He makes viewers wonder about him the same way as they do their own bosses. Does he ever actually work? If so, what does he actually do? Is he that ignorant; or is he playing dumb all the time, taking advantage of his comfort-zone-loving workers?Cole, 47, is an acting and comedic veteran originally from Chicago. He first made his mark as part of the Steppenwolf Theatre company, also famous for spawning fellow actors John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and Laurie Metcalf. He is currently starring in "The West Wing" on television, as well as feature films "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" and the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy, "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."
BEGINNINGS
"I grew up outside the city, in a town called Rolling Meadows'" Cole says. "I started acting pretty early, in high school. I kind of followed my sister's footsteps. She was a musician and a performer, and I guess when I was 12 or so was the first time I went to see a play that she was in. And that's where I got interested. I think I was 15 the first time I did a play."
Cole then headed to Illinois State University, with acting as his major. "I didn't graduate, unfortunately, but I got some good training at Illinois State, met a lot of people there that founded the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago - which I'm a member of still."
"After that, I went to Chicago and - I guess that was around '77 - and that's where I started to work in the theater in Chicago." His first play in Chicago was at the Steppenwolf, which Cole says was a very small theater in Highland Park at the time. He's been a member of the company since 1985.
"In the mid-'80s, I started to leapfrog back and forth from Chicago to L.A. and a couple of stints in New York." He had TV roles in the "The Twilight Zone," "Miami Vice," "Moonlighting" and dozens more. Early movie roles were in "Lucas," "To Live and Die in L.A." and several TV movies.
Cole is now living in Los Angeles and enjoying larger roles, but his family and many friends are all still in the Chicago area. "I'm in Chicago all the time," he says.
But most of his Steppenwolf mates are scattered.
"I haven't done a play in a while at Steppenwolf," Cole explains. "I think 2000 was the last time I was in a play there. But most of the people, even though they work in Chicago, are out here or in New York."
"OFFICE SPACE"
Cole has been in many roles. But none compare to the remarkable performance in "Office Space." That's what he's recognized for in public.
"Especially in the last couple of years, or even maybe this year," Cole says, "Maybe 'The West Wing' has something to do with it, because I'm on TV with a little more regularity."
"It kind of grew about a year after the movie was out," Cole says.
Cole's first take on the scripts was both positive and mysterious.
"I had no idea what kind of button it would push with people," he says. "I did know that the material was really strong. I think Mike Judge is really kind of an auteur in a way, comedy-wise. He's a true original, which I thought the script was."
"The movie is based on a cartoon that he did years before that. The only characters from the movie it had were Milton and Lumbergh, and then a delivery guy. And then [Judge] just expanded it and wrote this feature."
"But after seeing these cartoons, I just laughed out loud, and they weren't even three minutes long," Cole says.
"So it was great fun to do, and there were a million funny people in it. It was great meeting all those guys and hanging out for a while. My shooting was pretty quick, I was done in two weeks. I was kind of in and out."
With Cole's strong past comedy roles, it seems he would've strongly molded the Lumbergh character. But that wasn't the case.
"Mike had a clear idea what he wanted to do. It was totally his creation," Cole explains. "I'd love to say I invented the character, but in reality, it's based really just on his performance on the cartoon which [Judge] did the voice for."
"So he was very exact on the way he wanted it done. But it made sense to me, because I knew it was working. It's the old 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'"
The thriftiness of the filming prevented some bonding between castmates. But Cole still runs into co-stars, and all appreciate the film's resurgence in post-box-office life.
"I run into people from time to time. I run into Stephen Root here and there, Dave Herman, you see people around at auditions and stuff," Cole says.
"It's funny, because you do a movie and walk away and you hope it does well. And we did that, and it kind of came and went like a lot of movies do. But then there's this other life it had, which everybody's really thrilled about."
Though it's a quirky comedy, "Office Space" touched audiences in some universal way. And it digs deeper than the usual film.
"You always want to be involved in something. You hope you do something that connects," Cole says. "I know I've got many things that just are here or there - they're disposable. You did them, you walk away, you move on to the next thing."
"It's hard for something to be successful, because there's no magic formula, there's no handbook that says 'This is the way to do it,'" Cole says.
"This pushed a button, somehow, because people really identified with it. Mike had a handle on that, so all the elements worked."
Photos courtesy of Gary Cole and 20th Century Fox
OTHER ROLES
Another of Cole's biggest comedy roles is that of Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch movies.
"I initially read it, and it was clear that it was a good idea, that it could work," Cole says. "And you mix that with a really good director in Betty Thomas, and it worked."
"Doing it was the same kind of experience, it was a lot of fun, and you didn't know what it would do [at the box office]," Cole says. "Although you had an immediate connection because just the title of the movie is going to draw an audience, so it was different from 'Office Space,' because 'Office Space,' you had no idea. You knew there'd be more eyes on that movie from the start. And it got instant press before it even
was released, because of what it was about.
Cole's explains that the role-choosing process is not easy.
"It's not really a question of accepting [roles], it's more of what you go after," he says. "Sometimes it's hard to envision something on paper."
"It's probably not the norm to look at a script and go 'Wow, this is all put together. This is flawless from top to bottom,'" Cole says. "When you come across that, you know it. It's something you're really sure about because it doesn't happen that often."
Cole takes a dramatic turn in his role as Vice President Russell in "The West Wing."
"I've been a fan of the show for years, so it was great to kind of land there," Cole says. "It's another example of strong material, all elements that work, great actors all around. I was just really happy to find myself in that situation."
Photos courtesy of Gary Cole and 20th Century Fox
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