Interviews
The
Harry Shearer Interview
[Harry Shearer image from Harry Shearer's Fifth Column
(salon.com)]
ABOUT
HARRY SHEARER
"Harry
Shearer, a Los Angeles native, began acting at the age of seven at
the suggestion of his piano teacher-turned-agent. He made his film
debut in the classic Abbott and Costello Go To Mars and had a small
role in the first Cinemascope movie The Robe.
When the last days of network radio made way for the early days of
live TV, the young thespian appeared often on The Jack Benny Show
as well as appearances on GE Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and
played the role of Eddie Haskell in the pilot episode of Leave It
To Beaver.
Harry gained national recognition as one of the creators and stars
of This Is Spinal Tap, where he portrayed heavy metalist Derek Smalls
in the mock rockumentary. Harry was a writer and cast member of Saturday
Night Live for two seasons. His on-screen performance as a NASA recruitment
official in The Right Stuff shows that he can also support a convincing
"establishment" persona as well. Harry's other film work
includes Oscar, The Fisher King, Wayne's World II, and Pure Luck."
[...more]
Harry
is the voice actor behind many of The Simpsons characters including
Montgomery Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and Reverend
Lovejoy.
-
from The Harry
Shearer Website
Mike
Visceglia: I've read that in the early days of your career you
worked with Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, and that you were on
the Leave It to Beaver Show! How did that come about and how old were
you when you broke into show business?
Harry Shearer: I was 7. Since age 4, I'd been taking piano
lessons, and my teacher's daughter worked as a teenage actress on
a comedy show, "Our Miss Brooks". Perhaps because of the
strain of trying to get my to practice, the teacher announced at one
point that she was changing careers, becoming a childrens' agent,
and asked my parents if she could seek work for me. They said yes,
and eight months later, I had an audition for the Jack Benny Program.
Which I passed.
MV: When and how did you meet Michael McKean and Christopher
Guest?
HS:
Michael came to work with a radio comedy group I was part of, The
Credibility Gap, in 1970, through the intercession of our mutual friend
(and Gap member) David L. Lander. I haven't been able to shake him
since. Chris I met when he was working on the Lampoon Radio Hour,
then I hired him (and his then-partner Tom Leopold) to work on a TV
pilot Rob Reiner and I were doing in 1978.
MV: How did the idea of "Spinal Tap" come into existence?
Is it based on any one band in particular? How much of that movie
is improvised?
HS:
The whole movie is improvised, with the exception of Sir Denis Eton-Hogg's
toast, which we wrote out for Patrick. We had actually invented the
band (and written their first song, "Rock and Roll Nightmare")
for the aforementioned pilot, called "The TV Show", which
occasionally shows up in syndication. It's based on many many bands.
Really. Swear to God.
MV:
Music seems to be an important part of your life and work. What is
your background in music and what is your affinity with the bass,
as you portray the bass player in both "This is Spinal Tap"
and "A Mighty Wind"?
HS:
Well, as I mentioned, I spent years fighting with piano teachers--basically,
they were trying to make me read and I'm a born ear player with perfect
pitch. I did take some harmony and composition courses in high school
(this was back when high schools had music departments), and then
forgot about playing until some years later, when I decided to pick
up an instrument that I would learn to play "my way". I
took a few bass lessons from Jim Fielder (who was the bassist in Blood,
Sweat & Tears), and then just played my ass off in my house until
the Spinal Tap project came along.
I guess I chose the bass because, in listening to arrangements, my
ear always went to the bass part, and because the strings are nice
and thick.
MV: Did you find it difficult to go from the electric bass
(Spinal Tap) to the upright (A Mighty Wind)?
HS:
It started out being difficult. I'd rent an upright for our occasional
Folksmen gigs, and, after a two-nighter at UCLA, I got tendinitis
in my right elbow from trying to force some sound out of this crappy
rented bass. That's when I wised up, bought a better instrument, and
started playing every day up to the filming of the movie.
MV: How do you guys write the songs for the movies?
HS:
For Tap, the four of us (Chris, Rob, Michael and I) would usually
get together and write the lyrics first, then all of us except Rob
would work on the music. Michael wrote some songs by his own self,
and then, for the second iteration ("Break Like the Wind"),
Chris and I wrote some solo pieces as well. For Wind, Michael knew
Chris needed a "heart" song for the ending, and he and his
wife wrote "Kiss at the End of the Rainbow". Michael and
I got together and just threw around some folk cliches, coming up
with Wanderin and the Good Book Song, and I wrote Loco Man one day
when, apparently, half my brain was on leave.
MV: You're a writer, an actor, and you do voice over work as
well. Do you feel more excited or fulfilled by one of these more than
another?
HS: Nothing's more fulfilling than directing. Also more frustrating,
infuriating, and amazing. But everything has its own kick. We, those
of us who have these multiple careers, always get a laugh out of being
asked by nine tenths of the people who run show business what we "really"
want to do. We want to do everything we're doing, only, usually, more
of it.
MV: Is there any one character that you enjoy playing more
than others?
HS:
I guess Derek, because I've lived with him for so long.
MV: How did you get involved in the Simpsons? Did you try out
for any characters other than the ones you play?
HS: There was no trying out. Matt and his then-partner Sam
Simon called me to do the gig. Matt was a fan of my radio show, le
show, now in its twentieth year, and they both knew I had great versatility,
which meant more bang for Fox's buck. And I do mean buck. Singular.
MV:
What's next for Harry Shearer?
HS:
I have a musical comedy, "J. Edgar!", about the life of
you know who, co-written with Tom Leopold and Peter Matz, starring
Kelsey Grammer, that should be hitting the stage pretty soon (we did
a staged reading at the Aspen Comedy Festival earlier this year).
I'm writing a comic novel about Native Americans and gambling.
I'm
still traveling the world with my first movie, "Teddy Bears'
Picnic", just having shown it in Prague and Melbourne. And I
have a film project, written with Michael McKean and Allen Rucker,
which may--just may--get made.
[click
to visit Judith's page at CDBaby.com]
MV:
Tell me about Judith Owen?
HS:
She's the most amazing singer songwriter pianist that I've ever been
married to. But she's actually a phenomenal writer and performer,
with perhaps the most remarkable control of a stage and room I've
seen, and the ability to take an audience from laughter to tears in
a heartbeat. She's done three CDs so far (www.judithowen.net,
CDBaby.com,
Amazon, or your Borders store, end of plug...), and she's in New Orleans,
our second home, working on the next three.
Thank
you to Harry for spending some time with us.
For
more information:
Harry's
official website at HarryShearer.com
The
Official Spinal
Tap Website
Harry's
page at The
Simpsons.com
