ERIC BOGOSIAN TAKES CHARGE ON LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT
by Raven Snook
TV Guide
Oct 10 2006
A lot of people have the impression that Eric Bogosian is an angry
guy. The perpetually black-clad, New York-based writer/performer forged
that image with his ferocious solo shows – Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,
Pounding Nails into the Floor with My Forehead and Talk Radio, which
was made into a 1988 Oliver Stone film – and his over-the-top turn
as a Steven Seagal-taunting terrorist in Under Siege 2. On the right
side of the law in his current role of Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s
Captain Danny Ross (Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET on NBC), he’s still as intense
and unsmiling as usual, though he insists it’s all a put-on. In fact,
due to his L&O gig and the star-studded revivals of two of his plays,
this downtown rebel-turned-character-actor says he’s happier than
he’s been in years.
TVGuide.com: Hello, Eric? The music’s so loud I can barely hear you.
Eric Bogosian: Sorry. Let me just turn the Mozart down.
TVGuide.com: I never would have pegged you as a classical fan.
Bogosian: Well, after the 7,000th listening of "Freebird" I knew every
f–king note, so about two years ago I really started diving into
classical music. I’m hooked on opera, of all things. The Metropolitan
Opera was giving away $20 tickets the other night and I almost went.
TVGuide.com: Wow, Eric Bogosian: Bargain Hunter.
Bogosian: Always. I’m Armenian, so I’m totally fiscally oriented. I
am ridiculously frugal. Yesterday I was poring over my Sprint bill
trying to figure out why it was $10 more than usual. I spent an hour
on it, and that’s a complete waste of time, right?
TVGuide.com: It depends on how much your time is worth.
Bogosian: Currently it’s worth a lot! It went up to a much higher
level of worth because of my work on L&O.
TVGuide.com: Let’s talk about that gig. I’ve always thought of you
as this rebellious performance artist, so I was surprised that you
accepted a series-regular role on commercial TV.
Bogosian: Oh, I’d been trying to get on L&O forever. Every year I
would put out the word [to the producers] that if a new character
was being created, I wanted to be considered. Finally last spring
[writer-producer] Warren [Leight] asked me to come by the set to say
hi to some people. [Series creator] Dick Wolf was there and he said,
"I heard that you don’t want to do TV," and I said, "No, no, no,
it depends on what TV." So he asked if I would consider coming on
the show. I am so happy to be doing L&O. I’m totally f–king enthused.
TVGuide.com: Has acting always been your ultimate goal?
Bogosian: I originally came to New York in the ’70s to be an actor, but
I found the industry so overwhelming and intimidating that I quit and
ended up working on the alternative-performance scene. The movie Talk
Radio altered my whole relationship to the commercial-film industry,
but over the years I let a lot of things get in my way. I was just
unreliable. Even when I stopped all that, I was a hothead for a really
long time. About five years ago, my film career started to peter out,
so I made a bunch of changes. I decided I didn’t want to do solo
shows anymore because A) I didn’t have anything more to say and B)
I hated touring. I thought if I stopped doing my own shows I would
be able to reenter the world of acting as a character actor, which is
what I am. I felt like I had reached a point where I was ready to work.
TVGuide.com: And you’ve been working a lot lately, both as an actor
and a writer. I just saw a revival of your play subUrbia with quite
an up-and-coming cast: Kieran Culkin, Gaby Hoffman and Jessica
Capshaw. And Liev Schreiber is doing Talk Radio on Broadway next
year. I know you updated the subUrbia script. Are you tweaking Talk
Radio as well?
Bogosian: I’m doing a lot of work on the text, but I’m hoping it
doesn’t show. It’s tough to tinker with Talk Radio. It will be 20 years
old when it goes up and the guy who wrote it is a different guy than me
– not only in terms of where I was at in my life, but a different sort
of writer. I was bursting with ideas, but I didn’t have the technique
that I have now. Still, I don’t want to go back and mess anything up.
TVGuide.com: Before L&O came along, you had a recurring role on the
short-lived but much-beloved Love Monkey. How did that come about?
Bogosian: I did it as a favor to [series creator] Michael [Rauch],
who did an internship with me back in the mid-’90s. He’d come down
and hang out with me and we became very good friends. He directed
me in the film In the Weeds, and he filmed my solo show Wake Up and
Smell the Coffee…. There are so many guys working in TV right now –
Michael, Warren – who are mensches to the heavens. I’m really lucky
that they’re in my life.
TVGuide.com: You sound like you’re in a really happy place. You’re
nowhere near as angry as I thought you’d be.
Bogosian: I’m always playing heavies and bad guys. People make this
assumption that I’m like that in real life, but I’m really just a
big goofball.