Yowling like a lunatic, brandishing a saber or playing a foil for a bunch of zanies is easy, says Kevin Kline, an actor who has done all of those things. But portraying an ordinary guy who mails a letter or asks if there are any messages or waits for a bus, now that`s hard.
Kline is best known for his far-out performances in ”A Fish Called Wanda” (for which he won an Academy Award) or ”Soapdish” or his first movie, ”Sophie`s Choice.”
”When you get to go crazy or when you get to play an eccentric character, it`s not recognizable behavior and people are intrigued by it,”
Kline says.
”And you make up your own reality. You push the envelope. But when you play a regular guy, it`s more confining. It`s more difficult to be impressive. You can`t wow an audience.”
Ever since Kline captured a Tony for his first Broadway show, ”On the Twentieth Century,” he has been wowing the audience, though not usually as the-boy-next-door types.
He started out at Indiana University, mad about music but drawn to the socially affable environment of the theater. He was ”god awful” when he began, he says. And one drama teacher almost persuaded him to give it up before he had really begun.
But he persevered, nursing a passion for music (he plays the piano) to this day.
”I still play and study and have lessons. It`ll always be my first love, but it`s one of those great avocations I can take with me. After two years at the university, I decided I was way over my head in music and what I really wanted to do was just act.”
He went on to study at Juilliard. But he did not study music there.
”It had something to do with the discipline involved in music,” he says. ”I`d not started early enough and wasn`t disciplined enough. The loneliness of being sequestered in a practice room for six hours a day.
”I love the theater, working with people, a team sport,” he says, his eyes wide with enthusiasm though he was up till 3 a.m. finishing a role as Douglas Fairbanks in ”Charlie,” a biography of Charlie Chaplin.
Kline, 44, returns to the yuppie roots that were first planted in Lawrence Kasdan`s ”The Big Chill” for Kasdan`s next study of the Baby Boomers in ”Grand Canyon.” It, too, is a team effort with a large cast including Danny Glover, Alfre Woodard, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell and Mary- Louise Parker.
And Kline is still wowing them as the upscale Angeleno who suffers a close encounter in a ghetto that changes his life in ”Grand Canyon.”
Kline, who lives in New York, had his own close encounter there. ”A guy had a very loud ghetto blaster, with music that wasn`t Mozart. What can I say? I looked up annoyed from my newspaper and eight guys indicated, `You got a problem with this?` Then I started getting into it,” he laughs.
Actually, describing his reaction is hard to articulate, he says. ”You become very weak; then you overcome that with a surge of adrenaline, strength; then your mind clicks in and you try to find a genteel way of escaping.”
Kline is married to actress Phoebe Cates and they have a 1/2-month-old son, Owen.
He and Cates have resolved to keep their careers in perspective, remaining together as a unit, no matter how appealing a role might be, he says. They take turns accepting far-away assignments.
”If both members in a relationship are wildly ambitious, there`s going to be a problem,” he says. ”Because she`s going to want to do that movie that`s shooting in Afghanistan, and he`s going to say, `Well I have to do this movie in Mexico. I mean, this is a great part.`
”One of you has to say, `I`ll go with you to Mexico and you come with me to Afghanistan.` You have to give and take.”
