< Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck ~ weer een leuk interview |
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Geplaatst:
03-10-2006 16:59:58
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Generaal
Geregistreerd op: 18-1-2006
Berichten: 2768
Woonplaats: somewhere in orbit.
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er stond weer een leuk interieww met Dirk Benedict op zijn site.
Het stuk over het A-taem heb ik er even voor jullie uitgeknipt. Hij beschrijft hier ook in hoe de scene (die in de leader zit) met de cylon tot stand kwam en hoe de zoenscene's van Face eigenlijk altijd mislukte. Dat wilde Dirk namelijk zelf graag, de humor erin brengen in zo'n scene.
After Battlestar Galactica, Dirk went on to star in the A-Team, the show that was, at one time, the most popular programme in the world. I asked Dirk what it was like to be part of something so huge.
"It's bizarre. Everywhere in the world I go, I'm recognised, yet I haven't had as big a career as other people. Some actors just go on and on doing show after show. I'm really only known for two. I've done about twenty movies and lots of theatre, but it always comes down to those two. And the A-Team travels well because it's understandable in any country. It's universal. It had action, which didn't need translating. It had a kind of comedy that didn't need translation. Physical stuff like the three stooges. That translates well to different cultures."
"Then you have these four characters who were very strong identifiable stereotypes. Cartoon characters almost, that you just knew straight away. There's the cute guy, the crazy guy, the muscle guy and the brainy guy. Each had their jobs, and most importantly, they always won in the end. Always. The show was really like a little morality play each week. Good vs. Bad and Good always won. Simple. Just like in the real world. Right?
"I must say though, speaking objectively, we were the perfect actors for those parts. Perfect. We had chemistry off screen that was just like on screen only better. Crazier. It was just like what you saw only better, or worse depending on whom you talk to, because there were no parameters, it was just bicker, banter, fighting and singing, laughing and joking, teasing and squabbling. It was barely controlled chaos."
"We all talked a lot: Mr T and Dwight never shut up. I was the least talkative, even though It's well known that once I start, I don't shut up. There was a lot of jibber jabber. George was the one who stayed a little aloof but in the show, but he did too. Hannibal was aloof, in control and trying to get us all going forward. Often outside, it was the same way - the three of us were a little bit out of control."
Talking to Dirk, it's clear he has a real passion and fondness for those times and his on screen playmates. "Dwight and I were the actor actors. We came out of theatre and ended up doing quite a lot in the show because T didn't want to and George wasn't up for working too hard. So Dwight and I had a lot of stuff together and we tried to make it extremely funny to the point where we were told, 'no no, it's getting too silly. You've got to pull it back a little bit.'"
Dirk wasn't actually the first actor employed to play Faceman, so I asked him how he managed to win the coveted role. "Steve Cannel, who created the show, saw me in Battlestar Galactica and thought that the actor playing Starbuck would be perfect for Faceman. So he called my agent and I met with him about six months before the show. He told me he wanted me to play Faceman and I read the script and was thrilled. I thought the script was absolutely brilliant. And Faceman was the role I felt born to play. But thus began the torture, because it was the same story all over again, only then it would be NBC who would refuse to hire me.
I would go for an audition at the network and they would say, "Yeah, he's okay but we want to still keep looking" and Steven would say, 'just be patient'. So I was patient and weeks became months and finally my agent called me, it was a Friday, to give me the wonderful news that they had hired someone else to play Facemen. And they wonder why actors drink! I hung up the phone and got in my car and drove to Montana where I had a little cabin, and went duck hunting. Every duck I shot was given the name of a Network Executive. I was going to quit the business. Then my phone rang again, a month or so and many dead ducks later, and my agent told me that maybe patience was a virtue. They had fired the guy and I was to get back to Los Angeles and go to work immediately playing Faceman. I was thrilled. The ducks were pretty happy too. You know, it's funny, I've always had good luck with writers, directors, even producers. Creative people. But with executives, administrative types, well... for some reason they've never taken to me."
At its peak, The A-Team was adored worldwide. When the cast visited Holland, 15,000 people met their plane at the airport, forcing the authorities to shut it down. Later in the visit, they drew crowds in excess of 100,000 people. But even though the show had fans in every TV-loving country on earth, in Hollywood things were very different. "As popular as it was - we were the number one show in America - Hollywood hated us. It was ignored. We were a joke show. People would never admit they watched it. People would come up to me and whisper, 'I want you to know, I watch the show,' because they were too embarrassed to say it too loud, or in front of anybody."
The powerful Teachers Union also took exception to the show. "They tried to get us off the air," remembered Benedict. "They had a national campaign starting with kids going home to their parents saying don't let them watch this show. Because it was violent. It's a joke - and it was! This was a war against a masculine show, with cigars and guys being guys. And every little boy in America was there - it was a guy's show."
And then there was Faceman's flirting... "Faceman did the same things as Starbuck, only worse. He was a sex addict. There was never any sex on the show yet all he seemed to do was flirt. He was a joke".
Despite his constant advances, there was never any sex in The A-Team or Battlestar Galactica. "With Starbuck and Battlestar Galactica, it was a family show, more serious and they didn't want to do it. With the A-Team, it was another family show and there was no place for a bed scene, unless it was a silly bed scene - you know, a bomb would have to go off in the middle of it or something.
"I always told the actresses to play it like they see me coming a mile away. 'When I'm doing all this flirting and feeding you all these lines, you play it like you see through me the minute I start talking. You see through me in a second.' Because sometimes, they would play dumb like they were believing what I was saying. But no, I would tell them, 'You just look at me and smile - shake your head and roll your eyes every now and then. Like, this guy's full of sh**.'
