Images Interview
From the Duncan Regehr Fan Club Newsletter - Winter 1999
Interview by Susan O’Brien
On November 22, 1998 in sunny Santa Monica California, Duncan Regehr kindly game me the opportunity to interview him. We sat outside at a patio table, while I endeavored to ask as many of the 85 questions all of you sent that I could. Duncan was very generous with his time, and most of the questions were answered. We have been very privileged to have this glimpse into his fascinating life. Here is a portion of that interview.
Susan: This is just a list of questions from your fans on the Internet...
Duncan: All right.
Susan: Some of them are just fun stuff. Some of them are serious. Whatever you want to answer, answer. If you don’t want to answer any of them, that is fine.
Susan: Do you listen to music? And if so, what kind?
Duncan: Yes, I listen to all kinds of music. I’m pretty omnivorous where that’s concerned.
Susan: Classical, a little bit of everything?
Duncan: A little bit of everything.
Susan: Do you have a favorite composer?
Duncan: Many, but at the moment it’s Henryk Gorecki – my favorite for the moment. His third symphony with Dawn Upshaw is deeply moving.
Susan: Do you go to the movies?
Duncan: Yes, of course.
Susan: What was the last good movie you saw?
Duncan: For a mainstream Hollywood movie, it would have to be “(Saving)
Private Ryan,” a pretty amazing movie. But there are several smaller films I’ve
seen this year that I like very much. “Little Voice,” “The Red Violin,”
“Shakespeare in Love.”
Susan: Do you have any cats or dogs at home?
Duncan: Yes! (smiles) two cats, Rupert and Lily.
Susan: Okay. Who cooks the meals at your house?
Duncan: Ah...not me, that’s for sure! I’m a terrible cook, but my wife does a bit of cooking.
Susan: If you like to read for relaxation, what kinds of books do you read?
Duncan: Again, I have omnivorous taste. I read so many different things, you know. And as an actor, I read an awful lot of plays, and a lot of screenplays. That’s an ongoing thing. I read a lot of non-fiction, poetry, philosophy, noetic science literature and of course art books.
Susan: Are you musically inclined at all?
Duncan: I would have to say musically appreciative. I have about 20 musical comedies under my belt that attest to the fact that I can’t sing.
(Laughter)
Duncan: But they keep hiring me!
(More laughter)
Susan: Do you play any instruments?
Duncan: Guitar, but not very well.
Susan: What is your favorite “pig-out” food? Something you just can eat.
Duncan: I don’t have a favorite pig-out food. I don’t pig-out.
Susan: What’s your current exercise routine?
Duncan: It’s different on each day. It’s a combination of stretching, and weightlifting, and running, but working different body parts on different days.
Susan: Do you ever fence anymore?
Duncan: Of course! Sure. (grin)
Susan: Do you watch any televised sports? Or keep up with any professional teams?
Duncan: No.
Susan: Do you watch television at all?
Duncan: Very little, but I tend to end up watching a lot of PBS programs, and I watch the occasional news program. I prefer to read or watch a good film.
Susan: What was your favorite subject in school?
Duncan: Art. Art and literature.
Susan: Do you speak any other languages?
Duncan: French, a little bit of Spanish.
Susan: What does your father think of your art?
Duncan: My father and I paint differently from each other. I don’t know if the person who asked this question knows that my father is also a painter.
Susan: It was me.
Duncan: Okay. We paint differently. However, it does create a dialogue
for us. He is basically a prairie painter. He paints mountains and horses, and
cattle and barns, and a lot of wildlife. Different from what I do. But it does
create a place for us to talk from which is wonderful.
Susan: There often seems to be an underlying theme of atonement in your paintings and poetry. Is that a conscious thing? Or is it something that just happens?
Duncan: I’m not sure that’s true, in all my paintings. But ...is that one of your questions?
Susan: Yes!
(Laughter)
Duncan: You know, it’s hard to say. Sometimes atonement occurs by direct intent. It’s conscious, but quite often it’s not. Automatism is a process I work through, and if you have read the book you know that a lot of it just ...happens. It just occurs. Whatever occurs grows into the basis for a theme.
Susan: Do you still ride? (Horseback)
Duncan: Whenever I can. You know it’s not an ongoing thing... at one time, I was sort of a ...that’s one of your questions, isn’t it?
(Laughter)
Susan: Actually yes, but a lot of people were asking that.
Duncan: I still ride.
Susan: When is the last time you iced skated?
Duncan: It has to be twenty years ago.
Susan: You don’t keep up with that?
Duncan: No.
Susan: How hard was fencing for you when you first started? Back when you were first learning, long before Zorro.
Duncan: It seemed to come fairly naturally to me. It wasn’t difficult really. Remembering things was probably the hardest part, but the actual co-ordination - there are similarities to dance, and figure skating. You learn a basic co-ordination and understand how your body works.
Susan: Ruth Rechsteiner, one of the fan club members I met, is a fencing
instructor and we were talking about that. Ruth was theorizing that, because of
all the other athletic things you have done, this is probably why you are such a
good fencer.
Duncan: Well, it’s very kind of her to say that! (Laughs)
Susan: “Superb,” I think that was the actual word she used.
Duncan: What I do is different from what she does. Hers is real fencing; mine is theatrical. The style that I used for Zorro was a combination of foil and saber work. Saber work is always going to be much more flamboyant than foil, much more theatrical, but when you get close with the camera, it’s nice to do the hand and wrist work.
Susan: She highly complimented your footwork.
Duncan: Oh, well...Bless her heart! (Smiling) I’m the faker! She’s the
expert, not me.
