Interview zu 'Verdächtiges Schweigen' / 'Small Vices'

Wie bei "Walking Shadow" wurde Joe Mantegna auch zu Small Vices von A&E interviewt. Er gab einige interessante Antworten. Da die Seite nicht mehr existiert, kann man das Interview nur noch über die Archive aufrufen. Ich habe mir gedacht bevor es auch da verschwindet, poste ich es im Forum:

A&E: Were you acquainted with the Spenser books before this project?

JOE MANTEGNA: As I told Robert B. Parker when I first met him, it was kind of like a little girl being told, "you're gonna get to play Nancy Drew!" I genuinely was a huge fan of the books. In fact, he's the only author I can think whose books I own all of.

Small Vices was one of the few instances when I felt I had a connection with the character above and beyond the script. In a way, it's a blessing and a curse; the blessing being that you just love this character, but on the other hand you think wait a minute, do I have the audacity to portray this person, this icon of mine? When I heard about this project and they contacted me, I told my agent, "Well, you're going to have to get me Robert Parker's phone number or have him call me because there's no way I'll proceed with this unless I hear from his mouth that I somehow fit his conception of who could portray this character."

A&E: Does it help to have such a strong connection to the character?

JM: I had a very strong connection to the character at least as someone who has read the books and has a real love for the series. But to read them and enjoy them and then to make that leap into actually portraying such a beloved character is as scary as it is thrilling. I felt the same way about portraying Dean Martin. In a way, I think the experience of having played Dean in The Rat Pack gave me the confidence to take on this role.

A&E: What is Spenser like? What kind of person is he?

JM: There are certain enigmatic qualities about him. We never know what his first name is, so there's a certain kind of enigma about that. I talked to Robert Parker about this, and I agree with him, it's not necessary at this point. Whether or not he has a first name for him remains to be seen. At this point, its Spenser spelled with an "s" like the poet, and that's all anyone needs to really know.

A&E: Describe the relationship between Spenser and his girlfriend Susan Silverman?

JM: A lot of it is that old saying, opposites attract. There are a lot of opposites about these two people and yet there are a lot of similarities between these two people. Susan is a very strong character, very intelligent, Harvard-schooled. And here you've got Spenser. In the script, I make some comment where she quotes a line of poetry and I say who the poet is, and she goes "Boy, listen to you." You know, not having ever gone to Harvard. My answer to that being something like, "Incredible, ain't it?" But on some levels, they're very connected and very similar in their wit, how bright they are, their love of language. On the other hand, they're in two different kinds of worlds and that keeps part of the intrigue. There's a real strong love there, and the fact that they're not married is interesting, because there's always that kind of thing of just how committed they can allow themselves to be with each other.

What Parker often does, and he does it very well, is takes relationships, not just between a man and a woman, but between friends and adversaries and whatever, and put a spin on them.

A&E: What would Spenser's epitaph be?

JM: Whatever epitaph Spenser would have would be very brief. I think it might be something like, "I did what I thought was best.

https://web.archive.org/web/20021005125127/http://www.aande.com/tv/shows/vices/int_joe.html