Post by caitlen on Oct 10, 2008 9:38:05 GMT -5
Glover returns to honor father
Actor to join Saturday's Alzheimer's walk
Brian Shane • Daily Times Staff Writer • October 10, 2008
Salisbury native and actor John Glover returns to Delmarva every year to participate in the Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk to honor his own father, Jack, who died of the disease. Glover, 64, played the role of Lionel Luthor for seven seasons on "Smallville," a TV show about Superman as a teenager. Glover talks about growing up on the Shore and what he's working on next.
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Can you talk about your dad? What kind of experiences did you have with him the last few years of his life, dealing with his Alzheimer's Disease?
When my mother died ... my mother got lymphoma. It was the year Princess Di was killed, I remember. She found out one spring and died in autumn. So she went very fast. After she died, I started realizing, but not wanting to admit, that my dad was having some kind of dementia, and that she'd basically been covering for him. That's what happens, I think, with couples, when that starts to happen.
That went on for a while, where I would basically not really admit what was happening to him. It got so that I needed help, I didn't know what to do. There was a person who worked at the retirement community where ... finally, I persuaded (my dad) to move into, who left there and went to work at the Alzheimer's Association.
I called her up because I knew her and said "I need help. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what to do. Who can I talk to?" The Alzheimer's Association gave me some kind of people and knowledge about to deal with my dad.
What had happened was, in that time that I was not admitting what was going on, he started losing -- he always knew me, the dementia never advanced to where he didn't know me -- but he lost the ability to communicate. Everything became, his mind became, a jumble. It's a lot like what I think was executive function, which is what the character was getting in that "Law & Order" episode I played. I think that's why I was so excited about playing it, because I drew a lot on what was happening with my dad.
But I lost a lot of precious time, because there were certain things that, when I was ready to talk to him and find out what he wanted, we couldn't communicate anymore. Because I couldn't understand what he was doing. And he knew he couldn't make sense. It was very frustrating for him.
So I try to tell this story so if people see these first signs of dementia coming on, they (can) pick up the phone and call somebody at the Alzheimer's Association who can give them advice, tell them about some medications --there are medications now that can slow down the process-- find out names of doctors they can go to and start making plans, figuring out what's going to happen.
So that's why I'm trying to do, to make people aware that this disease is getting bigger and bigger and affecting more and more people, especially as we're living longer.
You've been doing the Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk for eight or nine years now?
I think so. I can't remember when the first one was, when my dad was still alive. He died in January 2002. We pushed him in the first one in a wheelchair because he wasn't able to walk. It was around then.
Do you get back here to the Shore about once a year? Do you try to?
Once a year. When Dad died, it became difficult because I have no family there. But I've come back for every walk since he died, that's when I come. There's a walk in Towson, Md., where I went to school, usually the Saturday after the Salisbury walk. I've been going back to my alma mater, Towson State Teacher's College, which is now Towson University, and spend as much time as I can. But every October now, I've managed every year now to come back to Salisbury.
Can you talk about growing up in Salisbury? Some of the things you might have done as a kid, maybe some of the theater you did in high school?
When I was a kid, growing up there, we'd go on the hayrides (in Ocean City) to go up to -- I don't know what street it would be -- where there were just sand dunes and light bonfires on the beach. Of course, there aren't any deserted areas between Ocean City and Rehoboth left anymore. There were just sand dunes. You could really get lost. Of course, that was in the '50s. It's packed now.
I didn't start until my senior year in high school, doing plays. I moved there when I was 8 from Wilmington. My dad got transferred down there because of his work. I went to Pinehurst Elementary School, then went to Wi-Hi. That was the only high school in town at that point. Bennett and Parkside, they weren't there then. We did our plays in the cafeteria at Wi-Hi.
I went to school at Towson. Our senior class trip was to New York. I wanted to go so badly to New York. But I didn't go on the senior class trip because I wanted to be part of New York, you see, so I didn't want to go on a bus load in a tour, I wanted to go on my own. So I saved it until the next Easter vacation from college.
I had $100. I stayed at the YMCA, where rooms were, like, I think under $5 a day at that point. theater tickets were -- an orchestra seat was $7.50. And I ate slices of pizza and stayed at Tad's Steak House, where you could get a steak and a salad and a baked potato for $2.95, I think. So I had a couple of those meals.
