Post by Erika on Mar 31, 2006 0:41:30 GMT -5
www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=3854db09-eb4e-48e8-8c04-bb65ae26000d&k=85018
Nick Lewis, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, March 30, 2006 Article tools
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Font: * * * * I ask Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on the teen sitcom Saved By The Bell, if he keeps in touch with his fellow actors from the show.
"No, I don't get to the unemployment office that much," the 29-year-old deadpans.
Back to Entertainment
It would be funny if it were true, but the other actors on that popular show, which was produced on NBC from 1988 to 1998, have gone on to greater television success.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, starred on NYPD Blue for four seasons before moving on to Commander In Chief. Mario Lopez (AC Slater) has been a TV regular, hosting short-lived shows such as The Other Half and America's Most Talented Kid. Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie Spano) went on to star in the film Showgirls and appear in a handful of guest-starring roles on CSI and NYPD Blue. And Tiffani Amber Thiessen (Kelly Kapowski) was a regular on Beverly Hills 90210 and Just Shoot Me.
Meanwhile, Dustin Neil Diamond, the only actor to be in every season of the show, has been swallowed up by the giant shadow that is Samuel "Screech" Powers. Screech is the reason he's famous. Screech is also the reason he has trouble finding TV and movie roles. Other than playing himself.
He played himself for a cameo in Jon Favreau's Made, in which Vince Vaughn argues with a bouncer, "Did you just let Screech in the (expletive) club?" He also played himself in the David Spade film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and on Fox's Celebrity Boxing, on which he fought and demolished Ron Pallilo, who played Horshak on Welcome Back Kotter.
"A lot of people want me to play the same type of roles, the Screech reprisals, and I . . . I don't want to play that character for the rest of my life," Diamond, now a standup comedian, says. "I did that for a long time. And now I gotta be careful about what roles I choose, whether they be good roles but poor scripts, or bad roles in good scripts.
"Vince Vaughn called me up and asked me to be in Made, how do you turn that down?"
"And Dickie Roberts, I mean come on, I was a big Chris Farley and David Spade fan, so getting a chance to work in a film with them was a no-brainer."
Seemingly overcompensating for the high-pitched, squeaky Screech, over the phone, Diamond sounds gruff. He says that he doesn't believe he's been typecast or that the role has been a liability.
"The trouble with most celebrities getting typecast is they worry about. . . well, I have to be huge, I have to be a superstar, and people have to fawn all over me," he says. "I'm not that type of person. I like the craft, I like the work. And I've never stopped working. I've paid my dues by being a stand-up comedian and being successful at it."
For the past six years, Diamond has been performing standup comedy, and says it is his new passion.
"I was bitten by the bug immediately," Diamond says. "It's something where, during that hour on stage, I'm completely at home. I take some potshots at myself and at people on (Saved By The Bell) because people want to hear that. But that's a small part of my show. The crux of it is based on relationships, whether they be loving relationships or ones in business."
But he's aware that most people want to hear dirt on what happened behind the scenes of that popular teen drama. Having been three years younger than the other child actors, his closest relationship was with Dennis Haskins, who played the school's principal, Mr. Belding.
"We mostly got along on set," Diamond says. "There were rivalries, like there are with any group of kids that are together for a while. It's like brother-and-sister fights, they're constant, but you have to work with these people every day.
"As far as love interests, when someone was written in to fool around on the show, they would fool around backstage in real life. Kids, their hormones are raging, and every day you gotta practise making out with this person, so -- duh -- backstage they tried to do the same thing.
"It never got weird for me, it did for them, because once the relationship was over, it showed up on camera, and we're not there to have a party and a good time, this is a job, this is work."
Nick Lewis, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, March 30, 2006 Article tools
Printer friendly
Font: * * * * I ask Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on the teen sitcom Saved By The Bell, if he keeps in touch with his fellow actors from the show.
"No, I don't get to the unemployment office that much," the 29-year-old deadpans.
Back to Entertainment
It would be funny if it were true, but the other actors on that popular show, which was produced on NBC from 1988 to 1998, have gone on to greater television success.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, starred on NYPD Blue for four seasons before moving on to Commander In Chief. Mario Lopez (AC Slater) has been a TV regular, hosting short-lived shows such as The Other Half and America's Most Talented Kid. Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie Spano) went on to star in the film Showgirls and appear in a handful of guest-starring roles on CSI and NYPD Blue. And Tiffani Amber Thiessen (Kelly Kapowski) was a regular on Beverly Hills 90210 and Just Shoot Me.
Meanwhile, Dustin Neil Diamond, the only actor to be in every season of the show, has been swallowed up by the giant shadow that is Samuel "Screech" Powers. Screech is the reason he's famous. Screech is also the reason he has trouble finding TV and movie roles. Other than playing himself.
He played himself for a cameo in Jon Favreau's Made, in which Vince Vaughn argues with a bouncer, "Did you just let Screech in the (expletive) club?" He also played himself in the David Spade film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and on Fox's Celebrity Boxing, on which he fought and demolished Ron Pallilo, who played Horshak on Welcome Back Kotter.
"A lot of people want me to play the same type of roles, the Screech reprisals, and I . . . I don't want to play that character for the rest of my life," Diamond, now a standup comedian, says. "I did that for a long time. And now I gotta be careful about what roles I choose, whether they be good roles but poor scripts, or bad roles in good scripts.
"Vince Vaughn called me up and asked me to be in Made, how do you turn that down?"
"And Dickie Roberts, I mean come on, I was a big Chris Farley and David Spade fan, so getting a chance to work in a film with them was a no-brainer."
Seemingly overcompensating for the high-pitched, squeaky Screech, over the phone, Diamond sounds gruff. He says that he doesn't believe he's been typecast or that the role has been a liability.
"The trouble with most celebrities getting typecast is they worry about. . . well, I have to be huge, I have to be a superstar, and people have to fawn all over me," he says. "I'm not that type of person. I like the craft, I like the work. And I've never stopped working. I've paid my dues by being a stand-up comedian and being successful at it."
For the past six years, Diamond has been performing standup comedy, and says it is his new passion.
"I was bitten by the bug immediately," Diamond says. "It's something where, during that hour on stage, I'm completely at home. I take some potshots at myself and at people on (Saved By The Bell) because people want to hear that. But that's a small part of my show. The crux of it is based on relationships, whether they be loving relationships or ones in business."
But he's aware that most people want to hear dirt on what happened behind the scenes of that popular teen drama. Having been three years younger than the other child actors, his closest relationship was with Dennis Haskins, who played the school's principal, Mr. Belding.
"We mostly got along on set," Diamond says. "There were rivalries, like there are with any group of kids that are together for a while. It's like brother-and-sister fights, they're constant, but you have to work with these people every day.
"As far as love interests, when someone was written in to fool around on the show, they would fool around backstage in real life. Kids, their hormones are raging, and every day you gotta practise making out with this person, so -- duh -- backstage they tried to do the same thing.
"It never got weird for me, it did for them, because once the relationship was over, it showed up on camera, and we're not there to have a party and a good time, this is a job, this is work."
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