Peter Krause

Between a successful, Emmy-nominated turn as Nate on HBO's Six Feet Under, a starring role in the upcoming film, We Don't Live Here Anymore, with big-timers Naomi Watts and Mark Ruffalo and caring for his two-year-old son Roman where his parenting philosophy is simple: “I don't smack him around. I don't yell at him. And if he wants to go to the park in his pajamas, I don't care.”, Peter Krause has somehow found time to make his Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's semi-autobiographical play, After the Fall. He plays Quentin, who is haunted in his head by his past and the most important women in his life, including a bombshell singer that bears more than a passing resemblance to Miller's late wife Marilyn Monroe. The former Sports Night star whose last name is pronounced "Krow-za" recently took some time midway through the always-hectic preview period to share his intelligent and politically conscious views on Arthur Miller and his deeply personal play.

So how are things going with your Broadway debut?
Well, I'm exhausted! Arthur came to see the play again last night and so we spoke at length afterwards because we've been trying a lot of new, different things with the play.

Arthur, huh? Not “Arthur Miller: famed playwright and theater legend?” He must be incredible to talk to. When did you first meet him?
I first met him in the rehearsal hall here in New York. He watched us do a run-through from about five feet away from where I was performing.

Well that must have been a little nerve-wracking.
Initially yes. But he's a very lovely man and very open and accessible and as bright and quick-witted as anybody our age.

Did he take you aside and talk to you about the play or did you have to seek that out?
Immediately he did. The two times he's come to see the play he's come back to my dressing room and we've had conversations at length. He's been very pleased with all the scene-work and the cast, but he's concerned about addressing the audience, I think perhaps because it wasn't done that way initially.

It must be hard for him to see his original ideas changed that fundamentally.
It may be hard to see it changed, yeah, and he's said he feels like sometimes I'm hammering away too hard at the audience. I rather like including the audience that way because, to me, the pretense is, “Oh I'm going to tell you a story about myself,” but I think pretty much from the beginning, the audience understands the way we have been doing it: “I'm going to tell you a story about me, but it's also about you. It's about all of us.”

The fact that we spend the whole play between Quentin's mind and reality indicates he's a pretty complex character to take on. What about Quentin speaks to you?
Well Michael and I talked a lot about the level of Quentin's confidence. He's confident enough to admit that he doubts himself. Isn't it human to have feelings and to ask questions and to wonder about what's happening and not just to subscribe to some dogma that's been passed down to us? I'm moved to think about the political state of our country right now. Most people who go out and vote have a very clear sense of what's right and wrong. And a lot of those people who don't aren't sure, so they don't go out and vote. That uncertainty paralyzes them in some way from action, which isn't good, but in some ways it has become--I don't know if it's socially unacceptable or a perceived sign of weakness--but to be uncertain is ugly.

It seems like your character, Nate, on Six Feet Under deals with similar issues. Do you see a lot of similarities between he and Quentin?
I do. I just try not to think about it just because this is a separate thing. I would say that Nate is more trapped than Quentin. Quentin leads a more privileged life. I mean really, this is a play about a very fortunate man and some very fortunate people. It's about guilt and how you live in a world where these things happen and still recognize your own individuality.

It sounds like you're very passionate about the play's themes.
Well I struggle with these sorts of things too. I mean, how do you as the operator of your being, not go through life unconsciously? Then once you try and lead a conscious life, how do you at first affect your being and then the behavior of others? So, I could extrapolate from that and say I would be very proud to live in a country that led by example and, if we, employed our military to build solar panels and hydroelectric equipment to liberate people from the tyranny of companies like Enron, that seems to me that would be a country by and for the people. But instead it seems like we're going other places in the world and, like an abusive parent, trying to slap people around into having a democracy. But to question behavior--and this is what he does in the play--on a personal scale and on a political scale is very important because they're near one another.

The play tackles a significant era in the U.S. political history—McCarthyism and the fears about Communism in the 1950's. Did you research that time period at all? What are your thoughts?
I'm very wary of large groups of people getting together and trying to believe the same thing. It never seems to end well, whether it's political or religious or whatever. I would go so far as to say that in this world of broken definitions that we live in, people's identities are at a crisis point because there's a misunderstanding about their place in the world. To erase all our commonality and create an “Us/Them” situation where there is no “Them,” is a broken definition. It really doesn't work. And that worldview isn't widely accepted on our globe. People are first and foremost Republicans, first and foremost Anarchists, first and foremost a man or woman, and that is a mistake. It hurts the individual and it hurts the whole.

So when you choose a project, you look for something that you think will change the way people think. Do you feel you're able to do that in After the Fall?
This is exactly what I have always wanted to be doing. It's been difficult to get here. I've had to do a lot of other things along the way. There was a time when, as an actor, I simply wanted to do everything. My philosophy once I got out to NYU, was that anyone is a character I might play, because we are all each other. I mean, I don't want to start singing The Beatles or reciting E.E. Cummings, but I do feel that way. Something I can do in my career is to play many roles and show many faces and to show that we all exist within each other and we are all alike. I frequently remind myself that at the end of the day when I go to bed that, during this day that I lived, there were people eating, people sleeping, people breathing, and that a lot of what we do in terms of the verbs of life are the same. I'm really just interested in questioning stories and people out there so that people who are questioning things deeply and don't know what to do and are uncertain, are confident enough to admit that they do doubt themselves, that they don't have to hide behind some screen of absolute right and wrong. If I do have an agenda, my agenda is to get people to see that a lot of what we're upholding and a lot of the identity attachments that we have are really a disservice to everyone.

So is that why people are always dying around your characters? Is that an inevitable part of getting to people?
I guess. I mean, any time the subject death is brought up, it shadows your life and what to do with the time that you live. But I wouldn't be able to argue somebody who said you should have picnics and gardens and play guitar and make love and that's all you have to do.

Does your upcoming movie, We Don't Live Here Anymore, fit into your “agenda?”
That character is more accepting of humanity than some of these other characters I'm playing. He accepts the fact that he wants to sleep with other women besides his wife. He accepts that he's only going to get away with it if he's somewhat duplicitous, and he accepts that that might be a part of human nature. He's got a worldview of, “I'm going to try and get my joy. You try and get yours and I'm going to try not to hurt you,” but there is a lack of desire to be responsible for others on his part. You'll see when you see the movie. He's interesting and I can easily stand up for him and his life choices even though many people will find him despicable.

So it seems like you're at a really busy point in your career. What are you doing next? Will we see you back on Broadway?
I want to come back at some point. I'd love to a comedy on stage. There is a slight danger in typecasting--the, “Oh, let's get him to carry the heavy emotional load!” Well, I've been carrying the heavy emotional load for some time now and it gets tiring!

So will you be taking a lighter role and reuniting with Joshua Molina on TV's Celebrity Poker? Poker producer Molina co-starred with Krause on Sports Night.
No, I don't think so.

Not a poker player, huh?
Well I just think I exist enough in the public eye in the work that I'm doing that I don't need to. My honest answer to your question is that I want to go disappear from the acting world and be myself for a while. I don't mean forever, but in the immediate future I just feel like I want to be me. I enjoy myself. I like the character that I am. I spend so much time not being me that I start to miss myself!