Monday, January 25, 2010
By NEAL JUSTIN
Martin Short first practiced law in 1979 as the naive, bumbling Tucker Kerlin in the short-lived but beloved sitcom “The Associates.” Five years later, he slipped into the snakeskin of Nathan Thurm, a chain-smoking, paranoid corporate attorney who made regular appearances on “Saturday Night Live.” So you’d expect that the comic’s latest legal turn on TV would have him greasing his hair into a pompadour and pratfalling into the jury box.
But the appointment is “Damages” (10 p.m. Mondays on FX), one of the chilliest, darkest series on the air. His character, Leonard Widmore, the consigliere for a Bernie Madoff-inspired con man (Len Cariou), has no time for shtick.
Take his introductory scene. While walking briskly through New York City with a producer for Diane Sawyer who’s eager to talk to his client, he points out some dog poop on the sidewalk, but the warning is so off-putting, so curt, that she thinks he’s smearing her — and steps right in it. With just a hint of modulation, Short has turned the smile that made us sympathize with Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick into a smug, sarcastic weapon.
It’s not the first time “Damages” has cast against type. Producers helped Ted Danson take a giant stride away from his Sam Malone image by putting him in the role of Arthur Frobisher, a billionaire who would throw his employees under the bus for an extra nickel. They also challenged Darrell Hammond of “SNL” to perform his most daunting impression: The Deacon, an assassin so cool and collected that Dracula could jump out of a closet and he’d merely yawn.
This season, producers have cast Lily Tomlin as the con man’s wife, but that’s not a complete shocker. Anyone who has seen her onscreen work with Robert Altman or her offscreen temper tantrum on the set of “I Heart Huckabees” knows Edith Ann can play grown-up roles.
It’s Short who throws you for a loop — and that’s exactly the intent.
“One of the things we strive for on ‘Damages’ is that nothing is as it seems,” said Todd Kessler, who co-created the show with his brother Glenn and Daniel Zelman. “It continues to just amaze us to work with actors and performers who aren’t always given the opportunities to do something other than what they’re primarily known for.”
In Short’s case, that would be over-the-top outcasts — the accidental cowboy who’s practically swallowed by his hat in “Three Amigos,” the store clerk injected with courage (and Dennis Quaid) in “Innerspace,” the synchronized swimmer who can’t swim on “Saturday Night Live.” But Short doesn’t see a huge chasm between comedic and dramatic roles.
“I think of myself as a character actor, and you play characters in a sincere fashion,” said Short, who also went dark for a 2005 appearance on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” “Even if you’re playing Franck from ‘Father of the Bride,’ if you’re trying to be funny, you won’t be. But if you sincerely play him as this eccentric person who exists in the world, than you’re basically acting the character, who happens to be unusual. To me, it’s just what the role is and how you can effectively give the author what he had hoped to achieve.”
Short did play for laughs — when the cameras were off. Tomlin, a pretty quick wit herself, said she almost had to throw a blanket over her head to keep from cracking up before a big scene. Glenn Close, who plays the complicated cutthroat attorney Patty Hewes, said having comics around makes sense for a lot of reasons.
“I can’t tell you how invigorating, inspiring and fun it is,” said Close, who has won back-to-back Emmys for her starring role in the show. “You have actors that can do anything that’s asked of them and have a million ideas.
“Because of the pace we work at, in many ways it’s like improv because you have to be quick on your feet. You have to be able to learn lines very fast, and then to be able to kind of move around in those lines and make it authentic and believable.”
Anyone who’s still skeptical should keep the show’s track record in mind: In just two seasons, “Damages” has collected seven Emmy nominations for acting, and Short is poised to join the likes of William Hurt and Zeljko Ivanek in that club.
So who might be the next?
“Carrot Top,” Short said. “He’s in the next season.”