Meloni travels from 'Oz' to 'Greenwich'
By Steve Hedgpeth, Star-Ledger Staff
The Star Ledger, November 15, 2002
Christopher Meloni of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is on the case again, albeit in a separate vehicle. The special victim is Martha Moxley, the 15-year-old Greenwich, Conn., girl whose 1975 bludgeoning death went unsolved until onetime neighbor Michael Skakel was convicted of the killing earlier this year.

In "Dominick Dunne Presents: Murder in Greenwich," a USA film airing tonight at 8, Meloni plays Mark Fuhrman, the controversial former LAPD detective whose best-selling exposé, "Murder in Greenwich," was instrumental in the case being reopened. ("Murder in Greenwich," which co-stars veteran actor Robert Forster and newcomer Maggie Grace as Moxley, is the first of a series of crime films overseen by noted author Dunne.)

In the trial of O.J. Simpson, Fuhrman was portrayed as a racist. In "Murder in Greenwich," he's portrayed as a barb-slinging author-sleuth who will insult anybody to get at the truth of Martha Moxley's murder.

"(His arrogance) was in the script," says Meloni, "so much so that I stopped at one point and had a powwow with the producers. I said, 'Is this the road we want to go down? He's coming off as rather brusque and arrogant.' All of which I loved, but I wanted to make sure that we weren't pushing too far in one direction. Fuhrman is a confident guy, and that can come off sometimes as cocky."

Meloni himself doesn't come off as cocky, even though he's a star of two hit series on two networks -- he's played Detective Elliot Stabler on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" since 1999, and inmate Chris Keller on HBO's "Oz," whose sixth, and last, season begins in January.

"I've been blessed," says Meloni. "It's a nice way to make a living. I'm in a great place right now. I've made whatever small impact in the roles I play, but I'm still low enough on the radar so that I'm not Bruce Willis. I don't seek out attention. With me, the few people who stop me on the street go, 'I like that guy.' It's a warm and fuzzy vibe."

Before his breakout roles on "Oz" and "Special Victims Unit," Meloni did time as a regular in four short-lived series, "The Fanelli Boys," "The Boys," "Misery Loves Company" and "Leaving L.A.," and had a recurring role in "NYPD Blue" in 1996 and 1997. He has also appeared in the miniseries "The Last Don" and the feature films "Runaway Bride," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "Twelve Monkeys" and "Wet Hot American Summer."

On not meeting Mark Fuhrman, whom he portrays in "Murder in Greenwich":

"I didn't want to meet him. Nothing personal, but I didn't want to bias myself. I'd had an experience before where I was doing something based on a true story, and a person that had been involved in the story came down and told one of the actors, 'You're not the guy (you're portraying). You don't have his eyes.' I don't know how that actor handled it, but that was a real lesson for me. If you're going to tell a true story, I don't think it's a good idea to meet the people involved."

On the difference between playing crime solvers in "Special Victims Unit" and "Murder in Greenwich":

"I thought ('Murder in Greenwich') was almost a spiritual take on a young girl's death. She's the narrator and a main character. 'Law & Order' would never tell a story from that point of view. And this is also a story about a man's journey for redemption. It's not Mark Fuhrman on a white horse, but as I play him, I'm trying to make it as a writer, but I'm still a detective (at heart), and I'm doing the best I can to help people. That's a quality in him I find attractive. My personal opinion is, for good or ill, Fuhrman's notoriety and the fact that he was researching this crime and went out on a limb turned the spotlight away from Tommy Skakel (Michael Skakel's older brother, and a suspect in the murder) and shone it at Michael. I thought it took determination, expertise and (chutzpah)."

On filming two series at the same time:

"Each production would do a very thoughtful dance for my benefit, so that I had the time to do both shows, but when they overlapped, there were about two days of the week for about two months where I got about three hours of sleep (a night)."

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