Playing with Dick

>> Dan Hedaya takes on Richard Nixon in Dick

by MATTHEW HAYS

Using comedy to treat anxiety-inducing topics is nothing new. Witness Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick's brilliant riff on war in the nuclear age, arguably the best film on the subject.

But with certain topics, the medium of cinema has been particularly shy about setting up the gags. Watergate, while portrayed in All the President's Men and Oliver Stone's biopic Nixon, had previously escaped comic treatment on the big screen. This despite the fact that Nixon served as fairly constant fodder for small screen comedy with Dan Aykroyd's bad-but-funny imitation of the Prez on Saturday Night Live.

Now Andrew Fleming's latest film, Dick, released 25 years after the Watergate scandal broke, is taking pot shots at the administration. And the tale has all the ingredients for turning tragedy into farce. Enhancing the real-life bunglers are two teen fictional characters (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) who inadvertently stumble over bits and pieces of Watergate while taking a White House tour. They soon find themselves locking horns with Nixon himself, played here by Dan Hedaya.

Not only does Hedaya deliver a pretty wicked version of Nixon, his cv seems to make him a fitting casting call; Dick is being touted as a cross between Nixon and Clueless--and Hedaya was in both films. "I was initially very reluctant about taking this," Hedaya says from Los Angeles. "I'm a Jew from Brooklyn, so I couldn't be much further removed from him, in terms of voice, behavior, culture. It was pretty distant territory."

But Hedaya reports that once he started examining the role, he immediately got into it. "I had a voice coach for a couple of hours, and something clicked. It became a tremendous pleasure. I couldn't shut up, actually."

As for the use of comedy, Hedaya says he thinks "there's more room for levity now. We'll see how it's received. We'll have a better idea after it's been out there for a while." Though he can understand the delay: "I still remember watching the drama of the real Watergate hearings unfold on television. The people involved were mendacious and deceitful."

Hedaya, perhaps best known for his recurring role as Carla's ex-husband Nick on Cheers, says he does see some similarities between the Nixon and Clinton administrations, which will allow contemporary audiences to better connect with Dick. "There are parallels: both violated their office in different ways, both faced impeachment.

"Things have gotten worse though. These are disgusting times for elected officials. Tell me one good thing that's going on in government right now."

Did Hedaya find it difficult to portray as slimy a character as Richard Milhouse Nixon? "That's just part of acting. You don't think about it, really. But he was unsavory. As a Jew, I found his anti-Semitism most offensive--just the outrageousness of his slander."

Dick is now playing