And I came back with, I think, less than $2 in my pocket. But I'd had the time of my life. I'd seen great theater, which I didn't know was great theater at that point. I saw the original production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" It must have been just a month or so after it had opened. But I got a ticket.
You could afford theater tickets then, you know? They weren't $100. I saw everything. I went up on the bus, came back on the bus. Lost a lot of weight because I didn't eat anything [laughs]. But I had a grand time. It was amazing. And I went anywhere I wanted because I was on my own.
Was that inspirational to your career as an actor?
I think so. The following summer I went down to summer theater in Virginia, which I did all through my college years. I apprenticed at this theater all three summers. When I graduated from school in Baltimore, I just went to New York, fearlessly. Got an apartment, found a part-time job ushering and answering telephones in a box office, and working for a theater company in the office, and became an actor.
But at that age, of course, I was fearless and could do anything. So of course I was going to succeed. [laughs] Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
How old were you?
I was 21. I turned 22 that first summer I was in New York.
How long did you stay?
About 20 years. And then I went out to L.A., and I'm now back and forth between the two all the time, working. I'm very lucky. I seem to, knock on wood, work a lot.
How did you get the chance to land the role of Lionel Luthor on "Smallville"?
My agent called a couple of days before the pilot was to shoot and said they're doing this TV series. He explained what it was, and there was this role that somebody had dropped out at the last minute, of Lex Luthor's father. "It's two scenes, two days work, and they might have the character back sometime within the season. Would you be interested in doing it?"
So I went up to Vancouver (Canada) and shot the pilot, and they had me back for, I think, eight more episodes that year. And then the next year they gave me a contract so they could own me. I think they saw there was interesting character and Lex needed a foil. Lex, at that point, was good friends with Clark and he was struggling to be a good person. So I became sort of his influence of the guy that kind of kept screwing with his mind.
It was written as a villain, but I tried to -- and which I think I succeeded at -- bring a different kind of father who just has high expectations for this son, who's trying to strengthen him. Every now and then, people would stop me on the street and say, "We watch your show, we really like you and you're terrific, but are you a good guy or a bad guy? We can't figure it out." Which I thought was about the best compliment I could have gotten.
It was a grand seven years. I had a great time. And I always felt that when, and voiced my feeling, that when Lionel left the show he would be killed by his son. And sure enough, that's the way they took me out. So it's very exciting, the end of last season, Lex pushes me out his 40-story office window.
Working with the writers and producers, how far in advance did they let you know that your death scene was coming?
Oh, they never let me know. No, no. There weren't always -- they didn't let us know what scripts, what was coming. Actually, a driver told me I was going to be killed a few months before it happened. He said, "So how's it feel, they're killing you this year?" I said, "What are you talking about?" I guess he would drive them on their scouts, all the producers and the designers and everything. He would hear them talk in the car. I assumed he thought I'd been told but I hadn't. So I knew it was coming before it came, but they didn't talk to me. So I just let it be. Interesting, eh?
In your time on the show, most of your scenes with were Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor. Can you talk about working with him?
Yes, Michael -- and then after John Schneider, who played Jonathan Kent, had his heart attack and dies, I played a lot of stuff with Annette O'Toole, who played Martha Kent, because I started wooing her. So that was very interesting because Annette is an incredible actress so we had a grand time together.
But yeah, mostly Michael. For seven years we played some very interesting stuff. At the end I think they kind of ran dry of new ideas so we would repeat a few things every now and then, sort of the same genre of scenes. But there were some really wonderful periods throughout that where they came up with some really good stuff for Lionel. But some of the best stuff was with Annette O'Toole.
What sort of outside relationships did you have with your fellow actors?
Well, Tom (Welling) worked all the time, so he was always exhausted. And he's got a wife. He got married. So I didn't see Tom a lot. Allison (Mack) and I saw each other a lot. We'd go to the theater a lot in Vancouver. Sometimes Kristin (Kreuk) would go with us. Kristin's very quiet and shy. Michael (Rosenbaum) and I would do a lot of stuff. Annette (O'Toole) and I became very close, we still are.
Annette would come to see every hiatus job I ever did back east. She's doing a play in New York now, I hear she's brilliant in it. Michael came to see the show I did this summer. He's not going to be on the show anymore, Michael. Allison wasn't going to be, she just decided to be. John Schneider, I haven't seen ... Allison, Michael and Annette were the people I got to know the best, I think.
Any particular storylines or episodes you remember the most fondly?
