21 Jump Street

Nemesis.  Toadman

Here are some great memories of guest starring with Richard Greico, and my fellow cast mates.  The show was filmed in Vancouver.

The director Ken Wiederhorn had to fight for me to get the part of Toadman. The network didn’t see a  young leading man playing the part who’s name comes from doing too many mushrooms. They saw the part going to a weird character actor. The director said, “Wait till you see this kid Daniel act.”  Ken told me that on the set. Television moves so fast that seldom does a director fight for an actor.  That day I thanked him. Thanks again Ken. Love you for that.

I’m a highly trained actor. An Actors Studio member. I started training at 18 yrs of age, and I still study at The Studio.  For Toadman I worked on an animal exercise. What kind? A gorilla.  A friend of mine saw the episode and said, “you don’t walk like that.”  Exactly I was slightly using a gorillas walk.  Also, I was so much taller than the other actors, Ken kept asking me to slouch, so a gorilla is slouched.  Acting is so much, when you have training.  Yes, I worked on other things for the character too.

Richard Greico and I hit it off. It was his first solo episode; he had a lot riding on it. He made sure we were okay with everything on set.  You can see in our scenes that Richard and I were really having fun. Richard is so unaffected by stardom. Down to earth guy.   He’s a helluva artist, you should see his paintings.

The photo of all of us sitting on the picnic table takes place in the morning at the high school.  You can see in the photo that I’m holding a book. It’s the book Less Than Zero, which I was reading at the time. And I was drinking a coke. None of which was in the script. I added it, thinking what would I be doing in this scene before school starts. I remember the stoners from school would be drinking soda. I wanted Toadman to be smart, so I added the book.  The director loved it, but right before we shot he had to clear the coke with the network. If coke sponsored the show?  Yes they did.  Another scene I start by writing in my journal.  I wanted Toadman to be smart.  I added so many little things like that to Toadman.  The director gave me free reign.   At The Actors Studio West Martin Landau would always tell us, ” eighty five percent of an actors work is never seen.”  I miss you Martin.  In the episode Nemesis I got to really use many things I learned studying as an actor.  I thought you all would get a kick out of these behind the scenes photos and stories.  Oh I have more, like partying in a stretch limo. But some memories I’ll keep for myself.