AMERICAN PREMIERE, vol.12 no.3, p.3, May 1992




CLOSE UPS by Libby State
LENNY VON DOHLEN: "I want act like Flannery O'connor wrote ...for blood."

Upon noting the quote which heads LENNY VON DOHLEN's publicity bio "I want to act like Flannery O'Connor wrote ...for blood" one cannot help but wonder what the actor will be like in person. As it turns out, whatever intensity Von Dohlen brings to his roles, off-screen he is softspoken and serene, with carefully considered answers to interview questions. As for that quote, he explains: "When I read Flannery O'Connor's work, her characters are so vivid palpable to me that I get a sense of what rate the blood pulses through their veins. Thatﾕs what sustains us. That's the level of commitment I want." Von Dohlen will be on view in five features this year, among them the current Leaving Normal, a Thelma and Louise-style story of a journey by two women (Meg Tilly and Christine Lahti) from Normal, Wyoming to Alaska. He plays Tillyﾕs love interest, a truck driver-poet.
"At first I though that would be a contradiction, but it's the most logical thing," he says. "You have all this time on your own, and images flash before you. The movie explores the idea that we are all on a journey, the serendipity of the people who come into our lives, and who controls our destiny. Itﾕs about things I feel are important, the humanity we all share. It has lots of heart."
Then there is the ﾒwhole other world of Twin Peaks...Fire Walk With Me, a feature "prequel" to the ground-breaking television series. Von Dohlen reprise his role as Harold Smith, an agoraphobic who raises hybrid orchids and is confident to Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee).
"It was a three-day intensive shoot, and at the end, Sheryl Lee and I were both jello, shaking with emotions," he relates. "[Director] Daivd [Lynch] was very pleased. He did a jig, and I thought, 'Yes! This is what movies should be about a sense of celebration.' David encourages you to walk a high wire and do an aesthetic strip tease to do something which may be very human, but is an exploration of feelings that has never been seen before."
Von Dohlen's pleasure at such a philosophy reflects his reasons for becoming an actor in the first place; he had been forced to abandon his childhood dream of being a jockey, fueled by his father's ownership of a racetrack in his native Texas, when he grew too tall.
"My nature was one that I didn't thing I'd be happy doing something that was dispassionate or routine," he says. "I don't know if it came to me in a dream, but whenever that decision [to act] was made, it was total, and the obsession was absolute."
Von Dohlen made his film debut as a country western band leader in Tender Mercies in 1983, followed by Electric Dreams, Under the Biltmore Clock and the title role in Billy Galvin. With theater his first love, he has worked off-Broadway and regionally in production such as the Tommy Tune-directed hit Cloud 9. Television credits include guest star spots on thirty-something and Miami Vice, and the role of a child molester in the Afterschool Special Don't Touch.
Along the way, Von Dohlen has discovered that acting and horse racing are not as disparate as they might seem.
"There are similarities, because of the concentration being a jockey requires, and the kind of otherworldly connection you must make with, in that case, the horse," he notes. "You have to put your self in a kind of mindset and trance. You do that in the theater and in movies, too."
The actor's other film appearances this year include cameos in Cold Heaven and Jennifer Eight, and a starring role in Blind Vision as a man obsessed with a woman barely aware of his existence. He may also do a play in London, and is writing a one-man show based on the life and works of revolutionary Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
"I try not to play the same role twice," he remarks. "I could be stuck eating rum raisin ice cream because it's my favorite, but I try to go the full palate of flavors. Not only am I surprising other people, but I'm surprising myself."






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