Post by Brian Hackett on Feb 13, 2006 20:34:00 GMT -5
Thought this was an interesting article to post for all the Tony Shalhoub fans.
SCOFF IF YOU MUST, BUT Tony Shalhoub was destined to play Antonio, the scene-stealing Italian cabdriver on NBC's Wings. Three years ago when the actor read the script for a one-time guest shot on the sitcom, he recalls, "I noticed the main characters' names were Joe and Helen [played] on Wings by Tim Daly and Crystal Bernard. Those happen to be my parents' names. And my father had one brother, and his name was Brian [the character played by Steven Weber]." (Married to actress Brooke Adams, with whom he has two daughters, Shalhoub grew up in Green Bay, Wis., with nine siblings in a close Lebanese-American family.)
The producers of Wings liked Shalhoub's work so much that they decided to make his character permanent, changing Antonio from a waiter to a cabbie.
Ah, destiny. You see, cabs have been something of a talisman is Shalhoub's life. As a student at the Yale School of Drama, he tooled around New Haven in a vivid used car: an old taxi that was "yellow and still had stickers on the side and holes in the dashboard where the meter had been," he says. Then there was Shalhoub's big break as (what else?) a taxi driver with an indecipherable accent in the Bill Murray comedy Quick Change. "Maybe," he ruminates, "I was a ricksha driver in a past life."
It was the second oldest of his six sisters, Susan, now an actress and mother, who sparked his interest in acting. He had a part in her high school production of The King and I, and the director needed young performers to play children of the Siamese court. "She just took me by the hand," says Shalhoub, who was 6 at the time. Graduating from East High in 1972, he went on to major in theater at the University of Maine, then at Yale. After moving to New York City in 1984, he found supporting parts in such plays as the distaff version of The Odd Couple, starring Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers, and, in 1990, The Heidi Chronicles.
Shalhoub had a crush on Heidi's leading lady, the striking Brooke Adams, from watching her and Richard Gere play migrant farm workers in the film Days of Heaven a dozen years earlier. Adams was attracted too, but Shalhoub was already in a relationship. "I really wanted to go out with him, but he was honorable," says Adams. "Which I thought was a good sign." Their romance didn't kick in until '91, when he moved to L.A., where Adams lived. He proposed after two months, and they married in April 1992.
By then, Shalhoub had found a berth on Wings. He turned up on the NBC sitcom in a one-shot role as a waiter but clicked so well with the cast that producers hired him to stay on as Antonio. He is not, by all accounts, the cast cutup. "Tony doesn't say a word on the set," says star Timothy Daly. "I get the feeling he's got a great private life nobody else knows about--a couple of other families around the state."
(After Wings)
Shaloub's memories of Wings are moreso of the cast than of the work. "We
were such a great family on the set, away from the set. My wife and I became very close to Tim and his wife. We would take couple's trips together when the show was on hiatus.
"But in terms of the work, Antonio was so limited. I remember talking to Thomas (Haden Church, mechanic Lowell) when he left, and I understood it. My character and his always seemed in the background, and were never given much to do." Shalhoub can't help but laugh when he thinks back to days on the set with Church. The two always seemed to be competing over the last donut at the craft service table. "He and I would walk up and go, 'I got about four lines this week, how bout you?' And he'd say 'Bout the same'. So we'd end up snacking or playing cards a lot of the time because we weren't needed in a majority of the scenes."
Table reads were difficult as well. Much of the central action on the show dealt with Tim Daly, Steven Weber, or Crystal Bernard. Shaloub would be relegated to watching them read for forty-five minutes while he waited for his chance. "Once in a while we'd do an emsemble episode, like a bachelor party or my early days, when we did a lot of Helen and Antonio's marriage stuff. But mostly it was unfulfilling." To top it off, Shalhoub's character was maybe the worst lonely-heart of the show. "Antonio's girlfriend's were either married, or off-screen and really ugly which they played a little bit too much for laughs. Everyone else seemed to have a relationship on the show except him."
Asked why he didn't jump plane like Church did: "My contract wasn't up. I signed for six years in 1991, and the last year of my contract was the last year of the show. But I don't think I would've left anyway, even as a supporting character I loved being around those people every week."
