Boston Legal TV Podcast: A conversation with David Dean Bottrell, the actor portraying Lincoln Meyer, wiht host Dana Greenlee. Season 3, Episodes 2-9; published March 25, 2007; 68 min.

Dana Greenlee

Boston Legal TV Show Podcast

sequence is loading one week i'm that big cog the next they're speaking to me with a tenor

all right everybody

hello mr dirty mount

um from forest rain studios the home of boston-legal.org you are connected to boston

legal radio that's the unofficial and right now very occasional experience of boston legal that

we do via audio right into your ears um of course that's the david e kelly produced television show

broadcast here in the usa on abc and with the help of 20th century fox and of course those talented

folks at david e kelly productions i'm dana greenlee today's boston legal podcast is a

special look

at a beloved sort of an enduring character the character is amazing the man is wonderful

the he's a veteran of eight episodes so that's fully a first third of the 2006-2007 season

and you're going to know him a lot better in just a few minutes today

let's listen in on his inaugural scene in boston legal she was just the most giving person a

marvelous judge an ideal neighbor why it's absolutely heartbreaking what happened i know

i'll certainly remember her fondly

i'm sure others will too neighborhood won't be the same without her it's tragic what happened

really tragic all right that guy is creepy that was the next door neighbor lincoln meyer

ah gracie jane called it we're talking to not lincoln meyer today welcome david dean vitral

thank you thanks dang that's great to be here oh it's wonderful to have you i know i'm sort of

hauling you in from a busy weekend i'm sure do your activities such as writing and producing

have a day off or or does it?

Inspiration, no, no, day off.

Dana, no, I do take weekends off.

And this is a relatively low-key weekend, and it's great to talk to you guys.

Oh, that's good.

It's going to get kind of hectic as we come up into April, I understand.

Hopefully.

Hopefully so.

It's looking that way right now.

So it's very, very exciting, actually.

I guess we'll talk all about that stuff later on, I guess, huh?

Well, I take it, yes, we will.

I take it you're relaxing in your home in sunny Southern California today?

It's not terribly sunny today.

It's pretty cloudy here today.

Oh, that can be a relief.

It is springtime.

Absolutely.

It's like Niagara Falls up here in the Pacific Northwest.

It's just buckets.

Now, the first thing I have to call attention to, because everybody's wrapped right now at your voice,

this is you, David, talking.

This is me.

We all know you in a slightly different persona.

Right.

A different kind of voice.

Right.

Yeah.

Can you just tease us with a little bit of Lincoln, just a random sentence?

Oh.

I'm sorry to do that.

No, no, yeah, sure.

I actually had to give some interviews on the radio, maybe, I think it was a month and a half ago or something like that.

Frequently, that would come up, and they would say, you know, well, what about that accent?

And I would say, what accent?

What are you talking about?

Well done.

Thank you.

Just like a faucet.

Turn it on.

Thank you.

The accent actually is based on somebody that I used to work for.

It was not originally in the script.

It's something I sort of walked in the door with at the audition.

And everybody sort of thought it was funny.

Years ago, when I was a student, I used to do catering and bartending.

And I used to bartend for this guy in New York who came from this class of people that I'm not really sure really exist anymore.

But they were this old, money, white, sort of waspy group of folks.

Oh, yeah.

And he and his, you know, cohorts actually did have that kind of odd, you know, East Haddam, Catherine Hepburn accent.

They really spoke like that.

And so a lot of people have written in and said, are you imitating Catherine Hepburn?

And I actually wasn't.

I was actually imitating this guy who, in fact, sounded a little like Catherine Hepburn.

Yeah, it's not even a caricature of a voice.

It's a voice.

It is a real voice, or at least it used to be.

I mean, that guy was sort of elderly, so I'm sure he's probably not with us anymore.

But, yeah.

If he only knew.

That's incredible.

But he was a very odd, very imperious guy.

A guy who sort of lived in his own world and was quite wealthy.

And I guess I stole a little bit of that when I went in to audition for Lincoln.

Did you go around bartending and waiting and basically mocking him behind his back?

Well, no.

I was pretty careful to not do anything behind his back.

Okay.

I hadn't really thought of him in years.

And when the audition for Boston Legal came up, the original character description said something like creepy, effeminate, Truman Capote kind of character.

Yeah.

And I don't happen to do a Truman Capote imitation.

And so I thought, well, what am I going to do?

What am I going to do?

And I happened to flash on this guy.

And I thought, well, it's worth a shot.

And so I just tried it, sort of walking around my living room.

And it seemed like it kind of worked.

And I went in to audition for it.

And everybody laughed.

And the next thing I knew, I was playing Lincoln.

And you had the corner on the voice because, you know, other people were trying to do Truman Capote high-pitched or whatever.

And they all sounded alike.

This is great.

This is your little key of uniqueness.

Yes.

It certainly worked out, I have to say.

Everybody was amused.

Well, I understand.

And let's get right into it.

You mentioned the audition.

And I'm dying to know how a guy, and we haven't prefaced this, but you're a guy that was into acting about 17 years ago.

Right.

For a decade.

Decided to step behind the camera and do writing and producing and directing.

And somebody teased you hard enough or pulled you right out of retirement.

I mean, retirement of acting.

Yeah.

How did that happen?

You know, I...

I had been an actor years ago.

I was a stage actor, primarily back east.

Worked at that very steadily for a long time.

And then I just got a little disillusioned with the lifestyle that came along with being an actor.

I tried my hand at writing.

And I had good luck.

So right around, I guess around 1990, I think I sold my...

It was the first thing I ever wrote.

I sold.

And I just had beginner's luck.

And it went.

And then it just sort of happened.

I didn't really make a conscious decision.

And suddenly I was a writer.

What was that project back in the day?

Oh, I wrote a...

I wrote a...

I wrote a stage play.

I was actually out here in California doing a little bit of TV work.

And I just wrote a stage play.

And then I went back to New York.

And it was a play called Dearly Departed, was the name of it.

And it had a modest run off-Broadway.

It never exactly packed the houses.

But it got terrific reviews.

We got great write-ups.

What kind of genre was it?

It was a comedy.

It was a comedy about a funeral in a small town.

And then that actually led to me writing a second play, which got produced about...

maybe a year later in New York, which also got a little attention from me.

But sort of attention, but no money, which is often the playwright's dilemma.

And right around then, I was getting calls from Los Angeles.

And I came out here.

I flew out for what I thought was going to be a three-month job.

And that led to another job, which led to another.

And I just wound up living out here and working as a writer in L.A.

And occasionally, once in a while, people that I knew who were either other writers

who were showrunners or...

I don't know.

Sometimes casting directors who remembered me from my days in New York would call up.

And so occasionally, over the last 15 years or so, I would do some small thing on a TV show.

And sometimes I didn't even have to audition for it because it was quite literally that small.

It was like man number two.

And so I would come in and say my two funny lines on a sitcom, get my laugh, and then that was that.

And it was a pretty easy paycheck, actually.

