Ted Danson is having a close encounter of the spiritual kind.
The handsome star of hit CBS series Becker will be starring in Living with the Dead, a new four-hour miniseries for CBS, as the famed medium and best-selling author James Van Praagh.
The story revolves around a man (Danson) who comes to terms with his ability to speak to the dead and is then asked to help solve a series of murders by communicating with the victims who are on the other side. The miniseries also stars Queen Latifah, Michael Moriarty, Diane Ladd, Jack Palance and Mary Steenburgen, Danson‘s real-life lady love.
Danson talks to us about his feelings on Van Praagh and the message of love and understanding he conveys to the world as well as what it is like to have a real-life experience with a psychic medium.
This story departs somewhat from James Van Praagh’s actual life but rather deals with the fact he is a medium. Did you feel doing it this way would give the story more meaning?
Ted Danson: I think the struggle, whenever you make a film or television movie based on a real person’s life, is finding a dramatic arc that will hold an audience’s attention. We definitely did not try and do the life story of James Van Praagh. When Van Praagh was in his 20s, he did go through a lot of soul searching, which is what is expected. But as a man in his 50s, like I am, questions like “Who am I?” and “Where am I?” are not as interesting, dramatically. So, they changed the story a little bit to make it work, framing it within a murder mystery. James’ message is that life is about love and forgiveness. When all is said and done, that’s all there is, and I think we’ve absolutely captured that message. In the story, the man who commits the murders is a pretty hard person to love and forgive. Yet, it’s the children’s love and forgiveness that ends up setting them free. I think that’s a really powerful message, and it’s James’ message.
Why do you think Hollywood is so interested in this kind of material, in The Sixth Sense and the supernatural? Do you think it’s a reflection on what’s going on in society?
Danson: That’s a good question. Well, certainly, Hollywood, when they see a good thing, goes with it to try and make a buck. When you look at the world today, the Middle East, I really believe in this message of love and forgiveness. It’s a tough thing to ask, but it’s what the world is wrestling with today. “I will not love and forgive you until you go first or unless you apologize like mad.” There is such a reluctance to let go. The stakes are high, they are. How do you stop escalating fear, anger and violence? There is only one way–and it’s not through more.
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Are you a believer in mediums?
Danson: I don’t know if I believe in mediums, per se, but I had a powerful experience with James Van Praagh and saw others have the same thing. I’ve been in the room with James four times–twice he was dealing with me directly, and the other times, he was working with other people. Even when he was working with someone next to me, I could see that it had a huge impact on them and was incredibly moving to them, but it was still anecdotal, a story to me, until he turns his attention on you. My experience was very powerful, like a two-by-four across the head. I won’t get into specifics, but it dealt with my father, who had died six months beforehand. Before I met with James, I would wake up every morning mildly depressed. There was a longing for my father. After that evening [with James], I felt that I didn’t have to long for a relationship past, that I indeed still had a current relationship with my father. When I’m still enough, I can be part of not a literal conversation, but a literal communication, with my father. And I have since been waking up with a laugh and a giggle rather than a longing.
Did you want to do this project because of your experience with Van Praagh?
Danson: No, kind of the opposite. I had grown fond of James and really enjoyed his books. I thought he was doing a great thing, putting that message out into the world. A year later, the script came my way, and I had no desire to be part of it at all. I just thought, there’s my private life and my journey, and then there’s acting. I didn’t want to mix the two. Mary [Steenburgen] and I didn’t want to work that summer. There were millions of reasons not to do it. I think one of my fears was that this work does have meaning to me, does have resonance. But when you dramatize something, when Hollywood gets a hold of something, it can very easily go wrong. It can become trite, simplistic, all these things to make people turn off the television. And that would be a shame. Then our really good friend [director] Stephen Gyllenhaal got involved and thought it could be a very powerful piece. He’s a really great director, and I thought he did an amazing job with this. It was also a chance to work with Mary. The project succeeds because of Stephen’s vision and the powerful story line–with James’ message in there.
Did Mary have a similar psychic experience along with you?
Danson: I feel very strongly about safeguarding those experiences, so I would rather you ask that question to Mary herself. She was instrumental in bringing James into our lives and a huge part of this process and knows him very well, but her own feelings and thoughts should come from her. If you don’t mind.
How was it working with Jack Palance, someone you’ve admitted to having a great respect for?
Danson: He’s great! What a handful–a very powerful man. I’m as star-struck as anyone, this guy was in Shane, for god sakes. He’s amazing, a very energetic man. So, I was having a conversation with him and asked if he exercised because, you know, I go to the gym and lift weights. He told me he liked to box. And then he promptly got up and started shadow-boxing with so much power and grace. It’s was “Yes, sir. No, sir, Mr. Palance” from then on. And he was absolutely wonderful in [Living with the Dead], I thought.
On the upcoming Cheers reunion on Frasier, you aren’t going to be there. Why?
Danson: Then it’s not a Cheers reunion, by god, but an episode of Frasier, right? I was busy doing my thing around the corner and had been on Frasier as Sam [Malone] one other time. The others hadn’t. So I think it was more a matter of that. I think when it comes time to do a genuine Cheers reunion, which I still think would be the funniest if it were done in our 70s, we need to do it as a Cheers reunion and not a Frasier episode.
How are you enjoying the CBS series Becker?
Danson: I’m having a lot of fun. But I have to tell you, it’s a lot easier to be cheerful than it is to be grumpy. Sam was like falling off a log compared to Becker. I’m tired at the end of the season because it’s tiring being grumpy. You use and lose a lot of energy being grumpy. So at the end of the season, I’m ready for rehab.
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What is the acting process like for you?
Danson: This is where I’m going to attempt to sound intelligent. Well, with [Living with the Dead], the first part of the process was working on the script with Stephen and Mary and making sure everything made logical sense. What I try to do most is find ways where I don’t have to “act.” Where the story does it for me or the situation and I don’t have to pretend. Obviously, there are certain places where you have to make a leap. Anthony Hopkins has this great thing he says: He doesn’t step on stage until he’s read his part, each line, 200 times. It becomes familiar. Something happens to you after a certain point where you are no longer saying somebody else’s words–they somehow magically become your words. That’s part of the process.
I guess in a way, everything about my life, my journey, my path, my belief system made this material not seem so foreign to me. I’m not going, “Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, this stuff is caca, but I’ll act my way through it.” It’s very real to me. I don’t find it astonishing. I find the work we have to do in life is outrageously difficult–talking to spirits that have passed on is pretty easy. I don’t know how to do it, but it seems to me that’s not the point. It is an amazing message, and I love it. The hard stuff is how you live every moment of your life.
Living with the Dead will air on CBS Sunday, April 28 and Tuesday, April 30 at 9:00 p.m. EST.
