My Questions and Comments
in Gold
Mr. Coffin in WHITE!
Through hook and crook I was able
to wrangle some time off from work to do this interview. Mr. Coffin has
a wonderfully distinctive voice that has a rich rumble that is likely
to send shivers through anyone hearing it. Talk about distinguished!
Right away he mentioned Cliff DeYoung who
played Evan Crandal, Emma's wayward husband.
I knew Cliff from back in the New York Public Theater, where we started
out together, a hundred years ago [laughter] He's a great guy, we've
done
some work since, including Andersonville for John Frankenheimer and
some
really good projects. Anyway..
I loved doing The Young Riders. I really did...one of the reasons I
loved doing it... there was a certain articulation.. diction of
thought.. that a
lot of people write off these times, the 1800s, the West, as being
sloppy, you know. Being kind of 'grunt city' a 'shoot-em up' drink a
lot of 'sarsaparilla.'
And this guy was not that at all, [Sutro] was extremely articulate man.
I had a feeling that he had crossed paths with many educated people, so
I
liked the way he phrased things. I like the way he talked.
Do you remember anything about the Casting
Process?
When I went to the interview I had time to sit down in a room and look
at the script and I believe that I had seen the script before that
even. So, I had time to look at it... I believe it was directed by
Jerry London {check on this} If it was Jerry London it was the
beginning of a relationship that I had with him for a number of shows.
[Whoever it was] he and I immediately 'rang the bell' in terms of this
diction of thoughts and speech and I really felt good about that. One
of the things you hope for, especially having done a lot of classical
theater (Shakespeare in the Park, in New York and two years
in the Classic Repertory Company in Detroit).. it was a [connection] I
didn't
expect [to make]. In this business you have a lot of people that don't
know
what they're doing. They don't recognize good diction or speech.
They're
working professionals and that's fine.. I'm not going to demand they
give
me four or five strong quotes from Richard the Third to prove their
mettle.
It's a different ball game. In this particular case, I do remember this
connection
being made, so I was not at all surprised a day or two later to find
out
that I had gotten the part. It's gratifying when something like that
happens.
The audition was in Los Angeles. About a week later I flew out to
Tucson and we did it.
*Mr Coffin and I have both been teachers*
Teaching is so rewarding when it's working. It's very hard to make it
work too. I worked with a group of reform school kids out in Maryland
one summer, teaching them theater and directing them in a
production. I'll tell you something, when that thing was mounted, I
thought "There is a God!" You know? It does work. Just a wonderful
thing.
*It turns out that we have a mutual friend
here in Hawaii in the theater... it truly is a small world, he had also
journeyed to Hawaii to appear in 'Jake and the Fatman'*
We got on the subject of Period Shows and Mr. Coffin told me how
blessed he had been to work with one of the greatest theater companies
in the country, the Producing Artists in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Starting
in the fall they would out five or six plays and take them to New York
and put them out on Broadway. The list of actors was *very* impressive
and their abilities were incredible. It was a company of actors that
understood that the character, the movement was dictating by the
clothing.
I got very close to an English actor years ago, named Allan Howard, who
was with the Royal Shakespeare Company and I went to visit and I was
over
there looking at all the great English Theater, especially the
Restoration.
He said an incredible thing: "Restoration is about cruelty... social
cruelty." People behave in certain ways that they are also immune to
the feels of others, but that's what it was.
What was your First Impression of the Set?
It was fairly disorganized. It was brand new.. a new series and they
tend to be [like that]. I believe, the day that I arrived, Josh's
Brolin's father had been in an airplane collision or crash. Everyone
was, certainly Josh, and a lot of others were upset... Every single
time that I've done one of these shows, I make sure that I'm very very
very prepared, and nothing is going to throw me. Ready for any possible
change of venue, lines, dialog... ready to improvise in a second... you
just have to. I had ridden horses all my life, [my family] owned two
horses when we lived in Ohio. My twin brother and I had a horse that we
fought over left and right. Who gets to ride today.. or half a day..
and I always loved westerns.
Were there times that you had to use that
skill and change things in a moment?
Yeah, I remember collections of horses, there was a moment when we had
to meet.. the bad guys.. before we descended on the house.. that's
always difficult, to get the horses and the people together and
organized... in a series you don't have a lot of time... even in
Tucson... where you have a lot of local talent and they are very eager
to do anything they can to make it work. They're not worried about
overtime and anything like that. They want to work, be apart
of it.. be on camera as much as they can.. and I understand that.
Who did you spend the most time with on set?
I really liked Cliff deYoung and... there's a moment.. well a bunch of
moments on a set.. even with a character you're really prepared for...
if you're listening
and watching, you'll find things to do.. that you didn't plan on
doing...
if you're really open, the freer you are, you'll discover those. For
Andersonville,
in the stockade for the soldiers, I was so well prepared that things
just
developed left and right... I don't know how many times those moments
took
place in the Young Riders, but I know that I felt comfortable and
that's
the key.
I remember that there were a number of times when the filming pushed
back the break times.. the meals... and that makes it difficult to work.
I remember Melissa Leo on the show.. She and I had done, along with
Timothy Hutton, Stockard Channing, and Bill Hurt had gone to Yugoslavia
to do a film, a couple of years before the Young Riders, called
Time
of Destiny, which was an interesting idea. Going to Yugoslavia was
very interesting. Melissa
Leo and I didn't have much of a storyline together, so we didn't
spend
much time together, but I remember that she had some kind of
quirky
vocal warm up.
Did you sit down to watch the episode when
it aired?
Oh yeah... yeah... for a few years I used a clip of it on my audition
tape. I really liked it. It was the scene where the bad guys meet to
figure out where everything had gone. "Mr. Comstock, why don't you
check it out..." and
I loved that scene.. about 20 seconds long.. loved the language.. until
about
six years later... and I thought I should take it out since I had done
too
many other things since. I always liked it a lot.
More Pictures from the Episode