And it was fun to do.

It was fun to go back to it.

But I didn't really ever plan on...

Turning to acting, and I didn't think...

I stopped thinking of myself as being an actor.

And when this came up, actually, I was in the middle of...

I had written and directed a short film, which was getting very popular on the festival circuit.

And I was actually about to leave town to go to Palm Springs for a festival when the phone rang.

And it was Nikki Valco, who is the casting director on Boston Legal, who I've known for 100 years.

And she said, do you want to come in and audition for this really strange little role?

And it's just one scene and one episode.

Yeah.

It's no big deal, and it would be fun.

You can squeeze it in before the festival, right?

Exactly, exactly, exactly.

And I said, you know, I really don't want to do that, but thanks anyway.

I'm really busy right now, and I'm leaving town for the weekend, and it just wouldn't be convenient, and thanks for thinking of me.

God, you turned it down.

I did.

And God bless her.

She was persistent.

And she said, come on, come on, I'll get you in early.

It'll all work out.

And so I agreed to come in.

You made her want you more.

This was, I think, on a Thursday.

I came in on Friday, and true to her word, she did get me in early.

I didn't quite realize the show, I guess, was in a little bit of a state of chaos, because they had added two characters,

and they were having to reshoot a lot of episodes and jumble a lot of plot lines.

And so whoever got this role had to sort of start work immediately.

And when I went into the room to audition, generally there are not a lot of people present in an audition.

But when I went into the room to audition for Lincoln, there were a ton of people in there.

There must have been 15 people in the room.

So that was a little startling.

Do you know what that's owed to?

I mean, were people that had heard about you?

I think it was because everybody had to sort of start work right away.

I think the costumer was literally in the room.

Ah, measuring you.

Because they had to know who they were going to be costuming.

So there were a lot of people in the room.

And like I said, luckily, and Bill DeLeo was directing the episode, so he's who I primarily dealt with.

And they liked the audition.

They thought it was funny, and he asked me to do it again.

And we played around with a couple of things.

And they just kept laughing.

They just kept laughing at everything that I was doing.

And so I left the audition, and somebody came out and said,

Can you hang around for a couple of hours?

Can you hang around in the general neighborhood?

Because the show is taped in Manhattan Beach, which is maybe 45 minutes outside of L.A. proper.

It was also right in the middle of rush hour and all that.

And they said, You know what?

If you could just hang around in Manhattan Beach for a couple of hours, it would be a good idea.

Wow.

I said, Okay.

And so I hung around in Manhattan Beach for two hours, and they called and said, Can you go straight to wardrobe?

Oh, wow.

So I did.

I went straight to wardrobe, and then I was literally on the show on Monday morning at the crack of dawn.

For at this point, your one scene, probably the one you auditioned with, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

But there was a slight change in it, because suddenly I realized, even by the time I got there,

that they were going to write Lincoln in for a second episode.

And then suddenly it just...

It started to sort of snowball from there.

It's like each week, he was back, he was back, he was back.

And suddenly he became very integral to the murder case.

And I started out as sort of a witness and then became a suspect, which I'm sure everybody remembers that,

the whole sort of Scott Little, Marsha Hooper murder case.

Yes.

At that point, you were in for a couple episodes.

When did you just get another bunch of sides the next week, or how did that work out?

Well, you know, I would get the call each week.

I'd be in the middle of taping an episode, and I would get a call saying,

you know, we need to make sure that you're available, we need to book you for the following week.

I pretty well caught on that I was going to go for the run of the Marsha Hooper murder trial,

because I clearly had become a suspect after, I think, the third episode.

So I knew I was going to be on for the rest of that particular trial.

And there were a bunch of, you know, actors, myself and Ashton Holmes and Katie Seagal

and Ethan Phillips and Curtis Armstrong and Armin Shimmerman.

We were all...

It was like an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

We were all suspects.

Yes.

We all knew we were going to be around.

We knew we were going to be around for the length of that trial.

It's like a little sub-family of the Los Angeles trial.

And long about, probably around the fourth episode of that, maybe, third or fourth,

I got a call from David Kelly's office finding out if I was available to stay on the show after that for a little while.

And that was, you know, I was stunned and said, well, yes, of course I would love to.

And then that, of course, sprung off onto the whole Lincoln going on a crime spree.

Wow.

And meanwhile, you're...

You're, of course, forget the festivals.

I mean, what's happening to Available Men, which is your film?

It sort of got on the back burner a little bit there.

Well, you know, fortunately, the good thing about having made a movie is it sort of goes on and does its thing whether you're around or not.

But yeah, it's had...

That's a little short film that I made last year.

I wrote it and directed it.

And it's had a very blessed life.

It debuted at the HBO Comedy Festival about a year ago, which is a big deal comedy festival that happens in Aspen, Colorado.

And it just did really well there.

And suddenly it sort of took off on the festival circuit.

And it has now been, I believe now it's like 100 film festivals we've been in.

Oh, my goodness.

And we've won...

Actually, we just won our 13th award last weekend for best short film.

So it's been great.

It's been phenomenal.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

It's incredible.

And I hope you're seeing some good residuals from that.

Well, you know, the film festival circuit doesn't really pay anything.

But the good news is it's very rare for a short film to wind up being...

Purchased by a distributor.

But we were.

And so we were purchased.

We were put on a compilation of short films that got released in January.

And so now I'm beginning to get a little bit of money for that.

So I'll probably break even in the end.

That's all you can hope for.

Absolutely.

With a short film, that's fantastic.

Well, Lincoln, you know, is going to help you a little bit carry over from that.

That's your bread and butter.

Exactly.

It's been amazing.

And that little short film is actually sort of...

I mean, it was something I wanted to do for a long time.

And now as a result of that, it looks like I'm going to get to direct this feature that I wrote.

So it's been a great blessing all the way around.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it's been fantastic.

I want to jump back into Lincoln.

I want to get more toward the things that are coming up in your future projects in a minute.

But just so everybody doesn't forget what Lincoln sounds like, I want to play another soundbite.

And this one, I thought, really sort of spells out the contradiction that is Lincoln.

He's many different things, depending on the situation.

Sure.

You know why she got a restraining order against you?

Oh, that was the husband's idea.

I think he felt a bit...

Threatened by, well, you know.

What?

The infatuation.

She was drawn to me.

It was never consummated, of course.

I'm deeply Christian.

Judge Cooper was infatuated with you.

It's not something I feel comfortable talking about.

He's deeply Christian because later he says, you know, she was biblical with Scott Little.

Right, right.

And he's pretty effeminate.

We know that the direction had you perform like that.

Sure.

What is Lincoln's backstory?

Why do you think he is the person he is today?

Is this what he wants everybody to think?

Well, you know, there wasn't much backstory written.

There were a couple of references that wound up...

Like, occasionally you'll see a first draft of a script and then later on it changes.

And in one of the first drafts of one of the episodes later on, Lincoln referred to having come from a wealthy family.

