NEW YORK — He's played a brooding, chain smoking journalist, a diabolical Hollywood pimp and a high school English teacher who brazenly slept with Tony Soprano's wife. In a 30-year acting career, David Strathairn has been identified with dark, introspective characters who smolder their way through memorable performances.
But now he's appearing as an aging, eccentric uncle in "The Spiderwick Chronicles," opening today, and the contrast is striking: Strathairn spends much of his time on screen interacting with computer-generated characters. It's a visual effects-laden fantasy that's a far cry from his Oscar-nominated turn as newsman Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Is it a radical departure? "More like on-the-job training," he joked, in a phone interview from his upstate New York home. "It was quite a learning experience, both fascinating and intimidating."
As Arthur Spiderwick, Strathairn's character has written a long-forgotten book that, once opened, unleashes a world of strange, unseen creatures. The film, featuring a blend of young actors and seasoned stars -- including Nick Nolte, Mary-Louise Parker and Joan Plowright -- becomes a high-voltage battle between good and evil.
For Strathairn, 59, the challenge was getting used to the intricacies of green screen work: "The mark where you are placed on the set is measured and related to something that's going to happen way down the road, so there are more constraints as far as action is concerned. You're relating to a giant griffin, which is actually a piece of white tape on a grip stand. All of this becomes a real test of the actor's imagination and concentration."
Not exactly what the actor -- or his fans -- have become accustomed to in a career including seven films by John Sayles (one of his closest friends and one of the screenwriters for "The Spiderwick Chronicles"). Other roles have included Pierce Patchett in "L.A. Confidential," as well as parts in "Silkwood," "A League of Their Own," "Bob Roberts," "Lost in Yonkers," "The Firm," "Losing Isaiah" and "The Notorious Bettie Page," among nearly 90 movies.
Strathairn said some of his most noteworthy moments have come from work with iconic, fiercely independent writer-directors. The richness of his experience as an actor has been kindled by the sense of community they create.
