I didn\u2019t know before reading your new memoir that you were almost Tony Soprano. Is there a role that you really wanted that you didn\u2019t end up getting?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not Tony Soprano. There is not a role that I didn\u2019t get that I ever gave more than four hours of grievance to. When I don\u2019t get something, I move on. Because there\u2019s no point. I\u2019m very pragmatic that way. It\u2019s for your own mental health. Once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n
The thing you have to understand is if you don\u2019t get something, it\u2019s not personal. It can be as simple as the director has already got three brunettes or three male actors and they don\u2019t need a fourth. It\u2019s never personally about you. It\u2019s about the picture they have in their head \u2026 Or sometimes a role is already out to another actor and they\u2019re just waiting for them to say yes. That is one thing I wish they wouldn\u2019t do, because that\u2019s a waste of my time. If you\u2019ve got an offer out to Ben Affleck or whoever, don\u2019t put me on the revolving wheel of possibility. Because if I find out, I\u2019m not doing it. Not that they care! [laughs]<\/p>\n
If you were casting your dream project with three actors you\u2019ve already worked with, plus one new face, who would be on your team?<\/p>\n
Allison Janney. Kerry Armstrong. Alison Whyte. And a new face \u2026 I just saw Moneyball and I don\u2019t think I ever took Brad Pitt that seriously but that guy is phenomenal. Great movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alison Whyte as Linda Loman with LaPaglia as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Photograph: Jeff Busby<\/p>\n Acting opposite Janney in A View from the Bridge on Broadway sounds as though it was a transcendental experience for you.<\/p>\n It was. That\u2019s the thing about Arthur Miller\u2019s plays: the women are the glue. The women make the plays work. My performance is not going to be enough to make it work \u2013 I\u2019ve been so lucky to have two phenomenal women [Janney and Whyte in Death of a Salesman] play the lead roles with me. Without them, you have no play.<\/p>\n Your account of your years working on Without a Trace is really fascinating \u2013 that era of network television where they were making 24, 25, 26 episodes a season feels like a bygone time. Would you ever do a show like that again?<\/p>\n If I did, I would approach it completely differently. I would not get involved in quality control. I would figure out the lines that didn\u2019t work for me, change them and get on with it \u2026<\/p>\n When I wrote an episode it totally transformed relationship with the writers because I suddenly realised how difficult it was to write a story that gets chopped into four pieces, where you have to pause for five minutes of commercials then come back and re-engage your audience. Very difficult. When I wrote the first one [LaPaglia wrote two episodes], I went, \u201cOh god, I need to go and apologise to some of these guys!\u201d<\/p>\n The workload on Without a Trace was counterproductive to doing good work. I would find myself acting on autopilot. I\u2019d have the new episode that we were shooting next week sitting in my chair. The minute I finished doing a take, I\u2019d go, \u201cRight, bring in the writers, I\u2019m going to talk to them for a minute.\u201d Then we\u2019d go back and do another take. Then they\u2019d come in and I\u2019d start talking about the next episode and what I think they should fix. It was like being schizophrenic \u2026 And at the end of it, I realised the show would have been successful whether I did that or not. So annoying. I wish I\u2019d known that when I started.<\/p>\n Which role has been most personally fulfilling for you, and why?<\/p>\n Lantana<\/a>. From the minute that I read it, I was in love with it. There wasn\u2019t a single word in that script that I wanted to change, which is so unusual for me. Andrew Bovell wrote an absolutely lean, suspenseful script and we basically shot it exactly as he wrote it \u2013 that\u2019s very rare. The preparation I got to do [to play a Sydney police detective] was incredible. It was some of the funniest stuff and some of the most heartbreaking stuff, in a way. I ended up being placed with these two Sydney detectives who were themselves under investigation. They were eventually found guilty, of course. They were the funniest guys, though. I remember they took me to Leichhardt once and everybody knew them. They didn\u2019t pay for a single meal, ever, when I was there.<\/p>\n As someone who is also from Adelaide, I laughed out loud at your descriptions of the city, like: \u201cThere\u2019s a bad energy running through it. Whenever I go back, I feel the same low-frequency unease that used to spook me as a kid.\u201d Have your feelings about it changed at all?<\/p>\n A little bit. Not drastically. Remember, I\u2019m talking about an Adelaide that I left a very long time ago. I was there recently working [on Death of a Salesman] and the Adelaide audiences were amazing. I didn\u2019t feel Adelaide had changed all that much itself but I was greatly appreciative of the audiences. They were some of the most raucous. They laughed much more than other audiences did. Because there\u2019s a dark streak in Adelaide, which I appreciated.<\/p>\n If a biopic was made about your life, who would play you?<\/p>\n God, that\u2019s such an awkward question. Channing Tatum!<\/p>\n You write about ageing into playing Willy Loman. Are there any theatre roles that loom large for you as you grow older?<\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s written for a 67-year-old. There\u2019s not many! I\u2019m not a big wishlist guy. I\u2019m much more in the moment. I\u2019m a gun for hire. I\u2019ve tried to self-generate projects and I found that to be an incredibly difficult and boring experience. I have no capacity to raise money. I can\u2019t ask somebody to put money into a project that I know they\u2019re going to lose money on. And they will! I\u2019ve been the person that\u2019s lost money. I\u2019ve done the cardinal sin of investing in my own projects and I\u2019ve lost so much money! And it doesn\u2019t matter what contract you sign, either. You can sign a contract that says first dollar repayment, then they lie and cook the books. It\u2019s happened to me more than once. Mostly with Australian films.<\/p>\n It is so much harder to get anything financed in Australia, right?<\/p>\n Well, they\u2019re better at cooking the books. [laughs]<\/p>\n What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?<\/p>\n \u201cKnow your lines and don\u2019t hit the furniture.\u201d That is Spencer Tracy\u2019s acting advice. I\u2019ve always thought, dead on.<\/p>\n What has been your most memorable interaction with a fan?<\/p>\n This one was at a distance, which I liked. It was quite early in my career. I was walking down Sixth Avenue in New York, which is quite a wide avenue, and I hear from the other side: \u201cHey, LaPaglia!\u201d I went, \u201cYeah?\u201d And the guy says, \u201cI hate you! I hate every movie that you\u2019re in!\u201d And I went, \u201cGood for you. You have taste!\u201d He laughed, I laughed and on we went.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I liked about New York back then. People just had no filter. My daughter lives there now and I always thought I\u2019d end up back there. But having gone back to see my daughter a few times in New York, there\u2019s only three good months a year in New York. Summer\u2019s too hot. Winter\u2019s miserable. I like California now.<\/p>\n But also I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m going to move to Mexico shortly. It is more to ride out Trump than anything. There\u2019s no way that he\u2019s going to let an election happen. I think you\u2019re going to see some significant outbreaks of civil unrest. And do you know what? I\u2019d just rather not be there for that.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t like Trump but he\u2019s quite old and he won\u2019t be around much longer. That\u2019s the saving grace. Once he goes, that whole party falls to pieces. The only thing that keeps it together is the cult of Trump. There\u2019s all these people behind Trump that actually run the country and they won\u2019t have that cover any more. They\u2019re not very brave, they don\u2019t want to put themselves out in the open \u2013 but Trump keeps outing them! [laughs] That\u2019s one thing I like about him: he has no filter. He has no loyalty to anyone but himself. The idea that he thinks his son is going to run and win is a joke. His son is one of the most dislikable humans on Earth. Even more dislikable than Donald. At least Donald\u2019s funny!<\/p>\n Do you have a nemesis? (And based on your memoir: is it John Landis<\/a>?)<\/p>\n