Noth: CI more focused on profit than art

[annabelleleigh]

As rumored at the time, Chris Noth and Dick Wolf's parting of the ways wasn't exactly congenial. Now, in an interview about his return to Broadway, Noth is speaking up a little about his CI experience.

Boldfaces mine.

AL
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Chris Noth returns to the state in political drama

By Kristen A. Lee
The Associated Press
November 9, 2008

Excerpt:

"Chris Noth's focus had shifted from career to family when his agent called about a role in the Atlantic Theater Company's off-Broadway production of a new political drama, "Farragut North."

After wrapping up his last season of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," as well as the blockbuster "Sex and the City" movie, Noth was busy renovating a house in California for his now 9-month-old son, Orion, whose mother is Noth's longtime girlfriend Tara Wilson...

...He said returning to theater came as a greater challenge after the rhythms of a procedural drama such as "Law & Order," which he left this summer after three seasons. (He played Logan on the original series from 1990-95 and starred in a "Law & Order" TV movie, "Exiled," in 1998.)

"I think we had some good writers and I think we did some great shows so I don't want to sound cynical," Noth said, "but in general, that kind of TV runs on its own impetus. It doesn't require great subtlety of acting or any kind of requirement beyond driving the plot forward so people get the reversals in the story."

Noth expressed a complicated mix of frustration and appreciation toward Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" empire, with its spin-offs and rotating casts. He thinks the series is ultimately more focused on profit than art.

"I think that can make you cynical as an actor and I think it can make you feel like acting doesn't matter and I think it does matter," he said. "I think it is a noble art and theater makes you realize that."

Noth's acting career began onstage as a student at Marlboro College in Vermont, where he emulated Henry David Thoreau by building a shack in the woods where he would go to write. "A real idiot," he said wryly about his undergraduate pretensions. After graduation, Noth studied privately with Sanford Meisner in New York before attending the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Conn.

While Noth's career took off after joining "Law & Order," his life changed forever after appearing in HBO's "Sex and the City" as the impossibly cool, unattainable Mr. Big. The show's popularity skyrocketed at a moment when new technology, such as blogs and digital cameras, was opening up the lives of celebrities to public exposure like never before."

The full story at
newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--mrbigoff-broadway1109nov09,0,7503471.story

[Sirenna]

why can't it be both profit and art. i've seen some crap theatre in my time.

pop culture is a valid art form and could be judged on it's own merits. Comparing it to other visual genres is apples and oranges.

[fuzzytweetie]

I know that profit is the bottom line but, what about loyalty? It seems DW's ego and his wallet are the most important things to him. The business and political side of acting must really grate on those actors who are more interested in the "craft" than in the baggage that comes along with the career.

[DonnaJo]

I can understand Chris Noth's feeling of being taken advantage of. Of not being appreciated. He was let go not once, but twice, by Dick Wolf. That's gotta hurt.

If it weren't for Chris, LOCI would have stopped production after Season 4. He saved the show by agreeing to split the episodes with Vincent. Of course, he was paid handsomely for this, but still......Once his usefulness was in doubt, it was goodbye Chris, hello Jeff. But that's show biz.