Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

My Name is Earl’ star skateboarded his way to acting success

BEVERLY HILLS – When actor Jason Lee was offered the role in NBC’s new comedy, “My Name is Earl,” he actually sat down and drafted a pro-and-con list. It’s the first time in his life he’s been so torn about an idea.

“And there were, in fact, a few more pros than cons, so I said, `OK.’ In a situation like this – where it’s a seven-year deal – I had to,” says Lee in a quiet vestibule of a hotel business center here.

Making tough decisions was not new to him. At 16 he decided to blow out school and become a professional skateboarder. That decision wasn’t nearly as difficult to make as this one, he says.

“I wasn’t anti-social. I was very funny in school and very silly – I’d go along with everybody and hung out with the jocks and the weirdoes and the skaters and punkers. It wasn’t like I was bitter and antisocial and wanted to rebel. I just knew I wasn’t going to be a star baseball player or go to college to become a lawyer or something. I knew that just didn’t suit me. So it was easy. It was, like acting, a naive thing. Had I put thought into it, it would’ve scared me away from doing it.”

He grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif., in what he calls “a little bit of a Brady upbringing – where you go to school, you have a bedtime, you eat dinner every night, the mundane suburban upbringing.”

Lee’s dad was in the car business and Lee’s youth revolved around sports and school. But at 17 he found himself in the brave, new worlds of Stockholm, Paris, Tokyo and points east in America. “So through the traveling around the world that’s when my eyes started opening up to books, museums, architecture, movies, music. It just started growing.”

He became captivated with old German art, etchings and drypoint, photography and movies. The cinematic techniques of the Coen Brothers drew him to movies and filmmaking. “I found it fascinating, the Coen brothers and their style and the way they made films, and it was a genuine curiosity. It wasn’t I wanted to be famous or make a lot of money. I didn’t know better. It was a naive idea. But some of the best decisions you make that become successful right away are without over-thinking them. So it was a genuine curiosity to see what it would be like to play a character in a movie.”

Lee was 24 and still a professional skateboarder. He wasn’t sure how to start. “My girlfriend at the time, her mother was a manager for actors, and she’s still my manager to this day. She knew the casting director of `Mallrats,’ Don Phillips. I went into meet with him. He said, `He seems like a nice kid but he’s a skateboarder, he’s not even an actor. But I’ll have him come back and read as sort of a favor.’ So I came back and read for (director) Kevin Smith a bunch of times and he finally gave me the part.”

With films like “Vanilla Sky,” “Almost Famous” and “Chasing Amy” to his credit, he’s fully embedded in show biz. But Lee, 35, is not impressed by the fame.

“With skateboarding I was always in some sort of spotlight or another, making money, the pressure, the trial-and-errors, the ups the downs. It was never about `I want to be famous.’ I wasn’t trying to fill a void. Some people who are trying to fill a void – things become appealing to them because it makes them feel something. I don’t need to feel that thing,” he says.

“I have it through other means – as a photographer or as a writer. I was writing when I was a teen-ager and now I’m writing screenplays and have my own production company and my significant-other and my son. I’m excited when I wake up in the morning about creative things that drive me, not `where’s the party tonight?’ and `who can I schmooze and get to know?'”

Lee’s sweetheart and mother of his almost 2-year-old son is Beth Riesgraf. Like him, he says, she’s down-to-earth. “We’re sort of old souls and my company is our company, we started it together so we have that creative process to look forward to every day,” he says.

“She comes from a family that is very tight and full of love, from the Midwest. Her parents have been married for 40 years; she has five older sisters. They all get along. She’s 27 but is an old soul and a great mother, very grounded, very creative and my best friend.”

When the role of the goofy Earl came along, Lee wasn’t sure he wanted to move into television. “Apparently (creator-executive producer) Greg Garcia wanted me to play Earl. I’d never done TV before and I think originally I said no. Then I said maybe, then I said no, then I said yes, then I said no. I put NBC through a bit of a difficult time because the commitment – signing a seven-year deal, 12-hour days, five days a week for half a year, every season. It was a really tough decision for me to make but in the end I couldn’t deny the material and knew it was unique.”

“My Name is Earl” premieres Sept. 20.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Massachusetts Daily Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *