|
 For
over 40 years Bill Mumy has been a familiar face
on the small and big screens. Best known for his
starring roles in TV series such as Lost in Space
and Babylon 5, Mumy is also a gifted writer and
musician. We got the actor to take time out of his
busy schedule to take part in this interview with
ZCPortal editor William Grim.
ZC: Could
you please tell us a little bit about your current
projects?
BM: Well, I just finished starring in a new
episode of the new The Twilight
Zone television series. It's a sequel to the
"classic" "It's A Good Life"
episode I starred in as a kid. I'm reprising the
role of "Anthony Fremont"
and my daughter, Liliana, is playing my daughter
in the show, "Audrey", which
is absolutely wonderful. She's got an amazing
part, and Cloris Leachman who
played my mother in the original is back as well.
It was great filming it up
in Vancouver, Canada, and I think it's going to be
very cool.
I'm narrating Biography for the A&E television
network and have done over
20 of those in the last year. I do lots of voice
over work, narration,
animation, and commercials. I just did a new
Scooby Doo cartoon and I'm
the voice for "Farmer's Insurance" among others.
I'm releasing my 5th solo CD in April on
Renaissance Records. This one is a
compilation "best of" if you will, with songs
taken from the first four CD's
plus a few brand new ones. That will be available
through Amazon.com and
other internet sites as well as a few of the
bigger stores. Renaissance is a
pretty small label and is doing mostly direct
sales. For all info and things
Mumy-like, I encourage people to check out my
official website at
www.billmumy.com .
I'm also performing regularly in Southern
California with two bands. As a
solo artist doing acoustic sets and a member of
the Jenerators, my rock n
roll band that has been around for a long time
now. And Barnes and Barnes,
(who brought you Fish Heads as well as 9 other
albums full of quirk-rock
material) are discussing making a new album
together as well as seeing the
remainder of our back catalogue re-released on CD.
Barnes and Barnes reissues
are on Oglio Records.
ZC: And how did you get involved in
creating comic books?
BM: Well, I've been a big fan of comic
books since I was a little kid. In fact,
I used to write and draw my own comic books when I
was on the old Lost in
Space series. (still have 'em in storage! Ooooh,
"Captain Panther and the
Fox" "The Comb and his crime busting beauty
Caramia!" pretty funny stuff!)
Anyway, in the mid 80's I was spending a fortune
buying old Golden Age books
from the late 30's and 40's and I was making
personal appearances at a lot of
sci fi and comic book conventions all around the
country here so that I could
find books for my collection. At one of these cons
I struck up a friendship
with Jim Shooter who was running Marvel Comics at
the time. We kicked a few
ideas around and that led to me and my friend,
fellow actor and musician
Miguel Ferrer creating and writing a mini series
for Marvel called "The Comet
Man". Halley's Comet was due to pass by soon, so
it was a timely idea. A
fairly traditional super hero origin that then
went into a non-traditional
dark story. Marvel liked it and the six issue mini
series sold over half a
million copies. Miguel and I then wrote a graphic
novel for Marvel, "The
Dreamwalker", which was like a Zorro meets James
Bond kind of project. Then
we created "Trypto, the Acid Dog" which has run in
Dark Horse Comics and
several other indie publishing companies. I went
on to write quite a lot of
stories for Marvel. The Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man,
She-Hulk, Wonderman, etc.
quite a lot of 'em. Then I wrote the "Lost in
Space" comic for Innovation
until they went bankrupt and disappeared in the
middle of the night leaving
my second year huge 12 part story incomplete,
which was a real drag…
(although those scripts are being published this
year in a book) and then I
went on to write some stuff for DC… Aquaman, with
a golden age Flash and
Green Lantern. I worked on that one with my
sometimes writing partner Peter
David. He's great and really fun to collaborate
with. Peter and I created a
television series which we produced and wrote for
two seasons called "Space
Cases". That originally ran in the mid 90's. We
were very proud of that. It
ran in over 60 countries. I haven't been doin'
much comic book writing for
the last several years though, as I've been
writing television projects and a
novel. Mark Hamill and I have a television project
we've created and written
together, a pilot called Outpost Omega. And Angela
Cartwright and I have
finished a fantasy novel with a working title that
keeps changing! As of
today it's called "Weapons of Choice". It's a very
ambitious story and I've
never worked harder on anything. I hope we get
that published soon. I
always juggle a lot of projects. That's one of the
reasons I like to
collaborate with other people.
