A Moment With 'Almost an Evening' Star Tim Hopper

Currently running at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street, Ethan Coen's 'Almost an Evening' sold out before performances began in its first home at the Atlantic Theater Company. Actor Tim Hopper joined the cast in this second installation, playing a British spy making some major life choices in "Four Benches" and a high strung restaurant manager in "Debate". Here, he sits down with BroadwayWorld.com and talks about his humble beginnings at Steppenwolf and what it was like to come into the cast of this wildly successful play.

Faetra Petillo: Congratulations on becoming part of the 'Almost an Evening' cast in its transfer to The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street. How did you come into the cast?

Tim Hopper: I came in through the regular way of an audition. My agents called me and said 'Do you want to go out on this thing?' and sent me the material and I said, 'Yes, of course!'. It was a very fast thing. I think I auditioned on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then I had to wait until Friday evening to find out. So I found out on a Friday night and we started rehearsals on that Tuesday morning. 

FP: Wow, that is fast. What was that experience like- did you have to approach things differently than you normally would?

TH: Yes, it's very fast. And it was kind of a speeding train. Seven out of the nine had done it before. It meant working more from the outside in and I'd prefer to go from the inside out, but there just wasn't time. Meaning I had to get the lines down first. So I had to concentrate on getting the lines down and then I had to go back and say, 'Ok, now who is this person and why are they saying this?'. Which ordinarily I would be doing first and spending more time on. So there were run-throughs where it was like, 'Great, Tim you have all the lines but who is the guy who is saying them?' Also, with the British accent I had to work from the outside in and make sure all the sounds were very precise and then you go inside and think about the person saying them so it isn't just an actor up on stage with a British accent. 

FP: You play two different roles back to back in "Four Benches" and then "Debate" and the transition between them is very quick. How does that affect you as an actor? Is it more challenging?

TH: It's more challenging to do shorter pieces. I remember reading about jazz solos where you just kind of have to burn, there's not time to build, you just go. And that's kind of what this feels like. You just have to jump in the middle of the thing. It's strange. And I think I'll get more comfortable with it as the run goes on as I begin to know this character and I know where I'm going next. So it is challenging, but in terms of changing between the two characters I have enough time that I have a little break and I just go over the lines of each one before I go on.

FP: You are a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company and got your start with them in Chicago before coming to New York. Can you talk a little bit about your experiences with the company and what it's meant to you as an actor?

TH: It was just a huge blessing. And every actor wants a home, you want that security. I have that home, I have that security. And then on top of that, I met some fantastic people that are not only great actors but some of the nicest people I know on this planet, like Jeff Perry. I've learned so much. I remember when I first came to Chicago I was a non-equity actor and I would usher for every Steppenwolf show and I would usher two or three times sometimes because some performances to me were the equivalent of two or three months in an acting class. It was just so inspiring. So I saw as much of it as I could. 

I worked with them first as a non-equity actor doing some Shakespeare scenes for high school audiences. And they liked me and they said they wanted to look for opportunities to work with me in the future. So they would call me in for closing night parties, because the idea is that when you bring someone into the ensemble you want to know them both personally and professionally. And then eventually I did a show on the main stage as an equity actor, my first one was  The Common Pursuit and then I did Grapes of Wrath right after that. I've had the opportunity to observe such amazing actors like Laurie Metcalf and everyone at the company has a fabulous gift. 

And that's what it did for me. I had gone to grad school and had a lot of various careful training which to me felt like the externals so I was looking for a way into the internal and the truth. And one of the things about members like Gary Sinise and others is that they grew up on the films of John Cassavetes and that's what theater was to them- brutal honesty, fantastic characters, that kind of stuff. Just being around that I think I learned to appreciate it more and they were sort of the beacon for me.

FP: How did you decide to come to New York? 

TH: I actually started in Los  Angeles. I went from Chicago to Los Angeles to start working in some film. And I did. I worked on Frankie and Johnny and The Last of The Mohicans. We shot The Last of The Mohicans down in North Carolina and there were actors from all over. There were New York actors, LA actors, London actors, and I just found myself sort of gravitating towards the New York actors. I had been in LA about nine or ten months at that point and I really wanted to get back to the theater. I knew a bunch of people in New York, I still had old college friends in New York. So the natural thing at that point was to go to New York and do theater but still make myself available to film and television. And it took about a year to get my first show- that was at New York Theatre Workshop. I did a Caryl Churchill piece and from there started to piece things together.

FP: What is the difference in preparation for you working in both mediums, film and theater? 

