Post by trisha on Feb 10, 2004 20:47:18 GMT -5
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/01/1064988257228.html
By Scott Ellis
October 2, 2003
The Sun-Herald
Leaning over the remains of a murder victim, Detective Robert Goren picks up the smallest of clues, a scrap of paper or a piece of cloth - and we're on the hunt for another killer on Law And Order: Criminal Intent.
The forensic whodunit series, which tracks crimes backward from the corpse to the crime to the killer, shows off the latest in investigative techniques and the almost supernatural logic of its star.
But Goren is not a mystic, actor Vincent D'Onofrio said, just a determined character with very sharp powers of perception.
"He's not psychic, he's just intuitive, a bit nuts and he's an extremely obsessive person," D'Onofrio said.
It's Goren's obsessive hunt (with the viewers along for the ride), that has made Criminal Intent a popular addition to producer Dick Wolf's successful Law And Order franchise.
"It's a game, sort of," D'Onofrio said. "The show starts with the crime. Sometimes we show who did it, sometimes not, but either way, when we come on the scene the audience knows more than we do.
"Eventually we catch up to the audience, then I pass them and I tell the whole tale in the final interrogation."
For D'Onofrio, it was that developing story - and the way Wolf was committed to the show - that lured him to an area of acting he had consciously avoided in a long, successful career.
Previously, he had been known as one of Hollywood's best character actors.
In Full Metal Jacket , for example, he gained 32 kilograms to play an overweight and overstressed soldier. In countless other roles he's shown a similar chameleon-like adaptability, fitting into everything from romantic comedies to thrillers, but he rarely tackled leading roles and had steered well clear of TV drama.
"I wasn't attracted to [series TV] for a long time," he said. "I just didn't want to do it. Then Dick came along with this idea and I liked it because there was no soap involved, it was a contemporary Sherlock Holmes."
From day one, D'Onofrio said, he made Wolf promise that the producer would be committed to producing a high-end drama, not just a money-making spin-off.
While still committed to the big screen, D'Onofrio admitted that playing Goren had given him the chance to step into a lead role in comfort. "I'm not a leading man, I don't have the personality of a leading man," he said.
"I consider Goren a true character; he may be the lead on the show, but he's not your typical hero."
Goren has also given the actor the chance to step back from the hectic movie-making pace he had adopted and to be more selective.
"When I was just doing film, because I'm a character actor, a supporting actor, I'd have to do three or four, sometimes five films a year to make the kind of living I wanted to make.
"With this show I don't have to do that, and I can't do that," he said.
"I think I was doing too many films anyway because out of the three, four or five I would pick there was only going to be a couple that would turn out good no matter what I was expecting at the beginning.
"I think this [the show] gives me better possibilities. I think that if I can spend more time thinking about what projects I'm going to do and just do one a year and spend a lot of time making that decision, it doesn't have to be about anything but the story."
Murder With a Touch of Class
By Scott Ellis
October 2, 2003
The Sun-Herald
Leaning over the remains of a murder victim, Detective Robert Goren picks up the smallest of clues, a scrap of paper or a piece of cloth - and we're on the hunt for another killer on Law And Order: Criminal Intent.
The forensic whodunit series, which tracks crimes backward from the corpse to the crime to the killer, shows off the latest in investigative techniques and the almost supernatural logic of its star.
But Goren is not a mystic, actor Vincent D'Onofrio said, just a determined character with very sharp powers of perception.
"He's not psychic, he's just intuitive, a bit nuts and he's an extremely obsessive person," D'Onofrio said.
It's Goren's obsessive hunt (with the viewers along for the ride), that has made Criminal Intent a popular addition to producer Dick Wolf's successful Law And Order franchise.
"It's a game, sort of," D'Onofrio said. "The show starts with the crime. Sometimes we show who did it, sometimes not, but either way, when we come on the scene the audience knows more than we do.
"Eventually we catch up to the audience, then I pass them and I tell the whole tale in the final interrogation."
For D'Onofrio, it was that developing story - and the way Wolf was committed to the show - that lured him to an area of acting he had consciously avoided in a long, successful career.
Previously, he had been known as one of Hollywood's best character actors.
In Full Metal Jacket , for example, he gained 32 kilograms to play an overweight and overstressed soldier. In countless other roles he's shown a similar chameleon-like adaptability, fitting into everything from romantic comedies to thrillers, but he rarely tackled leading roles and had steered well clear of TV drama.
"I wasn't attracted to [series TV] for a long time," he said. "I just didn't want to do it. Then Dick came along with this idea and I liked it because there was no soap involved, it was a contemporary Sherlock Holmes."
From day one, D'Onofrio said, he made Wolf promise that the producer would be committed to producing a high-end drama, not just a money-making spin-off.
While still committed to the big screen, D'Onofrio admitted that playing Goren had given him the chance to step into a lead role in comfort. "I'm not a leading man, I don't have the personality of a leading man," he said.
"I consider Goren a true character; he may be the lead on the show, but he's not your typical hero."
Goren has also given the actor the chance to step back from the hectic movie-making pace he had adopted and to be more selective.
"When I was just doing film, because I'm a character actor, a supporting actor, I'd have to do three or four, sometimes five films a year to make the kind of living I wanted to make.
"With this show I don't have to do that, and I can't do that," he said.
"I think I was doing too many films anyway because out of the three, four or five I would pick there was only going to be a couple that would turn out good no matter what I was expecting at the beginning.
"I think this [the show] gives me better possibilities. I think that if I can spend more time thinking about what projects I'm going to do and just do one a year and spend a lot of time making that decision, it doesn't have to be about anything but the story."