Page 57 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 1 Fall 2013

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From there I auditioned into the Royal
Shakespeare Company and had a small
part in a production of Hamlet that has
now become one of the definitive produc-
tions of that work – it was my first paying
theater job.
Playing Benedick in Much Ado About
Nothing brings me full circle to my
early theater experiences. I was thrilled to
be a part of this film. It was a collection of
friends and colleagues, including [director]
Joss Whedon (Toy Story, The Avengers,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ), who I had
worked with on a few occasions.
For many years, Joss had been hosting
informal readings of Shakespeare’s
plays at his house, in which I would
always participate. They had no motive
beyond the fun of hearing a great play
read aloud. Out of those casual meetings
sprang the idea to one day film a reading
of the play in some capacity. Years later,
after he had finished shooting The Aven-
gers, he arrived at my house in L.A. with
a rolled-up copy of the Much Ado script.
He told me he had two weeks off and what
did I think of shooting this play at his house
with me as Benedick. Of course I jumped at
the chance.
Little did we know it was going to
become a feature film. We would learn
our lines, wear our own clothes for prac-
tical reasons, use his house [in Santa
Monica]. People brought their passion and
expertise, and we already had a strong
rapport. At some point during filming,
Joss turned to me with a surprised tone
and said, “This is good!” The film pre-
miered at the Toronto Film Festival,
where it was seen by distributors, picked
up, and is slowly making its way around
the world in art-house cinemas.
It was important to me to bring a con-
temporary, authentic feel to Shakespeare
so it was not overly sophisticated or
intimidating. People who don’t like
Shakespeare – or think they don’t –have
been bored by it in a high school classroom
or gone to see a snooty production where
they felt condescended to, watching the
actors prancing around in tights and
ruffled shirts. Our approach was not the
well-worn path of reproducing a classic
play in a classic style. Our intent was to
make it contemporary and approachable.
Once you understand this play or any
Shakespeare play, that’s when they become
thrilling because you realize he is writing
not for his time, but for any time.
We only had time for a couple of takes,
so whatever happened, right or wrong,
is in the movie. Things were going hilar-
iously wrong at times, but somehow it
all worked out. There is a scene in a little
girl’s room filled with stuffed animals,
tutus, and a dollhouse, and my character
wrestles with Claudio on a bed. We knocked
over a little musical ballerina from the
bedside table and it squeaked out a couple
notes of music in the middle of our dia-
logue. We stopped for a moment of slight
panic, not sure whether to continue –
luckily we both decided to keep going.
It’s one of those moments that make
me smile and, when you watch, it seems
perfectly natural.
We were liberated by not having studio
execs making decisions for us or de-
ciding they want to cut this or add that.
The script is locked – it was locked 400
years ago – and we didn’t change that,
other than making cuts. Knowing the
dialogue is perfect left us all free to focus
on the art of the job we love without the
constraints of a studio looking over us.
But we also didn’t have the support of
the studio; that’s my suit I’m wearing
and there is now a hole in the knee and
it is Joss’s house with scuffed floors.
There is a lot of opportunity for inde-
pendent filmmaking now outside of
the studio system. With the focus on
producing franchise films, it leaves the
field empty and clear for a little black-
and-white Shakespeare movie. But the
nuts and bolts of going to work as an
actor are really the same.
Next I am going to do a recurring role
on the NBC series Grimm [which stars
Silas Weir Mitchell ’87]. It’s inspired
by the children’s stories of the Brothers
Grimm. I play a cousin to one of the pri-
mary characters. I also have a sci-fi web
series, H+, that did well in its first season.
And I occasionally pop up on [the CBS
series] How I Met Your Mother, which my
wife Alyson Hannigan stars in, and in
which I play a preposterous news anchor.
I would be sad if I could pick my
favorite role . I have pursued a career
of passion, so I try to take roles that will
interest and excite me. But I guess the
two that I have certainly loved are Bene-
dick in Much Ado and also five years of
playing Wesley Wyndam-Pryce on Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and on Angel. That
was a very substantial journey as an
actor that I enjoyed enormously. I also
love that silly news anchorman in How
I Met Your Mother.
I think I’d be a good villain. I haven’t
done a really juicy villain yet, but I always
tend to come back to comedy and I love
clowns of all shapes and sizes. I have
always pursued versatility – going from
SPS to London to study classical theater
and then going to L.A. and working in TV
and film. I’ve always tried to broaden my
horizons, so I think of myself as a toolkit
that has quite a few tools in it now, and I
really enjoy them all.
GETTY IMAGES / MATT CARR