Billy Crudup's Dumb Luck
After a stint in `Arcadia,' actor plays role of drug-addled goofball in
`Jesus' Son'
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Staff Critic
Sunday, July 2, 2000
It's a good actor who can play someone stupid without winking at the
audience. Few can resist a subtle comment, a look, a gesture or an
exaggeration to let the audience know that they are not really like the
character. Jennifer Jason Leigh avoided those traps in the early '90s in
``Miami Blues'' and turned in one of her best performances. And now there's
Billy Crudup in ``Jesus' Son,'' playing a drug-addled goofball in an
adaptation of Denis Johnson's book of short stories.
Crudup, speaking by phone from New York, says the process of playing dumb is
more a matter of subtraction than addition. ``You perpetually encourage some
of your own resources and discourage others,'' he says. ``It's a matter of
trying to be less self-conscious and of keeping the objectives simple. You
don't think things through.''
Crudup has had the opposite acting challenge -- playing someone smarter than
himself. ``Just about everyone I've played has been smarter than I am,'' he
says. Specifically, Crudup is talking about the role of Septimus in Tom
Stoppard's ``Arcadia,'' the Broadway show that was his professional
breakthrough.
``In `Arcadia,' basically, I just had to not think,'' he says. ``I had to say
the words -- because the character was always way ahead of me. I remember how
difficult it was to be that quick. Where my instinct would be to pause, he
doesn't pause because the answer occurs to him in a millisecond.''
Crudup is one of those actors who disappear into their roles. He is not a
personality actor, the kind who more or less plays himself from film to film.
The fellow in ``Jesus' Son'' is a completely different person from the
ambitious young politician Crudup played in ``Waking the Dead,'' which opened
earlier this year. ``I prefer to create a character that's based upon the
script and not based upon me. Very few scripts are based upon me, you know?
It's not that I project something different onto a script just to be
different. The scripts are written by different people about different
people.''
Though it seems as if he has been around for a while, Crudup, who turns 32 on
Saturday, graduated from New York University's actor training program only
six years ago. He did a play for regional theater. He did an off-Broadway
show. And then he got ``Arcadia.'' It was the kind of vault into prominence
that actors dream of.
``I auditioned, and the casting director said I was not quite right,'' Crudup
recalls. ``And then as I was walking out, I just realized what he wanted me
to do. So I called my agent and I said, `I understood what he meant. Will
they see me again?' He checked and got back to me and said that they didn't
think I was really right for the part.''
Here's the interesting part of the story: After being denied a chance to
audition again, Crudup continued to rehearse the role. This is so different
from the way most actors would react. When most people are rejected for a
role, they try to put it out of their minds. It's too depressing to think
about. Who wants to get good at a role he'll never play? ``I guess I wasn't
wise enough at the time. I hadn't learned properly how to get things out of
your head,'' Crudup says. ``I'm endlessly interested in acting. It didn't
bother me not to get the part because I didn't think I had a chance anyway.''
A few days passed. Crudup was making an independent movie. He had a few days
left to film it when the director fired him. ``He said it just wasn't working
out,'' he says. ``I was devastated and seriously considering whether I wanted
to keep doing this.'' Then three days later, his agent called. They hadn't
found anyone for ``Arcadia'' yet and were willing to give him a second look.
Since Crudup had been steadily rehearsing the role, he went into the audition
fully prepared -- and got the part.
Since then he has appeared in a number of movies, including ``Sleepers'': ``I
was one of the guys who killed Kevin Bacon. I was the dark-haired guy.'' But
he has yet to have the huge success onscreen that people have been
predicting. Keith Gordon, his director in ``Waking the Dead,'' said recently
that Crudup isn't interested in stardom.
``I think everything I do has the potential to be popular. It's just that my
idea of what should be popular is different from everybody else's idea,''
Crudup says. ``If I don't take parts in action movies or too-clever love
stories, it's not by way of discouraging movie stardom. It's just by way of
being an actor. I don't know what I'd do with those roles. There's nothing
there. I'm more interested in longevity as an actor. I plan on doing this for
the rest of my life.''
After ``Jesus' Son,'' Crudup will appear in Cameron Crowe's next film, which
opens in October. Not yet titled, it's an ensemble piece co-starring Frances
McDormand and Jason Lee. It may become the hit that has eluded him.
``It's about a rock band, and it's set in the 1970s,'' Crudup says. ``I've
got to get out of the '70s. It's the third movie in a row -- I don't know
why.''
Maybe it's that in the '70s people were on the thin side, and so is Crudup.
``Well,'' he says, ``I'd gladly gain 20 pounds to do something modern.''