There was one where -- I can't remember the movie they kind of based it on -- but there was some disgruntled worker or something I had wronged that had taken Martha and made her captive, and I had to go through all this game kind of stuff to save her. I can't remember what the episode was called, it was a few years ago. That was a lot of fun.
There was a great episode where I gave Lex shock treatment. ... [laughs] That was so wonderfully bizarre. I was blind for awhile. [laughs] There was not always logic involved in the way they, the writers, would deal with cleaning up a plot line. Sometimes they just kind of cheat and figured everybody forgot.
Another memorable scene was one season finale. Your hair was long for most of the series, until the last scene of the Season 3 finale. You're in a jail cell, you're getting your hair buzzed off --
Oh, wasn't that exciting? That was also one of my favorite things, in the way they shot it. Yes, I had let my hair grow, because the hair man on the show actually had very long hair when he was a young man. So I was letting mine grow, and he was sort of reliving his youth through me. And he was encouraging me to let my hair grow, which was actually a lot of trouble to deal with, all that long hair [laughs].
I knew they were going to send me to prison. So I asked Miles Millar, one of the two main producers, I said, "if you film it, I will shave my head, that last episode, if you'd like to put it in the script." And, he just, his face lit up. He's said, "Oh my God, real theater!"
But that was what the spirit of the show was like. Actors would come to them with suggestions and things, and they'd pick up them, and go with them and run with them. It was a lot of fun. We had a real good time.
Any chance you think you'll get back to "Smallville" in a guest role as Lionel's ghost?
I doubt it. They don't own me anymore so I'm not obligated to go back. They haven't spoken of it. I think they've moved on with -- there are no real adults left on that show anymore. It's about younger people, which is the way they've decided to go.
What sort of projects are you working on now?
I did a play this summer in New York, a revival of a play by Christopher Durang called "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" at the Roundabout Theater in New York. And I just talked to Donald Margulies, the playwright, about doing a play in New York that he wrote called "Shipwrecked." It'll be at Primary Stages this February. We start rehearsals in late December.
So between now and then, I don't know. For seven years I've been off the market, as they say, with the job. This is the first time in a long time that I have my freedom, so I'm interested to see what I'll be called upon for.
I've been very lucky, diligent in my career, to keep both film and theater going at the same time. I'm well-balanced, I guess.
I just caught you on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Oh yeah, I'd done that part two years ago, with Vincent (D'Onofrio) where I played his mentor. So they had that character back. It was a great script and I had a ball doing it.
Do people maybe not realize that you're a stage actor first, that's where your background is?
I don't know what they know. I know that seven years on that TV show reached more people than probably any other play I've ever done. I'm sure people in New York know me because I've worked in the theater so much there.
But I was quite pleased to hear when I talked to Donald Margulies this morning on the phone -- who I think I met 25 years ago -- that he was surprised to hear I was in California, where I've lived for about 20 years. He still thought I was a New York actor.
I feel very happy that I've been able to go back and forth between film, television and the theater. I think they all feed each other. It's what the English are able to do, you know, because they all do it there in that city, the grand city of London. They've got the theater there and all their film and studios there, too, so -- well, it's changing, there's a lot of filming now in New York. It's a trickier existence over here, I think, with American actors.
Why is that?
Because you go to L.A., and you do film or television. Or you live in New York and do mostly theater. But I've been able to keep both up. But of course, a lot of airplane travel, though.
You know, we shot "Smallville" in Vancouver so that was constant commuting. And then usually, there was an overlap when I'd go off to do one of the plays in hiatus, so I'd have to take a long trip from New York to Vancouver and couple of times. Luckily, I only missed one performance of one show that I did, so that was nice.
As an actor, you never really know when your next job is going to be--
Never.
-- and to have the opportunity to work. Can you talk about having a long-term role?
"Smallville" was challenging because, of course, it wasn't made where I live. It was a two-and-a-half hour flight to Vancouver, so whenever I worked, there was a whole day of travel. I didn't work there enough to move there and my life is here in L.A. Michael commuted as much as he could, too. John Schneider and Annette O'Toole commuted, too, because we have families and we wanted to be with them as opposed to moving everybody up there.
