E-mail a friendTony Shalhoub
airdate November 11, 2009
Tony Shalhoub is one of the most versatile actors in the business. He's a familiar face on TV, stage and the big screen and has a Golden Globe and three Emmys to show for his efforts. He's also received a best actor Tony nod and a Grammy nod for best spoken word album for children. Currently starring in the USA network's Monk, he was introduced to theater in his Green Bay, WI hometown and studied his craft at the Yale School of Drama. Of Lebanese American descent, Shalhoub helped launch the Arab-American Filmmaker Award in '05.
Monk star explains why it feels like the right time for his series to end. (1:04)
Full Interview (12:09)
Tony Shalhoub
Tavis: For eight seasons, Tony Shalhoub has starred on one of cable's highest-rated series, "Monk," which will end - say it ain't so, Tony, say it ain't so. It ends its award-winning run on December 4th.
During the eight years, Tony has earned three Emmy awards for best actor, putting him in some very rare television company. The show airs Friday nights on USA. Here now, a scene from "Monk."
[Clip]
Tavis: First, I love the beard.
Tony Shalhoub: Thank you.
Tavis: Very nice, Tony.
Shalhoub: Thank you. (Laughter) I'd love to tell you it's for a role, but it's really because I have no reason to shave. (Laughter) I'm going to grow it until they stop letting me on airplanes.
Tavis: (Laughs) Wow, that's funny. I was saying to you before we came on the air here, my words, not yours, what a blessing it is in this town to have been a part of two series, at least, that ran for a multiple number of years. Eight seasons - this is everybody's dream in this town, to get something that runs that long.
Shalhoub: Yeah, these days with the television landscape being what it is, it is truly a blessing. We've been so, so lucky. It's the fans, it's really all about the fans - they just kept showing up and stayed really loyal. Our fan base grew over time, and it's sad to be saying goodbye but at the same time it feels like the right time. It feels like ratings are still strong, we're kind of going out on top, and it's a nice feeling to have that control.
Tavis: I've never quite understood that. Maybe you'll be the first person to explain this to me. Maybe it's my own ignorance, but what does that phrase mean, it feels like the right time to leave? Because everybody that leaves a series after it runs for so long finally gets to that place where it goes off and they all say - well, not always, but many of them say it feels like the right time.
Shalhoub: Well, you explore these characters, these relationships - I'm not talking just about the actors but the writers as well. Everybody's kind of - they work really hard, they try to grow it at the right pace, and then at a certain point you just feel like well, if we press our luck, we go too far, we're going to go off the tracks. It's kind of inevitable.
You see it happen on some shows where you just go, well, this is just - these people have overstayed their welcome. (Laughter) We don't want to do that. We want to - I think there's something to be said for leaving people wanting a little more.
Tavis: I agree with that. Again, my word, not yours - what do you think it is about the character Monk, though, this quirky character, that audiences have been so attached to for these eight seasons? You figure that out yet?
Shalhoub: Boy, that's a complicated question. I wish I knew. I'd bottle it up, whatever that formula is. I don't know; there's something about this niche, this world that these characters occupy that people are hooking into. I think part of it too is that it's slightly retro, this particular show, because there's so much on the air that's kind of either strictly more adult content, and then there's other stuff on there that's really geared just toward a younger audience, and this seems to cross a lot of demographics.
Maybe that's part of it, that people can watch it as a family or different generations can watch it at the same time. I'm not really sure. There's a lot of moving parts here.
Tavis: At any point in this eight-year process, speaking of this being the right time to go, at any point during the eight-year process, while on the one hand you got this great check coming in every week, and for every actor would love to pay his or her bills, that's always cool.
On the other hand, is there a point at which you stay too long, given the fact that you don't want to be so connected to this character that you can't do anything else other than Monk?
Shalhoub: Well, there is that element, too. All actors, I think, whether it's television or film, frankly, there's always a risk of getting typecast or into that one thing. Sometimes - more rarely, but it does happen sometimes in film where somebody will do a signature role and then that becomes that.
I don't know, people ask me, "Did you worry about getting typecast?" I don't know. Twenty years go, maybe that would have been an issue. Now at my age I'd be happy to be cast as anything. (Laughter) Typecasting might not be terrible. But yeah, that definitely was one of the factors that went into this bringing the show to a close, I guess.
I certainly never - when I started out as an actor I certainly - I never thought that I would want to do something for too long, just one character for my whole life, for my whole career. I want to move on, and I feel like I have other dragons to slay.
Tavis: To the point you made a moment ago, although you said it jokingly let me take it seriously, the comment where you suggested at this age, at my age, and you're still a young guy.
Shalhoub: Thank you.
