An Actor's Life for Me, Part 8

Posted by Trevor on July 20, 2009

Tags: Brady Bunch, Disneyland, Gideon, Pinocchio, Robert Reed

As a performer, I take my character work seriously. Really. No matter who the character might be.

I had just started my undergraduate work at UCLA in the theatre department and I was taking the usual beginning courses. Movement for mimes, voice for the tone deaf, and theatre history 101 for all the "kids." It was compulsory and was taught by an eccentric guy who would drone on about the good 'ol days, meaning back in the B.C., and occasionally sing tragic "goat songs" in ancient Greek before going on to wax poetical about how the early thespians walked around in golden robes and were worshiped like gods. Having been to a few Westwood red carpet openings, already I couldn't really see the difference, other than the fact that he seemed to be talking about proper "stage" actors...not all these film and television performers.

Besides the other "real" courses I was taking in English literature, I had also auditioned for and to my utter surprise, been accepted into a Shakespearean acting class taught by a Mr. Reed. Yes, that "Mister Reed," aka Mike Brady, the patient patriarch of the Brady Bunch. It quickly became my favorite class. He was actually every bit as kind as his on-screen persona and a very talented stage actor, not to mention a very good teacher. But he was very strict when it came to things like coming to class on time. He would actually lock anyone out if they came late. So I was always on time. But it was absolutely surreal to go from a late night shift dressed as a furry feline fool at Disneyland to campus the next day and perform a monologue from MacB...the Scottish Tragedy...as he insisted on calling it in our little theatre/classroom.

"Mr. B," as others insisted on calling him behind his back because no one dared to use the word "Brady" anywhere near him, said to me very earnestly one morning after I had given a rather idiosyncratic reading of Richard III's infamous "Now" speech, "Remember, if you have any questions about your character, always go back to the text. Especially if he is a villain." So, I did. Whether it was Prince Hal, Prince John or...Gideon. But the minimal research that I had time to do for my new role as a confused cat really only consisted of watching a fellow cast member's bootlegged Pinocchio video and fast forwarding to the scenes that "Giddy" was in. He didn't even have any text. Still, I thought that I had this kitty clown down cold. Gideon was a con artist and beggar, pretending to be Pinocchio's friend in order to fool the little woodenhead and steal his gold. In the movie the bit works well to comic effect. I have to admit that I hadn't gone back to read the original story. I just remembered that it was a little darker than the Disney version. But when I finally did I was shocked that he actually gets his paw nearly bitten off by the bratty boy. Not exactly G-rated material.

The character breakfast was underway, and I just couldn't be bothered about my lack of character depth now. After my time as Pluto, being in this light costume was amazingly freeing. I wanted to dance on the tables and jump and run simply because I actually could. I had a license to be lame. I was being paid for acting like a complete goofball, at minimum wage, but still, I was a professional "Gidiot."

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