It's a very nice feeling. Dana Delany ("Desperate Housewives") is also a friend of mine, she calls a series a nickname a lot of actors call it, which I'd never hear before. She calls it "golden handcuffs." [pauses] So that says a lot about it. And it is quite wonderful.
www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/NEWS01/810100307
Actor to join Saturday's Alzheimer's walk
Brian Shane • Daily Times Staff Writer • October 10, 2008
Salisbury native and actor John Glover returns to Delmarva every year to participate in the Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk to honor his own father, Jack, who died of the disease. Glover, 64, played the role of Lionel Luthor for seven seasons on "Smallville," a TV show about Superman as a teenager. Glover talks about growing up on the Shore and what he's working on next.
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Can you talk about your dad? What kind of experiences did you have with him the last few years of his life, dealing with his Alzheimer's Disease?
When my mother died ... my mother got lymphoma. It was the year Princess Di was killed, I remember. She found out one spring and died in autumn. So she went very fast. After she died, I started realizing, but not wanting to admit, that my dad was having some kind of dementia, and that she'd basically been covering for him. That's what happens, I think, with couples, when that starts to happen.
That went on for a while, where I would basically not really admit what was happening to him. It got so that I needed help, I didn't know what to do. There was a person who worked at the retirement community where ... finally, I persuaded (my dad) to move into, who left there and went to work at the Alzheimer's Association.
I called her up because I knew her and said "I need help. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what to do. Who can I talk to?" The Alzheimer's Association gave me some kind of people and knowledge about to deal with my dad.
What had happened was, in that time that I was not admitting what was going on, he started losing -- he always knew me, the dementia never advanced to where he didn't know me -- but he lost the ability to communicate. Everything became, his mind became, a jumble. It's a lot like what I think was executive function, which is what the character was getting in that "Law & Order" episode I played. I think that's why I was so excited about playing it, because I drew a lot on what was happening with my dad.
But I lost a lot of precious time, because there were certain things that, when I was ready to talk to him and find out what he wanted, we couldn't communicate anymore. Because I couldn't understand what he was doing. And he knew he couldn't make sense. It was very frustrating for him.
So I try to tell this story so if people see these first signs of dementia coming on, they (can) pick up the phone and call somebody at the Alzheimer's Association who can give them advice, tell them about some medications --there are medications now that can slow down the process-- find out names of doctors they can go to and start making plans, figuring out what's going to happen.
So that's why I'm trying to do, to make people aware that this disease is getting bigger and bigger and affecting more and more people, especially as we're living longer.
You've been doing the Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk for eight or nine years now?
I think so. I can't remember when the first one was, when my dad was still alive. He died in January 2002. We pushed him in the first one in a wheelchair because he wasn't able to walk. It was around then.
Do you get back here to the Shore about once a year? Do you try to?
Once a year. When Dad died, it became difficult because I have no family there. But I've come back for every walk since he died, that's when I come. There's a walk in Towson, Md., where I went to school, usually the Saturday after the Salisbury walk. I've been going back to my alma mater, Towson State Teacher's College, which is now Towson University, and spend as much time as I can. But every October now, I've managed every year now to come back to Salisbury.
Can you talk about growing up in Salisbury? Some of the things you might have done as a kid, maybe some of the theater you did in high school?
When I was a kid, growing up there, we'd go on the hayrides (in Ocean City) to go up to -- I don't know what street it would be -- where there were just sand dunes and light bonfires on the beach. Of course, there aren't any deserted areas between Ocean City and Rehoboth left anymore. There were just sand dunes. You could really get lost. Of course, that was in the '50s. It's packed now.
I didn't start until my senior year in high school, doing plays. I moved there when I was 8 from Wilmington. My dad got transferred down there because of his work. I went to Pinehurst Elementary School, then went to Wi-Hi. That was the only high school in town at that point. Bennett and Parkside, they weren't there then. We did our plays in the cafeteria at Wi-Hi.
I went to school at Towson. Our senior class trip was to New York. I wanted to go so badly to New York. But I didn't go on the senior class trip because I wanted to be part of New York, you see, so I didn't want to go on a bus load in a tour, I wanted to go on my own. So I saved it until the next Easter vacation from college.
I had $100. I stayed at the YMCA, where rooms were, like, I think under $5 a day at that point. theater tickets were -- an orchestra seat was $7.50. And I ate slices of pizza and stayed at Tad's Steak House, where you could get a steak and a salad and a baked potato for $2.95, I think. So I had a couple of those meals.
