Post by domenicaflor on Jan 3, 2005 15:22:12 GMT -5
Courtesy of another board I found this interview from the London Sunday Times of January 2, 2005.
D.
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Sunday Times - London
January 2, 2005
HEADLINE: Watching the detective
BYLINE: Stephen Armstrong
BODY:
Vincent D'Onofrio's steely cop makes Law & Order: Criminal Intent compelling viewing, says STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
In her 1983 show United States, the performance artist Laurie Anderson argued, in a compelling but not strictly chronologically accurate way,that the detective story is the only narrative truly created in the 20th century. "In the detective story," she said, "the hero is dead at the very beginning. So you don't have to deal with human nature at all. Only the slow accumulation of facts."
Vincent D'Onofrio agrees. Sort of. D'Onofrio plays Robert Goren, the New York police detective in Five's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. If ever there was a detective who fits Anderson's mould, it is Goren. With him, all is cold rationality hiding behind a vague and stuttering exterior - Columbo meets CSI's Gil Grissom meets Cracker. His brain seems to be permanently connected to a vast supercomputer; he always spots the tiny fragment of cloth that nobody else has seen; and it takes just a flicker of his steely eyes for the truth to spill forth.
"Goren is like a Sherlock Holmes," D'Onofrio nods. "Basically, the show is like a game from beginning to end. It's about who the people are that commit the criminal act. Why they would do what they would do because of who they are." In this, Goren is more psychologist than detective, picking apart human beings in the same way Grissom picks apart carpet fibres. His language is peppered with motives and personality types in much the same way that Grissom's is flecked with complex forensic techniques. Both are more scientist than cop, marking a new archetype in the long line of fictional detectives stretching back to Edgar Allan Poe's M Dupin. These detectives are about the triumph of science against the chaos of the city, and represent a nostalgic, almost Victorian dream of beneficial knowledge as a defence against the evil that besets us.
"Despite Agatha Christie's country houses, the detective story is basically an urban story that's as much a product of modernity as the city itself," says the ad-industry semiotician Al Deakin. "The detective can go places in the city that nobody can go, know things about the city that nobody can know. For the scared middle-class audience, the detective represents the myth that one mind can know the city and can protect us from it. It's what Raymond Chandler says: 'Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.' The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in."
In person, D'Onofrio is far removed from Goren's iceman. He is affable and welcoming when we meet, eager to discuss Ricky Gervais and The Office - "That show really inspires me, just to know that there are clever people out there doing stuff like that" - as well as his hopes for John Kerry (we met before the election, as you have probably guessed).
By the end of 2004, D'Onofrio's outspoken campaigning for Kerry inspires such hatred that he takes pride of place on websites such as www.boycottliberalism.com. When he passed out on set in December, right-wing tabloids claimed he was faking, and printed quotes from "insiders" saying he was losing it. His health is monitored and his views are dissected, but he just wants to talk about comedy and music.
In a way, this attention is Goren's fault. Before the role, D'Onofrio was a supporting actor and proud of it, appearing as the alien in Men in Black, the killer in The Cell and the chubby grunt who kills his drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. Pre-Goren, nobody would have cared which politician D'Onofrio supported. Pre-Goren, his only real brush with the headlines was a high-profile split with Greta Scacchi, the mother of his eldest daughter, some 12 years ago. Then Criminal Intent topped the ratings in America, and now his every move is monitored. Perhaps that is why he has no intention of sticking with Goren when his contract is up.
"My contract is six years, and I'm about halfway through, but I have no intention at all of doing it any longer than that," he says firmly. "There comes a point in any show where you start becoming ridiculous. And this television stuff pays so much (expletive deleted) money. More money than I ever imagined I'd be making. In three years from now, my kids will be fine. Their college will be paid, the rest of their lives will be set up. I don't live in a mansion and have collections of sports cars or motorcycles or shit like that. I live in New York City, in the West Village, and, yeah, I have a big apartment, because I have two kids, but my life isn't extravagant. The show hasn't gone syndicated yet; there's a lot of money yet to be made. That'll go directly to my kids."
This blue-collar attitude betokens a blue-collar upbringing. The son of a Brooklyn decorator, who was, in turn, the son of a Brooklyn decorator, D'Onofrio had a nomadic childhood after his parents divorced, shuttling between Honolulu and Miami. A shy youth, he spent his sixth birthday hiding under his bed. Dad, Gene, ran a community theatre, and D'Onofrio initially helped out as a techie before finding the spotlight. I detect this shy kid in his choice of dark film roles, but he is unimpressed.
"The dark roles - it's not because my life is dark, it's just because they're more interesting," he says. "Usually, if you're playing supporting stuff like I do, the darker characters are the more specific characters. Playing somebody's husband or neighbour, well, wouldn't you prefer to play the depressed psychologist, or the killer?"
We wrap up the interview with amicable chitchat, and I ask him what is next. "Just the next good story," he says slowly. "It may sound simple and boring, but that's my life. That's what I do." At this stage, of course, he is unaware of the political storm and media frenzy that await him. But then, he is still thinking like the supporting actor who got lucky. He has yet to realise the dark power of the detective.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent begins again on Five on January 12, 9pm
********************
D.
