Chuck’s Mark Christopher Lawrence: “You don’t choose acting, acting chooses you”
May 21, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Interviews
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:04 — 11.8MB)
Mark Christopher Lawrence has an incredible knack for stealing almost any scene that he’s in. Whether he’s got a couple of lines with Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness or yelling at Zachary Levi as Big Mike every week on Chuck – you always remember him.
And he’s not one to sit still and rest on his laurels. He does theater, stand-up, voice over, writing and producing.
He’s a truly multi-talented guy.
You’re currently starring in Chuck. The show has a rabid fan base. Do you get recognized a lot for that?
Yeah, pretty much everyday.
You were in for pilots the year you got Chuck, but Chuck was only a guest star role in that pilot.
Right.
So, was it just a gamble that you took when you got Chuck, that you auditioned for Chuck?
It was no real gamble, it was just one of the things that came across the plate that year. We auditioned for everything that came across. It just happened that Chuck was the only thing I got booked in.
Since it was only a guest star role, did you have a feeling that it could be moved up to a series regular?
No, I didn’t even read it. [LAUGHTER] I actually just read the sides because I was really concentrating on those other pilots, because they were series regular roles. I read the [sides] the night before I went in to audition, and just prepared to go in and get a job. Maybe because I was so relaxed, it wasn’t that important for me.
That happens a lot, when it’s not that important. Boom, you get it.
I think what happened is when you’re at that point—and not that you don’t care because you want to work—but when you’re at that point where it’s not that important, you have this sort of relaxed state that you walk into the room with. That was part of it, being really relaxed. The other was because you know what’s at stake before you go in and read for the network. Because they cut you a deal before you go in, so you know exactly how much money you will or will not get. So, I was just able to really relax and go in and have fun, and go out and concentrate on something else.
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March 8, 2010 by Lance Carter
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Theater Review: Duncan Sheik’s ‘Whisper House’
January 18, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Columns
This past weekend I saw Duncan Sheik‘s new musical, Whisper House at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego. I say musical, but it’s not really a musical in conventional terms. The cast don’t burst out in song and dance across the stage. No, they leave the singing to the Ghosts.
Set in World War Two (1942), Christopher (Eric Brent Zutty) is sent to live with his aunt Lilly (Mare Winningham) in a remote lighthouse. Christopher soon begins to hear music that no one else can hear and to top it off, he begins to suspect his aunts Japanese worker, Yasuhiro (Arthur Acuna), of being a spy.
And that’s all I’m giving away.
The Ghosts played by indie rockers, Holly Brook and David Poe, come and go in the scenes, singing and pretty much doing whatever they want. They take off lampshades and turn the stand into make-shift microphones, fling off Christopher’s covers when he’s trying to sleep and make general mischief for the cast. They act as… narrators of the show? I’m hesitant to say narrators because at some points they deliberately sing their songs to screw things up. And that’s what makes this show so great. The Ghosts are having a fantastic time messing with everyone. And usually to a bad outcome.
