By: Hap Erstein
Source: The Washington Times
Date: October 27th 1991
Submitted By: Anon

Jane White as Volumnia and Bradley Whitford as Coriolanus. Photo by Joan Marcus.

As the youngest of five children and the uncle of 10 nieces and nephews, Bradley Whitford has a built-in audience. For some of his roles, that is. Of the nieces and nephews, he shrugs and admits, " 'Coriolanus' they could care less about, but they want a crew jacket from 'Robocop 3.'"

Yes, the classically trained Juilliard Theatre Center graduate who performs brilliantly as the warrior-turned-politician Caius Marcius Coriolanus at the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger is featured in the latest "Robocop" sequel, due out next year.

As Mr. Whitford explains the philosophy of his wide-ranging resume, "I think it's good to mix the complicated and sublime with the brain-dead."

Six years out of school, Mr. Whitford looks even younger than his 31 years. That's due in part to the Marine buzz cut, what he calls his "I'll-never-work-again" haircut. He fought to wear it as a visual cue to Coriolanus' character.

In those six years, he has amassed an impressive resume - an armload of Shakespearean roles, a character on the ABC soap opera "All My Children," a leading role on Broadway in "A Few Good Men" and a few roles in films, brain-dead and not.

Mr. Whitford was just barely in some films. Take "Awakenings," the Robin Williams-Robert De Niro movie in which he plays a doctor - very briefly.

"Most of it got cut," he reports, "but I shot that movie for two months. That one shouldn't even be on my resume."

In "Presumed Innocent," he played defense lawyer Raul Julia's assistant. "So I'm in all the court stuff and I go looking for the diaphragm," a crucial piece of evidence for Harrison Ford's character.

Neither role was particularly demanding. But Bradley Whitford is becoming known within the film industry. And, anyway, both movies sound better than his previous biggest Hollywood credit - "Revenge of the Nerds II."

You Gotta Have It

The shifts back and forth between the classics and pop movies is, Mr. Whitford admits, schizophrenic.

"When you do stage work, especially Shakespeare, it pushes you to be audacious," he says. "And when you do film work, you can't lie."

Bradley Whitford as Coriolanus with soldiers. Photo by Joan Marcus.

He keeps his sense of humor about both. Asked how his classical training influences his film acting, he pauses and then responds drily, "Actually, there's a lot of 'Lear' in 'Revenge of the Nerds II.'

"I think that there's an unfortunate schism between quality and what's popular now," he says, noting that that wasn't the case in Shakespeare's time. "I was in the middle of the ['Coriolanus'] fight scene the other night, thinking we moan about all these chase scenes in movies, but this is the equivalent of the chase scene. You got to have it because they love it."

At Juilliard, Michael Kahn, Shakespeare Theatre artistic director, was Mr. Whitford's acting teacher. Mr. Kahn had been after him to come to Washington to appear at the Folger for several years.

"I mean, not madly," the actor corrects with modesty. "Michael's someone who, in a very fraught atmosphere, which Juilliard is, has always been extremely supportive of me. I think he's a wonderful teacher. Michael is just very non-dogmatic and is very articulate."

Of the Bard's "Coriolanus," which is infrequently performed, Mr. Whitford says, "I think it's tremendously rich and rounded. What's tricky about it is you've got a lead character who people don't react to well. And it's not like Richard III, who's lusciously evil. This is a guy who is obstinate. The first thing you see him do in the play is berate poor people.

"I just think the more you sniff around this play, there are layers and levels uncovered," he says.

The more Mr. Whitford plays Coriolanus, the more he wants another crack at it. But for the moment, he's looking forward to the less intense pace of making a film.

"Working on these things, you just think that the demands are so infinite in rehearsal, that you feel like you're running for president or directing a movie."

Born in Wisconsin into a Quaker family, Bradley Whitford majored in theater and English at Wesleyan University before going on to what he calls "graduate Montessori school at Juilliard."

As to why he opted to be an actor, Mr. Whitford says, "I walk into stores and I still spend five minutes deciding whether to get whole or low-fat milk. Any decision is difficult for me, but I always wanted to do this. I feel extremely lucky that I'm not ambivalent about what I do."

Tube Or Not Tube

Home is now in New York. He also owns a house in Connecticut with his girlfriend, actress Jane Kaczmarek. Miss Kaczmarek recently was featured as a lawyer in the ABC series "Equal Justice" and currently stars on Broadway in "Lost in Yonkers."

Mr. Whitford turns monosyllabic when the subject of his romantic life comes up. But he concedes Miss Kaczmarek is a fairly significant other.

"Yes, it is a very serious relationship," he says warily. "We never laugh."

They have taken separate career paths; Miss Kaczmarek appeared in the cast of several television series after graduating from the Yale School of Drama. When Mr. Whitford was first knocking on doors, he had enormous disdain for the tube. Now he sees it as a means to an end - career flexibility.

"The fact of the matter is if I really want to play 'Hamlet,' the best thing I could do is be in a sitcom," he says, referring to the box office interest he would gain from a series. "And Michael [Kahn], bless his heart, would have me here in a minute. That's not Michael's fault, that's just the way theater is."

No Rabbits

As evidence, Mr. Whitford offers his friend Timothy Busfield, a fellow alumnus of the "Revenge of the Nerds II" cast. Before he went off to California to play the whining Eliot on "thirtysomething," Mr. Busfield bounced around in New York theater, taking small parts and understudying.

The summer before what turned out to be the TV show's last season, Mr. Busfield appeared again with Mr. Whitford - getting star billing as a replacement in "A Few Good Men."

"It's a stupid business, believe me. The irony is that in order to do theater, you need to go after that," Mr. Whitford says. "Part of me cringes at doing that stuff."

The actor is willing to entertain thoughts of a series, though he has his standards.

"I'm not at the point where I'll play a rabbit in a sitcom. But I know that you can't make a living doing theater."

Mr. Whitford would love to do more Shakespeare, to come back to the Folger, even if it does mean incurring the wrath of his agents for the relatively low pay and low visibility. When "Coriolanus" closes Nov. 10, he probably will flirt again with fame by grabbing another film role.

"I'm up for a couple of movies that are not totally off the brain-dead meter," he says sheepishly. "I never know what I'm going to be doing six months from now. That's another reason that actors are alcoholics waiting to happen."

All photographs are from The Shakespeare Theatre website.
Visit the Coriolanus 1991 mini-site.