*****************
Sunday Times - London
January 2, 2005
HEADLINE: Watching the detective
BYLINE: Stephen Armstrong
BODY:
Vincent D'Onofrio's steely cop makes Law & Order: Criminal Intent compelling viewing, says STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
In her 1983 show United States, the performance artist Laurie Anderson argued, in a compelling but not strictly chronologically accurate way,that the detective story is the only narrative truly created in the 20th century. "In the detective story," she said, "the hero is dead at the very beginning. So you don't have to deal with human nature at all. Only the slow accumulation of facts."
Vincent D'Onofrio agrees. Sort of. D'Onofrio plays Robert Goren, the New York police detective in Five's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. If ever there was a detective who fits Anderson's mould, it is Goren. With him, all is cold rationality hiding behind a vague and stuttering exterior - Columbo meets CSI's Gil Grissom meets Cracker. His brain seems to be permanently connected to a vast supercomputer; he always spots the tiny fragment of cloth that nobody else has seen; and it takes just a flicker of his steely eyes for the truth to spill forth.
"Goren is like a Sherlock Holmes," D'Onofrio nods. "Basically, the show is like a game from beginning to end. It's about who the people are that commit the criminal act. Why they would do what they would do because of who they are." In this, Goren is more psychologist than detective, picking apart human beings in the same way Grissom picks apart carpet fibres. His language is peppered with motives and personality types in much the same way that Grissom's is flecked with complex forensic techniques. Both are more scientist than cop, marking a new archetype in the long line of fictional detectives stretching back to Edgar Allan Poe's M Dupin. These detectives are about the triumph of science against the chaos of the city, and represent a nostalgic, almost Victorian dream of beneficial knowledge as a defence against the evil that besets us.
"Despite Agatha Christie's country houses, the detective story is basically an urban story that's as much a product of modernity as the city itself," says the ad-industry semiotician Al Deakin. "The detective can go places in the city that nobody can go, know things about the city that nobody can know. For the scared middle-class audience, the detective represents the myth that one mind can know the city and can protect us from it. It's what Raymond Chandler says: 'Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.' The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in."
In person, D'Onofrio is far removed from Goren's iceman. He is affable and welcoming when we meet, eager to discuss Ricky Gervais and The Office - "That show really inspires me, just to know that there are clever people out there doing stuff like that" - as well as his hopes for John Kerry (we met before the election, as you have probably guessed).
By the end of 2004, D'Onofrio's outspoken campaigning for Kerry inspires such hatred that he takes pride of place on websites such as www.boycottliberalism.com. When he passed out on set in December, right-wing tabloids claimed he was faking, and printed quotes from "insiders" saying he was losing it. His health is monitored and his views are dissected, but he just wants to talk about comedy and music.
In a way, this attention is Goren's fault. Before the role, D'Onofrio was a supporting actor and proud of it, appearing as the alien in Men in Black, the killer in The Cell and the chubby grunt who kills his drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. Pre-Goren, nobody would have cared which politician D'Onofrio supported. Pre-Goren, his only real brush with the headlines was a high-profile split with Greta Scacchi, the mother of his eldest daughter, some 12 years ago. Then Criminal Intent topped the ratings in America, and now his every move is monitored. Perhaps that is why he has no intention of sticking with Goren when his contract is up.
"My contract is six years, and I'm about halfway through, but I have no intention at all of doing it any longer than that," he says firmly. "There comes a point in any show where you start becoming ridiculous. And this television stuff pays so much (expletive deleted) money. More money than I ever imagined I'd be making. In three years from now, my kids will be fine. Their college will be paid, the rest of their lives will be set up. I don't live in a mansion and have collections of sports cars or motorcycles or shit like that. I live in New York City, in the West Village, and, yeah, I have a big apartment, because I have two kids, but my life isn't extravagant. The show hasn't gone syndicated yet; there's a lot of money yet to be made. That'll go directly to my kids."
This blue-collar attitude betokens a blue-collar upbringing. The son of a Brooklyn decorator, who was, in turn, the son of a Brooklyn decorator, D'Onofrio had a nomadic childhood after his parents divorced, shuttling between Honolulu and Miami. A shy youth, he spent his sixth birthday hiding under his bed. Dad, Gene, ran a community theatre, and D'Onofrio initially helped out as a techie before finding the spotlight. I detect this shy kid in his choice of dark film roles, but he is unimpressed.
"The dark roles - it's not because my life is dark, it's just because they're more interesting," he says. "Usually, if you're playing supporting stuff like I do, the darker characters are the more specific characters. Playing somebody's husband or neighbour, well, wouldn't you prefer to play the depressed psychologist, or the killer?"
We wrap up the interview with amicable chitchat, and I ask him what is next. "Just the next good story," he says slowly. "It may sound simple and boring, but that's my life. That's what I do." At this stage, of course, he is unaware of the political storm and media frenzy that await him. But then, he is still thinking like the supporting actor who got lucky. He has yet to realise the dark power of the detective.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent begins again on Five on January 12, 9pm
********************
