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Talking to: Lee Tergesen
Aug. 1, 2005
By Virginia Rohan
NorthJersey.com
Lee Tergesen is best known for playing Terry,
the "I Love You, Man" slacker dude, in "Wayne's World," and Tobias
Beecher, the white-collar inmate who lost his moral compass, and,
for a time, his marbles, in "Oz."
Believe it or not, he once had an agent who thought he should play
straight arrows.
"When I was 21 or so, and I started to grow my hair - this was maybe
two years before 'Wayne's World' - they were like 'What are you
doing? ... You're such the all-American guy.' But I would go in and
read for these parts, and it never excited me to play the guy who
doesn't have any sort of point of view and edge," Tergesen recalls.
"I think I knew I wasn't what people looked at and saw in me. I love
characters. I love things that have dimension and depth, that are
hard to figure out."
Enter Tergesen's newest oddball-wrapped-in-an enigma: U.S. Marshal
Eddie Drake.
This Sunday (10 p.m.), in the second episode of TNT's new "Wanted,"
Drake joins the eclectic squad of law-enforcement agents in tracking
L.A.'s 100 most dangerous criminals.
"He's sort of a loose cannon with a quick wit," says Tergesen, who
sports longish hair and a Fu Manchu mustache as Drake. "He's
somebody who of course is intense. I always wind up playing somebody
a little intense. Maybe I'm just intense."
Drake is on a suspension - while being investigated for shooting
someone he was tracking - when team leader Lt. Conrad Rose (Gary
Cole) asks him to join his squad.
"We have history, because he was my training officer," Tergesen
says. "There's a little bit of weird blood between us." (Drake also
has some history with Rose's ex-wife.)
"Wanted" creator Jorge Zamacona ("Homicide: Life on the Street,"
"Oz"), whom Tergesen has known for years, first asked him to do the
pilot. (They discussed the roles of Bible-thumping ATF Agent Jimmy
McGloin and even team leader Rose.) But Tergesen was committed to
doing the play "The Foreigner" with Matthew Broderick at New York's
Roundabout Theatre.
"I said to Jorge, 'I gotta pass.' I knew it was going to be great to
do the play, and it was a blast," says Tergesen, who thinks the
Drake character is actually a better fit for him.
Asked what he liked about "Wanted," he says, "I had worked on
something called 'Weird Science' before, a big broad comedy
[series], then I went into 'Oz,' which was sort of intense. And I
wanted to do something that was an action thing where funny things
can happen, and where the guy was a little bit more on top of
things."
Not that he'd ever complain about Tobias Beecher or "Oz."
"I don't know if I'll ever have a job that, on so many levels, was
so great," Tergesen says. "I was working with so many close friends,
and the material was really juicy. I think we ended it at the right
time, and I definitely look back fondly."
The same year "Oz" ended, Tergesen appeared in the movie "Monster,"
playing the psychotic rapist who sets Aileen Wuornos off on her
killing spree.
And earlier this season on FX's "Rescue Me," he showed up in the
first three episodes as a multi-talented and beloved firefighter
named Sully, who seemed too good to be true.
Imagine the guys' surprise when they rescued someone in a leather
mask and miniskirt at an underground sex club fire - and discovered
it was Sully.
"It's not the first time I had to get in drag," Tergesen observes
dryly, alluding to his tenure on "Oz."
Still boyish-looking, Tergesen celebrated a big milestone last
month: his 40th birthday.
"I feel great about it. I am probably the most centered and at peace
than I have been in my adult life," he says. "It's all good. I can't
get too hung up about the aging process. Something happened when we
first started working on the show, and I thought to myself, you
know, I don't have to deal with this. I'm 40. I'm an adult."
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