And that his mother was very wealthy and that she had passed away and now he was very wealthy.

Which is pretty much...

What I kind of assumed all along was that Lincoln was, you know, had some bucks.

Because clearly he's not capable of holding a job.

He was catering the deposition as well.

Exactly.

And he lives in a very nice house and seems to, you know, do what he wants to do.

So my assumption was always he just came from a very wealthy and very eccentric background.

All right.

And Christian.

Yes.

And, you know, his version of that.

His version of that.

The God sword will strike you.

Oh, wow.

Well, we've kind of covered that you've been on for this extended arc, this eight-episode arc,

which was more than you had expected when you were called in to zip in on that Thursday.

And I just wanted to note that you're the longest-running guest star apart from Betty White, who's been in 14.

And this arc saw you go, as you said, from a trial witness to the plan B suspect to your countersuit.

And then you became the serial whacker, which is not what it sounds like.

And then you became, oh, the final scene, the kidnapping scene, which I hope by now everybody has seen.

Also, we were treated to the vocal stylings of Lincoln.

Oh.

So with all those wonderful different emotional ranges and stuff, what do you think is your favorite scene or episode?

Wow.

You know, I have to, you know, when I was leaving the show, I had a quick conversation with Bill D'Elia when we were shooting the video.

It was the very last day when I was leaving.

And I told him, which is absolutely the truth, it's one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life,

was to be on Boston Legal for that length of time, just because we just got to do so many different things during those eight episodes.

And David Kelly is such an imaginative writer.

And so many of it, every time I would get a script, I couldn't quite believe, you know, where we were going next with this.

And I know that when we started out, I just sort of, I thought, well, this is just sort of,

this brittle, kind of funny, quirky, creepy, you know, character.

And I never suspected that people, I mean, I sort of thought that people would think

he was creepy, but I didn't know that people would eventually come to really feel fond

of him, which has really been the oddest part, is I've gotten so much mail from people who

really, really love Lincoln for some reason.

And, you know, I remember when we were, I think we were shooting, I think we were shooting

the episode called, we'd already shot the episode, which was the Halloween episode,

which I think was called Trick or Treat or something.

And that was already in the can and we were shooting the next one.

And I got a call saying that David had, David Kelly had watched the episode and wanted to

add a scene.

And so they were going to messenger over a scene that night and we were going to shoot

it at like the crack of dawn the next day and put it into the Trick or Treat episode.

And so the scene came and I looked at it and it was the scene that, if you might remember

this, it was when Craig Bierko and I have this little scene in the hallway where I say,

you know, I have feelings.

And it was so poignant and it was so sad and it was so unlike anything that I had seen

or expected to do, you know, on that show, because the character had to have to that

point been so kind of, you know, brittle and comedic.

And it was really touching.

And we shot it at the crack of dawn.

Wow.

And lo and behold, they put it in the episode.

They turned it around.

I think it was in the episode, like six days later, the episode aired with that scene in

it.

And it was a very different take.

I mean, he really seemed...

Lincoln suddenly seemed like he was on top of being all these other things that he was,

crazy and unpredictable and funny and, you know, caustic and relentless.

He was also sort of, you know, human and sad, too.

So it was very surprising.

And then they sort of revisited that a little bit at the end when I had kidnapped Candace.

And so it was such a great, you know, such a great experience because we got to sort

of go all over the map.

Lincoln, who seemed to be this kind of like not particularly real character at first,

became sort of strangely sort of real.

I mean, you kind of started to believe that such a person could exist after a while, you

know?

Oh, I know.

It was lovely.

It was really a lovely experience.

I really liked that scene.

That was what I called the sensitive Lincoln.

And actually, let's just play it right now because it just seems appropriate.

Lincoln?

Hello, Mr. Dirty Mouth.

Come to make me an offer of settlement before the judge rules against you.

I'm not surprised.

Been watching you for a bit, Lincoln.

Lincoln?

Sitting here?

Really?

Are you a bit of a pee-pee?

You seemed sad.

You seemed alone, I guess.

Did I?

You must have misread me.

What's going on, Lincoln?

This lawsuit, what are you doing?

Is this just about attention?

You don't think I have feelings?

Those things you said about me in court.

I have feelings, Mr. Coho.

I'm sorry.

I was just doing whatever I could to defend my client.

It wasn't personal.

It was personal.

It was very personal.

Aw, that was sweet.

That was sweet.

You know, following that scene,

and it was all part of the,

you being a suspect and such,

I have to just pull this out now

because this is one of my favorite scenes.

It was Lincoln going to the police lineup.

He was suspect number four.

Oh, right.

Right.

Now, I saw the direction that was,

it was simply Lincoln poses.

Right.

You know, try to draw his attention to himself.

And at one point, they did say,

did they ask you to strike a pose?

Right.

They referred to Rodin's The Thinker.

Right.

But the rest was you, I assume.

Yes.

So, tell me a little bit about that.

And then also tell us about the surprise moment

that probably no one caught at the end of that scene.

Oh, right.

Right.

Well, I have to say,

the people at Boston Legal were so kind to me

and so supportive because I had not done this

in a very long time.

And I'm very grateful that the role

sort of got progressively larger

because I was able to sort of gain in confidence

as we went.

And occasionally, I would sort of turn to

whoever was directing

or whoever one of the producers were on the set

and I would say,

am I, is this a little big?

Am I still going out in the left field here?

And they were very encouraging.

They would say, no, no, no, it's great.

It's great.

Go, go, go.

Take the ball and run with it.

And that was certainly one of those days

when we shot the lineup scene.

And they just sort of said,

well, do whatever you want to do.

And, you know, and we'll stop you

if we think it's, you know, way off,

way off beat, but otherwise just go for it.

And so we just did it.

We just like walked in there.

And the poor actors who were

on the other side of the screen

had never seen it before we shot it.

And so there were a couple of instances

where they were sort of cracking up

on the other side of it

or having a little difficulty, you know,

keeping their composure

when I was doing all those poses.

But they just said, go for it.

And so I did.

And it was hilarious.

Seriously funny.

And when we were shooting,

Bill D'Elia came onto the set

and he tapped one of the extras

on the shoulder and said,

let me step in for you.

And so he stepped in right behind me.

And when we went in for the police lineup,

suddenly Bill D'Elia was in the lineup.

And unbelievably, nobody noticed it.

Not even the actors.

Not even the other actors.

Nobody sort of noticed it at first

that Bill was standing behind me in the lineup.

And then they actually sent it to the network

with Bill's.

And Bill's appearance also there.

And nobody noticed it at the network either.

And so then they just decided

to just put it in the show.

Do you think it wasn't maybe meant to go all the way?

It was not originally intended.

It was going to be an inside joke originally.

Like for bloopers or something.

Exactly.

And then no one noticed.

If you look very carefully at that episode,

you'll see that the guy behind me

mysteriously disappears

and is replaced by Bill D'Elia.

But it was just hilarious, actually.

That is really great.

