ken wahl interview

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  • 7/28/2019 Ken Wahl interview

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    .'.. a rare interviow,elusive 'Wahl talls aboutup-and-down cBre-e1'.

    WEEK 0F DEC 4-Drr t0,'1988 -, .: :DOYLESTOWX,pI .l .' ', ,. ,,';, _13 ntrlli ge nt:tr/ Record

  • 7/28/2019 Ken Wahl interview

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    "I must be doin'elusive star Ken

    somethin' riSt," says Wsegayls,Wahl,'j I'm still around."l/en Wahl, a Camel in his hand and af\ vodka-and-tonic on the table, sitsin a posh Manhattan restaurant - theonly wiseguy in the joint wearing jeans,a denim jacket and a Massa-chusetts Police Association cap. He'sdressing comfortably for an uncomfort-able experience: The notoriously press-shy star of CBS's "Wiseguy't (airingWednesdays) has consented to a rareinterview. Vegy much like his character'Vinnie Terranova, the undercover fed- reral alent who feints his way to the '.

    , ple Hearts" (1984), a-clone oi',An'Offi-: ,. cer and a Gentleman." "I),ouble D8r,',a l986.TV series with Billy Dee Wil-' liams, faded after six episodes, and his.most recent movie, "Omega Syndrome'l...(1987), played in just a few theaters...-,- "The feature market dried up for,..me," Wahl shrugs. .f'When.'Wiseguy'. -. came along I was hesitant to do it, but Ithought the quality was good. I had to ,4akera living, so I decided to do it. I" didn't.have to audition or an5rthing."' 1 Wahl is more an intuitive actor it an .

    BY FRANK LOVEPE

    :rfinldr"r.*lsfit'#'-1allelusive. WMTake the mystery of his birth date. ':-i. r s 11aini6 onb = he seems to hartor 't'i.boubti iboiit his "ribilitieir;'aesiitc t*tng t;..'..aitra- naoaitra ia-^- ^ ^^-c:r^--- l-^-,given massive doses of confidence from -".Wiseguy" producer Stephen.J.- Can-nell. Even during' this i-nt'efiie;';-fit'iseeks approval. Like a mischievoiis kid,he grabs a feporier's notes to see whatHe sa_ys it was Feb. 14, 1968. The offi- cause I didnlt go to college and I wasn'tcial Cll biogra-pll says Dec. 11, no trained. They look everything wrong -year. "Oh, yeah," Wahl nods in recogni- thai because I donlt take the businisstion. "Guy who works for cBS came up seriously that means I don't take thet0 me while I was workin', and I don't job seriously, which is totally untrLe."like doin'.stuff while I'm workin'. He: wahl seems like a man wiro has ev-

    ad a questionnaire. It looked like a job erything - great looks, a high-payingapplicalion. so I just filled out a bunch caieer, a sex-goddess wifo.-and twdf stuff. I told him I lived in New Mexi- kid6. Not bad f6r i guy from chicago'sthat I dropped out of high school." .south Side, where tr-e iryas the ninth ofut thoulh wahl says 1958, some ref- tl children in a blue-collar, German-books say 1953,. and the "wise- Itbiian family. He attended differentpublicist,'after checking company high schools as the family moved to thegives the date . as Feb. 14, suburbs of Midlothian and Worth. 'Inl-9!Tr That's a year earlier than Wahl's those days, he says, !.I kept prettybut apparently accurate: A call much to myself. I was tcind oCa toner.i'Bremen High School in the chicago had sorne buddies but it wasn't'like iof Midlothian reveals wahl would hold court, iuggle and do jokes."from there in June 1g?5, + In' I9?7, with ltalo-Americans Jo'hnat age 18. :i ' Travolta and Sylvester Stallone the hotA lot of young actors lie about their ' new faces, Wahl gave up a dead+ndBut Wahl, as with Vinnie, warchouse job and moved to Los Ange-to revel in deception: He told , les to put his own good looks to woik.he lives in New Mexico, but now,. , Within eight monthi; he was cast as athat was a fib and he lives in his , Bronx rJnzle in director philip Kauf-of chicago. Yet the publicist' iman's lgzg film '!The wanderers.'l Af-that when wahl is not in vancou- . ter that came high-profile roles oppo-where "Wiseguy" is filmed, he '' site paul Newman in-..Fort Apache,-fhein Boston - near where his wife, . Bronx" (lg8l) and Btte Midler in thePenlhouse Pet of the Year Co- aptly named ;Jinxed" (lgg2), where aAlphen, grew up as the daughter feud between the two stars almost end-a.Lynn, Mass., police captain. . .. ed in a lawsuit. perhaps partly becauseconsidering all ttiis ducking and :of that, and partly from his trigtrty vo-it's not surprisiag that Wahl cal distaste for Hollywood, Wahi,S ca-" reputation for disliking inter-: rerthenchanged'course.and interviewers. "It's all bull," :He stiu got work, but in increasinglysays. "They've made me sound like I minor movies: "The Soldier" (Ig82t ;.some kind of stupid idiot just be-' blow-'em-up actioner, followed by "pur-.

    . castic and . sullin. ,His iedi:tion isn't .helped-by the'fact- those same criticsfell, in love with i.'Wisegu!t"":'s twomemorable guest-villains; blayed byRay Sharkey an! Kevin Spacey, classi-

    others have written about:him. When'i-lWahl reads that some critics are unen-chanted with his acting, he turns sar-

    cally trained actors who gave risky; ibravura performances." Wahl has sat in on some acting class-es, but.has little regard for'them. "Ifother actors Wanna waste their time. doin'"that, it's an right.with me,": he-.'saysi "Being trained is fine if ybu feel;:that it helps.you, but you'can be thb ,-greatest tfainpd actor in the world,rand 1.if no one .wants to watch you'do it, ,it'g . .4A! fq naught.", 'l:' ' , . :. .: '-'- Latbr he adds: "There's dne.advan-,tage to playin' bad guys;.whibhI wouldlove to do. In those roles; you can dojust about anything and get-away withit. But Vinnie is the type of characterwho doesn't make things happen -things happen to him because of his po-sition undercover. And there's only somuch that he,can give away to the au-dience, because if he gives away too .much, then the criminals would catchon. There's a lot of frustration in that."-I'm trying to do the best job that Ican," says Wahl, finally a little less de-fensive. "It's just that I'm pragmaticand practical about the business. It is abusiness, dnd I approach it that way.'An{ f ,must be doin'somethinf right be-cause Ilp still:3r'gun6.'! ..r ' r' . t:

    4.DECEMBER IO, I988