|
Yellow Pages ads? Yeah, that was Jon Lovitz's
ticket
By Larry
Getlen • Bankrate.com
 Jon
Lovitz was a member of "Saturday Night Live" from 1985-90
as part of one of the show's smartest and funniest casts. Working
alongside such talents as the late Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike
Myers, Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn, Lovitz created a
stable of hilarious characters. Tommy "The Liar" Flanagan
ushered the phrase, "Yeah ... that's the ticket" into
the modern lexicon, and his Master Thespian did the same for "Acting!"
With a cartoonish manner (later played to great effect
in an actual cartoon, "The Critic") and a knack for creating
endearing characters who masked their insecurities in a gruff but
likable boastfulness, Lovitz was a consistent presence on a show
where the humor has traditionally been hit or miss.
Since then, he has made several films and one incredibly
funny television series (the hideously underrated "The Critic"),
and also took on the unenviable task of replacing a fallen friend,
taking over for Hartman on "News Radio" after the actor's
murder.
Lovitz's career is currently on the upswing, with
a new movie, "Rat Race," coming out in August. This week,
he made his Broadway debut, taking over the Henry Winkler part in
Neil Simon's "The Dinner Party."
Bankrate spoke with Lovitz about his enduring "Saturday
Night Live" friendships, putting his stamp on "The Critic,"
and the fickle life that is show biz.
BANKRATE: Who are you
closest with from the old SNL crew?
JON LOVITZ: My best friends
there were Phil, and Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller, but they've
moved away from L.A., so I don't see them as much. But I still consider
them close friends.
B: How's Dana doing?
JL: Dana's doing great.
His health is great, and he just wrote a screenplay, and he's flying
all over the country doing stand-up for corporations.
B: He has a movie coming
out that Sandler produced, right?
JL: Well, he finished
writing it for Sandler's company. Adam went on the show right after
I quit. He's one of those rare comedians who's not competitive with
his friends. He wants to work with them and put them in his movies
-- he's put me in several of his movies. He asked me to do "The
Wedding Singer" as a favor, which I did, which was fun, and
then later I said 'Hey, I need to be in a hit movie, can you put
me in a movie?' So he had a part for me in "Little Nicky."
He said to myself, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, David Spade, and Rob
Schneider, he said 'Hey, I'm in the position now. I can make movies,
but I want to help you guys make your movies.' Very generous, very
rare.
B: Do you have anything
in the works with him?
JL: We're trying to get
something going, yeah. Usually, they're like, "OK, I'm here,
bye." I mean, he gets something out of it, he makes money too,
but it's not like he has to do it. He's a mensch, he's a great guy,
very generous.
B: Ironically, the project
where you may have had the biggest impact was the one you weren't
actually seen in. "The Critic" was hysterical.
JL: That was created
by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who used to run "The Simpsons."
They wrote it for me. They wanted to do it as a live show originally,
but there wasn't a script. I said, "It sounds funny, but I
need to see a script,' so they wrote a script and then they said,
"Now we want to do it animated." I thought it was hilarious,
but I think they get all the credit because they created it for
me.
B: It seems to have so
much of your personality in it.
JL: Well, they wrote
it for me, plus I could add a lot of my own stuff to it, which they
liked. I didn't create the character or anything, but it was written
to the way I'm funny, like on talk shows, my persona, whatever.
When I was goofing off they would watch me and write stuff, and
I'd add my own stuff, and they'd keep it a lot and put it in later
scripts. One thing was so silly, I was just doing the voice and
I had another line and somebody cut me off, so I just cleared my
throat really loud, "AAAACCCHEM," so then they put that
in the rest of the scripts. Now, it's on the Internet on Shockwave.com.
I don't know how many are running.
B: Does every aspect
of your career do well for you, or is one more lucrative than the
rest?
JL: Certain things are
more lucrative than others. Broadway pays the least. It's not like
I sit at home and go, "Now I'll do this. I feel like making
a movie ... Now I'll do a TV show." It's not like that. One
thing tends to lead into another. If you do a TV series and the
ratings are really high, then they'll bring you back and pay you
a lot more money. If not, then they cancel it, and you're on to
the next thing. I did "High School High" in 1996, and
then after that I wasn't really getting any studio movies for four
years. I had a deal with Disney, I was making a living, and then
the Yellow Pages commercials came up. I wasn't going to do that.
I thought I'd be the Yellow Pages guy forever, but then I thought,
"Well, no one's hiring me for movies, here's the Yellow Pages
and it's really funny and it pays well, so, might as well go out
with a bang." I thought it would just kill my movie career,
but I did it, and then the next thing I know Woody Allen called
me and put me in his movie ("Small Time Crooks"). Then
Todd Solondz, I had met with him about his follow up to "Welcome
to the Dollhouse," and then I didn't hear anything, then five
months later he hired me (for "Happiness"), and that helped
me get the Woody Allen movie. The next thing you know I did six
movies in a year and a half.
|