Susan: What was the name of the horse you rode in Zorro.
Duncan: There were several of them. Toronado – one, two, three, four etc. Some of them were good at performing certain tricks. Some were good at others. You know I’d ask the guys what their real names were, but they would usually make something up because I don’t believe names were the important to them, only names that described the physical appearance of the horse.
Susan: Were they Andalusians?
Duncan: Yes.
Susan: I thought so. Were all of them Andalusians on the series? Because it looked like there were some other mixed in.
Duncan: There were.
Susan: Arabs and Lustianos...
Susan: In “Zorro,” how much time did you spend each day saber training with Peter Diamond, and how much did the other cast members and extras do?
Duncan: Usually it was just a matter of choreographing, working something out together that would fit in with whatever episode we were shooting. Between takes, we grabbed whatever time we could because my schedule was very heavy. Quite often if there was a complicated sequence coming up, we’d get together on our day off and figure something out. You’ve always got to come up with material. We were constantly trying to invent new tricks - a difficult task on the limited budget the series had. We did all our routines in one or two takes, two takes at the most.
Susan: (amazed) Really?
Duncan: We just didn’t have the time. The schedule was so tight it had to be done that quickly.
Susan: You see, that amazes me, because in some of the scenes, it was obviously done all one take.
Duncan: Yes.
Susan: Your fencing - your footwork’s perfect. You’re hitting your marks, interacting with your fellow actors, expressing the character beautifully, and doing trippingly clever dialogue all at the same time.
Duncan: It was a little hairy.
Susan: That amazes me!
(Laughter)
Duncan: A little hairy.
Susan: I can imagine...I mean those of us who have trouble walking down the stairs and having a conversation at the same time are in awe.
Susan: Do you keep in touch with any of the other Zorro cast members?
Duncan: Ephram Zimbalist...and as you know, John Hertzler and I say hello
once in a while. Henry Darrow as well. I know a lot of the English stars that
were on the show, but I knew them previous to Zorro. You always bring your
friends into these things. And certainly Ray Austin, who directed, and who is
now Baron Devere Austin. He became a Lord and a Baron. Gary Goodman, of course,
the producer, is a dear friend.
Susan: Is he producing anything now?
Duncan: He is working on several major projects. He is creating something quite interesting with his partner. They are at the helm of something like six television series they are trying to co-ordinate in different parts of the world.
Susan: One of your poems, “The Stone Prince,” was quoted during a forth season “Zorro” episode, Did you do any of the artwork that was featured in the show? It didn’t strike me as your style.
Duncan: I don’t think they did. They generally used pre-done portraits. I
wouldn’t have had time to do it anyway. You know my style... (Laughs) It
wouldn’t have worked for early 19th century art at all.
Susan: There was another poem that was used...
Duncan: “The Crowded Sky Moves Swiftly.”
Susan: Yes, that was great!
Duncan: Well, they asked so I felt I had to come up with something.
Susan: I liked that they used your poems. That was fun!
Duncan: Yes.
Susan: What did you enjoy the most about playing Zorro?
Duncan: You know, it was an overall wonderful experience working with
some very special people. The role, the busyness of the role. I really enjoyed
having that full a schedule, of working with a lot of dialogue. My only wish was
that it could have been an hour-long show, Then I could have spent more time
saying things. There just wasn’t the time on that schedule, but it was great
doing it! It was really wonderful to be that immersed in something.
Susan: Had “Zorro” continued through the fourth season and into a fifth what general direction would you have like the overall storyline to go?
Duncan: The storyline...
(Laughter)
Susan: See, that’s a mean question to ask somebody now...
Duncan: No, it’s a fair question. It’s just nothing that I would be able to have anything to do with. From the beginning, I had no say in how to play the character. If I had my choices, I would have played the character with much more contrast between Diego and Zorro. As it was, they didn’t want Diego to be a fop. They didn’t want him to be too bookish...which is the way I wanted to go with him. I wanted a real contrast so that there would be no question that they were different creatures. The adventurer, the guy who fences and saves maidens is the easy role. But Don Diego could have been much more developed as far as I was concerned and sometimes, quite frankly, I found him boring. I kept saying I want Diego to have more edges, more layers, and they said “No. We want it more like the Guy Williams type of Don Diego” which didn’t interest me. But I was the hired hand, so I had to do it. I was under contract and I had to do it their way. My Don Diego would have been much more of a nerd with the Benjamin Franklin glasses, etc. I would have done him with long hair, because you never see Zorro’s hair underneath the scarf. I would have made him a blond, and given him a totally different posture, a different way of walking. Make him much more nervous around Victoria. And a little darker in a way too...I mean darker in essence. This is a guy who is actually playing several roles, and by that, he’s probably not altogether there. He’s probably a little crazy. If you really think about it, this is a man who deceives his father, plays himself one way for his father, another way for the woman he loves, and another way in front of the townspeople. Who is the real man? He’s pretty odd.
Susan: If he wasn’t crazy to begin with, he should have been by the end of the series.
Duncan: Yes, I would have loved to have brought all those darker elements into it and present them through this kind of very bookish individual. You can have all of that business with the experiments, etc. But also with teaching Felipe. That side of him is very nurturing and caring. But you have to deal with the eccentricity. All the different roles that he plays. At the time, the Family Channel would not accept such a character.
Susan: Yes, that’s the drawback to half-hour family television.
Duncan: Absolutely! I tried for it to begin with, but they told me “No
way! You were hired to do the role this way, and it is either that or you don’t
do it. Period.” Did I answer the question?
Susan: Yes!
(Laughter)