ZC: Acting, writing, composing - If you had
to pick one activity and stick with
it exclusively, which would it be, and why?
BM: Well, thankfully I don't have to pick
one exclusively. But if I did, it would
be music. I would be making music writing and
playing songs regardless of any
professionalism or financial rewards. I can't stop
making music. Music makes
me. (if that makes sense)
ZC: "It's a Good Life" (from The Twilight
Zone) is generally regarded as one of
the all-time best episodes from the Golden Age of
Television. I guess in a
way it's assumed iconic status. What were your
initial thoughts when you
were asked to reprise your role for the updated
version that is going to
appear on the new Twilight Zone series?
BM: Initially when discussing the
possibility of doing a sequel to "It's A Good
Life" with the executive producer of the new
series, Ira Behr, I was just
jamming on ideas and concepts and letting my
thoughts run wild because I
really didn't think it would ever become a
reality. But then when Ira called
and said the network wanted to do it, for real,
then I got nervous about it.
I didn't want to do something that would be
obviously inferior to the
original, which is very highly regarded by a lot
of people, myself included.
I wouldn't agree to it until the story was on the
page. I had to believe in
my own heart that the story would be something the
late great Rod Serling
would have given the thumbs up to. Ira generously
invited me to help plot
and break the story and he wrote the teleplay. I
think it's a great script
and I was very very happy to return to that
character and make this show.
Cloris Leachman and my daughter Liliana gave
amazing performances and I feel
very good about what I did while we were filming.
"It's Still A Good Life"
airs in the states February 19th, 9PM on the UPN
network.
ZC: Nobody knows better than you the
potential problems facing child actors. How
do you feel about your children getting into the
business?
BM: Both my kids, Seth and Liliana, work in
the "industry". Both of them are
doin' great. My son who did three feature films as
a very little boy now only
does voice over work. Liliana co-starred in
Disney's The Santa Clause 2
feature, she's a recurring cast member on a fun
family ABC hit series called
My Wife and Kids, she's done quite a few episodics
for TV lately, a bunch
of commercials, and she's one of the main voices
for a new Disney animated
series that'll be coming out in a year or so. She
plays "Mertle" in The
Adventures of Lilo and Stitch. She loves it. She
reminds me a lot of how I
was when I was her age. I don't think showbiz
"eats its young". As long as
the kids are enjoying the experience, the parents
are there with them, the m
oney they earn is put away for their future, and
their egos aren't allowed to
run wild, it's a great experience. So far, so
good.
ZC: OK, a couple of inevitable questions
about Babylon 5. How did you feel about
going back into outer space after you had become
so well known as a star of
Lost in Space?
BM: I enjoy sci fi very much. I was
flattered that Joe Stracynski sought me out
for Babylon 5. I think it's one of the most
ambitious television shows ever
produced and I'm proud to have been a part of it.
It's not the slightest bit
similar to Lost in Space in any way as far as I'm
concerned. And of course, I
absolutely loved making Lost in Space as a kid.
ZC: Babylon 5 always seemed like a thinking
man's sci-fi show: complicated plot,
ongoing story, and a concern with moral and
religious issues of a kind that
almost no show on television now attempts to
tackle. How difficult was it to
perform the role of Lennier? I mean, it's not like
you can go out and do
research about an alien race that is on the verge
of conquering the Earth and
then mysteriously surrenders.
BM: I was allowed a lot of creative input
into Lennier. Quite a bit of his arc
came from me. Joe was generous with allowing me
that input. He knew I was a
writer and he knew I was producing and writing
"Space Cases" at the time… and
maybe Lennier wasn't all that fleshed out when I
joined the show in the first
season. Whatever the reason, I had input there.
Lennier was totally
different than Bill Mumy. There's very little of
ME in that character. Joe is
really a great writer. It was easy to deliver his
dialogue and believe
Lennier's angst. The fact that it was written so
well, that it had an
interesting arc firmly in place, made dealing with
the horrible makeup
bearable.
