UBER_MAX
04-05-2005, 05:04 AM
Career of Sideways actor gets new wings
Church at home on Texas ranches; but Hollywood is a good fit, too
By BRUCE WESTBROOK
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
As a Texan with 400 head of cattle, Thomas Haden Church walks the walk of a cowboy actor who hits Hollywood only on business. But does he talk the talk?
A sudden star for the acclaimed Sideways, due on DVD Tuesday, Church is cresting after years of respected but modest work. As Sideways' roguish road-tripper Jack, he earned an Oscar nod as best supporting actor. And he just cashed in by signing to play a villain in Spider-Man 3.
Since his biggest pre-Sideways hit film was the oafish George of the Jungle, you can't blame him for grabbing that bull by the horns. Yet it's still disconcerting to hear a rancher spew studio lingo about script meetings and development deals, as if his Lone Star roots are no deeper than La-La's latest face-lift.
Just who is Thomas Haden Church, anyway?
Well, he'd rather not say. He won't say where he was born, except that it was "in Texas." Raised a military brat, he's lived in El Paso, Harlingen, Laredo, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin.
"I like to keep my private stuff pretty vague," said Church, who owns up to being single, having a girlfriend and having a daughter, whose name he won't divulge. He will say he owns a home in Dallas that he's leased out, and he prefers beer to wine.
Which beer? He won't say, only that "given my physical training for Spider-Man, they only want me to drink light beer."
Church has been in Los Angeles lately for wardrobe fittings and "being in the mud all day. They did plaster casts of my body for prosthetics. They also wanted to cut my hair to get an idea for (computer) animators (to determine) what my look will be."
He's also mum on whom he'll play when director Sam Raimi starts shooting near year's end. Rumors swirl that Church will be Venom, a classic villain from Spidey comics, or perhaps a new baddie.
He's been training at a gym in Kerrville, and he may make two more movies before Spider-Man 3 starts to roll. He also just did voice work for an animated Charlotte's Web with Julia Roberts and Jennifer Garner. But Spider-Man 3 is "my biggest commitment so far in budgetary terms. It's pretty huge."
Though the intimate, offbeat Sideways is the opposite of an action film, Church said its writer-director, Alexander Payne, told him his favorite film of last year was Spider-Man 2. Church feels Alfred Molina, who played villain Doc Ock, was robbed of an Oscar nod.
Most actors downplay awards, with or without false modesty, but Church seems keenly aware of award-season permutations. Sideways "peaked too early," he believes, losing its December momentum from year-end honors when Oscars rolled around, then winning just for adapted screenplay.
Church won awards from critics' groups, the Golden Satellite Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards and the National Board of Review, then lost the Oscar to Million Dollar Baby's Morgan Freeman. Though a first-time nominee, Church said he felt he belonged.
"Dang, it's overwhelming, but it didn't feel alien to me, because all the (pre-Oscar) receptions and balls and ceremonies prepare you for the big dance, if you get to go," he said.
"I was swimming in an ocean I'd never experienced," he said. "All those awards were important, because they all created buzz."
Even the speeches are important, he said.
Church got emotional after winning a Broadcast Film Critics award in January. He partially credits that speech for landing him Spider-Man 3.
The film's producer and the head of Marvel Studios were in attendance. "(They) told me I was perfect for the character, given that speech," he said.
Church says he falls between the funny small-time actor he played in Sideways and the morose wine snob played by Paul Giamatti.
"People expect me to be larger than life and gregarious, like the guy in Sideways or all the way back to Wings or Ned and Stacy ('90s sitcoms in which he starred). But when that guy gets emotional you see a different side."
Church had almost given up on stardom after leaving television. Ranching had been in his blood since he worked cattle as a youth. So in 1998 he spent some of his Hollywood dough on 2,000 acres in the Hill Country, between Kerrville and Uvalde, and another spread south of Brackettville.
With employees and a partner, Church runs the ranches and is there "most of the time. I have no home in L.A. Home is in Texas," he said. "I only go to L.A. to work."
So there you have it — his heart belongs to Texas, not Tinseltown, even though he's lassoing big pictures.
Spiritually, at least, "ranching and acting are equally rewarding," Church said. "One is to maintain that agrarian anchor, and the other is creative. But I'm a citizen of Texas and try to spend most of my time there. As an actor, that keeps me sane."
