Look Who’s Acting

Roger Daltrey’s trademark blond curls may have been sheared into a short, close-cropped do, but the 55-year-old lead singer of the legendary Who remains quite a charismatic, handsome figure.

Showtime’s outrageous comedy series “Rude Awakening” has brought him to Los Angeles. He has a recurring role on the show as a flamboyant rock star who has entered a 12-step program, and it was time for him to drop in on the action once again. He’s also out promoting his role as Boric, king of the fairies, in NBC’s lavish new miniseries “The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns,” which airs Sunday and Monday.

Relaxing in the living room of a friend’s expansive Beverly Hills home recently, Daltrey seems just a regular bloke in his blue jeans and blue T-shirt. His vibrant blue eyes are beaming. His laughter is frequent, hearty and seems to come up all the way from his toes.

Curled up in a leather chair, Daltrey explains that he got involved with “Rude Awakening” primarily because he wanted to do comedy. “I don’t usually play rock stars,” he says, in a been-there, done-that kind of way.

“But this was well written and Lynn Redgrave is in it. I wanted to have the experience of a sitcom. I thought I’d give it a try and play some way-out wacky fictional character, someone like Keith Richards and Alice Cooper rolled into one. It’s actually great fun.”

Claudia Lonow, the creator, executive producer and writer of “Rude Awakening,” has been a longtime Who fan. “The Beatles, the Stones and the Who are the top bands of that [‘60s] era,” she says. “He was a fan of the show. I came to work one day and had gotten a call that Roger Daltrey wanted to meet with me. Everything came together.”

What Lonow discovered was Daltrey’s natural ability with comedy. “You wouldn’t think he has it, because he has been a singer and hasn’t had a chance to do comedy.” And, she says, the entire “Rude Awakening” crew gets treated to more than just comic talent.

“He would sing things around the set to the crew,” she recalls. “They loved him. We really lucked out with him. He’s a doll.”

Daltrey also gets a chance to exercise his comedic chops in “Leprechauns,” in which he is almost unrecognizable underneath the special makeup as Boric. “The king of the fairies, that part I always wanted,” he says with a sly cackle.

“The story is about this guy who goes to Ireland and has these leprechauns in the cottage that he rents. You uncover these two worlds--the leprechauns and fairies. The leprechauns are good for nothing. They never wash, and the fairies are incredibly industrious and vain and live in this glorious palace.”

What he especially loved about the miniseries is that it is family entertainment. “That is something that there is sadly not much of,” Daltrey says. “When we grew up, even parents could watch ‘The Lone Ranger.’ ”

Like Lonow, “Leprechauns” director found Daltrey an utter dream.

“We thought he would be really good,” John Henderson says. “He has the right image and would blend in beautifully with all the other actors.”

Henderson believes Daltrey’s real strength as an actor lies in the life he has led. “He’s had so many experiences . . . and in such a relatively short life. He can pull from anything. If you wanted him to play a rock star, that’s fine. If you wanted him to play a posh upper-class English person like in this one, he can do that too. All good actors can pull from their experiences, and he has a bigger data base than everyone else.”

Daltrey caught the acting bug after starring in “Tommy,” Ken Russell’s 1975 film version of the Who’s seminal 1969 rock opera.

As an actor, he says, “there is nothing I don’t want to do.”

Last year, in fact, he played Scrooge in a musical version of “A Christmas Carol” in New York. “It was wonderful,” Daltrey recalls. “I took to the theater like a duck to water. Unfortunately, it was 15 shows a week and it nearly killed me. Saturday was like Groundhog Day in the theater. The problem was that to make the audience feel what Scrooge is feeling, you have to try and show what’s going on inside of him, and to do that in a 5,000-odd-seat theater took enormous amounts of energy. In the end, I got that dreadful flu bug, which laid me low for abut a month.”

Though he received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in “Tommy,” he says it took a while to convince people he could act.

“I had the potential to be a great actor, but I didn’t know anything about the craft,” he says. “So I had to go out and learn that. Being an already famous rock star, it is not easy, because you have to make all of your mistakes in public.

“I did almost everything that came through the door. I had no comprehension of building a career. I just wanted to learn how to act. It was the Michael Caine school of acting. I went on to do Shakespeare and opera.”

But there are subtle elements in acting and singing that are quite alike, according to Daltrey. “I almost have always sung someone else’s words,” he says.

“To put that across and make [audiences] believe it, you are acting anyway. But there is a different discipline in acting. When you are doing TV and film, you continually invent. That is what I like, the invention of characters. It’s like painting; you start with a blank canvas and you strip yourself off and then you start putting clothes and mannerisms on the guy.”

But he hasn’t abandoned rock ‘n’ roll. In fact, the Who, which also includes Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, have reunited for five charity performances, which began last month.

* “The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns” will be shown Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC. The network has rated it TV-PG (parental guidance suggested). “Rude Awakening” is shown Saturdays at 10 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17).