RED Star Alfred Molina Talks About His Passion For Playing Nutjobs

Alfred Molina was recently interviewed by Raven Snook in Time Out New York. The article was titled "Alfred Molina: The Character actor likes playing nutjobs."

The interview begins: While it's true that Alfred Molina can do any accent (or as he says, "give good foreign"), his real-life voice is that of a sexy British gentleman, the kind of part he rarely gets to play. Instead, the 56-year-old has portrayed a variety of deeply disturbed oddballs, including Spider-Man nemesis Doc Ock and a Speedo-sporting, cheesy-'80s-song-loving drug dealer in Boogie Nights. And now he's playing yet another messed-up guy: abstract painter Mark Rothko in the West End stage import Red. Although John Logan's biodrama doesn't deal with Rothko's eventual suicide, it does present a portrait of the artist as a middle-aged neurotic, when he was working on the Seagram murals that became a major part of his legacy. The morning after his first Broadway preview, Molina called to chat about the show and explain why he's always careful when approached by ostensible fans.

Last night at 3am, I came across you playing a rapist-murderer on Law & Order SVU. Not exactly a role that puts an interviewer at ease.
[Laughs] No, I suppose not.

How do you get into the heads of all these-let's be blunt-fucked-up guys?
The truth is there's something rather attractive about them. I don't mean in the you'd-like-to-have-dinner-with-them sort of way. They're challenging. They present me with a set of problems that I need to solve in order to make them live.

You're a sort of ethnic everyman. Is there any type of person you can't play?
Well, I don't think I'd be very convincing as African-American, but other than that...you know, most ethnicities I've played, I've managed to offend someone.

To read the complete interview, click on the following link:
http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/hot-seat/83887/alfred-molina-hot-seat

RED is set in 1958 as New York artist Mark Rothko (Alfred Molina) has received the art world's largest commission to create a series of murals for The Four Seasons restaurant in the new Seagram building on Park Avenue. Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant, Ken (Eddie Redmayne) and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Rothko faces his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. RED is a moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.

Performances are Tuesday - Saturday at 8:00 PM with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00, Sunday at 3:00 PM. Beginning the week of April 12, Tuesday performances at 7:00 PM.

For more information on RED, visit www.RedOnBroadway.com

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.