ZC: And now, the inevitable question: How
long did it take to apply your makeup
every day on Babylon 5, and was it uncomfortable?
BM: I never got acclimated to the makeup.
Don't get me wrong, it looked great.
Greg Funk who did it for the bulk of the run made
it as comfortable as he
could. They cut the time down as much as they
could but it was an awful
physical thing to endure. I really hated it. First
season it took 3 and a
half hours to put it on and almost an hour to take
it off everyday. It got
better. We finally got the whole process of
putting it on to a little under 2
hours. Taking it off was worse than putting it on
though. All those horrible
abrasive solvents being poured into your skin
while rubber is pulled off your
face… ugh… I don't miss that at all. I'm glad I
stuck it out for the entire
5 season arc, but it would take a lot of money to
get me to put that makeup
on again.
ZC: Who influenced you the most as an
actor?
BM: Well, as a young kid it was watching
George Reeves as "Superman" and Guy
Williamas as "Zorro" on TV that inspired me to get
into the TV set as an
actor. I really wanted to be an adventurer like
that on TV. And I did get to
be that, so… I fulfilled that dream pretty early
on.
ZC: How do you prepare for roles?
BM: Hard to express it in words. I simply
program myself to believe whatever
situation the character is in. Memorizing dialogue
has always come easy and
quickly to me. My wife Eileen is also very
helpful. She gives me choices,
and asks me questions, and runs my lines with me.
ZC: Have you ever considered directing?
BM: Yes, I have. But I wear a lot of hats.
I'm not so sure I want to add that
one. Maybe one day I will. I have great respect
for directors who know what
they're doing.
ZC: In addition to all of your various
professional activities and raising your
children, what do you do in your spare time, that
is, if you have any time
left over? Hobbies?
BM: I walk my dogs. I garden a little. I
play a bit of tennis. Basically when I
have spare time I'm making music. I have about 50
guitars around the house.
I can't take more than a few steps without finding
one to pick up. I also
collect vintage Pez dispensers. If anyone in
Germany or Austria has any old
Pez stuff hanging around they don't want
anymore... feel free to send it to
me! (you can find the address at my website. I'd
be happy to trade for B5,
LIS, or TZone autographed pics! heh heh heh)
ZC: You're a voting member of the Academy.
Which films have impressed you this
year?
BM: Can't talk about that until the awards
have ended. Sorry.
ZC: Oscar predictions?
BM: Nope.
ZC: Why does Hollywood keep remaking the
same films over and over again and
producing sequel after sequel-with seemingly
diminishing box office
returns-when well-written movies like My Big Fat
Greek Wedding (which has
already grossed over $200 million on a $5 million
investment) and
high-quality TV shows like Frasier, Seinfeld,
Cheers and Babylon 5 are box
office successes?
BM: Not enough original ideas get past the
network or big studio money people.
They're afraid to take chances. They look at what
worked in the past and try
to reinvent it cuz they're not visionaries. At
least in the old days people
had balls to push their original concepts through
the system. Personally, I
don't think the film and television industries are
run as well as they used
to be. Oh sure, we've got great digital effects
now but... where are the
visionaries?
ZC: What are your plans for the future?
Feature films? TV series?
BM: Who knows? In the entertainment
business, your life can change in five
minutes for five years. My plans for the future
are to pick my kids up from
school and have fun with my family. I hope work
continues to come to me in
many different arenas. I get bored doing one thing
only. I've been very
lucky to explore a lot of different artistic
territory and I don't see why I
won't continue on that path.
ZC: You're the first participant in
ZCPortal's series of celebrity/creative
artist interviews. In an oblique (and ironic)
homage to James Lipton's
Inside the Actors Studio, who always asks his
guests the same series of
questions at the end of each show, we'd like to
start a similar tradition,
but without taking ourselves so seriously. So my
question to you is this:
Besides this question, what is the most annoying
question you have ever been
asked on an interview?
BM: Was there a man inside the robot?
ZC: Bill Mumy, thank you for your time.
BM: Thank you.
For more about Bill Mumy please check out his
website
billmumy.com . Bill Mumy’s CDs and movies are
available at
Amazon.com
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