Church at home on Texas ranches; but Hollywood is a good fit, too
By BRUCE WESTBROOK
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
As a Texan with 400 head of cattle, Thomas Haden Church walks the walk of a cowboy actor who hits Hollywood only on business. But does he talk the talk?
A sudden star for the acclaimed Sideways, due on DVD Tuesday, Church is cresting after years of respected but modest work. As Sideways' roguish road-tripper Jack, he earned an Oscar nod as best supporting actor. And he just cashed in by signing to play a villain in Spider-Man 3.
Since his biggest pre-Sideways hit film was the oafish George of the Jungle, you can't blame him for grabbing that bull by the horns. Yet it's still disconcerting to hear a rancher spew studio lingo about script meetings and development deals, as if his Lone Star roots are no deeper than La-La's latest face-lift.
Just who is Thomas Haden Church, anyway?
Well, he'd rather not say. He won't say where he was born, except that it was "in Texas." Raised a military brat, he's lived in El Paso, Harlingen, Laredo, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin.
"I like to keep my private stuff pretty vague," said Church, who owns up to being single, having a girlfriend and having a daughter, whose name he won't divulge. He will say he owns a home in Dallas that he's leased out, and he prefers beer to wine.
Which beer? He won't say, only that "given my physical training for Spider-Man, they only want me to drink light beer."
Church has been in Los Angeles lately for wardrobe fittings and "being in the mud all day. They did plaster casts of my body for prosthetics. They also wanted to cut my hair to get an idea for (computer) animators (to determine) what my look will be."
He's also mum on whom he'll play when director Sam Raimi starts shooting near year's end. Rumors swirl that Church will be Venom, a classic villain from Spidey comics, or perhaps a new baddie.
He's been training at a gym in Kerrville, and he may make two more movies before Spider-Man 3 starts to roll. He also just did voice work for an animated Charlotte's Web with Julia Roberts and Jennifer Garner. But Spider-Man 3 is "my biggest commitment so far in budgetary terms. It's pretty huge."
Though the intimate, offbeat Sideways is the opposite of an action film, Church said its writer-director, Alexander Payne, told him his favorite film of last year was Spider-Man 2. Church feels Alfred Molina, who played villain Doc Ock, was robbed of an Oscar nod.
Most actors downplay awards, with or without false modesty, but Church seems keenly aware of award-season permutations. Sideways "peaked too early," he believes, losing its December momentum from year-end honors when Oscars rolled around, then winning just for adapted screenplay.
Church won awards from critics' groups, the Golden Satellite Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards and the National Board of Review, then lost the Oscar to Million Dollar Baby's Morgan Freeman. Though a first-time nominee, Church said he felt he belonged.
"Dang, it's overwhelming, but it didn't feel alien to me, because all the (pre-Oscar) receptions and balls and ceremonies prepare you for the big dance, if you get to go," he said.
"I was swimming in an ocean I'd never experienced," he said. "All those awards were important, because they all created buzz."
Even the speeches are important, he said.
Church got emotional after winning a Broadcast Film Critics award in January. He partially credits that speech for landing him Spider-Man 3.
The film's producer and the head of Marvel Studios were in attendance. "(They) told me I was perfect for the character, given that speech," he said.
Church says he falls between the funny small-time actor he played in Sideways and the morose wine snob played by Paul Giamatti.
"People expect me to be larger than life and gregarious, like the guy in Sideways or all the way back to Wings or Ned and Stacy ('90s sitcoms in which he starred). But when that guy gets emotional you see a different side."
Church had almost given up on stardom after leaving television. Ranching had been in his blood since he worked cattle as a youth. So in 1998 he spent some of his Hollywood dough on 2,000 acres in the Hill Country, between Kerrville and Uvalde, and another spread south of Brackettville.
With employees and a partner, Church runs the ranches and is there "most of the time. I have no home in L.A. Home is in Texas," he said. "I only go to L.A. to work."
So there you have it — his heart belongs to Texas, not Tinseltown, even though he's lassoing big pictures.
Spiritually, at least, "ranching and acting are equally rewarding," Church said. "One is to maintain that agrarian anchor, and the other is creative. But I'm a citizen of Texas and try to spend most of my time there. As an actor, that keeps me sane."