And actually, if anybody who's listening

wants to see that go to,

to boston-legal.org

and click on the Lincoln,

this is the Lincoln episode, I believe.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

And we have the shot of just Bill standing there

behind you as suspect number five.

That was great.

Well, thank you for telling me that story.

Sure, sure.

I just, Lincoln has signature lines

and I just want to run through a couple of them,

several of them.

And I know that they were pinned by David E. Kelly

and his co-writers on some occasion.

And am I correct in saying

you were not allowed to come up with them?

You were not allowed to come up with ideas?

Or were you, actually?

You know, that show is extremely well-written

and it doesn't really need a lot of help.

So, you know, I'm actually,

speaking as a writer myself,

I'm happy that they tend to try to,

I wouldn't say police,

but they do try,

they do encourage the actors on that show

to do the lines pretty much exactly as written.

Right.

Because they're wonderful lines.

And sometimes, speaking as a writer,

I can say that sometimes it is important,

the way a line is written.

And if it does need to come out the way

it's typed on the page.

There may be a payoff later on, too.

Exactly.

The first time you said,

I'm a pee-pee,

well, it was kind of a reoccurring theme.

So they were, for the most part,

they were pretty,

they encouraged us,

strongly encouraged us

to say the lines as written.

Oh, come on, they just told you you've got to.

I thought they were great lines.

Do it or you're fired.

Nobody ever said that.

No, no, okay.

Anyway, you did a great job.

Your talent showed through

with all the mannerisms and stuff.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Well, here's one of Lincoln's

more funny signature lines.

To see them doing it.

Through the window.

I'm a pee-pee.

You're a peeping Tom.

And that continues on.

In fact, later in Trick or Treat,

you mentioned that was the Halloween episode.

Right.

Mr. Meyer.

Well, he implied I was a pedophile,

a freak who should be registered

as a sexist.

And I was a sex offender

when I have committed no such offense.

And even if I had,

which I most certainly have not,

to suggest that I'm a killer,

a murderer,

that Gracie Jane woman reported it

in front of millions of people

and I was damaged.

What about this peeping Tom crap?

I am an open and notorious pee-pee.

Why, when I would send her flowers,

I used to write,

with love from your little pee-pee.

And she liked having a pee-pee.

And even if she didn't,

it doesn't give these lawyer people

a right to aver that I'm a killer.

I mean, look at me, Judge.

I'm damaged.

Just the perfect amount of indignation.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

And such diction.

Oh, my goodness.

You definitely give Spader a run

for his diction money.

Why, thank you.

Thank you very much.

It's all part of that moral outrage

of being a pee-pee.

It's my constitutional right.

That particular episode,

I think I mentioned we added a scene to it.

And there was this,

there was a second scene that was also added,

which is a beautiful scene

between James Spader and Christian Clemonson,

where, if you know the episode,

it's where they're both facing the camera.

They're sitting on the same side of a table.

And it's very poignant also

where James Spader is telling Christian Clemonson

that most probably they're going to lose the case.

And it's very, very sweet.

And because those two scenes were added,

they had to do quite a bit of editing

on the existing episode.

And that little scene, for instance,

where I'm defending,

defending myself in front of the judge,

actually was, that was probably

maybe twice as long as it turned out

in the actual episode.

And so we actually lost some material out of that,

which was also quite funny.

But you would never know that

just watching the episode.

Oh, that just kills me.

I want those hours and hours of deleted scenes.

So much.

I'm glad to hear,

thank you for teasing me badly.

Well, there were a couple of very funny things

in that one that just sort of wound up having to go.

But it was fine.

I mean, actually,

the things that went,

then were so wonderful

that it was an easy call.

No, editors have a hard job, I bet.

They do.

They definitely do.

You don't just go through and do a one take.

I imagine there's different angles and stuff.

Yeah, I know.

You do it quite a few times, actually.

So multiple hours?

And particularly when there are

a large number of actors involved,

it gets quite complicated.

The courtroom scenes are particularly involved

just because there's so many different people in them.

Right.

And even a relatively short scene,

if there's like,

I remember there was one thing that was,

it wasn't a terribly complex scene.

There wasn't that much to it, really.

But there were something like five of us

and we were standing,

it was like me and Candice and Mark Valley.

Well, everybody,

almost everybody was there.

And we were all sort of standing

in front of the receptionist desk.

Yeah.

And it just took quite a bit of time

because the camera has to spin around

so many different ways

to make sure we catch everybody.

So it can take some time.

And Boston Legal has a very definite visual style.

They always do some shots

that are done on a Steadicam

or they're done,

hand-held.

And they do these things

where the camera suddenly whips around

from one thing to another.

It's suddenly looking at one person's face

or it's focusing on their hand

or some little thing they're doing.

And then it'll whip up to their face

or someone else's face.

And so there's quite a bit of camera work

involved in doing that.

So yeah, we do quite a few takes of everything.

Wow.

You know, that scene you're talking about,

I think I've got the right one.

I wanted to play it

because it also caused

quite a bit of intense speculation

on the Boston Legal community.

Yes, yeah.

So this is the scene where

you haven't arrived yet.

You're coming in to prepare for the day

or let them know

there's going to be this deposition.

Tell them the catering is coming.

And this is in trick-or-treat.

And Shirley is there talking to Brad,

you know, catch me up on the case.

You know, what's up with Lincoln?

You know, who's going to represent him?

Right, right.

Let's just play it.

And then I wanted to ask you about

something that happened right at the end of it.

Sure.

And who's representing this charming man?

That's the most fun part of all.

I'm representing myself, Shirley,

like Gideon.

And I hope you'll all join me

for Judge Hooper's deposition.

Refreshments will, of course, be served.

Oh, it's all too delicious for words,

don't you think?

I've got a caterer coming in 20 minutes

and I want the conference room clean and high.

As the music ascends, you know,

you're giving direction to the receptionist.

Right, right.

And at the same time,

Spader, which, or I should say Alan Shore,

who I don't think you had any

actual dialogue scenes with,

No.

This is the one time where he's in the room with you

and he's like, you said, hours and hours.

Right.

And he gives you this,

you actually don't stare back.

He's looking at you like,

hmm, who is this guy?

And it's actually a scary stare.

And we all thought, oh my God,

you were talking in the forum.

This is, something's coming,

something's coming of this.

He sees right through the man.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I got,

I actually got some letters asking me about that.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

When you're shooting these things,

sometimes you have no idea

what the camera's looking at

at that particular moment

or how it's going to wind up being edited in the end.

And all I really remember from that day was

after I said my little piece to everybody,

I was supposed to go over to the receptionist

and improvise with her

until we went out,

until the scene essentially faded out.

Improvise, wow.

Yeah, yeah.

So I just went over

and I started dictating all these things to her

and what I wanted her to do

and clean the conference room

and whatever I was saying.

And I didn't even really know

what the camera was on

at that moment.

As it turns out,

it was on James's face.

So when the,

I was completely unaware

he was even staring at me.

I had no idea.

