Images interview - Summer 2000
Printed in the Duncan Regehr Fan Club Newsletter
Duncan took time from his hectic schedule to answer a few questions about working on “A Story to Die For.”
Question: Did you enjoy working on “A Story to Die For?”
Duncan: Yes. Corymore Productions is a terrific company to work with. Most of the crew and production staff have worked together for years on the series, Murder, She Wrote so they know the drill. They are a great group of happy people who support and enjoy each other and their work. It really begins with Angela Lansbury. She is by far the most gracious actress I’ve ever worked with. She has been a movie star wince the 30’s and is a consummate pro as well as charming to everyone. She also has a great sense of humor, as does her son, Anthony Shaw, who directed the movie (almost at the speed of light) under great pressure from the network. A real trooper. The opportunity to play two characters Yuri and his alter ego, Boris made this project interesting for me. The script was a lot of fun, but it was the company and crew that made this show such a pleasant and rewarding experience.
Question: What was the most challenging part of the film?
Duncan: The most challenging part of the film was the schedule! My
schedule is heavy at the best of times, but trying to fit rehearsals and
performances for “The Little Foxes” with the intense agenda of the film, whilst
preparing an art exhibit to benefit the Laurel Theatre made life fairly
complicated. Especially since the play was running in Ventura and the film was
shot in Hollywood, Burbank and Pasadena. But we pulled it off! No small amount
of thanks for that going to both Corymore Productions and Rubicon theatre
company for working with the timing. On the last day of filming, I had a play
performance that night at 8 PM. I literally went from 12 hours dodging
explosions, ran off the set and changed out of costume, jumped right in the car
and drove straight to the theatre getting into costume just in time to be
onstage for my first lines. I was still covered in fuller’s earth from the
special effects, and had not had time to remove Boris’ fake “stubble” before
going on and had to just apply the stage makeup over it. So Horace looked
especially haggard that night!
Another small challenge was sorting out the accents for Yuri and his alter ego, Boris. On the first day pf filming, 15 minutes before shooting my opening scene, I was informed by one of the producers that CBS had just decided that they did not want Yuri to have a Russian Accent. Instead, they wanted a mix of very slight Russian with English overtones. In order to justify this, they altered the script to say that Yuri had been educated in England. So the accent was literally thrown together at the last minute. As for Boris, CBS wanted the accent to lean more towards the Russian/ Eastern European, but just a taste of it, not too heavy. I’m not sure that I was entirely successful.
Question: What good stuff did they cut?
Duncan: Yuri’s torrid love scene with the chambermaid in the bathtub with the whipped cream and caviar was cut. Boris’ drunken game of musical chairs with the naked polka girls from Minsk was also cut. Ah well, the best bits always end up on the floor (of my mind).
Question: Were there any funny incidences?
Duncan: You mean apart from my overacting? When in doubt, simply chew the scenery; you’re bound to draw attention. During the introduction scene, I did fall asleep with my hand in a plate of food, which would have been all right, except that it wasn’t my plate. My dinner companion kindly roused me and wiped off the excess salad dressing when it came time for me to speak. I think I was just exhausted from working too many hours. Anyway, they kept food away from me after that. I think they were afraid that I’d fall face first into a bowl of soup and drown.
Question: What was it like going from ex-KGB Yuri to Southerner Horace?
Duncan: Quite a difference between Yuri and Horace, and I don’t mean just the accents. Yuri was a cruel, selfish, greedy, supercilious, pompous bully with no moral scruples. Horace, an invalid, was kind and caring. He was a loving father with a powerful personality and had a very strong sense of right and wrong. The characters were at opposite ends of the moral spectrum, which helped to separate the playing of them. If they were only subtly different from each other, switching back and forth between them might have been more of a challenge. As it was, they were so distinct that one could never get them confused.