BayTV's 'The Show' Transcript
April 5, 2000
I: Well our next guest is a Tony-Award nominee who was actually trained right here in San Francisco with the American Conservatory Theater. He�s presently here to talk about his current role in the Scarlet Pimpernel. Let�s take a look at that work.
(video clip of end lines for "She Was There," in the ruby satin)
I: Wow--Douglas Sills is here to class up our show a little bit. Look at that fancy getup. Very sexy.
DS (whistling, as in wow): How about that outfit? Very Las Vegas don�t you think? I actually stole that from Siegfried and Roy. They don't know that.
I: You train the tigers in that?
DS: Well, you know. We try to keep that quiet.
I: Do you ever go off the set and go next door to a restaurant and eat in that?
DS: There�s only certin bars where they let you in, but you can be a real hit. But you can take it off and combine it with the erotic dancing that I do with my off-hours, it goes over very big.
I: You can make some extra money that way.
DS: Absolutely.
(Female Interviewer, with pen and paper in hand): Ok, and where is this erotic dancing?
DS: It�s right, actually, at the theater. The first 2000 ticket buyers I do private erotic dancing from that outfit. It comes off in strips.
I: Ok, and I have ticket number one.
DS: Come on over. Everybody watching has to be naked as well, I just put that out there. I think that�s fair.
I: How is it being back in San Francisco? Home for you for a while.
DS: This is the best. This is THE city as far as I am concerned.
I: Especially coming back with all this success around the show.
DS: Right...oh, not about the erotic dancing. Yes, I�ve had a lot of success, but mostly due to this show and the other people in it. It�s-it�s incredible. You know, it�s as you would think. You�re in school here--I was going to ACT with a bunch of actors who are far more talented than me. And to be able to come back in something that kind of resembles this fantasy that you had when you were a kid, is, you know, it�s out of this world. It�s amazing. And the people at the stage door "Can I have your autograph" and you keep doing this [looking over shoulder] "What? What?"
I: Like, who are you talking to?
DS: Right, what do you want my autograph for? Internet sites, there�s a huge web presence that we have. It�s fantastic. People are going crazy for this show. They�re on their feet every night and I thought maybe it was going to just be in New York, but you know we�ve been in Minneapolis and New Haven and Seattle. And they�re riotous.
I: Well, talk about the start of the show because it had a kind of interesting start where the critics in New York whacked it around a little bit. So, you guys took it back and reworked it. Where you were doing the original version live for the audiences, in the daytime rehersing and reworking it. What was that like?
(video clip for "They Seek Him Here" with interview continuing.)
DS: We got beat up pretty bad. We were called the "Clinton" of the Broadway set. The critcs were rough on us, but they were very kind to me and I was very grateful for that. And the producers really believed in the show and, again, the people were loving it. So, they kept the show open and some other people came into the producorial position and this had never happened on Broadway before. And they hired a new director and they went back into rehersals and they made some changes. They kept what they thought was working about the show. And they took the opportunity to sort of shift other things around: change some songs, change the scenes, make it clearer, bring in some new actors. So, I was doing the old show at night and rehersing the new show during the day.
I: Oh my gosh. Were you ever worried that you were going to, you know, get the two...
DS: I wasn�t, but the people I was sword fighting with--definitely. You know, they look like swiss cheese now. But I�m fine and that�s really all that matters.
I: (laughing) Spoken like a true actor
DS: (laughing) Right, we are not self-absorbed! Me? It was pretty scary. I screwed up on stage a couple times. You get this thing, (indicating the male interviewer) well, you�re a stand-up, you know. You get flop sweat. When something�s going wrong and--we call it flop sweat--it just starts pouring off you. if anybody�s saw, um....what was that show with Albert Brooks, the movie? About the news...
Someone off stage: Broadcast News.
DS: Broadcast News. Oh my god, smart people in the studio. And you know, Albert�s just dripping. And that�s what it�s like because you�re doing a pattersong and it�s moving very quickly and if you screw up, forget it. And I lost the lyrics because we had been changing them during the day. And at one point we stopped the show. But I have a lot of freedom in the show. We do a lot of ad-libbing and there�s times when you address the audience and there�s some interaction. And so, it�s just a...it�s a great time. It�s every actor�s dream.
(Female Interviewer): Why do you think it is so successful? Why do you think people love this show so much?
(Male Interviewer): Go ahead, Douglas.
