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| Tuesday, September 4, 2007 |
Fall TV Preview: Joshua Malina
This is part of our Fall TV Preview in the Sep/Oct 2007 issue.
From Mr. Nice Guy to Mr. Guy Who Cheats on His Wife. The consummate Jewish actor takes on a new role.
After playing nice-guy characters on The West Wing, Sports Night and in numerous other roles, Joshua Malina plays against type in the new ABC series Big Shots, about four successful men whose personal lives are a wreck. His character, Karl Mixworthy, is cheating on his wife, but can't extricate himself from the affair because his manipulative mistress has managed to get his wife to hire her as a decorator. Karmic dark comedy ensues.
"He's wracked with guilt about what he's doing," says Malina, who loves the complexity of the situation and the flawed character. "It's a fun departure from what I've done before, which is always what you're looking for. Having worked so much for Aaron Sorkin, I played really smart, really kind, really good people of character. It's really interesting to play someone who's more on the morally challenged end. You see in the pilot that he knows what's right. He just struggles to actually live that life. I'm not really even sure how it's going to play out over the course of the season, but I look forward to finding out."
Of course, Melissa, his real-life wife of ten years, "would prefer that I not be licked on screen," he says, referring to one racy scene. "But if the alternative is being out of work she's willing to put up with it," quips Malina, who has two children to support, a nine-year-old daughter, Isabel, and a five-year-old son, Avi.
While he has occasionally portrayed Jewish characters in his career, Mixworthy's ethnicity has not been established but it's likely he's not a Member of the Tribe. Malina says he did several different versions of a line where he described the character as sad, middle-aged, neurotic and lactose intolerant and added "Jew" to the adjective list on a few of the takes, "but they decided not to use it. I guess it's possible that we find out in the future he's Jewish and it's an Ellis Island situation" where names were changed. "But you know, I'd rather it not be," he muses. "If I'm going to be cheating on my wife, I'd rather it not reflect badly on my people."
Big Shots premieres Sep. 27 at 10 PM on ABC.
-- Text by Gerri Miller / Photo by Sam Jones.
This is part of our Fall TV Preview in the Sep/Oct 2007 issue.
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