By Rick Porter
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Bob Newhart is quick to say he's not a "trained
actor."
"Whatever I know about acting I've learned from being a stand-up comedian
and from observing people," says the comedy legend. Yet when the producers
of "ER" approached him about guest-starring on the series, he took the part
with little hesitation.
"When I read the script I knew who this guy was and knew what he was
feeling," Newhart says. "That's kind of the criteria I use in accepting
roles -- if I know the person and know I can portray him. If I'm not
familiar with the emotion that person is going through, I'd probably pass."
Newhart begins a three-episode stint on NBC's "ER" Thursday (Oct. 30). He
plays an architect who's losing his sight due to macular degeneration, which
is also making him question whether he wants to keep living. It's one of the
few dramatic roles he's played in a long career as a comedian and TV star
("The Bob Newhart Show," "Newhart").
"I kind of knew the frustration this guy had ...," Newhart says.
"Everything he did was with his hands and the coordination with his hands
and eyes, and now to be losing one of those senses, what that must be like."
Although the 74-year-old Newhart is himself perfectly healthy -- which he
attributes to good genes and the fact that "I married the right woman, and
she doesn't let me get too full of myself" -- he's felt at least to some
degree the inability to do something that used to come easily. He also says
he learned a lot from a woman with macular degeneration who served as an
adviser on his episodes.
"It helped me as an actor to understand what people with this problem deal
with," he says. "And inevitably you have to put yourself [in that situation]
-- 'I wonder how I would feel if this happened to me.' I likened it to
wondering what I would feel like if I lost my voice, because my voice is me.
... I think I'd write then, find another form of doing what I've been
doing."
Newhart's character is brought to County General by concerned neighbors
after taking too much of a prescription medicine. He's at first "flippant"
about why he's there, but Dr. Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) doesn't really buy
his explanation.
"We develop a relationship -- not a romantic relationship -- but she is kind
of on the side of life is worth living and this isn't as bad as you think it
is," he says.
Newhart says his only real trepidation about doing a dramatic turn on "ER"
was coming onto the set as an outsider. Those feelings quickly went away,
though.
"There were three different directors, and they were all wonderfully
understanding and encouraging, and the cast was wonderful to work with," he
says. He says that between takes, he would sit with his fellow actors "and
they'd ask me questions about my show, and I'd ask them about George
Clooney."
As a relative newcomer to drama, "I was very open to suggestions of 'That's
too much' or, you know," he says. "I didn't want it to be a case, and I
don't think it is a case, of the hidden Hamlet in every comedian."
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