M&C Interview: Sam McMurray talks Lake Placid 2

By April MacIntyre Feb 1, 2008, 19:30 GMT

Years after two 30 foot prehistoric crocodiles are captured and killed in Maine, the local sheriff teams up with an EPA agent, a female Fish and Wildlife agent and a big game hunter, to kill four blood-thirsty offspring of the original killer crocs. ...more

Actor Sam McMurray hails from solid thespian stock, both his parents were stage and screen stars. He's a talented and very funny man who has appeared in numerous films, television shows and theater.

Sam can be seen February 20 at 10 PM ET/PT on Starz original series, "Head Case" as Alexandra Wentworth's hedonistic dad along with actress Sally Kirkland playing mom.   The episode is hilarious and highly recommended, and shows off his command for on-the-spot improvisational humor.

McMurray is also a perennial player on the critically acclaimed "The Tracey Ullman Show."

Monsters and Critics had a moment to visit with Sam regarding his work and the recent DVD release of "Lake Placid 2."

What first attracted you to this project?

Sam McMurray:  It was timing, and the fact they paid in American money and I also wanted to go to Bulgaria. Also, working with Cloris, John and the others too, it seemed a fun adventure.

Tell us about your character Struthers. Was he an easy character to portray?

Sam McMurray: Yeah. Well He's is an insufferable bastard isn't he?  He's got loads of money, but I didn't want to do a Donald Trump knock-off, but there was a guy I watched on the Golf channel, David Fehrety, the commentator, that Northern Irish accent was what I wanted for Struthers.  David (director) was like, 'Fine, go with it.'  Struthers is vile, the great white hunter gone bad with his African manservant in tow.

What was Bulgaria like for you; did it remind you of Maine?

Sam McMurray: I thought Bulgaria looked okay, and like Maine it has a very cold climate. The producers love working there because they can ski, but it's similar.  I was there for a month for Placid.

Bulgaria is an unusual place that is in an interim state of developing and coming out of the older USSR history, it's the least effected of the Russian provinces because it is so far away, but now all the old party bosses are gangsters.  The food is excellent; the women are beautiful; it's a nice place.

A great story sort of summed up the experience in Bulgaria for me. One day I called down to the front desk at the Hotel Kampinski and asked them to send an iron to my room. I was told they had none.  Not that they were all in use elsewhere, but that the hotel had no irons whatsoever. I asked how they pressed the sheets. 'Did they leave 'em wet and have a fat man roll over them?'

No help. Three hours later I called again. 'Do you have an iron?'   'Certainly, we'll send it right up.'

The next day I related this story to our Bulgarian driver, a jovial sort who spoke pretty good American. He shrugged and said: "That's Bulgaria- one day it's dobre den (good day), the next day it's a motherf*ck."

How much fun did you have with Cloris Leachman?

Sam McMurray: Cloris tried to get the whole country of Bulgaria to stop smoking (laughs) The state deliberately keeps the price of cigarettes low so everybody smokes, but Cloris is so inventive, funny and  incredibly talented and just great to work with.  My mother and Cloris were both in the theater at the same time, at the Actors Studio.

Do directors you work with appreciate your comic timing and Improv sensibilities, and let you run with it?

Sam McMurray:  I always seem to be working with someone from Second City - Dan Castellaneta, Kevin Crowley, Rick Hall -  I am strictly a New York stage guy who was taught to let the script lead. Sometimes, however, it doesn't, and if the director and I are in cahoots, he'll let me extrapolate a bit.

Perhaps it's a coincidence, but it seems all the DVD projects I've got coming out fall into that category -Lake Placid 2, Killer Pad - which another critic told me was ghastly, and 'Cruel but Necessary' which was meant to be improvised. I also shot a Spike TV movie in December with the great Stacey Keach called 'Death Match.' Heavily improvised. Again, we had a very simpatico director.

What is working with Tracey Ullman like? How did you connect?

Sam McMurray:  As to Tracey, well she's just the salt of the earth.  I worked a day on her new Showtime show and we just laughed and commiserated throughout.

Interestingly, perhaps, I was not an original cast member. I did a guest shot on the fifth episode, in the first of the Francesca sketches (the one with the gay dads) and was made a regular at astonishingly low wages thereafter. And just for the record, Tracey wanted to continue the show after what became the final season. The real reason for the cancellation had more to do with internal politics at the studio, to nice up what was really a pissing match.

What is 'Killer Pad' about?

Sam McMurray:  I play the fire inspector - a very lonely guy. I come with the pretense of inspecting the house of these three dorks, but really what I want to do is come to the party. Hilarity and idiocy ensues, and so forth, it's scatological. I won't give it away, but we're hoping for a sequel that we would shoot in Italy called 'Killa Villa'.

Lake Placid 2 is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.