Anthony LaPaglia is one of Australia’s most celebrated screen actors.
He won a Golden Globe for fronting top-rated crime drama Without A Trace, an Emmy for his unforgettable turn as Daphne Moon’s boorish, boozy brother in the classic sitcom Frasier and an AFI Award for his wrenching performance as an adulterous detective in the great Oz drama Lantana.
Anthony LaPaglia ahead of the Perth season of Death of a Salesman.
Despite the accolades LaPaglia says he would quit film and television acting in a heartbeat because being on stage is so much better. There is just the little question of money.
“If the pay for doing theatre was better I would never do film or TV again,” declares LaPaglia, who added a Tony Award to his collection of silverware for his work in the 1997 revival of Arthur Miller’s classic A View From the Bridge.
“I’ve had some good experiences doing film and TV, but everything is a two-minute grab. And it’s not shot in order. Whereas on stage it’s a linear process, so you’re able to build your character through the rehearsal process and the performance. It’s magical. I’d be very happy to take my last gasp on stage,” he says.
LaPaglia’s love of theatre has intensified because of the experience of starring in another Miller mid-century masterpiece, Death of a Salesman, which has played to packed houses in Melbourne and Sydney and is getting a two-week season at Crown Perth in August.
The actor in particular has received ecstatic reviews for playing Willy Loman, the travelling salesman whose spirit has been crushed after years toiling in a low-paying job and who is channelling his dream of hauling his family up the class ladder through his son Biff.
LaPaglia says he was excited to climb this peak of 20th-century theatre because of his own strained relations with his car salesman father, who hoped he would pick a profession such as medicine or law and grant the Italian immigrant entry into middle-class Australian life.
His son’s only interest, however, was soccer – he was a good enough goalkeeper to play in the first national league in the 1970s. “I was his greatest disappointment,” laughs the 65-year-old Adelaide-reared actor.
“We clashed quite a bit. And he never acknowledged my success. When people would ask him how his sons were he would say, ‘Jonathan is doing great and Michael is going well.’ And they’d say, ‘What about Anthony?’ and he would say, “Argh!”
Death of a Salesman also allowed LaPaglia to reconnect with Arthur Miller, who attended every rehearsal of A View from the Bridge, allowing the two men to forge a bond.
Anthony LaPaglia stars in Death of a Salesman.Credit: Jeff Busby
“I used to lean over to Arthur and say, ‘What did you mean when you wrote this?’ This was Arthur Miller,” the actor emphasises. “How often do you get a chance to do that? He was a fantastic man — probably the most charismatic individual I ever met.”
LaPaglia believes Miller would have “loved” this current production.
“He never liked that Death of a Salesman only ever played with a proscenium stage. It was written to be ethereal, as if Willy was in the throes of death, or is recollecting events through his troubled mind, or suffering dementia.
“So [director Neil Armfield’s] solution is to have the actors all on the stage at the same time, like a Greek chorus. It is much closer to Arthur’s original conception for the play.”
While LaPaglia has been living in the United States since he moved there in the early 1980s he keeps returning to Australia for work, lending his name and talent to local film and television productions such as Balibo, Nitram and, most recently, Boy Swallows Universe.
LaPaglia says he keeps coming back because the roles he is offered here are much more interesting than those put forward by Hollywood producers.
“I also like the way they make movies here,” continued LaPaglia. “It’s more egalitarian. Everyone’s on the job. It doesn’t matter if you’re one of the actors, or you’re one of the crew; you’re all the same. I have met very few poncy people working on an Australian film.”
While Death of a Salesman is 75 years old, LaPaglia believes it still speaks to a contemporary audience. If anything, he says, the gap between the American dream and the reality is now wider than when Miller’s play opened on Broadway.
“Back then when the play was written that dream was actually achievable,” he says.
“Until the 1960s and 70s they had the G.I. Bill and there was a huge housing boom. It was probably the peak area for America being progressive. Since Reagan it has been steadily in decline. It’s now hitting a new low.”
Death of a Salesman runs at Crown Theatre Burswood from August 15 to 29. Bookings through salesmanaustralia.com.au.