Actor Justin Kirk Brings Prior Walter to Life in
HBO?s Film Version of Angels in America
by Chael Needle
Justin Kirk mentions the fierce hail storm that
fire-ravaged California is enduring as we begin our
phone interview. It?s the Apocalypse, we joke. ?Millennium
approaches,? he chimes in.
He?s referring to the title of Part One of Angels
in America. Part Two is Perestroika.
Together they made up one of the most memorable
theatrical experiences of the last decade, countering
the bombast of the greed-is-good eighties with
an epic look at compassion and carelessness. Now
Angels has found new life as a six-and-a-half-hour
film, which features Justin Kirk in the plum role
of Prior Walter. (Part One will premiere on HBO
on December 7.) And Angels in America is
sure to be one of the most memorable cinematic
experiences of this decade for Justin is in good
company, though he says the prospect of working
with the personnel attached to the project was
a bit daunting. It?s understandable, when you consider
that Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker
(A&U, October 1999), Jeffrey Wright,
Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, and Emma Thompson
round out the stellar cast; Tony Kushner (A&U,
June 2001) adapted his award-winning play for the
screen; and Mike Nichols (A&U, December
1998) sat in the director?s chair. ?I can?t imagine
a project I would more want to work on,? Justin
shares.
For those unfamiliar with Angels, Prior Walter
is a liberal, Mayflower-descended, gay male living
and loving in New York City in the mid-eighties.
He develops AIDS-diagnosed KS lesions, and his boyfriend,
Louis, struggles with staying on and caring for him
while his best friend, Belize, doesn?t give it a
second thought. He?s soon visited at night by prior
Priors: two male ancestors bearing his name who were
afflicted by the plagues of their time. Played with
zest by Michael Gambon and Simon Callow, they prepare
Prior for the coming. And, indeed, the Angel soon
visits and charges Prior with the heavenly role of
prophet.
But Prior?s struggle with the message and the medium
is only one amidst a web of stories populated by
a fictionalized take on Senator Joseph McCarthy?s
right-hand man, attorney Roy Cohn; the ghost of Ethel
Rosenberg; a Mormon couple, Joe and Harper Pitt;
and Joe?s mother, Hannah, among others. Together,
they personify the complexity of Reagan-era America,
giving voice to the politics and poetry of liberalism
and conservatism; race, class, religion, and sexuality;
and, of course, accepting and denying the realities
of AIDS, to name only a few of the issues. Indeed,
a viewer would be hard-pressed not to connect with
one of these stories?and hard-pressed not to own
up to disconnecting from others. Says Justin: ?It?s
one of the great pieces of writing of our time. [The
character of Prior] is one of the great parts of
my generation of New York theater actors, so I was
thrilled to say the least and scared to say the most!?
Justin Kirk has little to worry about, however,
because he is a stand-out among his generation of
New York theater actors. He knew he wanted to be
an actor early on, even before he took to the stage
at age seven in a production of Bertolt Brecht?s The
Caucasian Chalk Circle. Trained in New York City,
he is probably best known for playing Bobby in Terrence
McNally?s Love! Valour! Compassion! in the
off-Broadway (for which he won an Obie), Broadway,
and big-screen versions. The thirty-four-year-old
actor also appeared on-stage in productions of Any
Given Day, Ten Unknowns, and Old Wicked
Songs, among others, throughout the nineties,
and is a member of the non-profit theater collective,
The Drama Department. Justin has also graced several
films (Outpatient, The Eden Myth),
moving out to Los Angeles to play Barto on The WB?s
television show Jack & Jill and deciding
to stay after it ended. In general, Justin says he
is drawn to scripts with good stories. ?Normally
what attracts me to it is if they?ll give it to me,? he
confesses in mock-seriousness. ?Now I?m turning them
down left and right!? When asked, he cites no upcoming
projects?mentioning that he hasn?t worked since Angels wrapped. ?I
think I was a little shell-shocked after finishing
the job. But now Angels is coming out and
I?m excited about people seeing it.?
And when they do see his Emmy-worthy performance,
however, his joke about people knocking down his
door will undoubtedly become a reality. He brings
a rich palette to a role that demands a range of
emotions: the doubt that your significant other will
stick around after you self-disclose; the anguish
when your body stops working the way it used to;
the reluctance to carry the burden of doomsday; the
longing for more life; and, also, the humor of it
all, from lesions to political incorrectness. Beyond
the basics of figuring out the character?s personality,
the story arc, and the circumstances of each scene,
and reading up on AIDS in the eighties, he prepared
for the role of Prior in a very direct way. While
conducting hair and make-up tests, he met a crew
member who had been living with HIV for many years. ?He
went through [the eighties] and had a lot of friends
die,? says Justin. ?He made himself available to
me. We went out and had dinner. He told me his whole
story, and then he was there throughout the whole
movie. His input was certainly invaluable.?
A lot has happened in America and the rest of the
world since the play was first performed, but Justin,
who saw Millennium twice on Broadway, thinks
the impact of Angels hasn?t been lessened
by time. ?It was a period piece of five years when
it came out. And now it?s a period piece of fifteen
years,? he points out. ?If it?s a good piece of theater,
you find yourself in the given circumstances of the
play and you accept them and are moved by them. It
tells the story of that happening. I don?t think
it?ll make any less of an impact because it doesn?t
take place in 2003?.It may even be interesting?now
that the millennium has approached?to look at what
Tony [Kushner] is saying.? Like Prior facing what
is thought to be the end of the world, will we too
see a beginning?
Chael Needle is Managing Editor of A&U.
December 2003
