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Talking to: Lee Tergesen
August 1, 2005
By VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER
Lee Tergesen is best known for playing Terry, the "I Love You, Man"
slacker dude, in "Wayne's World," and Tobias Beecher, the white-collar
inmate who lost his moral compass, and, for a time, his marbles, in "Oz."
Believe it or not, he once had an agent who thought he should play
straight arrows.
"When I was 21 or so, and I started to grow my hair - this was maybe two
years before 'Wayne's World' - they were like 'What are you doing? ...
You're such the all-American guy.' But I would go in and read for these
parts, and it never excited me to play the guy who doesn't have any sort
of point of view and edge," Tergesen recalls.
"I think I knew I wasn't what people looked at and saw in me. I love
characters. I love things that have dimension and depth, that are hard to
figure out."
Enter Tergesen's newest oddball-wrapped-in-an enigma: U.S. Marshal Eddie
Drake.
This Sunday (10 p.m.), in the second episode of TNT's new "Wanted," Drake
joins the eclectic squad of law-enforcement agents in tracking L.A.'s 100
most dangerous criminals.
"He's sort of a loose cannon with a quick wit," says Tergesen, who sports
longish hair and a Fu Manchu mustache as Drake. "He's somebody who of
course is intense. I always wind up playing somebody a little intense.
Maybe I'm just intense."
Drake is on a suspension - while being investigated for shooting someone
he was tracking - when team leader Lt. Conrad Rose (Gary Cole) asks him to
join his squad.
"We have history, because he was my training officer," Tergesen says.
"There's a little bit of weird blood between us." (Drake also has some
history with Rose's ex-wife.)
"Wanted" creator Jorge Zamacona ("Homicide: Life on the Street," "Oz"),
whom Tergesen has known for years, first asked him to do the pilot. (They
discussed the roles of Bible-thumping ATF Agent Jimmy McGloin and even
team leader Rose.) But Tergesen was committed to doing the play "The
Foreigner" with Matthew Broderick at New York's Roundabout Theatre.
"I said to Jorge, 'I gotta pass.' I knew it was going to be great to do
the play, and it was a blast," says Tergesen, who thinks the Drake
character is actually a better fit for him.
Asked what he liked about "Wanted," he says, "I had worked on something
called 'Weird Science' before, a big broad comedy [series], then I went
into 'Oz,' which was sort of intense. And I wanted to do something that
was an action thing where funny things can happen, and where the guy was a
little bit more on top of things."
Not that he'd ever complain about Tobias Beecher or "Oz."
"I don't know if I'll ever have a job that, on so many levels, was so
great," Tergesen says. "I was working with so many close friends, and the
material was really juicy. I think we ended it at the right time, and I
definitely look back fondly."
The same year "Oz" ended, Tergesen appeared in the movie "Monster,"
playing the psychotic rapist who sets Aileen Wuornos off on her killing
spree.
And earlier this season on FX's "Rescue Me," he showed up in the first
three episodes as a multi-talented and beloved firefighter named Sully,
who seemed too good to be true.
Imagine the guys' surprise when they rescued someone in a leather mask and
miniskirt at an underground sex club fire - and discovered it was Sully.
"It's not the first time I had to get in drag," Tergesen observes dryly,
alluding to his tenure on "Oz."
Still boyish-looking, Tergesen celebrated a big milestone last month: his
40th birthday.
"I feel great about it. I am probably the most centered and at peace than
I have been in my adult life," he says. "It's all good. I can't get too
hung up about the aging process. Something happened when we first started
working on the show, and I thought to myself, you know, I don't have to
deal with this. I'm 40. I'm an adult."
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