Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994 TAG: 9401140093
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOHN CARMAN SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
DATELINE: PASADENA LENGTH: Medium
Caruso, with his Irish-Italian half-smile and carrot-colored hair, adorns the cover of TV Guide this week. And when he strode into an interview at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, a phalanx of ABC publicists cleared a path through the popping flashbulbs of a full-fledged paparazzi ambush.
Television has its newest hunk. But like no TV star before him, Caruso, who plays Detective John Kelly on "NYPD Blue," can count his bare behind as an important implement in his success.
It's not that the 37-year-old Caruso ever labored to refine that particular anatomical outpost during his hardscrabble days as a young actor. It's just that with "NYPD Blue," notoriety about nudity came first and the show's subtler inducements got noticed later.
"My ass is in the Smithsonian now, isn't it?" Caruso joked as soon as he was asked about the famous nudity clauses in the "NYPD Blue" cast contracts.
Which, of course, was as soon as he got asked about anything.
Caruso swore he had practically no inkling of his quicksilver stardom through the late summer and fall, when he was "in a vacuum making the show."
Then, during a two-week break from filming in December, Caruso took his live-in girlfriend, whose name is Paris, to a Century City movie theater one afternoon to see "Carlito's Way."
"I thought I could stand outside the ladies room and wait for my girlfriend to come out.. . . I thought I could do that, and I can no longer do that," he said.
"It was actually very scary. It wasn't a good feeling. It was like, a crowd, and that was a little frightening."
Caruso's co-star, Dennis Franz, who by all objective accounts is more of a lump than a hunk, had joined Caruso for the interview session, along with executive producer Steven Bochco.
After describing being hemmed in by the crowd of strangers at the movie theater, Caruso gestured toward Franz and said, "I'm sure Dennis is dealing with the same thing."
Franz rolled his eyes into one of his better are-you-kidding cop expressions and said sarcastically to the crowd of reporters, "You saw my TV Guide [cover], right?"
"You know, there's a thing taking place that is pretty powerful," Caruso continued. "People are watching the show. You know what's interesting? I hesitate to use the term, but I will - we're doing something `important,' because people, in a funny way, are relying on the show.
"I mean, the constant recurring theme is, `I never miss a show, and if I do, I tape the show. And if I can't do that, I find somebody who has it.' People get in a panic when they can't see the show, so there's something going on.
"Anything that's popular, in my opinion, fills a need at the time. And something is happening with this show that is pretty interesting."
Caruso's take on a New York homicide detective derives partly from his early years on the streets of Queens and partly from a teenage job as an usher at a Queens movie house.
Watching the same movies as many as 80 times, he said, he learned that the actor's craft involved not merely marshaling emotion, but also engineering time as the camera rolled.
Caruso's entry into acting was still a matter of happenstance. He was working as a liquor deliveryman when a talent manager noticed him and steered him into work in commercials.
Caruso moved to Los Angeles in 1980, eventually serving his movie apprenticeship with roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Thief of Hearts" and "King of New York." "NYPD Blue" is his first TV series.
The show, in a way, carries him full circle. "NYPD Blue" is filmed mostly in Los Angeles, but the actors and crew are occasionally dispatched to New York to infuse the series with its veneer of authenticity. Caruso's old neighborhood is one of the New York locales seen on the show.
"To be sitting in an unmarked police car on 40th Street in Long Island City, it's like an acid trip," Caruso said.
by CNB