And I came back with, I think, less than $2 in my pocket. But I'd had the time of my life. I'd seen great theater, which I didn't know was great theater at that point. I saw the original production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" It must have been just a month or so after it had opened. But I got a ticket.
You could afford theater tickets then, you know? They weren't $100. I saw everything. I went up on the bus, came back on the bus. Lost a lot of weight because I didn't eat anything [laughs]. But I had a grand time. It was amazing. And I went anywhere I wanted because I was on my own.
Was that inspirational to your career as an actor?
I think so. The following summer I went down to summer theater in Virginia, which I did all through my college years. I apprenticed at this theater all three summers. When I graduated from school in Baltimore, I just went to New York, fearlessly. Got an apartment, found a part-time job ushering and answering telephones in a box office, and working for a theater company in the office, and became an actor.
But at that age, of course, I was fearless and could do anything. So of course I was going to succeed. [laughs] Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
How old were you?
I was 21. I turned 22 that first summer I was in New York.
How long did you stay?
About 20 years. And then I went out to L.A., and I'm now back and forth between the two all the time, working. I'm very lucky. I seem to, knock on wood, work a lot.
How did you get the chance to land the role of Lionel Luthor on "Smallville"?
My agent called a couple of days before the pilot was to shoot and said they're doing this TV series. He explained what it was, and there was this role that somebody had dropped out at the last minute, of Lex Luthor's father. "It's two scenes, two days work, and they might have the character back sometime within the season. Would you be interested in doing it?"
So I went up to Vancouver (Canada) and shot the pilot, and they had me back for, I think, eight more episodes that year. And then the next year they gave me a contract so they could own me. I think they saw there was interesting character and Lex needed a foil. Lex, at that point, was good friends with Clark and he was struggling to be a good person. So I became sort of his influence of the guy that kind of kept screwing with his mind.
It was written as a villain, but I tried to -- and which I think I succeeded at -- bring a different kind of father who just has high expectations for this son, who's trying to strengthen him. Every now and then, people would stop me on the street and say, "We watch your show, we really like you and you're terrific, but are you a good guy or a bad guy? We can't figure it out." Which I thought was about the best compliment I could have gotten.
It was a grand seven years. I had a great time. And I always felt that when, and voiced my feeling, that when Lionel left the show he would be killed by his son. And sure enough, that's the way they took me out. So it's very exciting, the end of last season, Lex pushes me out his 40-story office window.
Working with the writers and producers, how far in advance did they let you know that your death scene was coming?
Oh, they never let me know. No, no. There weren't always -- they didn't let us know what scripts, what was coming. Actually, a driver told me I was going to be killed a few months before it happened. He said, "So how's it feel, they're killing you this year?" I said, "What are you talking about?" I guess he would drive them on their scouts, all the producers and the designers and everything. He would hear them talk in the car. I assumed he thought I'd been told but I hadn't. So I knew it was coming before it came, but they didn't talk to me. So I just let it be. Interesting, eh?
In your time on the show, most of your scenes with were Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor. Can you talk about working with him?
Yes, Michael -- and then after John Schneider, who played Jonathan Kent, had his heart attack and dies, I played a lot of stuff with Annette O'Toole, who played Martha Kent, because I started wooing her. So that was very interesting because Annette is an incredible actress so we had a grand time together.
But yeah, mostly Michael. For seven years we played some very interesting stuff. At the end I think they kind of ran dry of new ideas so we would repeat a few things every now and then, sort of the same genre of scenes. But there were some really wonderful periods throughout that where they came up with some really good stuff for Lionel. But some of the best stuff was with Annette O'Toole.
What sort of outside relationships did you have with your fellow actors?
Well, Tom (Welling) worked all the time, so he was always exhausted. And he's got a wife. He got married. So I didn't see Tom a lot. Allison (Mack) and I saw each other a lot. We'd go to the theater a lot in Vancouver. Sometimes Kristin (Kreuk) would go with us. Kristin's very quiet and shy. Michael (Rosenbaum) and I would do a lot of stuff. Annette (O'Toole) and I became very close, we still are.
Annette would come to see every hiatus job I ever did back east. She's doing a play in New York now, I hear she's brilliant in it. Michael came to see the show I did this summer. He's not going to be on the show anymore, Michael. Allison wasn't going to be, she just decided to be. John Schneider, I haven't seen ... Allison, Michael and Annette were the people I got to know the best, I think.
Any particular storylines or episodes you remember the most fondly?
