ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALAN RIDING N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Kevin Kline grows edgy as the conversation shifts from such harmless topics as Shakespeare and Gilbert and Sullivan to the nitty-gritty of his movie career.
It is a not a subject he relishes discussing. He has made memorable films and forgettable films. And now, at the age of 49, enjoying the security of family life and plenty of work, he likes to take things as they come. Yet he continues to be plagued by his reputation as a fine actor who wins less recognition than he deserves.
His friend the comic actor and writer John Cleese likes to tease him about it, complaining that he turns down major roles that would make him ``a star'' (``He's known in Hollywood as Kevin D. Kline'') and that he cannot make up his mind (``He's the only actor I know who played Hamlet in order to learn to be decisive'').
Others in the business tell him that instead of playing a wide range of roles, he should concentrate on comedy. Kline, slim and youthful-looking, groans. He is tired of being advised on his career.
Still, he is happy about his new movie, ``Fierce Creatures,'' because, as he puts it, he has followed his instinct to ``do what feels right.'' Almost a decade after playing his most acclaimed comic role as the manic Otto in ``A Fish Called Wanda,'' he has teamed up again with Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin in what they term ``an equal not a sequel'' to the original hit.
In other words, Otto, who brought Kline an Oscar in 1989 for best supporting actor, has not been resuscitated, but the old gang has.
``They are older, they are richer, they are fatter, and they are back,'' Cleese proclaims with the solemnity of a town crier.
Kline, sitting in Cleese's production office in West London during a break in filming ``Fierce Creatures,'' said: ``I think it's kinder. John has mellowed. It's not as nasty or mean a movie as `Wanda.'''
In Kline's next film, Ang Lee's ``Ice Storm,'' scheduled for release later this year, the actor said he plays the ``father of a highly dysfunctional family'' confused by the sexual revolution of the early 1970s. And in Frank Oz's ``In and Out,'' currently in production, he plays a gay high school English teacher outed inadvertently by a former student.
Indeed, 15 years after appearing opposite Meryl Streep in Alan J. Pakula's ``Sophie's Choice,'' Kline continues to take pride in his eclectic taste in movie roles.
``I have turned down terrific roles in terrific films and I have never had the slightest regret about doing so,'' he said. ``What's not right for me now doesn't interest me. I can't do it if there is not some little spark that says, `That would be good right now.' And there are lots of scripts that I know, going in, are not commercial. So the things that govern my choices are not what is going to be successful in the American success-equals-money-equals-popularity way.''
Still, for all his commitment to the art of acting, his first calling was music. His father owned a record store in St. Louis, he grew up with the sound of opera echoing through his home, and he majored in music at Indiana University. But then he switched, first studying at the Juilliard drama school in New York and later becoming a founding member of John Houseman's Acting Company. It was then, in the mid-1970s, that he learned the delights of variety.
``We did five or six plays in repertory,'' he recalled. ``One night it would be Gorky; one night it's Shakespeare. And in these plays, you weren't always the romantic lead man or the old character actor or the funny guy. It was about acting. It wasn't about personality.''
His musical background - and a pleasant bass-baritone voice - came in handy. Making his Broadway debut in 1978 as the movie idol Bruce Granit in Harold Prince's musical ``On the 20th Century,'' he won his first Tony Award. Two seasons later, another Tony came his way when he starred as the Pirate King in Joseph Papp's version of Gilbert and Sullivan's ``Pirates of Penzance.''
Kline did his first screen acting in the film version of this operetta, although it was ``Sophie's Choice,'' released first, that got his movie career off the ground.
Since then, he has had his ups and downs. In 1983, with ``The Big Chill,'' an unexpected hit, he began a long relationship with the director Lawrence Kasdan that has so far brought them together in four more films: ``Silverado,'' ``I Love You to Death,'' ``Grand Canyon'' and ``French Kiss.''
Among his other films are ``Cry Freedom'' and ``Princess Caraboo,'' in which Kline appears with Phoebe Cates, his actress wife and the mother of his two children.
Yet, while ``A Fish Called Wanda'' won him an Academy Award, it is Kline's work in theater that has often given him the aura of an exceptional actor. In the 1980s, he was acclaimed for his role as Captain Bluntschli in ``Arms and the Man'' on Broadway. And his New York production of ``Hamlet'' - he directed and starred - in 1990 was well received.
``Kline's not just great,'' said Ian Judge, a director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. ``No one else can play tragedy and comedy like he can. He's the only successor to Olivier.''
Now, close to completing his fourth film in rapid succession, Kline is eager to return to the stage, ever searching for a different experience. ``I loved doing `Fierce Creatures,''' he said, ``but if I did just comedies for the next 10 years, I would be bored.''
``You know, actors have this weird need to be known, to express themselves,'' he continued. ``But for me, the more different masks you wear, the more of yourself you're going to allow through the mask. The mask is the trick that allows you to be more who you are.''
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Kevin Kline plays opposite Jamie Leigh Curtis inby CNB"Fierce Creatures," which opened last week. color. 2. Kline also
starred in "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan 3. and with his wife, Phoebe
Cates, in "Princess Caraboo."