In Contention

Tag: Denis Leary

  • Duelling Leno perspectives

    Jay Leno

    Most of the invective, notably, has been leveled not at [Jay] Leno specifically but rather at NBC for having “given up,” as writer-producer Peter Tolan put it, by abandoning scripted dramas in an hour where the Peacock once aired such acclaimed programs as “Hill Street Blues” and “ER.” Nevertheless, for the ire expressed toward NBC to be fulfilled, Leno’s new endeavor, logically, has to fail.

    From a Variety op-ed making the case for Leno as an enemy of creative Hollywood by moving to 10:00pm.

    This is just my gut, and people are bitching about it but I think it’s a good thing, but I think people like my mother, who’s 82, are going to love to watch Jay at ten o’clock because they want to go to bed. And they love Jay. That’s going to make programming at ten o’clock much cheaper for all the networks. They’re going to lean in that direction. It’s going to make the business that I’m in, the ten o’clock, hour-long drama, it’s going to force it more into cable, which is where it should be because you can take more chances. Everybody’s going to be happy. That’s what I think. It’s going to be beneficial to actors and writers and producers over the long haul.

    From my July interview with Peter Tolan’s “Rescue Me” partner, Denis Leary.

  • 7/16 Web Round-up

    Emma Watson• Emmy nominations unleashed, Denis Leary robbed again. [Emmys.tv]

    • Xan Brooks and the “Antichrist” debate.  One more time around. [The Guardian]

    • Jonathan Romney, meanwhile, tries to break down the mind of Lars Von Trier. [The Independent]

    • 25 new faces of independent film. [Filmmaker Magazine]

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  • More with Leary

    Denis LearyJust before I ducked out on vacation last week (big thanks to Guy for keeping the boat afloat), you might have caught my interview with comedian Denis Leary of FX’s “Rescue Me.”  Even though TV isn’t something we cover much around here, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chat with a personal favorite of MTV’s glory years and the star/co-creator of one of my favorite cable shows.  We talked about “Rescue Me,” of course, but we dived into MTV’s decade-long funk, Leary’s Emerson background and NFL football, among other things.

    Over at the LA Times, Choire Sicha has taken some time out with Leary, with Thursday’s Emmy nominations looming ahead (Leary has been nominated twice for the show but has not won the award yet).  Most of it is softball stuff, the questions pretty pat on the whole.  But it’s branded a “Sunday Conversation,” so I guess a little froth is okay.  As expected, however, Leary offers bizarre insight even if the questions lack it, such as one random (but oddly precise) reaction to a question about his son recently shipping off to college (also at Emerson), a moment he describes as “a combination of jealousy, rage, envy, fear.”

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  • INTERVIEW: 20 questions with Denis Leary

    Denis LearyWe rarely cover television with any real focus around these parts, but as you’ve probably gathered from my sporadic posts on the matter, I’m really digging the new season of “Rescue Me.”  So it was a little difficult to pass up an opportunity to sit down with the film’s star and co-creator Denis Leary recently.

    With the Emmy nominations set to be unveiled next week (7/9), it seemed the perfect time to get together.  Leary was nominated for his performance as FDNY firefighter Tommy Gavin two years in a row in 2006 and 2007, but was unfortunately ignored last year.  Perhaps this new, electrifying season will put him back in the awards saddle as he seeks his first win in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

    Leary, of course, got his first big break on MTV, where his chain-smoking, ranting misanthrope appealed to the pent-up angst of the network’s target audience.  From stand-up to film roles and finally a break-out FX series, now in its fifth season, Leary has continued to stretch himself both as a writer and an actor.  His most recent big screen appearance hit screens yesterday in the form of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”  Leary voices the sabertooth tiger Diego in the successful franchise.

    On a drizzly Santa Monica afternoon last month we met for lunch and discussed his versatile career, from his early years at Emerson College in Boston to his recently released best-selling comedy book, the edgeless MTV of today to his distant cousin Conan O’Brien’s assuming the “Tonight Show” throne on NBC late night.  Oh yeah, and plenty of football talk between fellow devotees, for all the gridiron fanatics out there.  There’s a little something for everybody…

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  • *chirp* *chirp*

    Wow, there is quite literally nothing worth discussing today.  This has been a pretty eventless two-week spread, actually.  I have no interest in writing about the baseless “G.I. Joe” speculation.  Nothing to offer the “Taking of Pelham 123” discussion because I’ve yet to make my way to a screening.  Nothing to say about the limited releases that I haven’t already said.  Nothing to say about “Ponyo,” which I saw earlier in the week, until LAFF amps up.

    Nothing.  Just the healthy anticipation for the approaching fest, an upcoming look at “Public Enemies” and finally running an interview piece with Denis Leary that was a Santa Monica delight last week (even though we don’t cover TV — but I couldn’t resist an hour with the man).

    Call this an open thread to discuss what you will.  I got…nothing.

  • ‘Rescue Me’ is on fire this season

    Anyone watching this?  Best season yet.  Leary’s monologue at the end of this clip (from last night’s episode) is an Emmy clip if I ever saw one:

  • Tom O’Neil’s Emmy intervention with Denis Leary

    I don’t know how many fellow “Rescue Me” fans are out there, but if you’ve been watching this season, you know that the FX series is probably hitting its most powerful stretch.  Everyone is on their game, the writing is as crisp as ever and frankly, if ever a case has been glaringly obvious for some Emmy love to finally come actor and writer Denis Leary’s way, this is the year.

    Tom O’Neil over at Gold Derby, with his brilliantly obsessive awards analysis, has put up a two-part video webchat with Leary that you have to check out.  It’s fun to watch Leary run through the list of names he’d be up against: Keifer Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Hugh Laurie, Gabriel Byrne.  “Wow, I’m really screwed,” he says.  “Those guys know me and I probably owe them money.”

    O’Neil gives some sterling advice on which episodes to submit for Emmy consideration.  Brilliant.  I loved this.  And kudos on the Cobra T-shirt.  Here’s the podcast in two parts:

  • Good rant

    Denis Leary

    Okay. First of all — I’d like to thank God for just taking time out of His busy schedule curing cancer and feeding the hungry and solving the crisis in Darfur with George Clooney and helping so many different wide receivers and quarterbacks to throw and catch footballs and instead making sure that I got singled out of such a wonderful group of actors like Meryl and Mary-Louise and Cate Blanchett and Angelina and Marcia Gay and Kate Winslet and just – all the Kates and the Kevins and the two name and the three name people I feel so honored just to be up here while they are all down there and I’d like to just thank the Academy and the people who hated me and treated me like such dirt and who made me stab them in the back just to get here and now you can suck it and Botox! I almost forgot Botox! And Restylin and Cosmoderm and Prestocheek and Instatit and all the other animal agents I’ve had injected into my face and stuff.

    The first stream of thoughts from a Variety exclusive Oscar acceptance rant from the one, the only, Denis Leary.