TH: I think that the main difference for me is that you don't get as much rehearsal in film and that's something I still haven't mastered yet. I'm still learning. I think that I've done so much theater where you have the luxury of three or four weeks of rehearsal and in film there's none of that. You have to get on the set and have it ready to go. And I'm not quite sure yet how to do that. I've done a few films and I've done some television and I'm still learning how to come up with that performance.

I don't think any actor ever watches a performance and says 'Ok, I think I'm done with that.' You're always thinking about what you can do better. Anyway, you come up to a certain point and you say, 'Ok I'm ready to film it'. And theater has always had the more interesting roles for me. These days with the economics of film there's a few really wonderful roles and they bring in the mains that are going to bring in the business and then everyone else is sort of supporting them in a 'Here's your prop, my Lord' kind of part. I've had a few instances in film and television where the character was very interesting but the lion's share of those kind of roles have been in  theater.

FP: Shooting off of that idea of film vs. theater, you are doing a play by Ethan Coen who has primarily up until this point worked in film- this is his first produced work for the stage. Did you find any similarities in the writing and the style of the work to being a film in comparison to doing a work by a writer who primarily writes for theater? What were your first impressions of the script?

 TH: My first impressions were the intelligence and the humor of it. I didn't see it when it was done at the Atlantic before, so I didn't get the chance to sit down and observe it. I approached it as a play and went into it from there. So I never had the luxury of saying that I find myself going into it the way I go into it when I watch his films.

Having said that, doing the play makes me go back and look at his films and see if there's an umbrella under which you can put all these things that he's interested in as a writer and as a creator. For me, looking back I think what he seems to focus on is flawed and interesting human behavior. You can't pigeon hole characters. The thing I love about the script and his writing in general is that he asks questions and doesn't try to give answers and smooth off the edges.

FP: The character you play in "Four Benches" is a British spy who starts to question his life. What about that character have you fallen in love with?

TH: I've fallen in love with his desires to change his life and to open himself up. It's pretty easy to identify with. It's easy for me to connect to him and feel like I wish I were more open and I had more access to my feelings as a person and as an actor. And the character is the same way and I love that about him and I appreciate that about him. He makes a huge change in his life to try to accomplish that. He moves to Texas where he has no friends, just because it seems to him to be a more interesting way to live his life. I love that. 

FP: The show is going to be running at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street Theater through June. Do you prefer the longer runs or the shorter runs and is it easier for you to sustain a longer run with such a light-hearted comic piece like this one as opposed to a dramatic one? 

TH: I don't like doing the longer runs, no (laughs). That is the trade-off to an actor's life - you don't have any job security. But to me the upside to not having job security is that you can go from one interesting project to another. So I really appreciate that. It is easier to do a piece like this where it is a comedy than if it's some kind of tragedy. To me it's like a hen that is brooding on an egg. It's that way when I do auditions too. When I had to do the audition for this I had about five days to prepare and I felt like the hen sitting on the egg and just sort of brooding and waiting for the thing to get to the point where it's ready to get cracked and hatch. 

So doing a run of any play is the same thing and any actor will tell you even though this play is only eighty-five minutes long from the moment you get up in the morning you're thinking about the performance you have to give that evening and you're budgeting your time throughout the day and gauging how much energy you will need throughout the day. You always prioritize and you have a responsibility to the show to perform as well as you possibly can and whether it's a comedy or a tragedy you have to carry that weight with you throughout the entire run of the show. What's different with a comedy is that at the end of the day you get to do the piece and you get to hear people laugh and you can appreciate that they've appreciated it. Laughter is such an immediate reward.

FP: So what will you be up to after 'Almost an Evening'? 

TH: John Kolvenbach is a playwright and a friend of mine and he's written a play called Fabuloso and he wants to do it at the Well Fleet Harbor Actor's Theater up on Cape Cod this summer so that's going to be late July to the beginning of September. That is one thing I know is certain but after that I'm not sure I'll have to wait and see what happens with the actor's strike, and hopefully the strike won't happen and they'll be plenty of film and television.

'Almost an Evening' will be running at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street until June 1st, 2008. It is written by Ethan Coen and directed by Atlantic Theatre Company Artistic Director Neil Pepe. In addition to Tim Hopper the cast includes the talents of Joey Slotnick, F. Murray Abraham, Mark Linn-Baker, Del Pentecost, J.R. Horne, Johanna Day, Mary McCann and Jordan Lage. For more information please visit www.almostanevening.com

Top Photo Credit Peter James Zielinski 

Production Stills by Doug Hamilton