Perhaps the trickiest decision facing any Ray Wise fan is choosing from the overwhelming number of fantastic movie and television roles he's got under his belt. I've always leaned toward his unhinged portrayal of the lunatic just below the surface dad of the year, Leland Palmer, but his range and skill set outstrip the average person's ability to sit and watch for the months it would take to see everything he's been in. During a career that has spanned four decades, his uncanny ability to remain a character actor that cannot be typecast is a quality that many envy and most will never be able to achieve.Ray took a few minutes out of his busy day recently to chat with us about his upcoming GMC movie Brother White and some of his most famous roles.
What do you say we start out talking about the GMC original TV movie that's coming out, Brother White?
Sounds like a great place to start.
This is a feature length comedy where you are playing a larger than life Los Angeles TV evangelist and you have one of your associate pastors leave to head up a church in Atlanta. I have seen you in so many roles but I don't think I've ever seen you play a pastor. How did it feel to be behind the pulpit?
Well, it was great. I don't believe I've ever played a pastor character, I'm trying to think back now over the past forty three years and I don't believe I have.
Yeah, I've played some characters who are maybe sort of pastor-like, but never a pastor and playing pastor Johnny Kingman who has this large church in Los Angeles where there was 30,000 in the congregation was a lot of fun and a real pleasure to do. We were at the Angelus Temple in downtown Los Angeles, which is a very large auditorium with a big stage and they brought in a lot of extras and they were all acting like people do in that kind of a situation. We had a great band onstage, lots of colored lights, and a slideshow so it was just a wonderful experience.
Did it make you pause and think maybe you might want to change professions there for a moment?
Ah, no. Not really. I think I should probably stick with what I'm doing.
