Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 24, 1995 TAG: 9506270003
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Consider some of his current activities:
Acting as host of the 10-part series ``Time-Life's Lost Civilizations,'' which opens Sunday on NBC (at 7 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10) with ``Egypt: Quest for Immortality.'' (Among the topics of subsequent shows are Greece, Rome, Maya and Tibet.)
Returning in the fall as Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy on NBC's much-praised ``Law & Order'' series.
Playing former CIA chief Richard Helms in Oliver Stone's latest film, ``Nixon.''
Putting the final touches on ``The Journey of August King,'' a feature to be released in October by Miramax in which he co-produced and stars, along with Jason Patric and Thandie Newton.
Whew! Through it all, Waterston remains as calm and introspective as his on-screen persona. Or so it seemed in a phone conversation from the New York editing rooms in which he was playing out his real-life role as producer.
Set in the 1815 frontier of western North Carolina, ``The Journey of August King'' is about ``a simple man who does a simple good deed.''
``It's the first movie I had anything to do with producing,'' Waterston said. ``It's been fascinating. It's like walking into a familiar place and seeing it all different. It's like having your world turned upside down, without anything being changed.''
Waterston said ``Lost Civilizations'' also takes the familiar - mostly, the wealth of historical documentaries already seen, mostly on PBS - and makes it different.
``The Time-Life people have put modern technology to good use, and they've done a thorough job of research,'' he said. ``For me, who basically got his education in these things from books, it's dramatically different. I don't know if this has been done before, but by using computer technology and real people they've re-created these events. Sometimes on the spot and sometimes so convincingly that you feel you're on the spot. It's got a tremendous amount of visual interest. It's highly entertaining, and it's very responsible, factually.''
Waterston, 54, joined ``Law & Order'' in its fifth season, replacing Michael Moriarty. It could have been viewed as an odd move for an actor with impressive credentials in films (``The Killing Fields,'' for which he received an Oscar nomination for best actor), theater (``Abe Lincoln in Illinois'') and television (``I'll Fly Away'').
``It seemed like a good idea, and it turned to be a good idea,'' he said. ``There's no news about it. The people are as good as the program. ... The fact that they're not dead is amazing. The hours that they work are astonishing.''
That includes Waterston, who is unable to commute from the New York shooting to the Connecticut home he shares with his wife, Lynn, and four children. He manages to get there on days off, and it's the first time he's had steady work so close to home.
``I was beginning to think that I was a rock musician, I've been on the road so much in the last 10 years,'' he admitted. ``I was beginning to forget what my home looked like.''
Waterston noted that the series has maintained its popularity in part because ``it's sort of a pace car for the newspapers. It stays with what's going on in current events.''
Of the O.J. Simpson trial, he said, ``I don't find myself addicted, but it's certainly unavoidable if you watch the news or pick up the papers. It's sort of ghoulish to talk about it in these terms, but I do think that the audience is hugely better educated now than they were before about the proceedings of the law and what happens in a courtroom.
``It is a great advantage to a show like ours, because the more sophisticated the audience is, the more liberty we have in our storytelling.''
Waterston was born in Cambridge, Mass., home of Harvard University, but went to Yale, where he worked with the dramatic association. He spent his junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris with the American Actor's Workshop. Soon, he was acting on and off Broadway, earning honors with the New York Shakespeare Festival, especially for ``Much Ado About Nothing.''
His film career started with the 1967 ``Fitzwilly.'' Other credits include ``The Great Gatsby,'' ``Heaven's Gate,'' ``Capricorn One'' and three films with Woody Allen - ``Interiors,'' ``Hannah and Her Sisters'' and ``Crimes and Misdemeanors.''
Next, ``Nixon.''
``Richard Helms is fascinating,'' Waterston said. ``I've been reading about him, and I haven't quite made up my mind. Basically, the part is a conversation between him and Nixon. It's a couple of vipers circling one another. But it can be played in a hundred different ways.''
by CNB