But still, they find me cute and so they kiss me, even though they know I'm just a bullsh** artist! So the other thing was I always tried to do was get the kiss interrupted. Just as I'm about to make my move, or in the middle of a kiss, it was always disturbed. I never quite manage it. Someone once put a trailer together of all my kisses on the show, and around 80% of them were hilarious."
"You certainly couldn't make that A-Team today. But when they reimagine it, you'd better be sitting down as it's going to be so far from the original series, it will be as unrecognisable as the new Battlestar Galactica is from the old show. It will probably be four girls, and if it isn't, I promise you that one of the A-Team members will be the bad guy. It won't be funny, it will be violent. There will be a lot of expletives, they'll darken it, they'll dirty it up, because it was a cartoon show and a silly show. They can't do what they did with Starsky and Hutch though, because you can't make fun of a show that already made fun of itself."
Of course, there was a Cylon in the A-Team as well. "We were filming one day at Universal Studios and they had the Cylons there as part of the tour. It was lunchtime and this Cylon was walking by. We were doing a scene and I was outside by BA's Van. I said to the director, 'Tony, at the top of the scene, just have that Cylon walk past me, it'll be funny. I want to do something for the guys in the editing room to see - it'll be a good joke. They'll get it.'
"So, I'm sitting there waiting for Murdoch and co to turn up and this Cylon walks by and I do what I do - a hey, aren't you... no guess not. And then we did the scene. They all got the joke and they called me up in the dailys and we all laughed. But then they took that little clip that I loved and put it in the opening credits. I loved that, it was a way of giving acknowledgement to those people who had watched Battlestar Galactica."
Like Dirk said, however, Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team are just two of many projects he's been involved with. Take his turn as a writer/director on 2001 drama Cahoots. "Every time I do something, it's either out of time or ahead of time. Cahoots is a brilliant movie. The Hollywood Reporter gave it a rave review, '...this movie is so brilliant and original'. But again, it's politically incorrect." |
_________________ The Official Dwight Schultz Fansite http://www.dwightschultzfansite.nl
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DwightSchultzOfficialFansite |
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Geplaatst:
03-10-2006 18:02:37
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Leeftijd: 39 |
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Admin
Geregistreerd op: 25-1-2005
Berichten: 1730
Woonplaats: Enschede/Emmeloord
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Leuk interview, met veel info. Leuk trouwens dat ze het ook nog over het bezoek aan Nederland hebben. Dat heeft nogal indruk gemaakt...
Mooie quote ook van Dirk:
"I was the least talkative, even though It's well known that once I start, I don't shut up."
Wie de screenheroes filmpjes heeft gezien zal het hier ERG mee eens zijn |
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Geplaatst:
18-11-2006 23:13:25
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Kapitein
Geregistreerd op: 10-11-2006
Berichten: 190
Woonplaats: friesland
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moo i intervieuw, met veel leuke info. |
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Geplaatst:
20-11-2006 10:17:37
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Sergeant
Geregistreerd op: 16-4-2006
Berichten: 64
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Leuk!! |
_________________ Sometimes you gotta say - what the heck, what the hey! |
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Geplaatst:
03-12-2006 16:52:10
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Sergeant
Geregistreerd op: 17-11-2006
Berichten: 50
Woonplaats: Hoofddorp
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Bedankt voor het plaatsen er van Choppercrazy !!
Ik heb dingen gelezen die ik niet wist.
Erg leuk dat dat ontvangst op Schiphol zo'n indruk gemaakt heeft .
En dat Dirk het er over heeft in het interview |
_________________ You just hired The A-Team.
I love it when a plan comes together !! |
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Geplaatst:
10-05-2007 01:52:56
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Generaal
Geregistreerd op: 7-5-2007
Berichten: 336
Woonplaats: Rotterdam
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Erg leuke interview!! |
_________________ "I lie, I cheat, I steal and I just don't get any respect!" |
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Geplaatst:
10-05-2007 20:32:30
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Kolonel
Geregistreerd op: 5-2-2007
Berichten: 260
Woonplaats: Utrecht
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nicee thanx for sharing!! |
_________________ I'm A Bird, I'm A Plane, I'm A Choo-Choo Train!!
I’m alergic to bullets. Especially those headed in my direction |
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Geplaatst:
18-05-2007 12:40:00
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Generaal
Geregistreerd op: 4-3-2007
Berichten: 688
Woonplaats: Dokkum (Friesland)
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Dat met die Cylon vond ik ook hilarisch.. whaha. |
_________________
Don't you smile at me like that,
Thats not even a real smile.
Its just a bunch of teeth playin' with my mind! |
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Geplaatst:
18-05-2007 12:48:32
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Korporaal
Geregistreerd op: 14-5-2007
Berichten: 37
Woonplaats: Hilversum
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Nu nog iemand vinden die dit wil vertalen, dat leest wat makkelijker voor degene die de Engelse taal niet zo machtig is..... |
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Geplaatst:
22-05-2007 13:45:29
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Leeftijd: 43 |
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Luitenant
Geregistreerd op: 25-9-2005
Berichten: 123
Woonplaats: Apeldoorn
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Geplaatst:
22-05-2007 15:43:12
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Generaal
Geregistreerd op: 7-5-2007
Berichten: 336
Woonplaats: Rotterdam
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Thanks voor t posten |
_________________ "I lie, I cheat, I steal and I just don't get any respect!" |
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Tijden zijn in GMT + 1 uur |
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Je mag geen nieuwe onderwerpen plaatsen Je mag geen reacties plaatsen Je mag je berichten niet bewerken Je mag je berichten niet verwijderen Ja mag niet stemmen in polls
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