Kevin Kline on The Extra Man, Acting Thieves, and His Possible HBO Future

Is there a specific literary figure or character to whom you relate or wanted to be?

Oh, sure. When I was younger, at a more impressionable age, I always loved the character of Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. There was something of a reprobate about him, and yet he does one of the most heroic acts. And he says, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done." His last act is so unselfish, so selfless, so heroic. Maybe that's my Catholic upbringing, but it's about the ability to redeem yourself. But I also love irredeemable characters like Falstaff -- if you want to look at it that way, which is not how I look at it. Do you know how Falstaff ends up?

No.

Well, apropos of The Extra Man, he's a great misleader of youth. He's a bon vivant and a drunkard -- but who is the wittiest men in England and one one of the most intelligent men going. But he's a scoundrel and a corrupter. And ultimately Hal -- who's his sort of drinking buddy who's destined to become the king -- when then king dies, says, "Go away. You're exiled." And he dies of a broken heart. "The king hath killed his heart." Shakespeare knew he couldn't have Falstaff alive in Henry V because he knew he'd steal the play the way he steals Henry IV. He's a brilliantly, brilliantly drawn character. And there are pieces of characters throughout literature that I've always liked. But I mentioned Sydney Carton because I would loved to play that role, but the movie's been made twice -- and rather well -- with Ronald Colman and Dirk Bogarde. Leave it alone. But I always wanted to play him.

There was a choreographer on this film, but I had a hard time believing Henry's dancing was choreographed in any way.

It wasn't. We had a choreographer, Patricia Birch, with whom I worked on In & Out. There was a dance at the end of In & Out -- not the dance that ended up in In & Out, but a scene that they cut where I'm dancing down the street of the town with the wedding bouquet or something. She choreographed a dance when I was in drama school. She was an old friend of John Houseman's. I've worked with her a number of times over the years, and we got together on a Saturday and toyed with different ideas. She said, "Just do that wacky dance that you do. Just a parody of... [He extends and twists and weaves his arms arrhythmically, fingers splayed and shoulders raised] Bob Fosse meets... Nijinsky meets... Martha Graham meets... Frederick Ashton..." And if you see the whole dance, which was about four or five minutes -- [it was] very exhausting. Maybe it'll be in the DVD extras.

But we just thought that his references, with him being this cultured New York man about town, would probably be these dancers, right up to Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor, what have you. It just comes out. I don't know how it plays because it's just a piece of what I did. But I know he says, "You could never imitate it. It's based on jungle rhythms." It's different from the book; in the book he listens to Ethel Merman listening to Cole Porter and does a kind of foxtrot sort of thing, but moving his arms around. Jonathan even demonstrated what the real guy did for me, but we kind of took it to the next step.

You're listed as appearing in an upcoming Untiled Kevin Kline Project on HBO. What is that?

Good question. It's in the process of being written now. I think they tend to announce these kind of things rather prematurely. It's hypothetically a series that I would do for HBO. It's in development. I might be shooting it in October; I may never shoot it.

Can you elaborate as to who you'd play?

[Pauses] It's probably best not to. It's not a done deal. I hate even talking about, "Oh I just made this wonderful comedy..." I don't know it's a comedy until I see it. It wants to be a comedy or a tragedy or whatever. But there are so many elements that come into play between the original idea and the...

Finished product.

Exactly.

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