Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9412270027
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
The former child actor who made the transition to leading-man status after 1978's ``National Lampoon's Animal House,'' has now made the jump to director's chair.
Matheson, 46, has directed his first movie, the suspense-thriller ``Breach of Conduct,'' premiering Thursday at 9 p.m. on cable's USA Network.
The personable actor feels performers' urges to direct are just a ``natural extension'' of their craft. Still, he says, ``all actors think it's easy. It's because all they think is that you tell the actors what to do and put the camera there. They don't know about the myriad of other things you get involved in.''
And Matheson, who is also the co-executive producer, was involved in every aspect of the production, ``from the length of a hallway, to every member of the crew that's hired, to every color that is on the set and every piece of wardrobe.''
This afternoon, Matheson is working closely with an editor in a tiny, cluttered editing room.
Matheson and the editor are piecing together a pivotal, suspenseful sequence between stars Peter Coyote and Courtney Thorne-Smith (``Melrose Place'').
``Breach of Conduct,'' written by David Chisholm from a script by Scott Abbott, deals with a power-mad colonel (Coyote) of a remote Army base who stalks the pretty wife (Thorne-Smith) of a newly arrived officer. He threatens her with the destruction of her husband's already less-than-stellar career unless she becomes his mistress. She's arrested by military police and declared insane after trying to escape from the base.
``I didn't want to make a typical TV movie,'' says Matheson, who has appeared in the USA movies ``Quicksand: No Escape'' and ``Target of Suspicion.''
``Oftentimes you look at [the movies] and say, `Haven't I see this before?' I didn't want it to be one of those. I wanted to make it a little different.''
``Breach of Conduct'' isn't the first time Matheson has stepped behind the camera. He directed an episode of ``St. Elsewhere'' in the '80s. The experience was less than satisfying.
``You just get beat up,'' he says.
``You can't really be creative. There isn't time. You don't really direct the actors. They have been there a lot longer than you have and they are not going to do anything different. It isn't fun. That isn't what what I wanted to do.''
Of producing, ``That's no fun because you just get all the abuse,'' says Matheson, who was co-producer of the 1990 feature ``Blind Fury.''
``I'd have a project that I developed and bought the rights to and then all of a sudden, the director comes in and the director has all the fun with all the actors. It becomes his picture.''
Matheson discovered the script of ``Breach of Conduct,'' which was made for approximately $2.6 million, through his agent. ``I said to him, `Give me young writers.' This script was especially good because it was a genre film.''
The most difficult aspect of directing was the quick schedule. ``I foolishly felt I could do this in 18 days,'' he confesses. ``I've even toyed with the idea of doing some syndicated action shows. I've sort of been invited to do one or two, just to be able to figure out how they do it - how they shoot 12 pages a day. That's one thing I'm learning how to do. I didn't know quite how to do it when I started.''
Matheson takes a bite out of his deli sandwich. ``I could complain and moan about the problems,'' he says. ``But it's a real thrill to do it. I would do it again in a second.''
And he'd love to work with his stars again. ``Peter was our first choice,'' he says. ``He's one of those guys who are world-class and can do anything. He's like driving a Ferrari. He totally gave himself to me. Courtney was very good.''
Matheson hasn't given up on acting yet. On Dec. 5, he plays a child molester in the NBC movie ``While Justice Sleeps,'' which also stars Cybill Shepherd.
``I did this to just open a second front,'' he says. ``Now I've done it and can take it out and show it to other people. If it's good enough, [they'll say], `OK. We will let you direct if you can come up with a project.' So now I can look for feature projects.''
by CNB