Tavis: But given that you've done this acting thing for a while, given that you've played this character for a while, at this age, what does Tony Shalhoub want to do? Has your outlook on the kinds of roles that you want to play, the kind of characters you want to embody, has that changed at this age?
Shalhoub: Well, sure, yeah. I always wanted to do something different than the last thing I did. I love variety; I love variety just in terms of whatever the medium is. For example, this winter I'm going to be going to New York, my wife and I are going to be doing a play together on Broadway, so looking forward to getting back to the theater.
Looking forward to doing a part that's going to help to wash the Monk image off a little bit. As much as I love that image, I need to kind of - I want people to see me in a different light. I think there are other things I wanted, but also because I've been a producer on the show now for - well, all eight seasons, I want to produce things, I want to get into producing things for television, films.
I've already produced a couple of independent films and I'd like to do more of that, and some of these projects are not just vehicles for me. Some of these projects I wouldn't be acting in, but I would just love to be a part of assembling the team, the director, the writer, the crew.
Tavis: Since to your point now you are a producer, have been on this series for all eight seasons, if - again, every producer's dream in this town - if you could fiat your ideas onto the air on any network, what do you think, as a producer, television is missing?
Shalhoub: Boy.
Tavis: Or are you going to give us more of the same?
Shalhoub: I hope not. (Laughter) There's a lot of great things on television. No question, television's really, really had a boost in the last few years, I think especially with the onslaught of cable, basic and premium cable. There's just been so much great work.
There are a lot of producers, writers, directors, actors gravitating toward cable television because - well, frankly, because of the condition of the movie industry right now. But I kind of want to kind of stay in the vein of what I've been doing in terms of television. I think things that maybe are a little maybe more political, maybe a little more topical, but I think there's enough - I don't know, I feel like the variety of stuff out there, it's beginning to narrow.
It's beginning to narrow. Certain things are starting to - a lot of things, I think, are starting to look alike. The thing I would love to do next, I think, is a period piece. For example, I love "Mad Men," I love that period. I would love to see more things that take place in the 1920s and the 1930s. Stories and arenas in those time periods that really relate to present day, that aren't just kind of a look back as a museum piece but things that were happening then that relate to today. Things that we can draw from. That's kind of what I'm interested in.
Tavis: To the other point you raised earlier, there is, as you well know, being an actor and a producer in this town, this ongoing debate that is ratcheting up more and more every season about network versus cable. Could "Monk" have - could it, would it have gone eight seasons on network versus cable?
Shalhoub: I don't know. That's a very good question. I'm not sure. I think it took a network like USA, that was in the process of reinventing itself, rebranding itself, to give "Monk" the time that it needed to get a toehold. So the truth is that this script, this pilot, was at a network for quite a stretch in a state of semi-development, and it wasn't until it went over to cable that it actually saw light.
Tavis: And not originally, as I'm told, not originally written for Tony Shalhoub.
Shalhoub: No.
Tavis: Yeah.
Shalhoub: No. (Laughter) No, I think I was the last person.
Tavis: (Laughs) No, you weren't the last person, but what do you make of that? What do you make of the fact that something that was written for somebody else ended up being yours and you have fashioned it and owned it and allowed it to flower and flourish, and you were not the first name on this project.
Shalhoub: No, well, I think there's that element that's just luck. A lot of it is luck, being in the right place at the right time, having certain people in high places make a good call, make the right call. At the time, I was looking to do a series and looking for an opportunity to expand my horizons while staying local, and it just seemed to be a good fit.
Tavis: So exit question here - you going to tell me anything about the final episode?
Shalhoub: Boy, I wish I could.
Tavis: I knew that was coming. (Laughs) I spent 12 minutes trying to grease the wheels here, trying to make you comfortable.
Shalhoub: Lather me up a little bit.
Tavis: Lather you up, get you opened up, and just (inaudible) me, Tony.
Shalhoub: Well, I can't tell you - I know this has been talked about in other places and other interviews, but the writers have done a really nice job of resolving the Trudy mystery, Monk's wife and that case that's been driving him crazy all this time. We finally come to a resolution there.
I think - I'm really, really pleased with what the writers and the whole creative team have done here to wrap this thing up. I think it's been - I think people are going to be quite satisfied.
Tavis: But you gave me a little something-something. I'll take that.
Shalhoub: Okay.
Tavis: We're going to solve this mystery of what happened to the wife, Trudy, so that's cool, that's cool. Good to have you on, Tony.
Shalhoub: Thank you, sir.
Tavis: I'm sure I'll be talking to you again in the future with whatever your new ventures are.
Shalhoub: I hope so.
Tavis: I hope so as well.
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