Macht’s spirit fills the role
Once upon a time, superhero roles were considered career-killers. But not anymore, not with Christian Bale, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr. and Hugh Jackman proving that if the glove fits, you should wear it.
Still, for Gabriel Macht, who suits up as the latest masked man in “The Spirit,” there are new and different risks.
For one thing, there’s the danger of being upstaged by the bad guy, who in “The Spirit” happens to be the nefarious Octopus, played with great zeal by Samuel L. Jackson.
“I needed earplugs when Samuel L. Jackson started doing lines, he had the volume at 11,” Macht said with a bewildered smile a year after the table read. “He shows up, and he was screaming and went crazy. It lifted everyone. And I knew way back then that we were going to be taking chances in this movie.”
“The Spirit” aspires to mint a leading man out of Macht, a veteran of the New York stage and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon School of Drama who has a Hollywood resume of supporting roles and indie fare.
Plus, it’s the solo directorial debut of Frank Miller, and, like his comic-book artwork in the pages of “300” and “Sin City,” “The Spirit” is a stylized visual swirl.
Besides Jackson, the film features a squadron of beauties, including Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King, Paz Vega and Sarah Paulson, who play women who alternately want to kiss or kill Macht’s bulletproof hero.
Macht, 36, has been an actor since age 8. He costarred with John Travolta and Johansson in the 2004 film “A Love Song for Bobby Long” and was cast by Robert De Niro in his film “The Good Shepherd.”
He’s now at work on the dark indie comedy “Middle Men,” which is written and directed by George Gallo and has Macht leading a cast that includes Giovanni Ribisi, James Caan, Luke Wilson and Macht’s wife, Jacinda Barrett.
Miller says Macht had no problem holding his own on the screen.
“He has the looks and the talent, and most of all he has this ability to make a connection with the audience,” Miller said. “There’s a realness to him and his performance. I knew right away that I had found my Spirit.”
The Spirit was created in the 1940s by comic icon Will Eisner and ran as inserts in Sunday newspapers with a meld of the private-eye noir and Hollywood’s screwball comedies.
Macht found it a major challenge to step into the throwback dialogue for an anachronistic movie that blends the fedora era with cell phones and cloning.
“I had to roll that voice over in my head again and again and find the way to say things like, ‘This is my city,’ ” Macht said. “You say it as honest as you can. That’s where it had to come from. You work out to get the physicality that’s right for a guy who could take on the job of crime-fighting, but the trick is finding the gravel for the voice.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Donald Moffat is 78. Actor Caroll Spinney (Big Bird on “Sesame Street”) is 75. Record producer Phil Spector is 68. “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh is 63. Humorist David Sedaris is 52. Rock musician Lars Ulrich of Metallica is 45. Actress Nadia Dajani is 43. Rock musician J is 41. Country singer Audrey Wiggins is 41. Actor-singer Jared Leto is 37. Rock singer Chris Daughtry is 29. Actor Zach Mills is 13.