James Woods has been in the entertainment industry since the early 1970s, but the actor says it wasn't until he began appearing on CBS'
Shark that he truly felt like a star.
"I did, like, 127 movies and I never made a dime. I wasn't really sure how much of a star I was, frankly… But for the first time ... I sort of feel like it,” Woods told the
Deseret Morning News. "I think that not because [
Shark is] successful, but I think you are a star in a sense when a character meshes with what people may really hope to expect from you. I never really had a character that was kind of smart and funny and fast talking and maybe kind of cut the corners a little bit. And was a little bit, sometimes, ethically challenged in tactics and strategies, but certainly ethically solid when it came to the final goal of right and wrong."
However, despite his sentiments about
Shark, Woods, who plays cut-throat attorney Sebastian Stark, admits to having had problems with the long hours on the set while filming the first season. He even threatened cut his ties with the show if his work schedule was not reduced.
He explained, however, that all he was really looking for was “about 5 percent less” working time.
"When I said more time off, for example, I said it would be nice if I could just do a 10-hour day from time to time as opposed to an 18-hour day," James Woods told the
Deseret Morning News. "It's not like I said, 'Hey, can I have a four-hour day and a three-day week?' It was, like, 'How about if I only work 140 hours on the show this week instead of 160."'
Ian Biederman, the show's creator and executive producer, said he knows the first season of
Shark was tough on James Woods.
"It's a ridiculous workload you wouldn't wish on anybody except for Jimmy. It's just absolutely brutal," Biederman said. "So ... you always have the plan to scale it back. The question is how you do so and still maintain what the show is, and still keep Jimmy in enough of the stuff and interacting with other people and surrounding him with great people."
They found the answer in the Woods' co-star,
Jeri Ryan, who plays District Attorney Jessica Devlin. Ryan did not get much on-screen time during the first season since playing Stark's boss meant her character would be busy running the D.A.'s office.
So, at the end of the last season, Jessica lost the race for re-election. In the September 23 second season premiere, she became a member of the Stark prosecution team.
"A lot of the reason to bring Jeri onto the team is when these two are together," Biederman said, "it's just a home run on screen, bottom line... So now it's like, that's great, she can carry scenes without Jimmy. And now we have Kevin Pollak [in as Stark's new boss] and our ensemble cast that has a year under their belt. So it's a natural progression of things. So I don't think it's going to be a huge challenge."
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Deseret Morning News
(Image Courtesy of CBS)