When the first act of Warren Manzi's PERFECT CRIME ends, the audience sits in stone cold silence. The silence lasts for a few moments after the houselights are brought up and when the audience does finally react, they are abuzz about the convolutions of the plot that is unraveling before them. According to actor Robert Emmet Lunney it's "hopefully because the audience is thinking; maybe even perplexed."
Sitting on Jay Stone and Warren Manzi's comfortable set for PERFECT CRIME after a recent matinee, Lunney proved to be an amiable conversationalist. His Broadway credits include MAURITIUS, DEUCE, THE GRADUATE and DANCING AT LUGHNASA. He's guest-starred on television's "Law and Order" and recently taped a segment of "Lipstick Jungle." He also will be seen in Nora Ephron's upcoming film "Julie and Julia" that opens this spring. Lunney is also a playwright and his FOR NINA was a semi-finalist for the 2007 O'Neil Playwrights Conference, while his PATRIOT ACT (AN OCCURRRENCE AT YANKEE STADIUM) has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and was recorded as part of the Coyote Rep's Sound-Play series. Married to actress Jan Maxwell, he'd been out late for the opening of her play TO BE OR NOT TO BE and its after party. The interview was interrupted several times by phone calls from the actor's 12 year old son, Will, who had also been to the play and the party. Each call illustrated that although Lunney and Maxwell are working actors, they still make time for the responsibilities of parenting.
Born of Irish heritage in Denver, Lunney explains, "I'm a three-named person because there's another Robert Lunney in the unions. I've never seen or heard of him, though. I arrived here in 1976 and I was able to join SAG because I had a one-line part in "Cinderella Liberty" which was shot in Seattle. When I put down my name as ‘Robert Lunney' they told me I couldn't do that because there was another actor with that name. I asked if the other guy was old and about to pass on and was told that he was about my age. So I went by the name ‘Robert Emmet" for a long time. Then I was standing-by for the actor Stephen Rea in SOMEONE WHO'LL WATCH OVER ME and Stephen came up to me and said, ‘Robert Emmet? Robert Emmet? It's ridiculous. It would be like someone in America coming up and saying, "Hello, I'm Abraham Lincoln".' In Ireland, families with the last name Emmet will not name their sons Robert out of deference to the famous patriot Robert Emmet who, in 1803 or something, was sentenced by the British to be ‘Hanged, drawn, quartered and his head struck off.' I think he died long before they got around to chopping off his head!"
Lunney had performed as "Robert Emmet" for a long time. "Our son, Will, was born in '95 and someone gave us a savings bond for him, but it was made out to ‘Will Emmet'. I realized it was confusing, so after a few years I decided to use my real last name and be a three-named person." As far as anyone knows, the other Robert Lunney is still around.
At the age of two, Lunney's family moved to Seattle. "My father claimed that as a kid I'd see a ninety minute movie then spend eight hours acting it out for him. I don't remember doing that. I just thought I was being incredibly witty and charming, but I think it probably drove him nuts. Now my son does it. He's been following me around telling me in great detail about every moment in ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.' ...I'm sorry, Dad."
Lunney readily admits that he doesn't come from a theatrical family. "My parents did not grow up going to the theater and my older siblings couldn't have cared less. I don't know why I became so interested. My first real performance was horrifying. It was in a Christmas pageant and I was one of the kings. I was in the sixth grade at St. Francis of Assisi School in a suburb of Seattle and there were the McKechron girls-there must have been five of them. They could all sing and they were all beautiful. Katie McKechron was in my grade and I had to come down the aisle of the auditorium and stop midway. I had a deep voice and as I was holding my frankincense and wearing this silly costume, I spotted all five McKechron girls looking up at me and smiling. I was supposed to sing, ‘Frankincense to offer have I....' but I choked, it came out all squeaky. I was so scared I was crying and I couldn't get it out, but I still went through with it. You would think that would put a kibosh on acting for me but it didn't."
The actor was also an altar boy in those days and he thought the pre-Vatican II liturgies to be highly theatrical. "I learned the Latin responses for the masses and the next year they changed everything into English. "
Upon entering high school, Lunney became something of a jock. He played football and wrestled because "the football coach wanted his players to be wrestlers so they'd get tough." Baseball, however, was really the sport he loved. "But I couldn't stand the coaches and the mentality of some of the guys. I told jokes a lot and they didn't get them." One day the actor turned to one of his buddies and said, "You know what we need? We need a theater department." He quit baseball and went to the principal with his friend Bob and the boys expressed their feelings. The principal was very amenable and suddenly a theater department was born at Kennedy High School in Seattle. "It was fun and we were proud of that," the actor says with considerable satisfaction. "Yeah, it was exciting!"
The school rented ACT Theater in downtown Seattle for their spring production for three consecutive years and Lunney became the treasurer. "We operated in the black the whole time," he adds with a beaming smile on his face. Interestingly enough, Lunney got many choice roles but most remembers NOT getting the male lead in DAVID AND LISA. I was upset with the director because I should have gotten the part. My friend Bob got to play the doctor in that. I was playing one of the thugs or something."
Lunney and his friend figured out ways to get out of class to drum up interest in the play, so they went from classroom to classroom and played scenes from DAVID AND LISA. "Because I didn't have the part, we knew it wasn't right for me to do too much. We'd do this lengthy introduction - big buildup -- and then present this tiny, tiny scene from the play. Bob would leave the classroom, assume his role of the doctor, while I sat sullenly at a desk for a long while. Finally, Bob would knock on the door, I'd say ‘Who is it?' he'd say ‘Dr. I-Can't-Remember,' I'd say ‘Go away' then sit sullenly for a few more beats. Then I'd thank the class and leave. Bob never came back in. Obviously, the young actors didn't believe in giving away too much for free.
At the University of Washington, Lunney joined a fraternity because he thought the living conditions would be better, as would the food. "I liked it for a while, but then I really grew to hate it. I hated what they did to the young kids during the hazing, and their mentality was just plain awful: jock-guy-sexist-racist. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I hated it. I wanted to quit right before Initiation, but my father convinced me to go through with it ‘just in case,' so I quit the day after. I hated it. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer or something. Anyhow, I started taking theater courses the following year and stayed with that. It was a fascinating time. When I got into the Professional Actors Training Program (PATP) at UW, I sat down with Eve Roberts who was my acting teacher and mentor and I mentioned that I was considering UW, NYU, and A.C.T. in San Francisco. She asked to see the faculty lists of each school. Her concern was that there weren't enough good acting teachers to go around to the 13 PATP schools that existed in 1973. I thought that was fascinating because by 1987, there were 437 Professional Actor Training Programs
