SP: Interview with Rex Smith

NR: Do you think audiences see a bit of themselves in Chauvelin?

RS: You would hope that in any character you play, that you represent something to every man or woman, or audience member, a tangible element within the human condition. There is a responsibility that this character as written is the "crashing reality." Part of this show is as light as a soap bubble. It's just floating on air. A lot of Doug's work is "Danny Kaye-ish" and it's so light and airy. And my responsibility is like an anvil, or a piano crashing down, or like a safe in the cartoons, and I welcome that because it gives the juxtaposition. I think what makes the show run is the counterpoint. If anybody's ever dreamed of being a rock star, not since I was in a rock band have I played a part that was so close to that. That opening number feels like I'm a hard rocker again. It's like a rock number. I feel every time like I'm rocking like Mick Jagger out there. You know those great cartoons they used to have where they would show a man sitting on a park bench and then they would show his shadow, and what his shadow really wanted to be doing, like choking the person he was talking to? I think Chauvelin is very much the dark side of everybody.

NR: What do you enjoy more - playing the villain like Chauvelin or the hero like Frederick in The Pirates of Penzance?

RS: With Frederick, there's a lot of responsibility with playing that sort of thing. Both of them are sort of "straight men" who are surrounded by these "satellites of comedy." I have played a lot of heroes and Chauvelin is just a hero that took a wrong turn. If he had turned all of these energies on the right path... I really believe that, like a great many people in that time, in the Revolution, he began for all the right reasons and it's four years later, and it's just become mired and knee-deep in blood and irresponsibility. In any war or revolution there have been people who were carrying the flag and hoping for a better life and ending up thinking "What have I done?" I think that's what's happened to this man. But, there is a thrill playing villains that can't be beat. When I did As the World Turns I played an evil character, Darryl Crawford. If I had stayed on the show... I left the show and they made me a hero. If I had stayed on the show it was going to be the first time in the history of daytime that I murdered my wife and got away with it. I didn't know that till I left and they said, "This was what we were going to do." They never tell you. But, villains have so much "psychic baggage" they have to carry around with them that it's a lot of fun, because once you open up all the suitcases you've got all those things to dig around and pull out, all those different shades of character.

NR: After you've been doing a role for awhile, how do you keep it fresh?

RS: I don't think that it's something for myself that I really approach. I think it sort of organically renews itself. It's just like nature. You do something this long in this same kind of pattern, it really has almost a Zen quality to it. You almost are meditating at the same time every night. You're getting prepared. Your body is like a flower that blooms at night, you know, you begin to bloom at 8:07. My voice is going to start working in just a matter of an hour or so. I'll be hitting notes and doing things. The vocal memory comes into play. I think it's an endless fascination to me. It's a lot of work and when you're at home prior to the show you think, "Ugh, two shows today" and stuff like that but the mechanics involved in the moment to moment work out there, to me, is fascinating enough that it's like an endless Backgammon game. I'm always curious about the next move. You have to have a memory of what you're going to do next, but the number one thing is to try and erase it so you don't really know what's going to happen next. Therein becomes sort of the tennis match. So you think, "All right, I know what I've got to say next and I know what my response is and what my responsibilities are, but I also want to erase the blackboard and I want to be fresh."

You know, people ask that question but I ask a baker "How do you make those bagels every day?" Go into a bagel shop and just ask the guy, "How do you make those raisin bagels for 25 years?"

NR: But if he's in a bad mood, and he's not making those bagels "nicely," he doesn't have an audience.

RS: He DOES have an audience, because they come in and they go, "What are you doing with these bagels? I can't eat this." I am proud to be in, it seems like the more I look in the world, one of the last places where I do the BEST job I can every time I do it. And I can't find that on airlines, I can't find that where I go to eat, I can't find it at the dry cleaners. It's falling apart all over the world of people just not taking responsibility for their work, and they don't care because they're going to quit in four days anyway and I feel proud to live and work in a world where these people are professional. It's like working for the fire department in terms that this whole crew is going to jump into action. There are so many mechanical things going on around me, unsung heroes. I'm the tip of the iceberg. There are guys behind stage that have awesome responsibilities to make sure that every nut and bolt is tight, and that nothing falls on anybody, and curtains rise and everything moves safely. It's amazing just to think of all of us working in unison. I don't even know what all of them do. Sometimes when a show's being put together I see stacks of blueprints and guys designing, and it's fascinating that the way a set's setup, as I make an entrance, they have the set built so you can't see me. I'm totally obscured on any angle I walk. Some architect designed it so that I'm blocked as I make an entrance. It's fascinating to me. I'm probably the least of the schooled and learned men or women working in this organization. The guy who's calling the show, I have no idea how he sits there and he goes, "Q46, get ready for sound." How do you do that?

NR: Where and when did you learn to fence?

RS: I did a bit in Pirates but that was a long time ago. Rick Sordelet designed all of the fights, and a great deal like the "Rescue" sequence, which I think is really fun to watch. I was working about 3 hours a day for 5 weeks. I began with just basic instruction, working through and then I reached a point where I took all of the foundation and the basics and then made it into my own style, which I believe is probably historically what any person did. You have that foundation. It's just like a pianist where they add their own intuition and style to it. I don't fight like Doug fights. Doug fights in a more classical style. I fight more like a street brawler, but I think that's the way I would end up fighting in real life. I think it would be too stagy to think that in real life, that in a fight, you would constantly be doing it like you learned in school. Because once you were cut open, or you saw some blood, or you were injured, I'm sure they got down to pretty much just gasping for air and slinging things at each other. And what's saving you or carrying the day is that basic foundation.

NR: Aren't you exhausted at that point in the show? It's a long fight.

RS: It gets better but it always is a bit of work. Douglas can be an intimidating guy. He's a big guy and he's strong and it's good. I like that. We are very comfortable with those swords now and safe. But it's like race car drivers. We know how to take it just far enough. When I work with somebody else, like a cover, that's a completely different thing because it's mainly just trying to get them through without anything happening. Whereas with him, I can really throw myself into the fight because I know he knows how to defend himself, and vice versa.