There was one where -- I can't remember the movie they kind of based it on -- but there was some disgruntled worker or something I had wronged that had taken Martha and made her captive, and I had to go through all this game kind of stuff to save her. I can't remember what the episode was called, it was a few years ago. That was a lot of fun.
There was a great episode where I gave Lex shock treatment. ... [laughs] That was so wonderfully bizarre. I was blind for awhile. [laughs] There was not always logic involved in the way they, the writers, would deal with cleaning up a plot line. Sometimes they just kind of cheat and figured everybody forgot.
Another memorable scene was one season finale. Your hair was long for most of the series, until the last scene of the Season 3 finale. You're in a jail cell, you're getting your hair buzzed off --
Oh, wasn't that exciting? That was also one of my favorite things, in the way they shot it. Yes, I had let my hair grow, because the hair man on the show actually had very long hair when he was a young man. So I was letting mine grow, and he was sort of reliving his youth through me. And he was encouraging me to let my hair grow, which was actually a lot of trouble to deal with, all that long hair [laughs].
I knew they were going to send me to prison. So I asked Miles Millar, one of the two main producers, I said, "if you film it, I will shave my head, that last episode, if you'd like to put it in the script." And, he just, his face lit up. He's said, "Oh my God, real theater!"
But that was what the spirit of the show was like. Actors would come to them with suggestions and things, and they'd pick up them, and go with them and run with them. It was a lot of fun. We had a real good time.
Any chance you think you'll get back to "Smallville" in a guest role as Lionel's ghost?
I doubt it. They don't own me anymore so I'm not obligated to go back. They haven't spoken of it. I think they've moved on with -- there are no real adults left on that show anymore. It's about younger people, which is the way they've decided to go.
What sort of projects are you working on now?
I did a play this summer in New York, a revival of a play by Christopher Durang called "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" at the Roundabout Theater in New York. And I just talked to Donald Margulies, the playwright, about doing a play in New York that he wrote called "Shipwrecked." It'll be at Primary Stages this February. We start rehearsals in late December.
So between now and then, I don't know. For seven years I've been off the market, as they say, with the job. This is the first time in a long time that I have my freedom, so I'm interested to see what I'll be called upon for.
I've been very lucky, diligent in my career, to keep both film and theater going at the same time. I'm well-balanced, I guess.
I just caught you on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Oh yeah, I'd done that part two years ago, with Vincent (D'Onofrio) where I played his mentor. So they had that character back. It was a great script and I had a ball doing it.
Do people maybe not realize that you're a stage actor first, that's where your background is?
I don't know what they know. I know that seven years on that TV show reached more people than probably any other play I've ever done. I'm sure people in New York know me because I've worked in the theater so much there.
But I was quite pleased to hear when I talked to Donald Margulies this morning on the phone -- who I think I met 25 years ago -- that he was surprised to hear I was in California, where I've lived for about 20 years. He still thought I was a New York actor.
I feel very happy that I've been able to go back and forth between film, television and the theater. I think they all feed each other. It's what the English are able to do, you know, because they all do it there in that city, the grand city of London. They've got the theater there and all their film and studios there, too, so -- well, it's changing, there's a lot of filming now in New York. It's a trickier existence over here, I think, with American actors.
Why is that?
Because you go to L.A., and you do film or television. Or you live in New York and do mostly theater. But I've been able to keep both up. But of course, a lot of airplane travel, though.
You know, we shot "Smallville" in Vancouver so that was constant commuting. And then usually, there was an overlap when I'd go off to do one of the plays in hiatus, so I'd have to take a long trip from New York to Vancouver and couple of times. Luckily, I only missed one performance of one show that I did, so that was nice.
As an actor, you never really know when your next job is going to be--
Never.
-- and to have the opportunity to work. Can you talk about having a long-term role?
"Smallville" was challenging because, of course, it wasn't made where I live. It was a two-and-a-half hour flight to Vancouver, so whenever I worked, there was a whole day of travel. I didn't work there enough to move there and my life is here in L.A. Michael commuted as much as he could, too. John Schneider and Annette O'Toole commuted, too, because we have families and we wanted to be with them as opposed to moving everybody up there.
It's a very nice feeling. Dana Delany ("Desperate Housewives") is also a friend of mine, she calls a series a nickname a lot of actors call it, which I'd never hear before. She calls it "golden handcuffs." [pauses] So that says a lot about it. And it is quite wonderful.
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