So whatever that moment was

that was happening there,

I think it was just,

you know, David,

I mean, one of the most interesting things

about the show, I think,

is that David doesn't always know

what he's going to do

from what I gather.

I mean, I think he,

he likes to keep a lot of doors open,

you know, plot wise.

And I think that was yet another

sort of opportunity that,

you know, who knows

what he might think of next week

that might involve,

Alan Shore and Lincoln Meyer.

So I think he was just sort of

creating a little moment there

so that in case he did

write something later,

it would make sense.

There'd be some connection

because he does tend to leave,

you know, a few little trap doors

open here and there

in every episode.

Okay.

This might be a good time

to actually, David,

talk a bit about your colleagues

that you acted with.

And everybody wants to,

you know, everybody has

their favorite person.

Everybody wants to hear

what your take is

on working opposite some of them.

And a lot of your scenes

were,

with Shirley,

Candace Bergen.

Oh, wow.

And Craig Bierko,

like you said.

And I'm interested

on your take on both.

I wanted to actually play

this one scene with Shirley.

Lincoln has become

taken with her.

She's a named partner

and pleasant to the eyes.

And, you know,

he loves these older,

dignified women,

I believe,

including the judge.

And for a moment,

Bella.

Just for a moment, though, Shirley.

That was good.

So I do want to play

a little bit of

Sinister Lincoln,

what I call

one of the many faces of Lincoln.

This is with his own

very unique way

of asking Shirley out on a date.

Yes.

You look like you're

primping for a date.

I certainly hope it's with me.

Lincoln, what are you doing here?

I feel our special relationship

has stalled, Shirley,

don't you?

I had a brief thought

of that, Bella, I admit.

But my mind always

comes back to you.

I don't know if anyone's

ever told you this

before, Lincoln,

but you're a pretty weird guy.

You're a pretty weird guy.

Daddy Crane was lovely,

but I feel you and I

could sustain

a deeper connection.

See, the thing is,

you don't need a lawyer.

The police don't consider

you a suspect.

That's little comfort.

What if someone else

were to turn up dead?

Could I persuade you

to get a bite with me, Shirley?

You could not.

Would it help

if I had a pistol?

Oh, dear.

I bet if this were a movie,

we'd have one

of those ominous chords

play right about now.

What are you doing, Lincoln?

What you're going to do

is walk out of here

with me, calmly

and without incident.

You and I need to get on

with our special friendship,

Shirley Schmidt.

Lincoln, you're nuts,

but you're not this nuts.

Tonight's date is with me,

after all, Shirley Schmidt.

And you have a gun

in your hand.

You couldn't see that.

Oh, Skip.

The lighting in that scene

and some of the scenes

in your basement

were, you know,

very ominous, too.

Absolutely.

You were in silhouette, dark.

Absolutely.

Oh, man.

As a director

and a person who makes films,

you probably appreciated that.

I did.

I did, actually.

I loved, actually,

the intro to that scene

where it was sort of

from Lincoln's point of view

where he was sort of

stalking Shirley

through the office.

That was very creepy.

It was.

Talk to us just a little bit

about Candace Bergen

and did you guys

like kid each other

or were you just

professionals

and you just came in

and did your scenes?

You know,

I'm so happy

that everything

timed out schedule-wise

the way that it did

because the first time I,

I mean,

I had met her

like in the hallway

or, you know,

in the coffee station

or something.

I hadn't really spoken with her

other than to say

good morning or hello.

But I hadn't really

worked with her

until,

I think it was

the Trick or Treat episode.

In the opening scene,

it's Craig Bierko

and her and me

in her office.

Right.

And I was so glad

that Craig Bierko

was in the scene

because I was scared to death

honestly because she's such,

I mean,

everybody should,

I don't know if everybody

feels this way

but I just love her

and I was terribly intimidated

to actually act

in a scene

with Candace Bergen.

And so I was very happy

that Craig was there

because I'd done

a lot of scenes

with Craig by that point

so I was very comfortable

with him.

And she was charming.

She was completely charming

and she hadn't actually,

I mean,

she was asking me questions

about like,

where did you come up

with the accent?

She was just so gracious

and sweet

and thought what I was doing

was funny and all that

so it was a nice intro.

And so then we came back

and shot the scene

where I kidnapped her

and then we spent

an extremely long time

together in the basement.

She couldn't have been sweeter

and, you know,

she was unfortunately

tied to a chair

for the entire, you know,

16 hours or whatever it was

we were down there.

Oh my goodness.

So it was a little difficult

for her but

she was quite the trooper

about it.

And, you know,

she's everything

that you would imagine

her to be.

She is very classy,

very smart,

very gracious person

and very interested

in the world

and interested

in other people

and she's a very private person.

She doesn't volunteer

a lot about herself

but I just adored her.

I thought she was the best.

I gotta tell you,

you know,

in my very limited experience

of doing guest shots

on TV shows,

sometimes you wind up

in situations

that are not

so terribly comfortable

where, you know,

where there's tension

or people have worked

together for a long time

and they don't really

like each other

that much anymore

and I found the set

at Boston Legal

to be one of the happiest

places I've worked

in terms of everybody

being, you know,

sane and pleasant

and professional

and everybody just

seemed to get along

and the agenda,

the primary agenda

is to make the show good.

They are proud of the show.

They want the show

to be good

and so it has a funny way

of sort of neutralizing

any sort of ego issues

and so people come there

happy to be at work.

Wow.

And everyone was gracious.

Everybody was lovely.

Everybody was so friendly

and nice to me

and I adored everybody

and I think the first scene

I shot with Julie Bowen,

she was terribly sick

the night that we shot it

and like we were like

standing in the wings

ready to go on

and she was clearly

terribly ill.

She was like bent over

and not well

and I like would whisper to her,

do you want me to stop?

Do you want me to tell them

that you're not able to do this?

And she was like,

no, no, no, I'm fine.

I'm fine.

And we would shoot it.

She would somehow

like pull it together

and we would do it

and then we went off

a second time

and she looked like

she was going to barf

like any second

and she was holding a legal pad

and she wrote on it,

I'm pregnant,

don't tell anyone.

David.

I'm so amazed.

I said,

don't worry,

I'm not telling anybody

and she didn't actually

wind up announcing that

until I guess a little later

but I was so amazed.

Except you knew it.

Well see,

you were so thoughtful.

I was going to say,

I was going to say

this is more about you

and why everybody felt

so good toward you

is because you thought enough

to lean down

and say,

you know,

are you okay?

Would you like me to intercede

on your behalf

and stop this?

And she probably was so grateful

for that connection.

She's an extremely sweet

and funny,

funny gal

and so anyway,

a little later it became,

you know,

public knowledge

that she was pregnant

but I was very surprised

that she took me

into her confidence

at that moment

and so I never betrayed it.

I kept my mouth shut.

Oh,

and you wrote it,

she wrote it on a pad.

Yeah, exactly.

And then ate it.

And then scratched it out.

Yeah, okay.

But everyone was great.

