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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Maybe you don't know his name, but you know Bobby Cannavale's face. And get ready to see a whole lot more of it.
Feb 20, 2005 | People say hi to Bobby Cannavale a lot. On our way to Central Park, where he wants to sit under Christo's as-yet unfurled "Gates" for an interview, the guys running his neighborhood bodega give him a wave. A man he knows from the gym says hello when we pass him on the street, and a park worker shouts, "Hey, Bobby!" from about 50 feet away, which prompts him to respond gregariously, "Hey, good to see you!" before turning and laughing, "I've never met that guy."
Of course, it's not uncommon for actors to mingle with the public in New York, where members of every class and clique still pass each other on the way to the subway. But hours after meeting Cannavale, I pass the actor Liev Schreiber walking down Broadway, humming to himself, in what seems like a canny attempt to keep well-wishers at bay. And I've watched Sarah Jessica Parker march down a neighborhood sidewalk with a stare so icy it would send an entire "Sex and the City" tour fleeing in terror.
Cannavale isn't a huge star (yet) but in a short period of time he's made an impression in a series of very different roles, from his first big part (as a firefighter on NBC's "Third Watch") to a string of memorable performances on lauded but short-lived series (a mobster on NBC's "Kingpin," a deal-making junior prosecutor on A&E's "100 Centre Street") to vivid cameos (the guy with "funky spunk" on "Sex and the City"), all of which led to his breakout film role as Joe, the coffee vendor in the 2003 independent hit "The Station Agent." Along the way, he's invested his characters with a bighearted openness, the kind of slightly naive vulnerability that transforms your tough guy, wide-eyed idealist or macho lunk into a much more complex presence. Those visceral qualities not only help to explain Cannavale's success, but also hint at why he seems so approachable to complete strangers.
And it's likely to happen more in 2005. Fresh from a recurring role as Will's boyfriend in "Will & Grace," Cannavale will star in two anticipated independent films this year: Don Roos' "Happy Endings" and John Turturro's musical "Romance and Cigarettes" ("I play a guy who thinks he's James Brown, and my girlfriend is Mandy Moore, and I'm way too old for her"). And currently he's drawing attention as tortured Phil in the much-discussed restaging of David Rabe's study of '80s Hollywood excess, "Hurlyburly"; Cannavale's sensitive depiction of a sociopath on the brink is the standout performance among a stellar cast (Ethan Hawke, Wallace Shawn, Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton). The over-three-hour-long play has been performing to sold-out audiences, and has been buoyed by talk that it would move to Broadway almost immediately after it debuted last month.
I spent a recent morning with a hoarse Cannavale, who was recovering from another marathon performance. He was happy to discuss his upcoming films, the challenge of finding interesting roles, and why even a childhood of knockoff Nikes won't drive him to appear in the next crappy blockbuster.
Cannavale: Do you mind? [pulls out a cigarette].
Nope.
With this show, we smoke so many cigarettes ...
Onstage you sure smoke a lot.
Cigarettes? My character doesn't smoke cigarettes; I think only Parker [Posey] smokes cigarettes onstage. I meant offstage.
Right, but you're smoking a lot of pot onstage. Or "pot." What is that, by the way? Everyone was muttering about how much it smelled like the real thing.
The weed? It's different spice mixes. I know one of them, that I like, is thyme and parsley. And there's another that they bought from a company that sells fake pot, for things like this, that Josh [Hamilton] claims is easier on his throat.
You're still a fairly new face to a lot of people, since you really didn't break into TV until 1998 with (the short-lived) "Trinity," but you did a lot of stage work before then.
Yeah, I was always working. There was never any real difference between working and not making money and working and making money. I was like a Backstage kid, I was always in something. And I had a job, I worked in clubs, so I wouldn't have to go to work until midnight. It was perfect.
"Trinity" was the first job I got paid on. And it all kind of worked out perfectly, really. That show didn't become a big hit, but it led to "Third Watch." And, you know, I'd never done anything in front of a camera. I don't think I was very good back then, but then I managed to stay under the radar so I could learn from my mistakes, and I didn't stay on any show for too long.
I'd read somewhere that you said "Third Watch" was a rough experience because [creator/director] John Wells asked you to basically play yourself.
Well, I'd just had my son, and suddenly I've got this huge job. I'd never been paid anything like that. I was in shock, and I just really wanted to keep that job, and so I did everything they wanted me to do. And I was young and, you know, it worked out for them for a while, too. But for me, just as an actor, I didn't know what else to play. I was constantly scrutinizing myself, and looking at myself and becoming this thing that wasn't an actor.
