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Christopher Meloni talks about his celebrated ass
I saw They Came Together at the LA Film Festival last week and Christopher Meloni has what is probably the funniest scene in a movie that I wish was just a bit funnier.
He spoke with The Daily Beast about the flick, about leaving Law & Order: SVU and, well, about his celebrated ass.
Here are some excerpts:
I saw you on Conan fairly recently and you were talking about how you were crowned the “Best Butt in Primetime.” How did that get started?
That’s Rachael Harris! I’m tired of explaining my ass to people and how it got started. [Laughs] Fuckin’ Rachael Harris lit the fuse. Maybe I fanned the flames by a tweet or two, so I’ve got nothing more to say about that. It’s official. The people have spoken. I don’t want a coup over my ass. My ass rules, leave it be. Deal with it. Obama won, as did my ass. My ass won. Which means the American people won.
Did the cancellation of Surviving Jack catch you by surprise?
It was a good education to me about the new paradigm of the business of TV. A lot’s changed since I first started, and I knew peripherally, but I didn’t know-know, because I was involved in a very successful franchise. The thing they can’t do anymore is if something is produced outside of house, they can’t afford to keep it unless it has bang-up numbers, so if X is being produced for Z network, it better have smoking numbers, otherwise economically they can’t do it.
So you were technically doing Oz, Law & Order: SVU, and Wet Hot American Summer simultaneously? Do you find it more difficult to flex your comedy muscle versus your dramatic one?
Yeah. But what’s funnier than perverts and sodomizing another man? Summer camp? Maybe so. [Laughs] But comedy/drama—they’re very close cousins. My 10-year-old son watched The Normal Heart the other day, and he told me, “That movie was really funny… it was very sad, but it was very funny.” And you know why? You need humor to counteract the drama; they’re all human moments, ultimately. But at the end of the day, it’s about people looking for love, for purpose, and a place for meaning.
You’ve got three roles in three very different films this year—as a weirdo boss in They Came Together; a cop in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For; and Shailene Woodley’s creepy Dad in White Bird in a Blizzard. Do you feel liberated now that you’re no longer tied to SVU?
Yeah. It’s just getting used to freedom—which is not an easy thing to handle when you haven’t had it. For me, freedom is harder to manage than structure and, even though SVU was a lot of hours and very hard, it was still awesome and there was great structure to it. With freedom there are no answers, but the sense of insecurity makes you feel alive. In the end, I think I’ll really enjoy what came of this time.
With that trio of movies we touched on, life outside of TV seems to be going well. Would you ever go back and do a network series?
Umm… it’ll take an awful lot. It’ll take the right thing to make me commit, and I don’t know what that is. But yeah, I’m like the fifth banana in a half-dozen films! Okay, third banana in White Bird…or fourth banana…who’s counting bananas? Stop staring at my banana. But after these movies, I’m going to go waterskiing. I have some videos of me slaloming…do you want to see those?
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Charlie says:
Christopher seems like a great guy. I follow him on Facebook. He has a great sense of humor. I wish him only the best!
Gaspar Marino says:
Me too. He’s lots of fun and jokes about himself a lot. I hope he comes back to New York soon and does theater.
Cool Curt says:
He made me want to watch ‘OZ’ religiously because you almost were praying that his character and Beecher would end up on the ‘outside’ as a couple. They were literally the hottest onscreen couple on TV. Now I know you shouldn’t mix business and pleasure but and ‘Law Order'(SUV), you wanted him and Olivia to have a drunken night together of hot-monkey-love. They were the best yet complicated partners on TV but both are equally hot. I might have turned straight for a hot minute, forgive me Lord, for I have sinned. Then I Chris had a few guest spots on True Blood and even Veep and I have to tell you that he ages like ‘fine wine’ because he truly doesn’t age. He looks actually the same as he did in OZ and his butt never looked better. It’s wild that I still remember waiting for the famous yet infamous ‘nude shot’ on OZ and Chris had one and it was my screen-saver for some time. He got replaced once Magic Mike came out, sorry Chris. Chris gives me everything in a man and it’s odd because even though he played on OZ, I don’t get any kind of gay vibe but there is something in my heart that tells me he is very kind, sweet and gentle. He doesn’t look like he takes any crap from anyone but he probably doesn’t give it either. He probably gets ‘hulked-out-mad’ but only when he is provocated because I see nothing but warmth and love. Manly like you wouldn’t believe but this very down-to-earth, like a ballgame, a good beer and good conversation. Loving his family and friends but there is something that worries me about him. God rest Leslie Nielson (R.I.P) and he was such and awesomely great actor from way back. I remember seeing him in westerners and some of the cool shows from the 50’s and 60’s when I was a kid and he was always a serious, dramatic actor and then I don’t know how but the entire ‘Airplane’ comedies came along and the rest is history with Naked Gun and so on. Chris started off doing all types of drama and even when he is being funny in a comedy, I still see the dramatic part of him that he can’t shake. Leslie had that same appeal, at least to me and it wouldn’t be a bad deal for Chris to jump back and forward but one thing Leslie didn’t have was that ‘ASS’. I love Mr. Meloni and wish him nothing but the best.
Jim Steele says:
I’m with Cool Curt until the part about Leslie Nielson. As a young man he had a fantastic butt. Check out some of his old movies. He was stunning all over.