Craig Bierko is,

you know,

unfortunately not on the show anymore

but he is

very possibly

one of the funniest people

I've ever met in my life.

Oh.

In a,

in a Robin Williams,

like ADD,

sort of incredible

kind of way.

He's one of the funniest

people I've ever met

and Bill Shatner

is also incredibly funny

in a very different

sort of off the cuff

kind of way.

He's one of those guys

that can sort of say something

and it takes you two beats

to realize that was a joke

and,

he's just so clever.

Sort of deadpan

and, you know,

he's not looking for the reaction.

Exactly, exactly.

And very dry

and just an interesting man

to boot.

I mean,

he loves horses

and he has so many

varied interests

and he's a bit of an environmentalist

and he's just a really

interesting guy.

And everybody was great.

Constance was a scream,

you know.

Oh, yes.

Constance Zimmer,

you were in a lot with her.

Yeah, yeah, no,

she was a scream.

I loved her.

Mark Valli,

like you.

Mark Valli was terrific.

I had the dressing room next to him.

He plays the guitar.

And you play the,

it could have been a jam session.

He plays the ukulele

that I'm aware of anyway.

And everyone was great.

I didn't really work

very much with James

but James was also

very, very nice.

he,

I think it was after,

I want to say the Trick or Treat episode

or something like that.

He actually called me

at home

because he had seen the episode

and thought that I had

done a nice job at it

and I thought that was

very, very nice of him

to take the time

to do that.

So in a way,

it is true.

Every actor in Hollywood

has everybody else

in their phone book, right?

There's the secret actor phone book.

I don't have James

in my phone book

but James,

you know,

got my number

from the production office

and was kind enough

to call me

and I thought that was

very, very nice of him.

We've done such a good job

running down all the cast.

I want to hear

just a few words

about the creatives

because you're a writer.

How was it working

for, you know,

saying the words

of one of the trinity

of television writers?

Did David Kelly

ever make his presence

known on the set?

I never met David

and I gather

that's not terribly unusual.

Right.

I think even the people

who have been

on that show

for a long time

can probably count

on one hand

the number of times

we've met David.

He seems to be

a pretty reclusive guy

but my goodness,

I mean,

the scripts were always

so entertaining

and so surprising

and I really have come

to appreciate that

since I left Boston Legal

because I've been asked

to audition here and there

for other TV shows

and when that's happened

and I've gone in

and seen the scripts,

I've been largely disappointed

in the quality of them.

I got sort of spoiled

working over at Boston Legal

where the scripts

were always so terrific.

So it was great

and I do know that

in our case,

the majority of the scripts

were written by Boston Legal.

There were a couple,

I think a couple of the eight

that I worked on,

there were one of them,

I think Janet Leahy

worked on,

who's one of the head writers there

and there was another one

that someone else worked on.

I can't remember who now

and there was one time

when we were in a little bit

of a bind

because we needed

something rewritten

that wasn't quite working

and the writing staff

came in and did a marvelous job.

And actually it was the scene

where I called

William Shatner

Large Marge

which I thought

was just hilarious.

And that didn't come

from David E. Kelly,

that was one of the writing staff?

That was from the writing staff,

yeah.

Large Marge, I love that.

And they were amazing

and I ran into Janet

actually at an event

not too long ago,

Janet Leahy,

and we just had

a lovely talk

about the show

and I was never

really sure exactly

because sometimes

things are polished

and so forth

by writing staff

and it was just

the name on the page

doesn't necessarily

reflect the words

that you're reading.

And she told me

that at least in my case

that I guess David

had written

pretty much 99.9%

of what Lincoln said

had been written by David.

And it was,

I'll tell you,

at a certain point

it was a little intimidating

because I started out

as an actor

hired into it

and then I realized

at a certain point

David was writing

these scenes

with me in mind.

Based on your

interpretation of Lincoln.

Well, yeah,

it's funny

because it's

it seemed like

at first I sort of

thought it was

my imagination

and then a couple

of other actors

expressed the same thing.

It's like he sort of gets

he's such a wonderful writer

that part of what

makes him wonderful

is he does

kind of

pick up

what an actor's

sort of strong points are

so what their rhythm is

and then starts to write

to that rhythm.

And so it just felt

like the scenes

kept getting better

and better

and they were more

and more fun to play

and it was just wonderful.

It was a wonderful experience.

The producing staff

also,

and the directing staff

is just,

you know,

just off the chart

professional

and considerate

and encouraging

and for somebody like me

I relied pretty heavily

on them.

I mean,

I went to pretty much

every director

that we worked with

and said,

feel free to tell me anything

because I'm very much

the new kid on the block here

and I would love to hear

anything you have to say.

And as I said,

the only thing

they ever said to me

was encouraging.

It was just really wonderful.

So I had a great time.

All your directors,

I'm just looking at the list,

were,

or the veteran directors,

you know,

you've got,

of course,

Bill D'Elia a couple of times

and Steve Robin

has done a bunch

and Lou Antonio

who's done so much

in television,

I mean,

for like 30 years

or something.

Oh, wow.

He was such a charming guy,

I gotta tell you.

He was really,

really much beloved

by the actors as well.

He was really,

really,

he's such a wonderful spirit,

Lou.

Well, you know,

I just hate the clock right now

because we're running out of time

and I want to definitely

get to one more scene

which is the ending

and then talk a little bit

about what you're going to do

in the future

yourself as David,

not as Lincoln.

But one thing that I thought

when you said

the directors gave you

the direction of having fun,

I immediately thought

of your serenading Shirley

because only Lincoln

would do that,

you know.

And I could just imagine

if it really was David E. Kelly,

he's the twisted mind

that thought up

the chipmunk song

should come out

of Lincoln's mouth.

And so I want to play both times.

You sang them twice

in the episode

but I just have time for one.

So here's the one you did

just before

well, as the SWAT team

was converging on the outside.

Sure, sure.

Want a plane

that loops the loop

Me, I want a hula hoop

We can hardly stand the wait

Please Christmas, don't be late

Yeah.

I have to ask

because someone told me

I had to ask.

Sure.

Do you play the ukulele?

I don't play the ukulele.

So that was just a little stunt.

There was a wonderful guy there

who played the ukulele for me

and that was pre-recorded

and we did a little rehearsal

before we shot anything

and there was a little speaker

on the set

sort of hidden behind me

that played the accompaniment

and I just sort of

faked my way through.

Now, did you pre-record

your singing as well?

So you just lip synced?

No, no, it was sung live.

Oh, I gotcha.

We sung live on the set.

Just the ukulele part

was pre-recorded

and I don't know

if you can hear me.

I don't know if you can hear me.

It was very fun to do that.

No, when you opened

the script that day

when you saw

that you were going

to be singing

how did you feel about that?

