HOLLYWOOD – Before Tony Shalhoub broke through as the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, the Lebanese-American actor had compiled a long list of supporting characters with widely diverse names: Haddad (“The Siege”), Kwan (“Galaxy Quest”), Scarpacci (“Wings”), Reyes (“Primary Colors”) and Riedenschneider (“The Man Who Wasn’t There”). This year, he has again been nominated for a Golden Globe, and he won his third Emmy for “Monk,” USA Network’s highest-rated show, which starts Season 51/2 this month.
Lately, Shalhoub, 53, has been adding to his resume not only as an actor but also as a producer and advocate, reaching back to his Arab-American roots. One of his projects, an upcoming independent film titled “American East,” tells about ordinary Arab-Americans in Los Angeles whose everyday lives and plans have been altered by the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Spike Lee had his agenda and his vision. It’s been done in the Hispanic-American community,” Shalhoub said.
“If ever there was a time for it to be done for the Arab-American community, it’s now.”
If he hadn’t succeeded as Monk, an everyman character of indeterminate ethnicity, it might have been more difficult for him to be a successful advocate, said Hesham Issawi, director of “American East.” “People don’t even realize he has a Lebanese background. He has the money, the artistic power and the influence in Hollywood to make some change in the image. And he’s not afraid of doing it.”
In “star math,” the relationship of an actor’s ego to his talent, Shalhoub comes out on top, said Jeff Wachtel, USA’s senior vice president of original programming. “Tony has the best ratio I’ve ever seen,” Wachtel said. “It’s so little about his ego and so much about the quality of the work and his fellow actors, it just makes people want to vote for him.”
Shalhoub said he’s never considered himself a comedian. “The beauty of ‘Monk’ for an actor is that it presents the ideal challenge, which is doing comedic stuff and dramatic stuff all together,” he said. Monk’s humor comes from his being a tragic clown along the lines of Charlie Chaplin, Shalhoub said.
In a modest neighborhood near Hollywood and Vine, lights and cameras were trained on the star, standing nervously on a cracked sidewalk. Dressed in his detective’s trademark buttoned-to-the-throat shirt, he squinted and blinked, his mouth struggling in vain to form words to defend himself from a barrage of verbal abuse from a fellow actor in character.
Beaten, he turned and shuffled off, a sad shadow of the usually sharp-eyed detective.
It’s the sort of physical performance that stage actors such as Shalhoub are trained to do and one reason Emmy voters like him. This year, they surprised him with his third honor for comedic acting despite expectant buzz surrounding Steve Carell (“The Office”).
Critics admire his ability to shift moods on a dime, a trait the show’s writers like to exploit. “Writing for Tony Shalhoub’s voice is like writing for Bob Newhart,” said co-creator and executive producer Andy Breckman. “It’s all about pacing, timing, the pauses.”
He said the writers try to come up with situations just to see how the actor will handle them. “We throw different pitches at the plate to see if he can hit it. It’s like a game for us. We did an episode where he went through all five stages of grief in 30 seconds.”
Sometimes, Shalhoub thinks viewers aren’t sure why they’re laughing or even if it’s OK to laugh. “Like Chaplin, too, he’s kind of alone. He has his assistant and people he works with, but he doesn’t have that soul mate that completes him. He feels incomplete.”
In recent years, Shalhoub branched out from acting to direct (“Made-Up” with his wife, Brooke Adams) and produce (as a creative force in casting, writing and editing on “Monk”). Still, he said, he can’t quit acting. “I just love it,” he said.
Because “Monk,” a 16-episode series, is broken up into two half-seasons, one airing in summer, the other in winter, Shalhoub is free for other ventures.
In 2003, he took a small part in a short satirical film, “T for Terrorist,” about a young actor who goes berserk after being cast one too many times as an Arab terrorist and turns the tables on the director.
In 2005, he helped establish the Arab-American Filmmaker Award Competition along with the Network of Arab-American Professionals, Zoom in Focus productions and Zahra Pictures. In the contest, established Arab-American filmmakers submit their screenplays; the winner gets his or her film produced.
“It’s important,” he said. “There are so many great stories that need to be told to offset the negative images in the media – not just the news, but in other television and film.”
In “American East,” Shalhoub plays a Jewish-Egyptian-American who agrees to start a restaurant business with an Islamic-Egyptian-American – to the consternation of their relatives.
“Tony always said let’s shake the boat, show them things they’ve never seen before. Let’s put Jews and Muslims in one movie and see what happens. Sort of like the Middle East in America,” said Issawi, who co-wrote the film with Sayed Badreya.
The film also stars Kais Nashif (“Paradise Now”), Sarah Shahi (“The L Word”), Ray Wise (“The West Wing,” “24”) and Badreya in his first lead role. Producer Ahman Zahra said, “We’re hoping this could be the start of a new wave of expression, not just for Arab-Americans but other minorities … to give them a voice.”
Shalhoub was No. 9 in a family of 10 children whose father emigrated from Lebanon at age 10, and whose mother was a second-generation Lebanese-American. Shalhoub was raised in Green Bay, Wis., where his father ran a sausage company from a truck. “He wanted to expand that into a family-run company and mail-order business,” Shalhoub said. “He opened a little shop. His idea was that the company would sustain all of us and keep us close in the same area. Even though that didn’t happen, we stayed close.” Every summer, the family gathers in Wisconsin for a vacation.
Shalhoub was raised as a Christian; he doesn’t speak Arabic. According to Issawi, Shalhoub was not involved in Middle Eastern culture as a child. “It happens a lot. The first generation wants the child to be part of the melting pot. They’re tired of the politics back home and don’t want them to go through their own experience. Then the person grows up and wants to find their roots. It happened to Tony later on in his life,” after his father died, Issawi said. “He was lucky to have found the medium of film and cinema to help him explore.
“That’s the beauty of it. He succeeded as an American, now as an Arab-American going back to reach into his own history. The Middle East is now very much a part of America. It’s important for Americans to understand what the Middle East is about. He’s one of the people building that bridge.”
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