Chicago Actor, Island Hero // Petersen Tackles `Beast' in Miniseries

Chicago Sun-Times, April 28, 1996

For William Petersen, starring as the action hero in "The Beast" was "like being a kid, acting in the basement and fighting make-believe monsters." "I felt like Steve McQueen in `The Blob,' " said the popular Chicago theater performer, a founder of the currently dormant Remains Theater ensemble.

Petersen will be in Manhattan when NBC's four-hour "Beast" miniseries begins at 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 5. He's on Broadway in a revival of Tennessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana," staged by Goodman Theatre artistic director Robert Falls. Petersen also played the lead role in "Iguana" here at the Goodman last year.

The tall, rugged actor established himself as a strong film presence in "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985) and "Manhunter" (1986), two stunning suspense dramas. He appears in two current movies, with a lead role in "Fear" and a cameo role in "Mulholland Falls."

But in Peter Benchley's "Beast," Petersen will get the widest exposure of his career with four hours of prime-time stardom during the spring ratings sweeps. More than 20 million viewers are expected to be watching Petersen from 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday.

"The Beast," a "Jaws"-inspired thriller with a giant squid replacing a great white shark, has "a big, interesting format," said Petersen, phoning from New York. "You can't do this kind of stuff in plays, and you can't tell a story this long in films now.

"This is a very ambitious project. I got the script in August, and we filmed in Australia from September through Christmas. It was spring and summer down there. I got to do some real character work along with the action sequences.

"We could have done even more, but a lot of the money went into the special effects. It was like working on one of those small, independent films where every minute counts and everyone pulls together.

"It was a fun learning experience. There I was, pretending to be hanging from a helicopter, and I've got one foot on the ground, reacting to a squid that isn't there. We had this small, wonderful Australian crew, and they kept whipping me with this big rubber tentacle."

Petersen added to the family feeling during the four months on location, said "Beast" co-star Karen Sillas.

"Bill was really supportive," Sillas said. "He's friendly, serious and very balanced. He cares - a lot."

Petersen said he "really liked" his character, Washington state fisherman Whip Dalton, a widower with a teen daughter. A reluctant hero, modest, sensible Whip falls in love with Coast Guard Lt. Kathryn Marcus (played by Sillas).

"He's a regular guy," Petersen said. "Benchley called him Whip Darling in the novel. We changed more than his name (in the miniseries). In the book, Whip was in Bermuda. He had this eastern American, Virginian heritage.

"I wrote a monologue to explain how he got the Whip nickname. (That sequence did not appear in NBC's `Beast' review tapes.) And the Coast Guard officer was a man in the book. They made the lieutenant a woman in the TV version to add a romantic interest for Whip. But I still think it's a guy movie. They're hard to find on television."

Petersen's previous miniseries experiences came in two sprawling epics that aired for three nights. He played political patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy for ABC in "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (1990) and retired Texas Ranger Gideon Walker for CBS in "Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993). Both characters died.

But a co-starring role in the original "Lonesome Dove" - a four-night, eight-hour Western masterpiece - slipped through Petersen's fingers. "That probably was the biggest disappointment of my career," said the skilled horseman and Montana rancher. "Suzanne de Passe (an executive producer for the 1989 CBS miniseries) wanted me to play Jake Spoon."

A former lawman turned rustler, Spoon was hanged by his retired Texas Ranger friends, Captains Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee Jones) and Augustus McCrae (Robert Duvall). "Somebody at the network said, `We've got too many movie guys already. We need a TV guy in the cast.' So Robert Urich got the part of Jake," Petersen said with a sigh. "That was the best miniseries ever made.

"I was very leery about doing the sequel, because Larry McMurtry (the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Lonesome Dove novel) didn't write the story," Petersen said. "But I talked with Jon Voight (who played Call in the `Return' sequel), and we realized that they were going to film it with or without us. So we decided to do it and try our best to make it decent." Petersen said he was surprised and pleased to learn that he might get a second chance to play Jake Spoon in a "Lonesome Dove" sequel written by McMurtry. The author said his final Lonesome Dove novel, Comanche Moon, would be published late in 1997. Production of the ABC miniseries "Comanche Moon" could begin in late '97 or early '98, McMurtry said.

Set one or two decades earlier than Lonesome Dove, the Comanche Moon story could bring back Jake Spoon, Joshua Deets, Blue Duck and other characters who died in the original novel and miniseries. McMurtry would not reveal plot points, but he confirmed that Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call will return as Texas Rangers in their 40s.

Naysaying network executives continued to disappoint Petersen last year, when NBC rejected a proposed dramatic series to be set and filmed in Chicago, with Petersen producing and starring. As an executive producer, David Mamet would have moved back to Chicago to oversee all writing and directing for the weekly show, Petersen said.

"It would have been `The Paper Chase' meets `Manhunter,' " the actor said. "This show had unlimited potential. I wrote the original story, and Mamet developed a subtle, brilliant script for the pilot (the first episode of a proposed series). I was going to play a forensic scientist who retired from police work 10 years ago, after his partner was killed saving the scientist's life. He would have taught ethics in criminal law at the University of Chicago. His girlfriend would have worked at the Art Institute.

"I think the pilot scared them," said Petersen, referring to NBC programming executives. "They thought it was too smart. They wanted more action. And they were scared to death of David Mamet. They know David won't kowtow to anyone. I kept saying: `Just let us do this thing!'

"I fought for the show, but eventually I realized that I didn't want to spend my life trying to appease people who didn't get it."

Now starring on Broadway, Petersen still has fond memories of his early years of stage acting in Chicago with the nomadic Remains Theater ensemble.

"Back then (in the early 1980s), we were just 12 actors who were friends," Petersen said. "We played softball together. We were kids with day jobs. We lived together and exchanged partners. We played out our time.

"It would be hard to get everyone together again. But if we could ever get Ted Levine, Amy Morton, D.W. Moffett and some of the others together in the same place at the same time, it would be fun to do a reunion production.

"With my theater background, I hated films at first. They freaked me out because I didn't see or hear what I was feeling when the scene was shot. It was a two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional life. But I learned so much about acting by doing `To Live and Die in L.A.' and `Manhunter.' I learned to bring more detail to my stage performances.

"And now I appreciate movies because they don't disappear. Theater is so ephemeral. Fifty percent of theater comes from the audience. So much is up to them, and they're always different. When the actors and audience really connect, magic happens."