Well, somebody called me

and told me about it

ahead of time

because everybody

was just screaming with laughter

because it was such a funny idea

and so I was forewarned

what it was going to be

and originally

there were two other

Christmas songs

and I can't remember

what they were now

but it was two sort of

traditional kind of

Christmas songs

that I was singing

and then it was changed

to the Alvin and Chipmunk song

and when they

sang it

and sent me

like an mp3

to learn it off of

the version they sent me

was by Vonda Shepard

and I wondered

if maybe they had used it

on Ally McBeal

at some point.

Maybe.

It crossed my mind.

I don't remember it

but maybe they did

but anyways

that was the first version

of it that I heard

but I believe it was

David's idea to use it

but I don't know that for sure

but it certainly was funny

in the episode

and what a scream.

It was good.

You of course

had to do a little

stunt work as well.

I'm coming up to the last

few scenes of On the Ledge

which was the first

which was your last episode

to date.

We don't know

if there'll be more.

Yeah, well,

we'll cross our fingers.

We will.

You were feeding her

and she head-butted you

in the nose

so you had to

somehow have this blood

come through your fingers

and I'm sure that was fun

as well as a little bit

of a body slamming

when you took the

not the bullet

but the crossbow.

Right.

I was watching that

this morning

and here you are

kind of like

staggering back

just a moment.

Yeah, yeah.

The head-butting thing

is one of those

funny miracles

of camera work

in that

Candice's head

was really not

all that terribly

close to mine.

It's just the way

that the camera

is positioned

and at the time

that we shot it

I thought,

is this working?

I actually said

to express that

and Candice said,

oh, trust me,

this is going to work fine

because she's been

in front of a camera

since she was like

20 years old

and she knows

much better than I

what's going to carry

and what doesn't

and then it looked

of course fantastic

when we saw it

on television

and then the blood

was obviously,

we cut away

which is the miracle

of editing.

You can sort of cut away

and then do whatever

you want to do

and so they sort of

bloodied me up

when I took my hand away

and the arrow

was,

that was kind of

a long night.

We were having

some technical difficulties

with the arrow

so I don't really remember

how many thousands

of times

we had to do that

but it was a long night

I will say that

because the arrow

for whatever

reasons would not

come out straight

it was coming out

at a weird angle

and so it didn't look

like it was going

through me

so we had to do

quite a few takes

of that

but we eventually got it

but it was kind of

a long evening.

And then you had to

drop on your knees

probably over and over again.

Yes I did.

