One of the nicest surprises I encountered upon first logging in and posting on the Deadwood threads was the fact that several of the actors from the series post comments from time to time and talk with the fans. W. Earl Brown, Keone Young, Ashleigh Kizer, and Garret Dillahunt post fairly frequently. Dayton Callie also posts from time to time as well as a few others. Without exception, these actors have been gracious and kind. They themselves are fans of the show as well as participants. While these actors are careful not to give away anything which would spoil the plot, they do tell us of some moments in the making of the series which take place off camera and comment upon the process. They are a very intelligent and highly articulate bunch. They could not be further removed from Valerie Cherish, the character Lisa Kudrow played so well in The Comeback series. It was after watching The Comeback that I couldn’t help composing a fake interview with a fictitious actress who would be in my view the complete opposite of the fine actors who kindly take the time to talk with us over on the Deadwood threads. I wrote it because I am wicked. I hope you enjoy it.
INTERVIEWER: “We are being joined tonight by an Emmy nominated actress who has distinguished herself on stage and screen. She has mesmerized audiences with stunning performances for more than twenty years since making her debut as a young cast member of the daytime drama, “Chatsworth”. Please welcome Minnie Desmond.”
MINNIE: “Thank you, how sweet.”
INT: “You have achieved a level of fame which must make…”
MINNIE: “Oh, no. I didn’t achieve fame. Fame has been thrust upon me. I’m an artist. For me, truth is beauty and beauty is, you know, truth, as I believe Bob Dylan said so well. I’m about the art, not the fame. I’m merely the voice through which great art speaks through. I’m just a bird on a wire, a drunk in a midnight choir, as one of the Coen brothers said famously. I would do what I do for free if I had to. For me, acting is my life. I am attracted to great art and have been all my life. It’s like, here I stand, I can’t do it any other way, as Martin Luther King once said. But it’s not for the fame. The fame scares me a little.”
INT: “But you’re so courageous.”
MINNIE: “Well, I don’t like to talk about me. But I find that for me, in my case, courage is inspired by great art.”
INT: “Which leads me to your last film, ‘Ninja Princess from Space II’, considered a masterpiece by fans and critics alike.”
MINNIE: “That project is very close to my heart, yes. I’m happy that the fans like it, but it was a film which compelled me and which I could not not make. The fans do frighten me sometimes, but I regard that as a price to pay for creating something lasting and permanent.
INT: “How do you deal with obsessed fans, of which, I’m sure you have many?”
MINNIE: “I have a small network of friends, a couturier, if you will, who keep me grounded. They include my agent, my publicist, my manager, my four wonderful therapists, my personal trainer, my accountant, my bodyguards, my driver, and of course the wonderful nanny to my two children, Nelova and Demulen, who are, by the way, the very love of my life”
INT: “How old are they?”
MINNIE: “Who?”
INT: “Your children.”
MINNIE: “Oh, now let’s see…Nelova was born three months after my first Emmy nomination, so that would make her eight, and Demulen was born five months before I started work on ‘Miss Julie Meets Dracula’, so that would make him four.”
INT: “In ‘Miss Julie Meets Dracula’ you played a blind, deaf, manicurist with AIDS. How did you prepare for such a difficult, and if I may say, courageous role?”
MINNIE: “Well, at first, I had no idea what a difficult life manicurists have…”
And so forth…
