The Further Exposure of Rob Morrow

Q: Did landing the film give you more confidence in your decision?

A: No. When I saw it I felt, OK, I'm holding my own. But I don't think you ever feel completely comfortable.

Q: Early in the show's run you had a highly publicized salary dispute with the show's producers. Were you surprised about the amount of publicity that received?

A: I knew a bit about showbiz. There were not many surprises.

Q: Did you have any regrets about the way you handled it?

A: Nothing's coming to mind. I'm sure stuff was leaked or said that wasn't true. I remember when I first started renegotiating, I'd have friends come up to me and say, "You're making four zillion dollars an episode. Why do you want 10?" I was like, "That's not even remotely close to how much I'm making." As soon as I'd say, "Well, here's what I'm doing and why," they'd go, "Oh. I understand."

Q: Would other actors come up and say, "Good for you"?

A: Of course. Look, the actors are not the ones who're making the big bucks.

Q: Is there behavior of yours that, looking back, you find reprehensible?

A: Not too much in the business dealings, but yeah, I remember one time having a fight with the costume designer about a pair of pants. I was just a jerk about the way I handled it. You gotta learn that stuff.

Q: What was wrong with the pants?

A: I just didn't like them. She wanted me to wear them. I was like, "I'm not wearing 'em." She was like. "You have to." I was like, "Now I'm definitely not wearing them."

Q: Who won?

A: Me, because the aggravation wasn't worth it to her.

Q: I guess the squeaky wheel really does get the grease.

A: What do you mean?

Q: If you're a pain in the ass, you get what you want.

A: Maybe. Ultimately what I want as I get older is not to have my way, but to have the best product come out.

Q: Did you watch the show after you left?

A: I guess I didn't.

Q: Did you watch it when you were on?

A: I did. I saw all the shows I was on.

Q: Because of your well-publicized professional squabbles, do people ever expect you to be difficult?

A: Maybe. My guess is anyone who meets me can tell I'm pretty straight. I work hard and I think people know that. I'm opinionated, but I'm not egomaniacal.

Q: Last year, you were set to do The Island of Dr. Moreau with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer and then you dropped out. What happened?

A: Well, I actually shot a few days in Queensland, Australia. The director, Richard Stanley, got fired and that was kind of it for me. I asked to leave. [New Line production president] Mike De Luca was a really good guy and said that if he could find another actor he would let me go, and he found David Thewlis.

Q: What were your reasons for leaving?

A: I don't want to say anything... it just wasn't for me.

Q: Did you get to meet Marlon Brando?

A: Never. Isn't that a bummer? That was one of the main reasons I did it.

Q: What character do you play in Albert Brooks's new film, Mother?

A: My character is this foppish mama's- boy, high-voiced, successful sports agent. It's a bit out there. Just what the doctor ordered.

Q: Isn't Debbie Reynolds in it?

A: Yeah. She plays my and Albert's mother. I'm not sure how much to talk about it. Albert's really proprietary about the script.

Q: How old were you when you moved to New York City to become an actor?

A: I was 17-and-a-half. The first year in New York. I lived in a teeny place with a couple of guys. We slept till probably three in the afternoon and didn't go out till midnight, when we'd go and get our dinner, which was a loaf of hot bread and a stick of butter if we were doing particularly well. And we'd go out and pick up as many cigarette butts as we could find and when we got home we'd have a whole big pile and sit there and smoke and eat our dinner. It was basically, in retrospect, complete fear of the world. Fortunately I got through that.

Q: Did you get into a lot of trouble in those days?

A: Sure. I'm trying to think of a story that I won't regret telling you. I remember moving out of that particular flat. We couldn't afford the rent. I don't know if we were formally evicted, but it was imminent. And I had this old huge velvet purple couch from my family's house and I was like, "It's my family couch, I have to get it," and we tried to take it down the steps and it got wedged in the stairwell at two in the morning and we couldn't get it out. We finally just left this huge monstrosity of a couch stuck there.

Q: Were you working at that time?

A: Jobs didn't last long at that point. I was an usher in a movie theater for a good chunk of that year. I saw Honeysuckle Rose a zillion times. It was where I developed a mad crush on Amy Irving, who I now bump into and I can barely speak to.

Q: What was the first movie you saw in a theater?

A: The one that first had an influence was 2001: A Space Odyssey. It has constant ramifications in my life as I get older.

Q: What's your earliest memory of being turned on by a movie?

A: Jane Fonda in Klute definitely got me going. Any pretty girl in a miniskirt turned me on when I was a kid.

Q: I've read that seeing Grease was important to you. Why?

A: That's where I became at least cognizant of wanting to become an actor.

Q: Because you could be 40 and still play a high school student?

A: They weren't 40. It just looked like a blast. I saw it a bunch of times.

Q: Did you want to be Danny Zuko?

A: Yeah.

Q: Who did you want to fuck, Sandy or Rizzo?

A: Well, Rizzo was who?

Q: Stockard Channing.

A: Sandy. I got a good couple of nights of fantasies from her, I'm sure.

Q: You were in the comedy Private Resort with Johnny Depp. What do you remember about him?

A: His sense of humor. He kept me laughing. It was a stupid movie. I think Johnny and I ought to start a fund to buy the negative and destroy it.

Q: You also did an episode of "Fame." Did you have to wear leg warmers?

A: I didn't. I was the tough trouble-maker antagonist.

Q: Were you disappointed that Quiz Show didn't do better at the box office?

A: Sure. You know, there's such a balance between quality and marketing and timing. Sometimes you hit it and sometimes you don't. A lot of people think it was a hit because it got so much attention.

Q: You gained some weight for your role in that movie. How much did you put on?

A: I stopped looking after about 20 pounds. I'd have hamburgers and French fries and a malt for breakfast. It didn't feel good ultimately because we were shooting it in New York City in the summer, and on top of that I was wearing heavy wool suits to make me look even bigger.

Q: Did you get to introduce your mother to Robert Redford?

A: Yeah, and she was floored. After she met him, she'd walk around saying, "My friend Robert Redford."

Q: What was it like acting with Martin Scorsese?

A: Great. He's a good actor. I really love his reasons for acting. He likes to do it once every year or two because it gets him back in touch with what the actor goes through.

Q: Did you think, "If I kick ass in this scene, maybe he'll put me in his next movie"?

A: I guess it ran through my head, but it wasn't something I thought about much It was the perfect way to meet him, because normally I would either meet him socially or on a meeting for a movie and he'd be calling the shots. But in this case, he was kind of stepping into my world in a way. He was a little nervous, so in between takes I'd say like. "Taxi Driver!" and he'd go, "Oh yeah. Bob came in and..." I got a lot of stories out of him. I wrote and directed this short movie that I asked him to look at, and that was probably one of my highs.

Q: What was his feedback?

A: It was very enthusiastic and kind of like, "What's next? Where are you headed?"

Q: What is your short film, The Silent Alarm, about?

A: It's about a kid in 1968 in a very idyllic Spielbergian Eastern suburb. He lives with his mom, and there's this guy that sells alarms door to door who ends up moving in with this kid's mom and wreaking psychological havoc on the kid.

Q: What inspired you to write it?

A: Some events from childhood, and I'm just very interested in children. I'm very aware of the delicate balance between nurturing and oppression.

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