Stretching the Limits : Lead actor in scathing comedy ‘Buck’ does theater for love and commitment, not for the work

Ebbe Roe Smith has learned not to take walkouts personally.

“You get over that early on,” said the actor, who plays the title role in Ronald Ribman’s scathing comedy “Buck” at the Heliotrope Theatre in Hollywood. “Once I was doing ‘A Man’s a Man’ in La Jolla, and we got a bomb threat because someone thought the play was leftist. I mean, we’re talking about Brecht. You’re always going to lose some people, even if there’s only one dirty word.” He grinned. “And we have more than one. I don’t think there’s one we don’t hit.”

Given the sordid subject matter, such language hardly seems out of place. Smith plays a former porno producer who creates “murder re-enactments” for cable--and a particularly unsavory boss. “It is a dark play,” he admitted, “but Buck isn’t. Even though he sometimes treats the actors like things you pick up and move around, at heart there’s something quite pure about the character. And that’s his problem, basically. He can’t deal with the garbage that’s going on.”

Although its social panorama--cynical cameramen, hapless bums, crazed actors, hopeful strippers, sadistic mobsters and slap-happy ammo salesmen--is a case study in itself, Smith thinks the play’s core is an inspection of violence.

“You cannot deal with violence over and over without it having an effect on you,” he said seriously. “It must be what happens to policemen who must constantly deal with it. The problem with murder on television is you don’t see how it really is--so kids have this warped idea of it. Someone points a gun at a guy, shoots; he goes ‘ Oh! ‘ and falls down. In real life, it takes awhile to die. There’s blood. It’s not clean. And with Buck, the contemplation of real violence is getting to him.”

Although he originally resisted when producer-girlfriend Lisa Sanman suggested the piece, Smith is now a staunch convert. “It’s a great role for an actor,” he noted, “because of the sweep you get to play. You get to go from complete raving madman down to real delicate sweet stuff. So that’s really fun. What’s also interesting is Buck’s state of mind. From the top of the show, he’s already messed up. His mind is in a bad place. So you’re not starting at ground zero.”

Lately, it takes a special role to get Smith on the stage.

“I don’t do standard theater,” the actor said. “What interests me is stretching the limits. I don’t like theater you could make a movie out of and get the same effect. So if I can help it, I try not to do theater just for the work. You know, it takes a real commitment to do a play. I try to put theater in a place where I protect it--a place of love, where the only reason you do it is for love of the material. See, I do so much garbage in film and TV. . . . “

It’s not all garbage. In addition to his recent Rod Serling takeoff on “Wiseguy,” credits include “L.A. Law,” “Cheers, “Crime Story” and “Newhart,” plus the films “Resurrection” and “The Big Easy.”

There is a constant, however. Most of the time, Smith is cast as a baddie. “I like to think it’s because I have the range to play those guys, give them something quirkier, stretch the role,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t like to think it’s that I don’t look believable as a nice guy. But usually it’s villains, psychotics, drug addicts. I also go up for a lot of rural stuff--Westerners, Southerners--and the occasional Mr. Peepers: nerds with glasses.”

Smith, 40, has been acting since age 15, when he took a drama class at La Crescenta Junior High School “because I thought it would be easy.” Bitten by the bug, he promptly signed up for all the plays and drama classes. “It was something I could excel at,” he said. “My comedy came out.” Although best-known for his work in untraditional stage fare (“Etta Jenks,” “The Geography of Luck” and “Metamorphosis”), his early plays included “Peg O’ My Heart” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” in which he played Puck “a couple of times.”

A visit to San Francisco in the mid-’70s brought a chance audition for Sam Shepard; that experience led to four plays with Shepard’s unofficial company. “Sam was still underground at that point, and we were like the bad kids in town,” the actor recalled happily. When Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class” moved to New York for its premiere in 1978, Smith went too. “I was very fortunate,” he said. “I walked into the Public Theatre and did the lead in a Sam Shepard play, and got a lot of attention.”

Since his 1980 return to Los Angeles, Smith (who has also performed in his own plays, “The Politic Thing” and “How Much Would Chuck?”) has worked steadily. But he never forgets the early days, when jobs were scarce.

“You start to doubt your talent, your sensibilities,” he said with a sigh. “So you put your head down and run for it, try not to think about the future. The truth is, you never know in this business. But it does seem to come in waves. You work, then there are long stretches where you audition and audition--and don’t get anything. I guess you’ve just got to have faith. Look at your history and say, ‘You’ve been through this before. You will work again. You know that.’ ”