A Conversation with Jeremy Roberts
While pounding the electronic pavement for the Century Awards, we visited dozens of websites, sending mail to the webmasters asking them to help get the word out. We received a bit of a surprise from one of the sites. Jeremy Roberts himself responded to our message!
Jeremy has appeared several times on Hercules and Xena. I asked Jeremy if he would be willing to talk about his acting work. He agreed, and we spoke on the phone during halftime of the Superbowl this past Sunday. Jeremy was getting over a serious cold that had plagued him for several weeks, but he was in good spirits despite the fatigue that was evident in his voice.
Josh Harrison: Let's start with the obvious. How did you get started in theatrical work?
Jeremy Roberts: The first thing I ever did, you mean, or why it happened?
JH: Both, I guess.
JR: I took an acting class in high school, and we did a play called Our Town. I was a gravedigger and had no real lines. I even fell in the grave during one performance. I never tried again, until... I don't know how many years ago, I was twenty-three or four. After Vietnam, we came back, worked. Some girl was doing a Laugh-In production. You know, the old sixties Laugh-In...
JH: Yeah.
JR: [It was for the] stage, and they said they lost this guy who was supposed to do the (at this point Jeremy puts on a bad Indian accent) "And I can see... we are very very... I work at seven-eleven." And I... I just knew I could do it. He was sick, so she said, "Please do it, just this once." I did it once, and they laughed, and I was suckered from then on. I went to Valley College out here to learn how to act. Then applied to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. I got accepted there, stayed four years, did repertory work, and then decided to go to L.A. about twelve years ago. I've been working ever since.
JH: Great.
JR: Knock wood. (Laughs)
JH: I know what you mean getting hooked on it. I do theatrical work myself. I got hooked in high school - did a production of Big River, and the standing ovation sucked me in.
JR: I love the songs in Big River.
JH: It's a wonderful show.
JR: I always wanted to do musicals more than anything else, which is funny. I'd be doing this repertory work, you know, MacBeth, and the whole death, ugly thing. Then I'd be, usually, on my days off, going to the Vomitorium and just laying there and watching, you know, Mame, and (Laughs) wanting to be dancing.
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