(video clip of the duel in the finale)
DS: The naked scenes and the twenty dollar bills on the seats.
(Female Interviewer): And the exotic dancing, yeah.
DS: And the chocolate, there�s chocolate at intermission. I�m totally kidding! Are they watching this right now (indicating video clip)? This is what they�re seeing.
I: Yes.
DS: OK. That�s me, the one in the dress, right, with the bustier.
I: Now, you�re in a million scenes. You�re like in every damn scene in this thing. You never even get to run off and go to the bathroom, get a cup of tea, take a swig of booze?
DS: I wear a catheter instead of going to the bathroom. I assumed everybody does that. You guys don�t do...oh no, I guess not. It�s great. You know what, every actor lives for this time when he�s busy and challenged every night. And since I was trained here at ACT, it was all classical training. All that Shakespeare stuff and so you�re studying dialects and physicalization and period style. The play takes place in about...at the French Revolution, at about 1790. Briefly: British aristocrat. Marries this French actress. Finds out she�s spying for the French Revolution. He decides to keep her at a distance, and cross the English Channel, and rescue people who are going to be beheaded at the guillotine. And he is vying in this battle with a rival, so it�s a three-way. There�s a guy who runs the French Revolution, and me--that�s the villan that you saw (indicating the video)--and the woman, who�s my wife. And then he finds out later that he was wrong, and that she wasn�t spying. So, it�s boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy does ok without girl, boy misses girl, boy gets girl back.
I: And a lot of action and entertainment in between.
DS: And I think the thing that surprised me the most is: people come expecting kind of a Les Miz history lesson, very dark. And it�s very funny, very comedic. And what�s great is people can come with their families and it�s just a hoot. They�re on their feet at the end. I always get this husband thing like (imitaiting bored look, with eyes rolled) where the wives drag their husbands and they thought "I was going to be miserable" and then "I can�t believe how much fun I had." Well, yeah. You�re not going to the doctor for a flu shot. So, I�m on stage a lot and I�m working my butt off and I�m soaking wet at the end of every scene, but it�a a hoot because you�re busy, what every actor looks for it.
(video clip of "Creation of Man," with a close-up on DS twirling his hankie)
I: Now you�ve also done a lot of...probably the wrong point or moment to bring up telelvision...but you�ve done a lot of tv. You�ve been on "Murphy Brown" and "Party of Five." How does that compare with your theater work? Do you have a preference?
DS: (deadpan) It pays a lot better.
I: Ok
DS: (starts laughing) Well, look, every actor will tell you the same thing: television gives you notoriety and noteriety brings you more work. Is it satisfying? Um...it can be, but not in the same way. There�s nothing like it. Anybody�ll tell you the same thing. On stage, the actor�s in control. In television, the producer/writer is in control. In film, the director�s in control. So, of course, an actor�s going to have the most fun on stage. I�ve just been lucky to have been in both straight plays and musicals and televison and a little bit of film. So, I�ve had the best of all worlds.
I: Now, you told your manager not to send you out on any more auditions.
DS: No, I told him he was fired
(laughter)
DS: I�m kidding Bill.
I: But then you went out for this. Really quickly, why this?
DS: You know, I saw this script and I had seen a little clip of the movie when I was a kid. My mom said, "You think you want to do this for a living? This guy really knows what he�s doing." It was Leslie Howard in the original 1935 Scarlet Pimpernel. She also put in, "And he�s Jewish, you know," as all Jewish mothers will. So, I just had this image burned into my head about the Scarlet Pimpernel. So when the script came to me, an agent called and said "Look, I think you should look at this." And I looked at it and went "All right, I�ll go out on this." And then there was a series of mishaps and like ten auditions later and, thank god, Kevin Kline turned it down.
I: (laughing) That�s what I heard.
DS: He did, and he came to the show and I thanked him very much for being busy. And he said, "Are you kidding? I would never work that hard again. You�re out of your mind. I saw that show."
I: Let�s tell folks you�re at the Orpheum Theater through the 16th, so do your taxes and run on down.
DS: Or *I�ll* do your taxes and run on down.
I: Just buy a ticket or log on to www.bestofbroadway.org on your computer for more information.
DS: Actually if you come on certain nights, Johnnie and Susan�s [the interviewers] head--we�re going to cut them off in the guillotine, so come over.
I: Thank you and congratulations on all your success.
-Transcript by Liz Daniell
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