I sure did

and that was

like I said

it was a difficult

evening that night

but we had like

a pad down there

and I was sort of

up on my toes

and so I had

like a two by four

under my heels

and it was kind of

an awkward angle

that I had to stand at

to do it

but we did eventually

get a take

that looked really good

I thought it looked like

that arrow really did

go through me

and one of the miracles

of TV

and that plus

killing Gracie Jane

was also a little

hard to do as well

and we thank God

had a stuntman

who sort of came in

and helped us

toward the end

but that was like

scaring the life out of me

to actually try that

it was a rubber shovel

but I really really

didn't like hitting her

Jill Brennan

was very game

she went along with it

but man

it was making me

very nervous

so I was very happy

when the stuntman

finally took over

of course the final scene

I was all worried

everybody was worried

that Lincoln wasn't

going to make it

it looked pretty fatal

and I was so happy

to hear

I just want to play

what happened

as we are on the

outside of Lincoln's house

and Shirley comes out

and then we see Lincoln

thank goodness

he has a few final lines

here's what he said

yeah

there she is

before you all

start hugging me

did any of you

have the presence

of mind to bring vodka

a little antiseptic

a band-aid

it's just a flesh wound

what were you thinking

when you delivered those lines

you said it so dramatically

oh thank you

thank you

you know

all of Lincoln's

sort of arc

in this thing

has been

just wanting to be

sort of noticed

you know

I think he desperately

wanted to go to trial

for murder

he just wanted to be a star

and there

in the 11th hour

his dream sort of came true

he was being wheeled

out of his house

there were zillions of

you know

SWAT team members

and reporters

and people

and he was sort of

the center of attention

at long last

and so he's being wheeled out

and I just thought

before they wheel me out there

I thought

gee

Lincoln would love this moment

even though he shot

through the chest

he would love this moment

he would just be happy

to be

have everyone looking at him

and so

that's what I played in it

I thought

this is sort of

Lincoln's dream come true

at long last

his stage death voice

came out

exactly

he's just

you know

happy to have the attention

on him

finally

and at long last

and of course

a band-aid

that's all I need

a band-aid

you know

in the original scene

when we shot it

when I was shot

through the chest

I actually said

to Shirley

don't worry

it's just a flesh wound

or something like that

before I collapsed

and then that

they took that out

and just had me say it

at the end

oh wow

I think

it's kind of funny

because when you look at it

it does look like I'm dead

so it actually was

a good choice I think

oh yeah

it sort of raised the stakes

and it was like

oh no

Lincoln's dead

and it turns out

he's not

and I know

just because

you know

you have different

little wave files

sitting around

on your computer

I had to play

the flesh wound

from Monty Python

King Arthur says it

look you stupid bastard

you've got no arms left

yes I have

look

it's just a flesh wound

had to do it

well this

we wanted to take

a good retrospective look

at all eight episodes

and we only

really kind of

scratched the surface

on the fun scenes

I want to remind everybody

who's listening to this

that if you go to

boston-legal.org

I've excerpted

probably breaking

dozens of copyright laws

each of

of David's scenes

in the eight episodes

and then strung them together

so you get an

all David all the time

hour

isn't that great

it all boiled down

to an hour

of air time

great

excellent

we were almost out of time

I want to run through

a bunch of things

that you are

working on

some of the stuff

that is coming up

so we have a way

to reconnect with you

outside of Boston Legal

sure

I know you mentioned

Available Men

that's the short film

that's won

what 14

14 awards now

13 right now

13 and counting

hopefully

and the DVD came out

it did

it came out in January

it's on a

compilation of short films

which is

interestingly enough

called Available Men

so it's not hard to remember

oh and yours is like

the title of the

and the title

entry in it

kind of fun

oh that's really great

and that can be purchased

from your website

why don't you tell us

about your website

it was a really nice website

oh thank you

thanks

you can purchase it

off the website

it's daviddeanbotrell.com

so that's pretty easy

to remember

or it is actually

available on Netflix

and it's also available

at Blockbuster

it's sort of all over the place

Netflix

I'm putting it in my queue

yeah yeah yeah

Available Men is on Netflix

absolutely

oh actually I should

I should actually just buy it

support your local

well that would be nice too

let's back up and say

support your local filmmaker

yeah feel free to buy a copy

yeah that's fine

give them away

it's 20 lousy bucks

exactly

and you can

how many films are on that

compilation

I think like 7 or something

what a deal

yeah exactly

exactly

and you have a fun name

on your production company

but say

oh yeah yes

my production company

is called

Quit Your Bitchin' Entertainment

yeah

it's great

it just accurately

reflects my attitude

about show business

oh yeah

oh because you did

make a comment

at the top of the hour

you said

you were kind of fed up

with that whole Hollywood

or the show business thing

I just

I love what I do

and I'm happy to be doing it

and it's going really well

at the moment

and it's great

I just feel very grateful

to be able to do

what I like to do

you know I

I'm going to ask this

I will preface it by saying

I know you will lie to me anyway

but if it's true

have you heard any rumblings

from Boston Legal

are you back on the set

you know

I actually have not heard

from the folks at Boston Legal

I have run into them

a couple times socially

you know

I am hoping to

come back at some point

this

one of the things

that makes Boston Legal

a great show

is that they don't

really

operate with a game plan

they sort of

operate on story

like if they

they come up with

these great stories

that involve

the existing characters

like you know

Alan and Denny

and Shirley and all that

and then

then at that point

they sort of decide

well what character

would best serve that story

whether that's

Christian Clemonson's

character of Jerry

or whether it's

Betty White's character

or my character

I don't know

or Meredith Eaton's character

for that matter

who's been on a ton

this year

they sort of

served the show first

which I think is what

makes it so great

and um

so there's no

I don't think there's any

you know

guarantee that any of us

will be back

unless we're gonna

you know

be for the good of the show

and I think that's actually

a great thing

there are not many episodes

left to shoot

this year

I think it's unlikely

I'll be back this year

but who knows

maybe I'll be back next year

you never know

they've picked it up

and of course

season four

there will be a season five

which makes it

nice and syndicatable

so yes

let's hope so

that'd be great

I would love to come back sometime

it was so much fun

and

and you know

the nice part about Lincoln

is he's just so

you know

relentlessly annoying

I'm sure he'd think

of something new

well I do want to

I think at this point

he's gonna have to escape

from whatever mental institution

he's in but

oh yes

I hope he

yes I hope he wasn't

in the general population

of a prison

that wouldn't be good

but how rich

they could

have mined

that whole trial again

but maybe they were all

trialed out

I don't know

yeah it could

you know could be

I was actually

you know on the one hand

I felt sort of

sad to go

because it was so much fun

I'd had so much fun doing it

but at the same time

I do think

David Kelly

has a great sense

of when to

bring something to an end

you know

and when to give things a rest

and so

I do trust his judgment

on that

and I

I think it'd be great

to be back

I would love to come back

sometime

but I'm gonna leave that

entirely up into his hands

and

it's been very life changing

I mean I have not

ever in my life

been any form

of celebrity

I have never

been recognized

in the street

interviewed the way

that we're being

I'm being interviewed right now

that's never happened to me before

and um

Boston Legal

and Lincoln Meyer

certainly brought all that

into my life

and I

I can barely leave my house

without somebody stopping me

to say

oh my god

you're Lincoln Meyer

oh fantastic

and uh

it's been remarkable

and I didn't really

know any of that was coming

when we were shooting it

so it's been a wonderful surprise

and um

and like I said

having been away from acting

for a very long time

I can't imagine

a more fantastic way

to re-enter it

and I don't know

if I'm gonna be doing

any more acting

or not

I mean

no one's offered me

anything yet

but

it was wonderful

it was a wonderful

surprising

really rewarding

thing to do

and I couldn't have done it

on a more

classy

well written

well produced

beautifully acted show

I mean it's such a

we're so lucky

to have it

and David has really

in my opinion

changed the face

of television

in the last 15 years

he has

he's done a really good job

I think we actually owe him

quite a bit

for what he's done

and uh

there are a lot of

remarkable shows

on TV right now

but I honestly do believe

he paved the way for them

and um

and even still

there were things

that we would shoot

sometimes

on Boston Legal

and I would think to myself

can they really put this

on the air

and then turns out

it wouldn't be on the air

it would be edited out

you know

some bad words

or something

a little bit more

than ABC was willing to

you know

put on the air

and um

I so admired that though

that they always tried

to push the envelope

they always tried

to put something on

sure

there was one scene

where I was talking

about my sort of

sexual fantasies

about Gracie Jane

and

and when we were

when I was talking

I kept thinking

ABC's not gonna let us

say this on the air

and sure enough

they didn't

interesting

because that would have

of course

there would have been

a pattern there

you know

first of all

you have sexual fantasies

about Shirley as well

and it leads to

sinister activity

right

that would have been

good to hear

right exactly

I would make you get

if we had time

and make you get out

those pages

and read them to us

right now

so we would have

they're long gone

they went into the

recycling years ago

you must keep

mementos

I do want to say

quickly

because I don't know

if you know this

I am just happy

to say that

Lincoln has made

such a huge mark

on it

that actually

the self-titled episode

the episode

entitled Lincoln

which aired on

November 26

was the highest rated

most viewers

watched that episode

well it was actually

the only four other episodes

were watched more

out of three years

wow

and that was

13.47 million

we have to go

all the way back

to January of 2005

for another one

that was watched more

wow

and that leads me

to say that

there has been

a clamoring of voices

within the fan community

that Lincoln

that you David

actually

not Lincoln

actually

should be

right up there

with the Emmy

nominations for

Outstanding Guest Actor

oh thank you

thanks very much

you must submit

or whoever does a submission

needs to happen

because did you know

yes

that I just sat there

and looked at IMDb

last night

and figured out that

since 1998

so in ten

ten years

nine years

David E. Kelly

series

guest actors

have won the Emmy

nine out of those

ten years

that's amazing

for guest

guest acting

so everybody

from Christian Clements

in last year

of course

Shatner and Sharon Stone

won it in 2004

and a lot of people

for the practice

so between

Boston Legal Practice

he's had a lock

on that category

it's amazing

I mean it's truly amazing

and I will say

this is again

something that I really

really do

admire David for

is that

he has really

sort of taken

the job

of guest actor

and really

elevated it

within the industry

and made it

into something

that it wasn't

not before

and created

the possibility

for these

ongoing

plot lines

involving guest actors

where we can

come in and do

something for a period

of time

and you know

usually that

work is also

delegated to

people who are names

and David's shows

are great

because there is

a mixture

I mean you have

people like

Megan Mullally

and you have

people like

Delta Burke

and you also

have people like

Christian Clementson

and myself

and Meredith Eaton

Gilden

who are most

certainly not

celebrities

who get to

come in

and play

these wonderful

roles

and have

actual storylines

and play

real scenes

and have real

relationships

with the other

characters

in the show

which is

a fairly new

development

actually in TV

you used to

kind of come in

and you just

kind of

you served

as a foil

to the star

and then you

got off

basically

and now

it's a much

different thing

and it really

occurred to me

like in the last

three episodes

that I was on

the show

I would sort of

like be pinching

myself thinking

I can't

I'm on this

I'm on screen

as much as

any of the regulars

in these episodes

I'm like

in their

in the lives

of these characters

and we're actually

we're playing out

these real scenes

it's not just

you know

it's not just

a gimmick

and that's

something that

David really

created

and he's

written these

marvelous roles

for so many

actors over the years

I'm not really

surprised to hear

that statistic

actually that he

has

that that particular

category has done

so well

or David Kelly's

shows have done

so well in that