maybe twice a week just to jump in and be this... well, whoever Chris Keller is. To be this different character you know, it's tough to find-- to rediscover this guy that you did-- that you saw a year ago, that you lived with him a year ago and I don't want to get too method but, damn, that was harder than I thought. So-- PW: To jump back -- and sometimes you're shooting them at the same time. CM: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's what happens. I shoot them at the same time. You know, I'll be Chris Keller from 6 am to noon and then drive over to this set and be Elliot Stabler until midnight. PW: And what's left of Chris Meloni when you get home at night? After you've done all that. CM: My pillow. PW: You said one funny thing about going to -- there's a lot of crossovers between Law and Order and the original show -- that it was like going to a very strict Aunt's house over there, that you guys fool around here. CM: Yeah. PW: Is it true? CM: Yeah, we have our-- our own way of expressing ourselves, you know, and so, you know (laughing) something that would go over big in our house barely gets a titter out of them in their house. PW: That's very funny. CM: So, you tell an off-colour joke at Auntie May's house and (makes exaggeratedly embarrassed face) you're "all right" and start tip-toeing around. But they're very nice. PW: Now, we don't really want to ask you to strip down but do you have the tattoo? (CM stands up, starts to undo his pants) (PW laughs) CM: Did you catch that? PW: Is that-- Yeah, we did. CM: Which one? PW: Well, you've got the papillion, the butterfly. CM: Yes. PW: Do you really? CM: Yeah. PW: Why? CM: I was 18, out of the house and I wanted a tattoo, so I got one. PW: And this was all about Steve McQueen and the movie... CM: Yeah, that was a big inspiration. I also thought, you know, to have like the lion or the tiger or the snake... I don't know, it's kind of cliched macho. I though, you know... PW: You were kind of a bad kid, weren't you? CM:(long pause - laughs) I had-- I had my moments. I had my moments, yeah. PW: Was the acting thing an accident or a lifelong passion? CM: I think it was a suppressed dream that I did not allow myself to take seriously and when I finally-- PW: You grew up in Washington. CM: Washington, D.C. PW: I mean, acting should come naturally. (both laugh) CM: Yeah, but there you act and steal other people's money. PW: That's right, in a big way, as opposed to one on one. CM: Yeah, with a smile on your face. PW: So, how long do you predict the run? Dick Wolf wants to turn this all unto "Gunsmoke". Are you going to make it? CM: Call me James Arnez. (both laugh) PW: You think it's in for the long haul. Are you? CM: I-- ooh.. that's a good question to ask Dick Wold. I'm-- I'll honour my contract and we'll see where the winds of fortune blow and if I get any kind of film work during the off-season. PW: That's still the big draw? That still pulls? CM: Well, sure because, you know, you get to go off and for anywhere from 1 month to, I guess, 6 or 9 months if you're in a huge production, you get to be -- you get to change your characters and then once that's done-- PW: It's over. CM: You take a shower and you try and be someone else. PW: Great to talk to you, thanks very much. CM: Pleasure's all mine. PW: Very, very nice to meet you. Detective Elliot Stabler of course on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, actor Christopher Meloni. |
|