SCOFF IF YOU MUST, BUT Tony Shalhoub was destined to play Antonio, the scene-stealing Italian cabdriver on NBC's Wings. Three years ago when the actor read the script for a one-time guest shot on the sitcom, he recalls, "I noticed the main characters' names were Joe and Helen [played] on Wings by Tim Daly and Crystal Bernard. Those happen to be my parents' names. And my father had one brother, and his name was Brian [the character played by Steven Weber]." (Married to actress Brooke Adams, with whom he has two daughters, Shalhoub grew up in Green Bay, Wis., with nine siblings in a close Lebanese-American family.)
The producers of Wings liked Shalhoub's work so much that they decided to make his character permanent, changing Antonio from a waiter to a cabbie.
Ah, destiny. You see, cabs have been something of a talisman is Shalhoub's life. As a student at the Yale School of Drama, he tooled around New Haven in a vivid used car: an old taxi that was "yellow and still had stickers on the side and holes in the dashboard where the meter had been," he says. Then there was Shalhoub's big break as (what else?) a taxi driver with an indecipherable accent in the Bill Murray comedy Quick Change. "Maybe," he ruminates, "I was a ricksha driver in a past life."
It was the second oldest of his six sisters, Susan, now an actress and mother, who sparked his interest in acting. He had a part in her high school production of The King and I, and the director needed young performers to play children of the Siamese court. "She just took me by the hand," says Shalhoub, who was 6 at the time. Graduating from East High in 1972, he went on to major in theater at the University of Maine, then at Yale. After moving to New York City in 1984, he found supporting parts in such plays as the distaff version of The Odd Couple, starring Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers, and, in 1990, The Heidi Chronicles.
Shalhoub had a crush on Heidi's leading lady, the striking Brooke Adams, from watching her and Richard Gere play migrant farm workers in the film Days of Heaven a dozen years earlier. Adams was attracted too, but Shalhoub was already in a relationship. "I really wanted to go out with him, but he was honorable," says Adams. "Which I thought was a good sign." Their romance didn't kick in until '91, when he moved to L.A., where Adams lived. He proposed after two months, and they married in April 1992.
By then, Shalhoub had found a berth on Wings. He turned up on the NBC sitcom in a one-shot role as a waiter but clicked so well with the cast that producers hired him to stay on as Antonio. He is not, by all accounts, the cast cutup. "Tony doesn't say a word on the set," says star Timothy Daly. "I get the feeling he's got a great private life nobody else knows about--a couple of other families around the state."
(After Wings)
Shaloub's memories of Wings are moreso of the cast than of the work. "We
were such a great family on the set, away from the set. My wife and I became very close to Tim and his wife. We would take couple's trips together when the show was on hiatus.
"But in terms of the work, Antonio was so limited. I remember talking to Thomas (Haden Church, mechanic Lowell) when he left, and I understood it. My character and his always seemed in the background, and were never given much to do." Shalhoub can't help but laugh when he thinks back to days on the set with Church. The two always seemed to be competing over the last donut at the craft service table. "He and I would walk up and go, 'I got about four lines this week, how bout you?' And he'd say 'Bout the same'. So we'd end up snacking or playing cards a lot of the time because we weren't needed in a majority of the scenes."
Table reads were difficult as well. Much of the central action on the show dealt with Tim Daly, Steven Weber, or Crystal Bernard. Shaloub would be relegated to watching them read for forty-five minutes while he waited for his chance. "Once in a while we'd do an emsemble episode, like a bachelor party or my early days, when we did a lot of Helen and Antonio's marriage stuff. But mostly it was unfulfilling." To top it off, Shalhoub's character was maybe the worst lonely-heart of the show. "Antonio's girlfriend's were either married, or off-screen and really ugly which they played a little bit too much for laughs. Everyone else seemed to have a relationship on the show except him."
Asked why he didn't jump plane like Church did: "My contract wasn't up. I signed for six years in 1991, and the last year of my contract was the last year of the show. But I don't think I would've left anyway, even as a supporting character I loved being around those people every week."
I thought it was interesting to see what he had to say about his role on the show and how he liked his supporting cast.