"The oddest of odd couples"
Published on June 4th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - In the words of Sherman Hemsley, you might call this pairing the "oddest of the odd couples."
Pat Morita, the Academy Award nominated Japanese-American actor famous for his roles in the Karate Kid and Happy Days, and Sherman Hemsley, the Emmy nominated actor who portrayed the Napoleonic George Jefferson on television for 13 seasons on All In the Family and The Jeffersons, are set to headline a star-studded production of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" at Stoneham Theatre.
Both actors have been rehearsing in Stoneham for weeks, and found time to squeeze a quick interview with the Stoneham Independent into their schedule.The show is set to begin on Friday, June 6 and tickets are currently on sale at Stoneham Theatre's box office at 781-279-2600:
SI: So what brought you guys to Stoneham?
SH:You'll have to ask somebody else, cause my agent just told me to come here (chuckling) that's an answer I'm continuing to search for...
PM:Ummmm...how about a job.
SI:What did you think when you were first told you were coming to Stoneham? Had you ever heard of Stoneham before?
SH:No I had never heard of it.
PM:I've heard of get stoned, but not Stoneham...stoned hams maybe, but Stoneham was not in my vocabulary. No I'd never heard of this place before.
Director: (laughing) We'll be known as the original Stoned Hams throughout production.
SI:What did you think when you first heard it was the odd couple that you'd be doing?
SH:It's a great play and I've always wanted to be in it. When I heard Pat was in it, that's what sold me...That's all I had to know. Every time somebody mentions our names people start cracking up hysterically...I don't think we're that funny looking, are we Pat?
PM: Odd looking.
SH:People have said that we're the oddest of the Odd Couples.
SI:Is that sort of the crux of the production, that you're a couple of totally different guys being throw into the mix?
SH: Yeah, you could say that...for sure.
SI: Have either of you ever done live theatre before?
SH:Oh yeah, I started in live theater. Most of my life, the TV thing came well after I'd been involved in theater. That was all by accident.
PM:I've never done it before.
SI:Were you nervous at all going into a new venue?
PM: It was truly a different kind of nervousness, the idea of working with Sherman and coming out to the east coast here and doing something I've never done. It's terrifying, but exhilirating. I couldn't wait to just jump in and wet my pants.
SI:Has the script been tailored to you specifically, or is it the straight Odd Couple?
SH:It's the same play, you don't tamper with Neil Simon.
PM: No man, you just go straight ahead. I think one of the beauties of the two of us doing this play is that we are two obviously ethnically different people, and by the time we're established on stage people ain't gonna see no color.
SH:Uh-huh...
PM: People are just going to hear the words and they're going to have fun.
SH:People are going to enjoy themselves.
PM: That's what it's all about.
SI:You've been in Stoneham a very short time, do you have any impression of the town walking around here?
SH: It reminds me of Gene Wilder's play "Our Town."
SI: Kind of an Apple Pie, hometown USA feel?
SH: (laughing) Kind of, but I'm sure we haven't met the people yet so...it kind of looks like a movie set.
Director: We've met the people.
SI: What do you think of the people?
PM: They're great.
SH: Oh yeah, I've met the people over at Anthony's and Felicia's.
PM: (laughing) All I know is there sure is a ton of white people around here. I haven't run into Asian or whatever.
Director: (laughing) Someone should come in here and yell "Immigration" and see what happens.
PM: Yeah...they'll all fall out of the woodwork.
SI: What have people been saying to you when they do approach you in town?
PM: Howaya...howaya.
SH: Hoawaya.
PM: Howyooodoin.
Director: They tell them that they love their work and they've seen them in everything.
PM: Yeah..they lie...they lie.
SI: Are you telling me that people haven't seen Collision Course? (an early 80's film starring Pat Morita and a pre-Tonight Show Jay Leno)
PM: Oh yeah right...you'd be surprised at what they have seen. On my god. Not only that, two nights ago I got up early in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned the TV on and just channel flashing...there I was on Midway and I'm like 'Damn I was good looking.' (laughing)...my hair was dark...oh man.
