Interview with Anthony Heald

Three articles that I wrote about Oregon Shakespeare Festival were printed in RCC's paper, The Byline, last week. Click the link to view a PDF file of the issue. In it you'll find my reviews of three plays at OSF (On the Razzle, The Cherry Orchard, and As You Like It) as well as an interview with incoming OSF head honcho Bill Rauch (prior to his announcement of the 2008 season, I'm afraid). My favorite article is a profile on Anthony Heald that I put together after a phone interview with him. Really nice guy. Here's the full text of that article:

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a gift to our region. Nestled just a block away from the main thoroughfare of Ashland, the Festival hides hundreds of world-class artists and technicians, both local and transplants. OSF is our Broadway, except where New York has skyscrapers and fast-paced living, we have mountains and a quieter lifestyle. But the plays are just as good, according to actor Anthony Heald, best known for playing creeps in Silence of the Lambs, 8MM, and The Client: “When I first decided to perform at OSF I thought that I wasn't going to get the artistic satisfaction that I wanted. I was wrong.”

Mr. Heald, (or Tony), first saw a show at the Festival when a stage manager friend invited his family to visit while he had a break from shooting The Client. Impressed with the quality of the plays, Heald and his wife debated moving to Oregon so he could join the festival. “I was living in a suburb of New Jersey, leaving home at quarter to six to get to a show in New York, and not coming back home until after midnight. I was in the same show eight times a week.” Heald thought Oregon could offer him the chance to be with his family and get back on stage, his “true love”.

He joined the Festival in 1997 and played several roles over the course of three years, including Iago in Othello, John Rosmer in Ibsen's Rosmersholm, and Lucio in Measure for Measure, as well as performing in the premiere of The Magic Fire. Mr. Heald considers each of these parts an honor to play, and each is a personal achievement for him. “When you're playing two roles at once, even two as different as Iago and Rosmer, you find the experience of playing one character subtly informs the other.” Heald resolved to take every fourth year off from the Festival so he could continue pursuing work in film and television, work that he considers “aesthetically barren.” When the year 2000 brought him the chance to play a recurring role in David E. Kelley's Boston Public on ABC, he and his wife again had to make a life changing decision. Deciding to take the role, Heald played Scott Guber for four years until the show was cancelled. Since his children were now in High School, Heald delayed his intended return to Oregon and the Shakespeare Festival until the 2007 season.

Currently Mr. Heald is playing Pischik in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by Libby Appel. “It's a glorious experience. I'm having a ball.” The role requires Heald to wear a fat suit and a fake beard, a physical transformation that makes it hard to recognize him. There's a glint in his eye that comes through all those layers though, and seeing him dance around the stage while wheezing heavily as an old man might, it is clear that this is a side of “Tony” that we don't often get to see. Heald has been playing “sleazy” characters on film ever since his key role as Dr. Frederick Chilton in Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs, but on stage at OSF, he's given the chance to play a jolly old man who warms the audience's heart through his imperfections.

Mr. Heald intends to stay in Ashland for awhile. If prompted to do so, Heald can rattle off eight or nine things he loves about Southern Oregon without breaking a sweat. Sometimes he sounds like a native, to which he responds, “I'm committed to spending the rest of my life here.” Aside from the weather, Mr. Heald loves the music, dance, and theatre community that is fostered in our valley. For someone who's worked for years in Los Angeles and New York, that's saying something.

When asked to compare his New York experiences to those on OSF stages, Mr. Heald replies that actors in New York are always looking to further their career, looking past their current project. In Ashland he works with actors who live in the community and don't have the same pressures, while still putting on great shows. “The reason I became an actor is for the experiences I have at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I'm not at all interested in acting in front of the camera again.” Strong words from a strong actor who only adds more luster to the precious gem that is Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The Festival should be happy to have him, as should Southern Oregon.

Look for Mr. Heald in the title role of Tartuffe starting in July.

Special thanks to Mr. Heald for speaking with us.