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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1982)
GENTLEMAN OF STEEL FACES PAPAL CHALLENGE h\ Damn Seay Wwuhi’ li.i> Kym .ill the glossy, color S\UK .1 whole batch of stills from l/onsignor. Christopher Reeve s son tv> Iv released fifth film and his bushy sideburixxt. Malibu tanned press agent is going to get to the bottom of it W ith a gored o\ Ivellovv the align agent sends Ins fkxk of secretaries careening around the toney Beverly Hills otfice in a frantic search tor the missing pics Stacks ot clippings are upended, bulging tiles are rifled; one diligent gofer even (vers Ivhind the potted palms From the doorway a kind of low chuckle issues as Reeve himself, standing at the threshold, surveys the chaos Give 'em hell, chief, he sivs with an absoluteh dazzling grin and strolls into the suddenly frozen tableau Feuding all the vitality, robust health and gissl humor that one man seems capable of containing. Reeve is dressed down toi the occasion another m a series of interv iews to coincide with Twentieth Century Fox’s release of UonsQpH'r. a film he unabashedly claims to lx’ literate, passionate, intriguing and original." In a carcfullv laundered blue work shirt, nicelv aged beige cords, and top skiers sans socks, the twenty seven-y ear-old Reeve could not (wssihlv cut a more casually under placed figure If it weren't for the face -the precise geometic interplav between squared jaw. thin, expressive mouth and riveting blue eyes the New York-born actor could pass tor any of the uncounted out-of-work male models prowling the streets outside It s the face known to millions only as Superman’s features prominently displayed in two matinee miracles, 'ii/v/w,in and Supermini II. in a role that elevated Reeve overnight from promising Broadway actor to mythic hero and melting heart throb It the actor is unnerved by so close an association between his real and make Ivlieve personas, he’s certainly not letting on He seems, in fact, to lx- recapping his role right here, smiling shyly at the flustered secretaries, putting his arm around his press agent, whose demeanor has changed instantly from demonic to deferential. There's no doubt about it this is Clark Kent, affable, disarming, just a regular guy with superhuman powers Superman is ikh a difficult role for me to play,'' he explains, after the now-beaming publicist has settled him into the interview room, its walls festooned with garish orange lithographs that outdo the warm light of the sun streaming through plate glass windows I had to effect a specific physical look. After that it was up to me to invent the character I thought, let’s not be aloof, macho, distant, reserved. Let's be warm, eager, there to help.' He’s a Superman for the Eighties.’ \n aspiring actor from the age of fifteen when he apprenticed himself to the Williamstown Playhouse — a top rated summer stock theater - Reeve appears to have taken his sudden ascendancy to major film stardom com pletely in stride It s a part of his personality immediately evident — supremely self-assured, apparently unim pressed with his good fortune, this son of a journalist mother and "professor, novelist and translator" father, seems, above all, in total control of the situation. I accepted the role of Superman for one reason," he asserts. “I saw it as a way to avoid ten years of hard labor. After all, I'd already done eleven years of hard labor and this was a w ay to speed up the process of getting where 1 wanted in my career to be working with the best people; the great directors and writers That's really my definition of success: to gain admission to the circle you want to be in." Gaining admission has apparently never been much of a problem for him. Following his Williamstown stint, he alternated between an education at Princeton Day School in suburban New Jersey and carefully selected appear ances with professional repertory companies. Reeve was a hockey letterman and assistant conductor of the school orchestra, but his boundless energy and ambition were targeted more directly to acting during his college years While Working for a BA at Cornell with subsequent undergrad studies atjuilliard, Reeve would sandwich acting auditions between classes He later traveled to England to write his thesis on British repertory theater, roaming throughout the Midlands visiting various companies before landing in London and applying for a job at the old Vic. "1 became what they called over there a dogsbody, and what we call over here an errand boy. But it was a very exciting time They were doing their first production of Equus and for their revival of Front Page I helped the actors w ith the American accents." Before returning home to land a role on the soap Love of Life, Reeve worked briefly in Paris with the Comedie Francai.se. It was, all in all, a quite com plete and very fortuitous theatrical education; It was after Love of Life that Reeve won two important roles in major Broadway productions. The first was as Katharine Hepburn's leading man in A Matter of Gravity, the second as an embittered paraplegic in The Fifth of July. "It was too much too soon,” he admits. “I mean, there I was, barely out of acting school, playing opposite Katharine Hepburn. I really froze, but f think the experience helped me to understand what I could accomplish in acting. I’d always gone for the character roles before that because they were the parts with all the interesting twists and turns. A lot of leading man parts are boring because a lot of leading men are boring. It never really occurred to me that 1 might be right for the hero — that I was 6'4" and reasonably attrac tive. Knowing that helped me be comfortable as Superman, which is really the last word in leading men.” There is no question that Reeve is ideally suited to por tray the Man of Steel, nor is there any doubt, at least in his mind, that he contributed greatly to the role’s human di mensions. “Superman is an idea <Continued on [tape 14) Superman, sky pilot (left) or casual guy (right), Reeves has ftoum high since his* dogsbody ’ days.
