Steven Weber – Exclusive Interview
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Staci Layne Wilson/Horror.com: You'll soon be in the TNT miniseries Nightmares & Dreamscapes [inspired by the short stories of Stephen King], and the story you're in, You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, is actually one of my favorites in the book. You're one of my favorites too, so I was really happy when I saw that you were going to be in it.
Steven: Well, thanks!
Q: Did you specifically choose that story? Did you have a choice between the adaptations from Nightmares & Dreamscapes?
Steven: I didn't. I mean, I was offered the role of the idiotic husband, which I play so well, and you know of course I leapt at it. The story is funny and has a King-ly twist and you know, it was an opportunity to work with Kim Delaney who I like very much. I thought the writing was excellent and it would be a fun little Stephen King ditty to be involved with.
Q: Had you worked with Kim before?
Steven: No I have never.
Q: And so... what's your conclusion?
Steven: I think I'm in love with her. [chuckling] It was lovely to work with her. She's very nice and I felt very good and we had a lot of fun doing it. It's always nice to work with someone you respect and actually turns out to be a pleasant human being.
Q: Was your first introduction to acting a Stephen King character, with The Shining miniseries you did in 1997?
Steven Weber: It was. It was my first introduction.
Q: What is it that you think that people keep coming back to Stephen King for? It seems like his name is on every other project.
Steven: Ah, well, he just lends a lot of believability and accessibility to his stories. The characters are not overly heroic or not unrealistically heroic or even unrealistically horrifying, they're all human and vulnerable to a certain extent. Accessible is a word that I keep thinking of. So when I did The Shining you know, it wasn't about Jack Nicholson-esque lurker in a big hotel with scary twins, blood and all that stuff. It was a guy who was alcoholic and fighting addiction and all the things that manifest themselves, all the horrors that manifest themselves based on that you know, that addiction. So that's what I think is interesting to people. It's the humanity, how he writes, how he approaches this fantasy horror.
Q: Have you met Stephen King?
Steven: Yeah! He was around a lot for production of The Shining. There he was on set almost every day and a really cool guy and you know fun and answered all your questions. He's a regular guy.
Q: Did you read the story You Know They Got a Hell of a Band before you played the role?
Steven: I did not.
Q: Have you read it since?
Steven: I have not. [laughter] I'm not a voracious reader.
Q: No? It's a short story though.
Steven: Anything longer than a fortune cookie is too long for me.
Q: You did a great job writing Jenifer, by the way. That was a little longer than a fortune cookie.
Steven: Thanks, thanks. It underwent a lot of changes once Dario [Argento], who is one of my heroes, got done sinking his claws into it, but I had a lot of fun with it.
Q: Well, you've done a few horror anthologies - Tales From the Crypt, Masters of Horror, now Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Would you like to do more of the same? Would you like to return to Masters of Horror for instance?
Steven: Well, yeah! I just think the form is great and sort of forgotten in a sense. The anthology form is so great for writers, actors, directors and producers to practice and to stretch. I think it's good for audiences too because they get a mini-film every week. I'd love to do more things like that. You know, in the Twilight Zone episodes, you see every actor under the sun from Burgess Meredith to Robert Redford to Robert Duvall. All old great actors cut their teeth on anthology shows, so I'd come back in a second.
Q: In You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band, you play a man who refuses to follow directions or to look at a map and you get lost and find yourselves on the road to this rock'n'roll heaven. There is a concert there every night. So my question is, if you were actually stuck in rock'n'roll heaven, what band would you like to listen to every night?
Steven: Ummm, The Rolling Stones. And I guess everybody from The Beatles. A percentage of both groups who are still living but ah, if I could assemble the original quartets, that would interest me. You know the thing I liked about the character of
Q: Absolutely. [laughter] One thing I didn't understand in the story though, maybe you can explain it to me… Why did the couple look elderly for just a moment there?
Steven: I think Kim Delaney's character saw herself and her husband in the future. That this is their life. These are their lives, these are what will be, you know, without end, kind of useless bickering, endless back and forth, getting lost. I know what you mean: in the story it all seemed like a supernatural event that occurred, you know, in the conceit of the story. But really I think it was more of her just being bored with the relationship. Just seeing herself as an old woman, thinking "Cripe! I'm just going to get old being the wife in the seat next to this idiot."
Q: Ok! That makes sense. Very good.
Steven: I could be way off base.
Q: I like it. It works for me. So you're returning to series TV soon, is that correct?
Steven: Um humm.
Q: What is that show called?
Steven: It's called Studio 60. It will be on NBC, and it's written and created by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing and Sports Night fame. It's about what happens and what goes on behind the scenes on a Saturday Night Live type of television show. So there's a show within the show. Matthew Perry is in it and Amanda Peet, DL Hughley and myself, and a host of other actors and actresses. It will be on in the fall.
Q: Oh, that sounds like fun! Is it like The Larry Saunders Show?
Steven: Ah, no [it's not a comedy]. It's an hour drama but there are some comic moments. Comedy is wrought from moments of high anxiety rather than just kind of out right joking. There are lighter moments and sort of the progeny of West Wing and Sports Night. If those two shows copulated and had a child, this would be it. So it is funny but it is engaging and the audience[s today] have a command of show biz vernacular, so they won't be put off by any references to ratings, demographics and all that stuff.
Q: What role do you play in the show?
Steven: I play the head of the network. Kind of an amalgam of Kevin Riley, Jeff Zucker, and Les Moonves. Except with my trademark sex appeal.
Q: Absolutely! We gotta have that.
Steven: We can't not bring attention to that.
Q: As if you're not busy enough, you have some movies coming out, too?
Steven: I'm doing a independent film now called Shoes Conner which is a dark little political, strange drama. I did an episode of Monk last week which was fun. Ah, I'm just really looking forward to a season of Studio 60 and Nightmares & Dreamscapes. And I've got my kids. That's enough for me now.
Q: You've got kids?
Steven: Yeah, two little boys.
Q: Oh, goodness. That doesn't leave much time for anything else, but do you think you'll do any more writing?
Steven: I have been writing as well, and trying to move those things. The subject matter that I'm dealing with now, that I'm trying to write about, get kind of dark and twisted so people whose immediate bottom line is making a profit, might not... they don't respond as readily to the type of material that I'm writing. It's nothing hugely controversial at all [but] I like movies Alexander Payne has made, or Paul Thomas Anderson. Things that are challenging and funny and a little twisted.
Q: Speaking of twisted, and Dario Argento earlier: Have you seen
Steven: I have not.
Q: Talk about dark and twisted! Now, that is a strange movie.
Steven: Is it really? Is it good strange or bad strange?
Q: It's good strange. I liked it, it kind of reminded me of, you know, something by Larry Clark or Gus Van Sant, or something along those lines. Pretty depressing, but it is good. You know, the dark genres are pretty popular right now. Almost everything you see that's a horror movie is opening at #1. And there's a lot of horror on TV. So maybe you could twist your Alexander Payne / Paul Thomas Anderson scripts that way.
Steven: Are you talking about horror genre?
Q: Yeah. You've done a lot of horror, but are you a fan, too?
Steven: Oh completely, yeah. I've been a fan of it since I was a little kid from watching old horror movies to loving DC comics and Creepy, and Eerie. I've been a real horror junkie for years.
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Read Horror.com's Review of You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band.