Post by flummery on Aug 23, 2005 21:15:31 GMT -4
Drake University - Long Road Leads to an Emmy Award - www.choose.drake.edu/admissions/news/news_story.asp?iNewsID=272&strBack=%2Fadmissions%2Fnews%2Fnews_archives.asp
Long Road Leads to an Emmy Award
Michael Emerson knows all about overnight successes. He knows that they are true and he knows that they are false. He also knows that’s it’s possible that they can be both at the very same time.
Emerson knows this because that pretty much sums up his acting career. The 1976 theater graduate has experienced a whirlwind of recent success, seemingly coming out of nowhere. The part that most people seem to miss, however, is it took him more than 20 years to get to this point.
Last fall, Emerson won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He played glib serial killer William Hinks on four episodes of ABC’s “The Practice.’’ He also earned praise for his performance as bookish George Tessman in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.’’ Work has been steady the past five years, during his second shot at New York.
“It was a long road and sort of circuitous,’’ Emerson said during a break in filming an episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.’’ “It’s not overwhelming success, or wealth, but I have my foot in the door of the working actor world. I’ve been blessed by doing classic plays on Broadway, which was one of my great dreams forever.’’
Emerson’s arrival to Broadway was so sudden that the New York Post referred to him as a “new young actor” despite the fact that he’s closer to qualifying for Social Security than the draft.
Besides, he already was a new young actor in New York. Emerson first went there after graduating from Drake. His acting career went nowhere, and he became a magazine illustrator instead. After 10 years, he moved to Florida and jump-started his career doing regional, university and community theatre.
Emerson then studied at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, a conservatory program that fed his love for the classics. It’s also where he met his wife, actress Carrie Preston. They returned to New York in 1995.
“When I first came up here after grad school, I couldn’t get arrested,’’ he said. “I thought, ‘Have I been living an illusion? Is this really not for me?’’’
Fortunately, fate intervened before he had to make The Big Decision about where to take his career.
“A friend of Carrie’s knew this mad Venezuelan playwright who was trying to put together some documentary thing about Oscar Wilde and he was looking for any grown male who could do an English accent,’’ Emerson said. “I thought, ‘Well, that sounds like me.’”
The play was “Gross Indecency: The Three Trails of Oscar Wilde,’’ and it was originally produced as a showcase for which Emerson, playing Wilde, wasn’t even paid. A New York Times critic showed up, gave a glowing review and helped launch Emerson’s career.
He got small film and TV roles and came to Broadway in the cast of “The Iceman Cometh,’’ starring Kevin Spacey in 1999.
Emerson would be content to stick to the stage and the classic plays. But TV and film are where the money is – and where an actor can make an overwhelming impression.
Emerson learned that while Christmas shopping in 2000, the same time his creepy character was causing all sorts of trouble in “The Practice.” He was riding an escalator, and a woman on the opposite escalator recognized Emerson – or, more accurately, William Hinks. She screamed and threw her packages in the air.
“ It’s usually not that violent of a reaction,’’ he said. “It worries me a little bit the reach and power of TV. More people saw me in ‘The Practice’ than will ever see me in all the stage plays I ever do. Which is sort of humbling. Or troubling. Or both.’’
Emerson is living the life he wants now, a dream that goes back to his days at Drake.
“That’s where I learned to enjoy the life of the theater,’’ he said. “ I wavered back and forth, I had a couple different majors over the course of my career but I loved living the life of the theater. That’s where I got the taste.’’
Long Road Leads to an Emmy Award
Michael Emerson knows all about overnight successes. He knows that they are true and he knows that they are false. He also knows that’s it’s possible that they can be both at the very same time.
Emerson knows this because that pretty much sums up his acting career. The 1976 theater graduate has experienced a whirlwind of recent success, seemingly coming out of nowhere. The part that most people seem to miss, however, is it took him more than 20 years to get to this point.
Last fall, Emerson won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He played glib serial killer William Hinks on four episodes of ABC’s “The Practice.’’ He also earned praise for his performance as bookish George Tessman in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.’’ Work has been steady the past five years, during his second shot at New York.
“It was a long road and sort of circuitous,’’ Emerson said during a break in filming an episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.’’ “It’s not overwhelming success, or wealth, but I have my foot in the door of the working actor world. I’ve been blessed by doing classic plays on Broadway, which was one of my great dreams forever.’’
Emerson’s arrival to Broadway was so sudden that the New York Post referred to him as a “new young actor” despite the fact that he’s closer to qualifying for Social Security than the draft.
Besides, he already was a new young actor in New York. Emerson first went there after graduating from Drake. His acting career went nowhere, and he became a magazine illustrator instead. After 10 years, he moved to Florida and jump-started his career doing regional, university and community theatre.
Emerson then studied at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, a conservatory program that fed his love for the classics. It’s also where he met his wife, actress Carrie Preston. They returned to New York in 1995.
“When I first came up here after grad school, I couldn’t get arrested,’’ he said. “I thought, ‘Have I been living an illusion? Is this really not for me?’’’
Fortunately, fate intervened before he had to make The Big Decision about where to take his career.
“A friend of Carrie’s knew this mad Venezuelan playwright who was trying to put together some documentary thing about Oscar Wilde and he was looking for any grown male who could do an English accent,’’ Emerson said. “I thought, ‘Well, that sounds like me.’”
The play was “Gross Indecency: The Three Trails of Oscar Wilde,’’ and it was originally produced as a showcase for which Emerson, playing Wilde, wasn’t even paid. A New York Times critic showed up, gave a glowing review and helped launch Emerson’s career.
He got small film and TV roles and came to Broadway in the cast of “The Iceman Cometh,’’ starring Kevin Spacey in 1999.
Emerson would be content to stick to the stage and the classic plays. But TV and film are where the money is – and where an actor can make an overwhelming impression.
Emerson learned that while Christmas shopping in 2000, the same time his creepy character was causing all sorts of trouble in “The Practice.” He was riding an escalator, and a woman on the opposite escalator recognized Emerson – or, more accurately, William Hinks. She screamed and threw her packages in the air.
“ It’s usually not that violent of a reaction,’’ he said. “It worries me a little bit the reach and power of TV. More people saw me in ‘The Practice’ than will ever see me in all the stage plays I ever do. Which is sort of humbling. Or troubling. Or both.’’
Emerson is living the life he wants now, a dream that goes back to his days at Drake.
“That’s where I learned to enjoy the life of the theater,’’ he said. “ I wavered back and forth, I had a couple different majors over the course of my career but I loved living the life of the theater. That’s where I got the taste.’’
