{"id":3876,"date":"2014-09-07T20:16:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-07T20:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3876"},"modified":"2014-09-10T15:24:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T15:24:00","slug":"heres-the-original-equalizer-edward-woodward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3876","title":{"rendered":"Here’s the original ‘Equalizer’, Edward Woodward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Equalizer.TV<\/a><\/p>\n

As Denzel Washington steps into the shoes of Robert McCall in “The Equalizer”, here’s what the original TV Equalizer told me\u00a0about it in\u00a01986. Edward Woodward died in 2009 aged 79.<\/p>\n

Hey, instigator! Hypnotizer! Extricator!<\/p>\n

No matter what you call him, Edward Woodward gets the job done \u2013 as The Equalizer<\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

On the streets of Manhattan, New Yorkers call out to the suave, unassuming man in the handsome long English topcoat: \u201cHey, Instigator!\u201d \u201cHey, Hypnotizer!\u201d, \u201cHey, Extricator!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cName any variation of Equalizer and I\u2019m called it,\u201d says Edward Woodward, the urbane Shakespearian actor from England whose location work on CBS\u2019s \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d has made him a well-recognised fixture on the streets of New York.<\/p>\n

In the series, Woodward \u2013 best known for the fact-based 1979 Australian movie \u201cBreaker Morant\u201d \u2013 plays a retired espionage agent who applies his dangerous skills to help people in a jam who have nowhere else to turn.<\/p>\n

Woodward has worked in New York before, starring on Broadway in \u201cRattle of a Simple Man\u201d, for which he won the New York Theatre Critics Award, and in Noel Coward\u2019s \u201cHigh Spirits\u201d, but the exposure of a network series is vastly greater. And since \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d is shot almost entirely on location, the city\u2019s street folk have come to accept him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite astonishing, shooting here,\u201d Woodward says. \u201cPeople are far more interested than they are, say, in London, and there\u2019s a strange sort of knowledge that if they\u2019re not quiet when a scene is being shot then it won\u2019t work. We\u2019ll often have enormous crowds watching but whenever the assistant director shouts, \u2018Right, quiet everybody\u2019, 400 people are suddenly silent. As soon as he says, \u2018Cut\u2019, the bedlam starts again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodward is used to being recognised. His hit series \u201cCallan\u201d made him a star in England in the late 1960s but it\u2019s a new phenomenon in North America.<\/p>\n

There were fears at CBS and Universal, the studio that produces \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d, that his star power would not translate to North American audiences. Although he is a superb actor, Woodward is 55 and his Savile Row appearance is a far cry from Don Johnson.<\/p>\n

Michael Sloan, who with former partner Richard Lindheim created \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d, wrote and produced the pilot episode last year. Sloan fought for Woodward. \u201cIt was a tough piece of casting,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s great to write this cool, compassionate, tough, sophisticated, austere guy. But who\u2019s gonna play him?\u201d<\/p>\n

The studio wanted someone like James Coburn but Sloan stuck to his guns. His persistence paid off when test audiences ranked Woodward in the Top 20% in the \u201cQ\u201d popularity ratings.<\/p>\n

There has never been a character quite like the Equalizer on television, which helps to explain, says one of the show\u2019s former producers, why it has taken viewers a while to catch on. And though it hasn\u2019t been a ratings front-runner, \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d has equalised\u00a0 the numbers of other series in the same time slot such as \u201cSpenser: For Hire\u201d and \u201cStingray\u201d. Co-creator Lindheim, now a senior vice-president of programming at Universal, points out that in its first season the series has almost the same ratings that \u201cMiami Vice\u201d, another Universal series, had in its debut year.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMiami Vice\u201d connection runs deep in that Joel Surnow, who with that show last year, had a key role in producing \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d this season. And just as \u201cMiami Vice\u201d has an original weekly soundtrack score provided by a bona fide rock figure (Jan Hammer), \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d has Stewart Copeland, drummer from the rock group The Police (a rough cut of each episode is sent to England where Copeland matches music to action). Further pedigree is provided by executive producer James McAdams, who used New York street scenes to good effect in Telly Savalas\u2019s hit series \u201cKojak\u201d.<\/p>\n

Universal\u2019s Lindheim says that CBS senior vice-president of programming Harvey Shepherd, who approved the series originally, watches it every week, and all concerned were confident that it would continue next season. Last month, CBS announced officially that \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d would indeed return.<\/p>\n

That sits well with Woodward, who says that aside from the obvious financial rewards of doing a network series, the only reason he decided to work in the States was the role of Robert McCall, the Equalizer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great myth about how much people are paid in American television,\u201d he says. \u201cOnly after a show has been on for two years can you say that it\u2019s some kind of a hit. That\u2019s when the funny money starts happening. In the interim, you\u2019re paid very well but it\u2019s not millionaire time. It might become that time but it isn\u2019t at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodward had made a short film for Michael Sloan in England some 15 years ago and so he readily agreed to read his script for \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d.<\/p>\n

What he liked was the the Equalizer is a man without fear. \u201cI have in mind all the time a priest friend of mine, a Franciscan,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to do a lot of work for the Franciscans \u2013 poetry readings, things like that \u2013 and I recall driving with this man one day. We went for a long drive, right the way from Dublin to the Francisco house in Galway. And he drove like a maniac.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would turn left when he should have turned right. He never gave a signal. And he was laughing and talking away. In the end, I had to say, \u2018Lucius, stop the car.\u2019 I said to him, \u2018I can\u2019t stand this. You\u2019re the worst driver I\u2019ve ever seen. You don\u2019t take any notice of stoplights. You\u2019re mad!<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh, dear, dear, Edward, of course. I\u2019m terribly sorry. I s\u2019pose y\u2019see, it\u2019s because I have no fear of dying.\u2019 It struck me that a man who has no fear would be a pretty good guy to have around in certain circumstances. Just don\u2019t drive with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It concerns Woodward that there is so much gunplay in \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d. \u201cI, like most actors who are involved in \u2018tough-guy\u2019 series, have a great problem with violence and I certainly am ambivalent about it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to say, \u2018Violence is OK if it\u2019s not gratuitous\u2019, but that\u2019s always difficult to actually define.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violent aspect of any show worries me as a viewer and particularly as a father. I\u2019ve always made sure with my older children \u2013 and Michelle and I make sure with our baby \u2013 that they\u00a0 watch television shows that we really want them to watch. That\u2019s not a get-out. Not everybody is in a position or has the inclination to do do that. But the final arbiter of violence on television is the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodward is not ambivalent about his appeal to North American women. \u201cI take it all with a pinch of salt and an enormous slice of humour,\u201d he says. \u201cTelevision is all fantasy, and people like to vicariously fall in love with characters. If women are reacting that way, and I do keep being told by journalists that they are, if that helps the series, I\u2019m all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no much hope, though, for fans who wish to take things further. Woodward has been with the same woman, Michelle Dotrice, daughter of stage actor Roy Dotrice, for a number of years and they have a daughter, Emily Beth, who\u2019ll be 3 in July. \u201cThere is,\u201d says the Equalizer firmly, \u201cno competition\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Denzel Washington steps into the shoes of Robert McCall in “The Equalizer”, here’s what the original TV Equalizer told me\u00a0about it in\u00a01986. Edward Woodward died in 2009 aged 79. Hey, instigator! Hypnotizer! Extricator! No matter what you call him, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15,1770],"tags":[2064,2066,2099,1204],"class_list":["post-3876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-television","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-the-equalizer","tag-edward-woodward","tag-michael-sloan","tag-tv-guide-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}