Laid-back Dennis Quaid still mixing it up

LOS ANGELES - It says a lot about actor Dennis Quaid that he should currently be starring in two movies that are poles apart -- a big action adventure set in the desert and a lighthearted domestic drama in which he plays a salesman shunted aside by the latest bright young lad.

And it will come as little surprise to observers of the checkered career of the man with the rugged good looks and disarming grin that one ("Flight of the Phoenix") is a box-office dud and the other ("In Good Company") is being feted for its heartwarming charm.

Movie critics have long been puzzled by Quaid, the rumpled Texan who has so often been on the verge of leading man status in movies like "The Big Easy" only to squander it by bad judgment or poor luck in efforts such as the 2004 dud Western "The Alamo."

It used to rile Quaid also. But turning 50 and buoyed by critically acclaimed performances in 2002 as a closet homosexual in "Far From Heaven" and as a teacher turned baseball star in the family hit "The Rookie" makes him generous enough to shrug it all off.

"I don't feel that way anymore. I feel like I made it big," he laughed. "These past four years have been a big turnaround in my career. It makes all the difference in the world when you have a hit movie and critical success back to back."

AN OBVIOUS METAPHOR

"In Good Company," which opens in some U.S. cities this week, sees Quaid playing 51-year-old salesman Dan Foreman who is demoted in a corporate takeover by whiz kid Carter Duryea (played by upcoming actor Topher Grace) with all the arrogance of youth and none of its charm.

Duryea shunts Foreman out of his office, beds his beloved daughter and belittles both his experience and his emotions.

If the metaphor seems an obvious one, 6-foot-2-inch Quaid takes it in his loping stride.

"There was a time in my 30s when I was the new thing and things were easier for me. In my 40s, I felt like I was being laid off. I had to really scramble and get out there and dig to get parts and hang in there.

"The second time around is a lot sweeter. In my 30s I didn't really appreciate my success. Maybe I felt I didn't deserve it. I had mixed feelings about it. I think it's called growing up. You get rid of a lot of useless baggage," Quaid told Reuters in an interview.

Quaid had to "age up" to play Foreman and have his hair grayed by make-up artists. Director Paul Weitz was pleasantly surprised when he agreed to take the part although that's not how Quaid saw it.

"I don't see how that's a risky thing to play your own age or take a great part with a great director and a great script.

"The idea of some sort of competition going on between the new hot guy and the old wizened veteran might make a good story but that's not the way it was on the set," he said.

FINDING THE RIGHT STUFF

Quaid started work on "In Good Company" immediately after flying back from Africa and the set of "Flight of the Phoenix."

The movie is a remake of the 1965 action adventure of the same name starring Jimmy Stewart about a group of men stranded in the desert after their cargo plane crashes. It opened in a miserable 8th place at the U.S. box office in mid-December after minimal promotion and a critical reaction best summed up as "Why bother?."

"There is nothing deliberate but I certainly do like diversity in my roles. It keeps it interesting for me. But I don't have any grand strategy about choosing roles. It is based on scripts arriving at my door.

"My strategy when I first started out was I just wanted to be a working actor. It seemed like an impossibly daunting task," Quaid said.

The pressure of stardom after hitting the big time with the astronaut drama "The Right Stuff" in 1983 and playing a sexy but corrupt detective in "The Big Easy" (1987) became equally daunting and Quaid fell into a cycle of drug and alcohol abuse. He cleaned up his act, married actress Meg Ryan in 1991 and took a two year break from movies.

After a painful divorce in 2001, Quaid married Texas real estate agent Kimberly Buffington in the summer of 2004, and is now preparing to take on what he sees as his riskiest venture to date -- writing, directing and acting all at once.

"Shame on You" is the little-known story of 1940s Western swing star Spade Cooley, who murdered his wife, served jail time and died of a heart attack after a come-back concert.

It will mark Quaid's debut as a feature director. He also wrote the script and will play Cooley.

"It's got celebrity, it's dark -- my tastes are turning toward dark. It is a fascinating story.

"I have a vision of how I want it to be. It's the full ego thing. Writing and directing and acting in a film is a truly risky proposition. It's putting yourself out there on the line," he said.

- REUTERS