Kline keeps roots in stage between films

TORONTO -- Kevin Kline is that rarity among American actors: A classically trained artist who so loves live performance it's a wonder he comes off stage long enough to make a film.

Yet for almost two decades, he's glided effortlessly between the theater and movies, way-out comedy and heavyweight drama, building a body of live and filmed work that would be the envy of peers in more theater-minded Britain.

A latecomer to film, Kline took the British route, spending years on stage in classics by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Christopher Marlowe. He turned down movie offers before debuting on film in his mid-30s with "Sophie's Choice" in 1982.

Until then, he felt no reason to trade live audiences for film. Julliard trained, a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company and a Broadway star with two Tonys, Kline had his choice of theater parts meatier than anything Hollywood could offer.

"A lot of great roles in a lot of great plays," Kline, 54, said at last month's Toronto International Film Festival, where his new movie "Life as a House" played. "So when I was offered silly roles in silly movies, I wasn't interested. I was a snob very early."

A year after "Sophie's Choice," Kline gained wider recognition with "The Big Chill," but he made only half a dozen other films through the 1980s. He played some lighter characters on film, a reprisal of his Tony-winning role in "The Pirates of Penzance" among them.

Still sticking largely to theater or dramatic films such as "Cry Freedom," Kline remained in that British tradition of the actor as AC-TOR. Then came his turn in a silly role in a blissfully silly movie, "A Fish Called Wanda."

One of the rare comedic characters acknowledged by Academy Award voters, the nastily demented role earned Kline a supporting-acting Oscar and opened the door for his 1990s comedy successes in "Dave" and "In & Out."

"I hadn't done a purely comic role in a movie," Kline said. "But movie people maybe went, 'Oh, we thought he was that really self-important, serious AC-TOR type. But look, he's got a sense of humor. Let's give him an Oscar.'"

Anything goes now

Since then, it's been anything goes for Kline. He's done action comedy with "Wild Wild West"; cinematic Shakespeare as Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; weighty drama with "The Ice Storm"; romance with "French Kiss"; more madcap comedy in "Fierce Creatures," reuniting cast members from "A Fish Called Wanda."

He did "Hamlet" on stage and directed and starred in a television version for PBS.

Fresh off an acclaimed performance in Chekhov's "The Seagull" in New York last summer, Kline stars as a dying architect trying to reconnect with his neglected family in "Life as a House."

He enlists relatives and friends in a metaphorical act of redemption: Tearing down the hovel he lives in and building a dream home.

For all his training as an actor, Kline had plenty to learn for "Life as a House," namely, demolition and construction.

"I was Mr. Call Somebody. If something was broken, I knew who to call," Kline said. "Now, I can actually build a wing to my house if I had to. I wouldn't live there, but I could make it stand up."

Actually, Kline's next gig is "The Palace Thief," about the relationship between a prep-school teacher and a student over the course of decades. The film is due out next year.