He broke into the biz in the 1992 movie, "Straight Talk," as an unnamed soldier. From there, he took a few bumps in the road before landing the lead role in Office Space.

Ironically, Office Space paved the way for the big break. It helped Livingston find life as an actor.

"It had an enormous impact on my career. It took a few years to kick in," Livingston says. "I think there’s still the another shoot that hasn’t dropped yet. I haven’t found a movie that the audience of Office Space would be really excited to go to. I have done a bunch of different things, shaking it up doing ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Practice,’ but one of these days I am going to find the movie that hits that sort of comic struggle and I think the audience will be there for it.’

Livingston has been mixing up his career as of late. Whether that be a drama, comedy or suspenseful role, he is trying to find that next winner that will give off an inspiriting sensation similar to that of Office Space. "I like the mix. If you are working all the time it can get a little rough. It’s nice to have a little time down so that you can get hungry again."

In 2001, Livingston scored major success playing Capt. Lewis Nixon in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks "Band of Brothers."

"It was pretty intense. For the better part of the year we were away from home," Livingston says. "We got to know each other very well. We spent a lot of time in a big lot running around in the mud and ditches. It was an incredible experience. It was kind of like living in the history channel for a good solid year."

"The Cooler," a movie still making noise in theaters, was another successful recent project for Livingston. In September, "Little Black Book" with Brittany Murphy, Holly Hunter and Kathy Bates, will be released, and sometime in 2004 "Winter Solstice" and "Pretty Persuasion" will feature the crafter actor.

THE "OFFICE SPACE" EXPERIENCE

Ron Livingston made Peter Gibbons a household name. In return, Peter Gibbons made Ron Livingston a household name. Collectively, they made Office Space a memorable piece of movie history – a film that tanked at the box office, yet soared on VHS and DVD.

"There is a lot of me in that part. There is a lot of my Dad in that part. That’s definitely a movie that is near and dear to me," Livingston says. "I never would have dreamed that it would have the success that it has had. I went to one of the sneaks and thought this was a great movie and was going to be a hit. I really think it’s a special, special movie. I just think what its trying to do is incredibly ambitious in an incredibly un-ambitious way. I just think its heart and soul is in the right place and a lot of that is mike judge and the way he did the movie.

"When I first auditioned for the thing I just kind of had a feeling about it. The stuff was really funny and I really liked Mike [Judge]. Mike has a really, really sharp sense of humor that’s incredible so, kind of without working too hard. He has a real laid back sense of humor."

Judge’s had a relationship with a handful of the actors he chose for his masterpiece. He didn’t have a relationship with Livingston, but knew he would fit the character and perfectly mesh with his selected crew.

"We pretty much hit it off right away," Livingston recalls. "I especially hit it off with [David] Herman and Ajay [Naidu]. I think we were on the same page with what we wanted to do. They are both really gifted serious talented actors in addition to being really funny. Nobody was chewing the scenery. No body was kind of breaking the reality of the thing. When these guys are afraid of going to jail, they are really afraid of going to jail. I feel like they kind of went the extra mile to really be those guys.

"They all brought a real earnestness to it. The thing I like most about the movie is it’s not played like a lot of people in it know it is a comedy," Livingston says as he begins to laugh. "A lot of the characters think they’re in a drama, which I think is one of the things that makes it funny. Suffering and miserable but it really isn’t a lark for them. They are just trying to make their lives work and failing miserably at it. It is just really funny to me in a dark kind of way."

When Livingston first read the script, he knew there was power embedded in the movie about to be made. Without skipping a beat, he pushed for the role and began to create his plan to contribute his comedic genius to the work of art.

"Sometimes scripts are funny when you look at them, but when you hear it out loud you are know people don’t really talk like that," he says. "With Office Space, the stuff really worked out loud. Once we started putting it up it really got better. And I think a lot of that is Mike’s sense of sensibility. It’s a studio movie that looks like an independent. It is a great, great movie."

FAILED MARKETING ATTEMPT

Great movies sometimes don’t get the proper pitch that they deserve. Office Space is one of them. It was a great movie that Fox had no idea how to market. They were left clueless and the movie struggled at the box office. However, then the afterlife began, the point of true discovery.

"I was kind of disappointed. I knew we were in trouble a month and half out cause I hadn’t seen any trailers for it, there weren’t any posters, there were really any ads," Livingston says. "I think it was one of those things where the studio didn’t quite know what to do with it. It’s almost better this way because it is the sort of movie that benefits from people telling each other about it. It’s a word of mouth kind of movie. I would much rather have it have the kind of legacy it has got now than if it had made $20 million in the opening weekend and nobody went and saw it after that. There is something kind of special about it being a underdog movie, it’s about underdog people. I think it being an underdog movie is kind of fitting."

Instead of marketing it as an underdog movie, an office movie, a Milton movie, or a Livingston, Herman or Nadiu movie, Fox decided to push Office Space as a Jennifer Aniston flick. Unfortunately, that didn’t work.

"When the movie came out, the studio decided that they were going to sell it as a Jennifer Aniston movie. But she’s not in it all that much. It isn’t her movie. But she’s the biggest name, so of course they are going to do that," Livingston says. "It’s very hard if people come to a movie expecting it to be your movie and you have a secondary role. It’s hard to not have them walk away. I think she’s extraordinary in it. I thought she was phenomenal and her timing is so refined and just so kind of clean. She was an absolute pleasure to work with. I think she’s terrific in it."

Was Livingston upset that it wasn’t marketed as his movie? A little, as expected, but he moved on and accepted the movie for all it was worth.

"I know the drill. I know what the deal is. I don’t think I would have minded it if it had worked," Livingston says. "I just wanted people to go see the movie. At the time, the movies that she was doing were kind teenage girl romantic comedies so I felt like the problem was this is not a movie you go out and market to teenage girls who think they are going out to see a romantic comedy about Jennifer and the cute boy. But I don’t know how you market this movie. What I suspect you have to do is put more Milton in it, breaking the printer kind of stuff out there. But it all worked out for the best, and everyone is making money from it."
Affecting a comedic nation

Office Space’s popularity continues to grow as word of mouth spreads it even further across the world. "It’s kind of a movie about people trying to figure what it’s all about. There’s the whole thing with the Eastern Philosophy watered down threw Kung Fu movies. Going through Zen. It’s a deep, deep movie that almost shrugs off how deep it is and almost makes fun of itself for being so deep. And it works."

Most of the actors in the movie have come to a point where they can watch the movie and watch it for what it’s worth. They no longer have fear of watching a movie they were in, they are more interested in discovering even more dark humor locked within the dialog and scenery.

"I feel like I have finally gotten to the point where I can watch it," Livingston says. "It’s like the stuff we did is far enough away where I can finally watch it for the movie. Now it’s kind of like I can watch it and get lost in it."

Despite his massive degree of talent, Livingston has yet to nail a solid flow of roles, but the struggle and the fight is what keeps him going as an actor – a job he loves.

"It all depends on how little black book does," Livingston says to the next step for his career. "We’ll see. You never really know. One of the things I like about the job is the next six months is always up in the air. It’s been fun and hopefully we will have something out there that people will like."

Office Space is still being talked about and still helping to drive Livingston’s career. There is some crazy connection it has glued the world with. The messages contained in the movie have made our world a better place.

"I still have people telling me that they saw movie and made a career stage or got out of job they hated. I get that all the time and it’s pretty incredible," Livingston says. "Every time I’m on a plane and we go through turbulence I think back in my head that if this thing goes down, at least we have Office Space."

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!