THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNIE

I don’t watch much TV in the summer. With the exception of baseball games, the morning news, and the occasional Letterman monologue or “Cheers” rerun right before bed, I prefer to spend my warm-weather evenings pursuing more active entertainments. This year, however, HBO threw a monkey wrench into my tradition, as I found myself glued to the set once a week to watch the brutal, but brilliant, prison drama, “Oz.” Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Ernie Hudson, the longtime journeyman actor and veteran of such films as Ghostbusters, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and Congo, who now stars as embattled warden Leo Glynn on the HBO drama. Ernie, SMOKE's celebrity cigar panelist for the fall issue, held forth on everything from his struggling early days and playwriting aspirations, to his dedication to his family and the craft of acting - and how one heavily influenced the other. In between, I even managed to get a few tidbits about his upcoming movie projects and the next season of "Oz."

SMOKE: You started out wanting to be a playwright. At what point did you realize acting was going to be your career?

HUDSON: I was attending Yale on a playwriting scholarship, and, at some point, there was a transition. Yale didn't really help me with the writing, but I was in also in the acting program, and they used me in a lot of their theater productions. When I came to L.A., intending to get the writing thing going, the acting work was just always there, and I found it was paying the bills. When my marriage at that time broke up, and my son came to live with me, I realized I needed something immediate. The writing was always very long term. Acting has always been fun to me. I've never reached a point where I've gotten bored or felt it was too much work.

SMOKE: Have you ever thought of writing an episode of “Oz?”

HUDSON: Honestly, I can't imagine wanting to go there in my head. I'm glad to be a part of the show, but the subject matter is so intense. No, I don't think so.

SMOKE: Has it been difficult raising two young sons while maintaining such a busy career?

HUDSON: I knew that if I gave up my acting career, I'd resent it in the long run. I could not honestly look at my children and say, ‘You can be anything you want to be’ if I, in turn, don't believe I can be what I want to be. I had to hold on to that part of myself. Many guys with children don't understand that by accepting that responsibility, it makes them stronger and the rewards are far greater.

SMOKE: Ghostbusters put you in the public eye for the first time. Were you ready for the level of popularity that film achieved?

HUDSON: No, and what really threw me off was that there were fewer offers after that movie than before. It was a big hit, but it didn't translate into more work. What I wasn't prepared for was the level of disappointment I hit. Even though the movie was making a ton of money, I wasn't making any more than usual, and meanwhile the guy at the local store was saying, ‘Hey, did you see that movie? That actor lives right down the street,’ and giving people my apartment number. I'd get guys knocking on the door at 10:00 at night. It was really annoying and I didn't even have the money to move! It was a strange time.

SMOKE: You once said everyone knows you from a different movie. If you could be remembered for just one role, which would it be?

HUDSON: It's hard, because you want people to like you in everything. But there are three movies that I came away from and thought I was pretty good. I liked me in Congo. Some people had some problems with the film, but I really liked that character. The role in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was important to me, because after Ghostbusters, everybody started thinking of me as a comedian, and that movie helped re-establish myself as an actor who can do serious roles. Then there's a TV movie I did with Elizabeth McGovern called Clover. It was on USA Network, and nobody's seen it, but I liked it a lot.

SMOKE: Tell me about your role in Miss Congeniality.

HUDSON: The movie's about a serial killer stalking the contestants in a Miss U.S.A. beauty pageant, and Sandra Bullock is an FBI agent who goes undercover as a contestant. I play her boss. I also played an FBI director in The Watcher, but this is a very different movie, and hopefully, a very funny comedy. I found the roles very different. Hopefully, I won't get locked into doing the same thing; I don't want to end my career playing everybody's boss - you know, like the police captain who's always yelling, "You get your ass in here, now!" (Laughs)

SMOKE: So what's coming up for Warden Glynn on the next season of “Oz?”

HUDSON: It's funny, for the first couple years of the show, I was trying to find the character, and he's not an easy character to find. A hardline conservative black guy - he's a little odd in that sense. Going into last season, I finally found him, and felt really seated in the character. The writing became a lot more layered, with the whole political storyline, and suddenly he became more clear to me. In the next season, his marriage falls apart due to the political campaign. He’s out of politics, turned his back on these aspirations that are no longer meant to happen, plus his personal life’s now falling apart. And there’s a new love interest, too.

SMOKE: It’s an intense show. How do the actors relieve tension on the set?

HUDSON: Now that we’ve all pretty much settled into the characters, it’s actually really fun on the set. The first year it was different. I worked with Adewale, who plays Adebisi, before, in Congo. He was my right-hand man, and we’d become good friends. When he first came on “Oz,” I tried to say, “Hey, Adewale, how’s it going?” and he wouldn’t speak to me! He was so in character, and to him I was “the Warden.” Everybody was doing that stuff at first; now it’s eased up. A lot of these actors are still young, and they were taking it all home with them. After four years, though, that’s changed. I’ve been doing this long enough now to know that I don’t want to live this stuff. I just want to do my job.