Wayne Knight will forever be ingrained in TV fans’ minds as Newman on Seinfeld and film fans remember him as Nedry in Jurassic Park. He has continued doing guest roles on shows, including Bones, Hot in Cleveland and Torchwood. Recently he was cast in a staring role in TV Land’s The Exes, which co-stars Donald Faison from Scrubs and Kristen Johnston from 3rd Rock From The Sun. The show makes its series premiere on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m.
TheCelebrityCafe.com: As great as it is to do guest roles, is it better to have guest roles or one commitment to a show?
Wayne Knight: I think the best thing would be to be paid as a lead and say maybe one or two lines. You know, having been a regular on series and being a recurring on series... the recurring situation is where you get two or three scenes, you come in and make sure that those two or three scenes are very funny. As one of the regular characters though, you have a little more breadth to work with. But you still only have 22 minutes per episode and here, we’ve got five people to deal with. So, it’s not that much different. You’re just trying to make sure everything you do is good.
TCC: With Hot in Cleveland and now The Exes, TV Land is making a habit out of teaming all-star sitcom actors. With such great credits behind them, are you and your co-stars able to work well together?
WK: Yeah. You know, I think the idea is that the form of the sitcom was fading in a way. You had all these networks that were doing these reality shows and police procedural shows. So you have a great wealth of these people who had been sitcom actors to pool from. So, TV Land was smart enough to say, ‘Let’s get some people who have experience at this form and put them together.’ You get experienced writers, experienced actors, doing something they enjoy doing. And I think you can really hit the ground running. Nobody’s learning how to do it, you know, when you’re starting a show.
TCC: In the show, you play Haskell, who would rather sit in his room all day and be a couch potato than talk to anyone. Are there times in real life when you feel that way?
WK: Oh... well... I did, but now I’m married, have a child and I’ve rejoined the human race [laughs]. I think everybody does, you know. There are times when you isolate yourself. The thing about Haskell is he starts out as the concept of a guy sitting on a couch who doesn’t really be in any relationships of any kind. The last one he had really hurt. It didn’t work out. As time goes on, I think you’ll see more out of Haskell and definitions of a character. But, you know, you start from there and you go from there and you see what he becomes.
TCC: There is a clear friendship between Haskell and Donald Faison’s character, Phil. Is that something that you try to build on off the set to make the friendship as real as possible when the cameras roll?
WK: No, not at all. In fact, we seldom speak. No, I’m only kidding... It’s actually a lot easier because he’s a very easy going guy... Easy person to get along with and funny and lively and drinking a lot a lot of Red Bulls during the show. So, you just have to hose him down and everything will be fine. You know, I think the relationships you have off camera... Do they bleed on camera? Not necessarily, but if it’s helpful, if it’s somebody you’re supposed to like on camera, you do like, it doesn’t hurt.
TCC: It just kind of enhances the character...
WK: Well, it ads to rhythms that you might play. I mean, you might be more playful in the scene. You might have a way with playing with one another that works better because you know each other and like each other.
TCC: You did have a recurring role on Hot In Cleveland on a few episodes, which means you got to work with Betty White. How was it working with her since she has experienced this late-career boost?
WK: Betty is perhaps next on the Grand Canyon as one of the greatest natural resources America has now, I think. (Laughs) She is uncommonly able to make anything she says funny whenever she feels like it. And she is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, so the combination of the two is pretty powerful. She’s just a really nice person who’s always funny. And generous. So when you go over to work over [at Hot In Cleveland], it’s like everybody is a pro. They’re all happy to be there. They all know what to do, so it’s the best possible place to work.
TCC: The Blu-ray of Jurassic Park has finally reached store shelves. Since the film features one of your most iconic roles, have you had a chance to check it out the release?
WK: You know, I’ve been watching Jurassic recently in different venues because I don’t really watch my stuff very much. I went back and saw it recently and I really like it. It’s a great film and in terms of where it was in movie technology it really kind of extended the grasp of film at that time remarkably well. But, I haven’t gotten the Blu-ray yet. I’m set up to and I really should go out and buy the Blu-ray and see it. You know, seeing myself covered in goo and fatter even more clearly, I don’t know. How much clearly do I need to see it?
TCC: Yeah, how clearly does that spit need to look exactly?
WK: Yeah, do I need to be reminded exactly how viscous and stretchy and horrible that was? Maybe I do.
TCC: Is there any other work that you like to go back to and watch every now and then?
WK: Most of them are not necessarily about the work, but the memories of doing them. So every now and then, I’ll come across Dirty Dancing and remember where I was then as a young actor in New York, driving to the Catskills... or actually going to Lake Lure, North Carolina I suppose, to recreate the Catskills at that time. And nobody thinking that it was going to be much of anything, but it turned out to be such a big deal, you know, stuff like that.
I really enjoyed To Die For, this movie with Nicole Kidman that Gus Van Sant directed. It’s where I met Buck Henry, who was the writer on the movie and we later did Art on Broadway together. So, that is something that is resonant to me. In doing Dirty Dancing with [actor] Jack Weston at the time... He later was crossing the street in New York City and saw me and said, “Hey, I gotta leave this play in Lincoln Center, so why don’t [you] audition for it?” So he did and I got in the play and that lead me to do Oliver Stone movies! You know all kinds of other stuff happened.
So, I look at these things as historical documents of where I was at the time, not as a standard audience member, whose never seen it before. But as somebody who remembers what I was doing then... like going through a photo album.
TCC: So you find it hard to enjoy it for what it is? It’s just kind of like a memory for you then?
WK: Yeah, but I think like the recent viewing of Jurassic, once you’re far enough away from it... It’s like watching old Seinfeld's, some of which I’ve forgotten. You know, I go back and watch them... I don’t watch them like some people who watch them over and over again, I don’t. So, I’ll come back and I’ll see an episode and say ‘Oh, I remember that episode!’ And I’ll watch it as an audience member and go, ‘Gee, that’s plenty!’ So, you can sometimes. It depends on what mood you’re in and if you’re employed.
TCC: You seem to get a guest role on just about every show on right now. So, is there any show left that you haven’t been on that you’d like to do?
WK: Oh sure. I’ve not played a corpse on any of the police procedurals. It’s the same amount of pay and you just lie there. It’s very relaxing. I think I could do that in between doing The Exes because they could do the one establishing shot of me laying there dead... The rest of the conversation would have the camera off me and I could go off and do something else.