SH: Boy there's nothing like the old stuff.
SI: Do you guys ever really do that...watch your past work when you just happen across it?
PM: I don't usually.
SH: It's hard to watch because usually you start thinking about things that you could have done better.
PM: People always do that from time to time, and I always say why do I want to watch myself? I remember doing it.
SH: Then you live it, and you might remember a scene where it reminds you of something happened that reminds you of something that was uncomfortable...and it feels like ughhh...so I don't wanna know nothin'. We did it we lived it, there it is.
SI: Obviously you're associated with the Jeffersons and with the Karate Kid respectively, does it ever bother you or do you take pride in the work thats sort of stayed in people's minds?
SH: And if it does bother you, what do you do? It's gonna happen and you just got to accept it that's all. If it bothers you, it bothers you. It's all about the timing, you know, sometimes it's cool and other times it's like whoo.
SI:Like if you're in the middle of eating, or some kind of private moment?
PM: I have a quick incident to share with you in regard to that...my wife and I were having a lovely dinner and it's a nice place in Vegas...and a woman fan comes up to us and says 'I'm sorry to bother you" and Evie goes 'Well you are' before I could even open my mouth...
SI:So your wife does all the dirty work for you?
PM: Oh no man she loves it.
SH: (laughing) People will say that boy I hate to disturb you while you're eating...but you are. But you don't really say that...you might think it.
PM:Not Evie...she'll say it.
SI: I'm sure there's a lot of people that do it with class and a little bit of couth.
SH: Oh yeah...with panache.
PM: It's all according to the moment.
SH: Yeah...just don't grab.
PM: (laughing) yeah...me too. We both agree...just don't grab us.
SH:Sometimes it takes me back to where I grew up. I think I'm back in Philly and it's gang war time.
SI: You both come from normal jobs before you had any measure of success in showbusiness. What kind of advice do you have for somebody that's working a job they don't necessarily like and want to break into showbusiness. What kept you guys going?
SH: Thinking about the future and what I was working toward. You say that 'you just don't know me know.' You treat me like (expletive), but you just don't know me yet. I was working at a bar in Philly when I was taking acting classes. I would come in at 7 and they told me I had to clean up in the afternoon and I had to make sandwiches and after that I had to clean up you know...Anytime anybody slopped something up, they were like 'Sherman clean it up.'
You just keep telling yourself 'One day, One day.' This is what makes you work harder to accomplish what you want to do.
PM: If you're not happy with your job, screw it and move on.
SH: Cause I worked at the post office and-
SI: There's a lot of happy people there, right?
SH: well...There were a few (laughing).
PM: I'm glad you got outta there.
SH: I can understand why those things happen, and because they can really drive you to that point. It's all about how you treat people. The only thing I learned there was how to play ping-pong. I played a lot of ping-pong. I'd always hear 'Helmsley, get back to your case.'
SI: Did you know each other before you signed on to do this?
SH:Oh sure, we have mutual friends.
PM: We weren't close, we knew each other.
SH: But we have mutual close friends that made us close.
PM: We had mutual friends and we'd run into each other on occassion...this and that. (laughing) We'd spit in each other's eyes.
SI: A couple of quick word associations and just give me whatever pops into your head: Wheezie.
SH: That's the second question people always ask me. Hey George where's Wheezie?
SI: Felix Unger.
PM: Very complicated. Messed up in the head. Kind of a character that I have to draw out of me somewhere.
SI:Oscar Madison.
SH: I don't know. Just fun...the play is fun. Beautiful.
SI: Fonzi.
PM: Fonzi can die...It's about time to die. Reruns and everything, you know how long he's been on the air?
SI: Lenny Kravitz? (his mother played Sherman's neighbor for 11 years on the Jefferson's.)
SH: Oh that's my buddy...I remember when he was a little baby. I used to play music for him a lot. I used to play Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer becuase that's what I was into...obviously it sank in because he's basically into that same thing. He's always been a very nice, polite kid and his mother was a beautiful woman.
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