Lang, no stranger to playing villains, revisits Medal of Honor heroes
Peter D. KramerAt 66, Stephen Lang has settled into a career playing chiseled badasses.
As Col. Miles Quaritch, the heavy in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” he kept fighting — despite being under fire and literally on fire.
Here’s how badass Quaritch is: He died at the end of “Avatar” (no spoiler alerts, the movie is 9 years old) and he’s still on board for “Avatar 2” (due in 2020), “Avatar 3” (2021), “Avatar 4” (2024) and “Avatar 5” (2025).
“Now, he’s even badder asser, because he’s dead,” Lang says with a laugh. “Now, he’s really pissed off.”
Lang’s not revealing how director James Cameron will resurrect the previously dead Quaritch.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” Lang says. “If I said it, I would put my own life in jeopardy.”
Long before “Avatar 2” arrives in theater comes Peter Jackson’s “Mortal Engines,” due in theaters Dec. 14.
Jackson, of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” fame, produced and wrote the adaptation of Philip Reeve’s book, directed by Christian Rivers, about a futuristic steampunk version of London, on wheels, and a girl who leads a rebellion against it.
Lang plays Shrike.
“It is really quite a spectacular and unique project and the role I play is completely crazy,” Lang says. “I'm a resurrected man. I seem to be playing characters who at some point have died. That could be a metaphor for my career, I suppose.”
At a point when most actors expect to see movie offers slacken to a trickle, Lang’s cup overflows with film roles that have kept him from his first love, theater. He was the first to play Col. Nathan Jessup in “A Few Good Men,” the first to utter the line “you can’t handle the truth,” long before Jack Nicholson did.
The roles Lang has been getting in action-packed, computer-generated films — shot largely against green screens, in take after painstaking take — has the actor considering if his skills have diminished.
"I wonder if I actually have the ability to act with other people, at this point," he says with a chuckle.
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'Beyond Glory'
Lang won’t learn the answer to that question anytime soon.
This November he’ll be back on stage, but still alone, touring eight states with his one-man show, “Beyond Glory,” in which he tells the stories of eight recipients of The Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be bestowed in America.
He plays Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford on the mini-tour's last stop, Nov. 20. It's a fund-raiser to benefit Hope for the Warriors, which provides comprehensive support programs for service members, veterans, and military families. Details at www.broadwaytheatre.com.
For the better of 90 minutes, Lang takes the audience into harm’s way, alongside eight men whose valor was conspicuous and whose heroism is unquestioned. Based on Larry Smith’s book by the same name, “Beyond Glory” introduces audiences to "men of courage and leadership and honor and loyalty," Lang says.
The featured recipients — Lang is quick to stress that no one "wins" the Medal of Honor — range from Navy Lt. John William Finn, who downed a Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, to Army 2nd Lt. Daniel Inouye, who was decorated for his bravery near San Terenzo, Italy, on April 21, 1945, where, despite losing the use of his right arm, he continued to fight, taking out gun positions and leading his men.
(Inouye was later elected a U.S. senator from Hawaii.)
His Broadway career – it’s where he started – has been on hold, and will be for the foreseeable future, given the “Avatar” and “Mortal Engines” films. There’s also talk of a sequel to Fede Alvarez’s crime horror thriller “Don’t Breathe,” in which Lang played the Blind Man.
Still, Lang has a theater itch he can scratch with the one-man play he wrote himself.
“’Beyond Glory’ is the kind of a theater project I can control the timing,” he says. A Broadway show would require a four- to six-month commitment, at a minimum.
“I miss all theater, not just Broadway theater. I have no doubt that I'm going to get back to that at some point, the opportunity is going to present itself and then I'm going to do it because I mean, look, I figure I've got another 25, 30 years in the business. They always need some old guy driveling in the corner. That's what I'll be doing, eventually.”
He's a long way from his driveling phase, to be sure. There are few actors of his age in such physical shape as Lang.
He just finished a solid year filming "Avatar 2" and "Avatar 3."
"We’re on a little bit of a rest right now because there's a lot of editing. We've accrued, amassed, a huge amount of work that really needs to be dealt with. I’ll get back to work in December and January. I think we're going to make some amazing films, here. I mean Jim Cameron is. I'm just doing my part."
His part is considerable, and recurring, despite being killed off at the end of the original "Avatar."
Quaritch represents a huge acting challenge.
“He's a fascinating character," Lang says. "I think that he wouldn’t be back if he didn't have a real central place in this story. As antagonistic and as negative as you can perceive him to be, he demonstrates an awful lot of admirable qualities in terms of leadership and loyalty and things like that. I think that's why an important character, very important to me. I really want to define him properly.”
No driveling required.
Stephen Lang in 'Beyond Glory'
What: A one-man show presenting the stories of eight Medal of Honor recipients, adapted from the book of the same name by Larry Smith
When: Nov. 20. 6:15 p.m. dinner; 8 p.m., curtain.
Tickets: $95, including dinner and the show.
Call: 914-592-2222.
Benefit performance: In honor of Veterans Day, this Gold Star Fund Raiser will help Hope for the Warriors, which provides comprehensive support programs for service members, veterans, and military families.
Out of Bedford
Stephen Lang used to call Bedford home. It's where he used play a weekend basketball pickup game, where he originally found Larry Smith's "Beyond Glory" book that he adapted for the stage.
He still has a Manhattan place, but he and his family left their Bedford home a few years ago, in favor of a Columbia County address.
“It was time for a change,” he says. “Traffic got too weird in Mount Kisco, man.”