In his 30-year career, Eric Bogosian has written two novels and more than a dozen plays, in addition to working as an actor with everyone from Woody Allen to Steven Seagal. A revival of his breakout hit “Talk Radio,” starring Liev Schreiber, opens at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway March 11. Here, the author and actor spoke to WWD.
WWD: There have been two revivals of your plays within six months, the first being “SubUrbia.” What do you think it is about this moment?
Eric Bogosian: I just think that my work is so far ahead of the curve that it took a while for uptown to catch up.
WWD: What similarities did you see between yourself and Barry Champlain, the protagonist in “Talk Radio”?
E.B.: Hunger. This is an ambitious guy. The difference between me and Barry is that Barry doesn’t spend much time feeling guilty or worrying about why he does things, but other than that, he’s very similar to me. And at the time I wrote it, I wasn’t the most sensitive person. There was really only one thing that was important to me and it was, how do I get my name in lights?
WWD: I read an interview you did with Chris Rock in The New York Times Magazine, in which you said, “You’re black. You’ve got a lot of reasons to be angry. I’m white and I’m angry.” Were you always that way?
E.B.: Well, I was known for my temper in high school, and the first character I played on stage was Capulet in “Romeo and Juliet.” That was 10th grade. He’s Juliet’s dad. And he’s always pissed off that she’s out partying. From that point on, I seemed to have an access to anger.
WWD: Do you feel less angry now?
E.B.: I generally don’t feel angry at all now. Although I spent six hours in the ER with my father last night, and I imagine that if we weren’t spending billions destroying Iraq, we could spend more on hospitals and my dad could’ve gotten a bed five hours sooner.
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WWD: You once wrote on your Web site: “Like most actors, I believe in the projects I’m working on. I hope for the best, which is something I want to see myself in. In some respects, I’m a whore, but I’m a whore who chooses his clients.” How does doing “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” fit into this?
E.B.: Honestly, I sometimes have to pinch myself because the first thing I wanted to do on film was a dramatic, intense role, and I got to do that with [the film adaptation of] “Talk Radio.” Then I saw “Die Hard” and thought, “I’d love to be one of these villains in an action movie.” And I got to do that. I don’t watch much TV, but I’d been on “Law & Order” in the early years as a lawyer, and thought, “I’d love to be one of those dour, unsmiling, cops.” I think there’s such an effort in the arts to be heavy or deep or something really boring. I remember seeing Tennessee Williams on the Dick Cavett show once and his whole banter was so light and breezy. And I thought, “This guy is the greatest playwright in American history and he’s not taking himself seriously. So why should I?” And for me to be on TV is a joy to my family.
WWD: Did they not like your plays?
E.B.: They dig my plays, but there’s a lot of vitriol and they don’t really care for that. My mother said to me two years ago, “I was talking to my friends and they asked what you do. What do you do?” Now it’s easy for her to answer that: “My son’s on ‘Law & Order.'”