{"id":147,"date":"2007-07-14T10:47:08","date_gmt":"2007-07-14T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/?p=147"},"modified":"2008-09-10T10:48:56","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T17:48:56","slug":"opposite-atracts-low-key-indie-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"‘Opposite’ Atracts Low-Key Indie Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Post<\/a><\/em>
\n‘OPPOSITE’ ATTRACTS LOW-KEY INDIE STAR<\/strong>
\nBy LARRY WORTH<\/p>\n

To hear Martin Donovan talk, it seems miraculous that he ever got to show off his acting skills.<\/p>\n

In a showbiz world that thrives on superficial chitchat and constant \t\tself-promotion, it’s as if Donovan didn’t know the rules. Actually, he \t\tknows them very well – and continues to employ his own.<\/p>\n

For example, mention of Donovan’s latest screen venture – \t\t“The Opposite of Sex” (opening May 29) – is \t\this chance to praise co-stars Christina Ricci, Lyle Lovett and Lisa \t\tKudrow. Nor does it bother him that the dark comedy – in which he plays a \t\tgay teacher whose lover (Ivan Sergei) is seduced and stolen by a Bad Seed \t\tstepsister (Ricci) – puts Ricci and Kudrow front and center.<\/p>\n

“There’s an art to being the straight man in a comic routine,” he offers, \t\tin between bites of apple walnut pie at Midtown’s Film Center Cafe. “I \t\talways appreciated people like Bud Abbott or ^Marx Brothers foil_ Margaret \t\tDumont. And Lisa made for great chemistry.”<\/p>\n

The pair hit it off from the start. Then again, Donovan, 40, and Kudrow, \t\t34, are both natives of the San Fernando Valley and – to their mutual \t\tsurprise – had mutual friends.<\/p>\n

“But Lisa grew up in the upper-middle-class part and I was very much \t\tlower-middle-class,” he laughs. “Believe me, she was the kind of girl I \t\tcouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole in high school.”<\/p>\n

Not to worry. Donovan found romance with actress Vivienne Lanco. The pair \t\tmoved to New York City in 1983, then married a year later. They currently \t\tlive on the Upper West Side with their two sons.<\/p>\n

But Donovan always wanted to leave California. The longer he stayed, the \t\tangrier he got, having found he didn’t like doing commercials and had no \t\tinterest in TV work.<\/p>\n

Donovan took a professional detour by hanging curtains for the rich and \t\tfamous; the client list included Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and Jack \t\tNicholson.<\/p>\n

“But they were never home,” he says, “except once with Jack. I saw him \t\tgetting out of his pool but never met him. It was so near and yet so far.”<\/p>\n

Eventually, Donovan found himself off-off-Broadway. That’s where director \t\tand friend-to-be Hal Hartley entered the picture, putting Donovan on the \t\tindie map in “Trust,” \t\t“Simple Men,” “Amateur” \t\tand “Flirt.”<\/p>\n

But the actor says his best reviews came from last year’s \t\t“Hollow Reed,” in which he played a gay \t\tBrit who finds his young son is being abused by a would-be stepdad.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t an easy role, and not just because of the need to perfect a \t\tBritish accent. It also required a graphic lovemaking scene with actor Ian \t\tHart.<\/p>\n

“All love scenes are hard, straight or gay ” Donovan says. “But this one \t\twas extremely passionate, extremely intense. And I’d be lying if I said I \t\tdidn’t have to think twice about it.”<\/p>\n

But it didn’t stop him from accepting his gay role in “The Opposite of \t\tSex.”<\/p>\n

Donovan says he never worries about what others think. For that matter, he \t\tcouldn’t care less if controversy arises over “Book of \t\tLife,” his latest project with Hartley. In it, he plays Jesus in 1998, \t\ttraveling the world with Mary Magdalene as his personal assistant.<\/p>\n

“I was raised a Catholic and I still don’t understand why that type of \t\tstory makes people so angry,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Post ‘OPPOSITE’ ATTRACTS LOW-KEY INDIE STAR By LARRY WORTH To hear Martin Donovan talk, it seems miraculous that he ever got to show off his acting skills. In a showbiz world that thrives on superficial chitchat and constant self-promotion, it’s as if Donovan didn’t know the rules. Actually, he knows them very well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.martindonovan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}