October 21–28, 1999

20 questions

interview by a.d. amorosi

Audiences love watching lawyers in action: walking, pointing, pouting and shouting, but mostly lying. Long before we started groaning at lawyers and the evil they wrought, there was Clarence Darrow, the model for the Great American Defender, tackling such infamous cases as the Scopes Monkey Trial and Leopold and Loeb, often for no money. His grand, eloquent language and his kindness have already been tackled by the likes of Henry Fonda, George C. Scott and Orson Welles. So who better to portray Darrow in a one-man performance than Leslie Nielsen. Wha? Lt. Drebbin from Naked Gun? Mr. Magoo? Yes. The actor who made stone-faced bumbling a fine art spent a lifetime in television, stage and film portraying hard guys, cops and kings. The Saskatchewan-born actor who spent time in the Royal Canadian Air Force has an empathy for the life and words of Darrow that is marrow-shaking.

Nielsen: I love your name. I love the way Italians put letters together to make the words they do. It’s no wonder all the great singers of the world come from Italy with all those sounds.

amorosi: Great for a singer. Lousy for a journalist. Sounds like I make pizza. So how ’bout you, do you have a keen recollection of your first theatrical experience?

Is that a personal question? My first experience was on stage at elementary school in Calgary. My friend had several parts in a play and he gave me one just minutes before we went on stage. I was dauntless in those days [laughs]. After that, [I remember] being shy and panicked. My heart would be pounding all the time. Nobody could see it of course. The first paid performance was in 1949, the New England Mutual Hall summer stock version of The Philadelphia Story no less, with Winston Churchill’s daughter in the lead. Tenuous days for sure. I was ready to head for the hills.

You studied with true legends in theater. Sanford Meisner. Martha Graham. The Actor’s Studio. Were you a confident student?

No. I had been a working actor for four years and one morning I woke up and said, "Leslie. You’re making a living as an actor. A professional actor." I used to have this dream that somebody was knocking at my door. I’d say "Who is it?" and they’d answer "Police." I’d open the door and they would say to me, "Pack your bags. We realized you have no talent."

Has doing screwball physical comedy aided you?

Yes, insane comedy has been the greatest asset because I became freer in my work and in my life. That’s the rub. There’s no worry about intruding or what side of yourself you’re presenting or those things about yourself which you wouldn’t normally be so secure in. That consciousness puts you outside yourself. Now, why they come see me do that I don’t know. Maybe it’s my bowed legs.

What’s so great about Darrow? What does he mean to people now?

He was an incredible speaker when language meant something. He was fearless. His approach to humanity and how he functioned was almost saintly. He was an educator who could bring about great empathy in his juries and his judges. Even Leopold thought Darrow the kindest man he knew. But he thought himself a mass of imperfections. He always took the "anti" side and he was never afraid to lose a debate. He liked the clash of good minds. And most of all he was compassionate. He was incapable of not feeling the pain and suffering of a human being.

How have audiences, especially in these litigious times, reacted to such bizarre behavior, such life-valuing efforts, in a lawyer?

I think people, attorneys especially, are delighted to see such humanity. The terrible all-ness that pursues lawyers, the bad jokes, they were part of Darrow’s time too. In the play he states "the law, as generally practiced, is a bum profession, poverty stricken to all ideals." He knew he was a champion.

After Darrow, any other role you yearn to play?

Yearn? No. I wanted to do Darrow and I did that. I’ve had in the back of my mind doing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. But I learned to stay away from Hamlet because I’m bowlegged and don’t look good in tights.

University of Pennsylvania presents Leslie Nielsen as Clarence Darrow, Sun., Oct. 24, at Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce St., 7 p.m. For more information, call 215-898-3900.