Wednesday, May 1, 1996
By Lael Loewenstein
Daily Bruin Contributor
David Schwimmer inadvertently owes a lot to Pontius Pilate.
When he auditioned for the role of Ross on "Friends," Schwimmer
had just finished playing Pilate in a stage play and was still
sporting the close-cropped haircut that might have been popular
some 2000 years ago. After the NBC sitcom took off, legions of
Schwimmer’s twentysomething fans were soon requesting Ross’
haircut. But the trend was nothing more than a fluke of timing.
"I couldn’t go longer, so I went shorter," Schwimmer explains
with a shrug. "And it was so weird because everybody thought I was
trying to make some kind of a statement."
If any statement at all lay behind his actions, Schwimmer was
announcing that he wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. He
makes that same assertion now, sitting in a suite of New York’s
Rhiga Royal Hotel, looking mature in a pressed gray suit. With his
new movie "The Pallbearer," due out on Friday, Schwimmer is poised
to cross over to film stardom.
In "The Pallbearer," Schwimmer plays Tom Thompson, an architect
desperately seeking a job, a girlfriend and a life. When Bill
Abernathy, a high school acquaintance suddenly dies, Tom finds
himself entangled in a web of mistaken identity and confusion. No
sooner has he bedded Bill’s mother (Barbara Hershey) than he also
discovers the girl of his dreams, high school acquaintance Julie
(Gwyneth Paltrow).
He clearly charmed his fellow cast and crew. Paltrow says she
adored working with him, and director Matt Reeves says, "David has
this sad, beautiful face  the kind of face where you can
always see his pain. He was perfect for the part." It’s easy to see
why: in person, Schwimmer is down-to-earth, funny, and forthcoming.
And he takes his acting very seriously."
He has an extensive background in theater and has already done
small parts in films like "Wolf" and "Crossing the Bridge." But to
take on his first extraÂ"Friends" project and his first
starring role, he deliberated carefully. He decided on "The
Pallbearer" after having read no less than 40 scripts.
"What attracted me to this script was that there didn’t seem to
be one extraneous word in it," he says. "Every image, every scene
was so fully envisioned that I could not imagine anything being
cut. Of course, a lot was cut later, but that happens."
Part of the attraction of Reeves and Jason Katims’ script was
that Schwimmer felt he shared a good deal with the character he was
to play.
"I could definitely identify with Tom," he admits. "There was a
time in my life when I needed to cut the umbilical cord and strike
out on my own and find out who I was. It’s the same for Tom Â
he’s looking for a foothold. He’s in his mid-20s and he’s still
living at home. He loves his mom, but he feels this need to
distance himself from her."
Schwimmer’s own period of ambivalence came when he left
California to attend Northwestern University in Chicago. College
provided the opportunity for much personal development, but he was
still financially dependent on his parents.
"There were times when I really wanted to be financially
independent, when I wanted to be on my own, but I knew I couldn’t,"
he says. "So as soon as I could take care of my own bills, I could
begin to renew my relationship with my parents."
Aside from his personal identification with Tom, Schwimmer was
attracted to the film because it provided a seamless transition to
movies from television. There are, he admits, unmistakable shades
of Ross in Tom: both are insecure, vulnerable, sensitive guys.
"I knew it was important to do a comedy the first time out," he
says. "I figured that most of my audience would come because of the
TV show, and it might have been too much of a change for them to
see me playing a bad guy in a thriller or in a serious dramatic
film."
Schwimmer also knew that audiences and critics around the nation
would be watching to see if he could be successful on the big
screen. With the track records of TV actors who make movies uneven
at best, Schwimmer’s first foray into movies was bound to be
scrutinized.
If "The Pallbearer" succeeds, it could do for Schwimmer what
"Saturday Night Fever" did for "Welcome Back Kotter" star John
Travolta  effectively putting him on the map. But there are
no guarantees. When David Caruso left "NYPD Blue" for Hollywood
after only one season, his first effort, last spring’s "Kiss of
Death," was a minor hit. Then came the abysmal flop "Jade," a
humiliation which must have made Caruso long for the security of
the hit cop show. The one-time TV Guide cover subject was
yesterday’s news.
For his part, Schwimmer doesn’t plan to "pull a Caruso." He
remains faithful to the hit series, as do his co-stars. All the
cast members are contractually committed for another three
years.
Still, he is understandably afraid of being typecast. Having
played similar characters in "Friends" and "Pallbearer," he longs
for different opportunities.
"The strangest thing for me now is being known as a funny,
vulnerable whiner," he admits. "I’ve played at least 50 characters
(in stage productions and on television), and none of them were
like that. But obviously if you play a character without variation
there is a danger of that role seeping into your work and defining
your persona."
To avoid typecasting, he will seek out varied film roles and
continue to work in theater. Eight years ago when he was fresh out
of college, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company,
a Chicago-based group. He has worked with Lookingglass as actor and
director in several productions ranging from classics to avant
garde.
"I want to play characters that will stretch me or challenge me
or enable me to bring out different parts of my own personality,"
he explains. "The attraction for me is in telling great
stories."
"The Pallbearer" afforded Schwimmer just such an opportunity
 to tell a great story, while also making a crucial career
move.
"Basically," he says, "this was a movie that I could look back
on in 20 years and be proud."
FILM: "The Pallbearer," directed by Matt Reeves. Opens
Friday.
David Schwimmer and Barbara Hershey star in "The
Pallbearer."
Gwyneth Paltrow and David Schwimmer in "The Pallbearer."