One of the recurring hazards of this column is, “Wait, I haven’t done [person] yet?” Because there are a lot of people out there, and I haven’t even been doing this for two years yet. But Kevin Kline? Kevin Kline is great! And we were talking about this at Ren faire and agreed that Soapdish in general is well cast, and I should do a whole month about it. I’ve already done Sally Field, but Kevin Kline is a fine place to start, and I do legitimately wonder why I hadn’t gotten to him yet, because seriously, Kevin Kline is great!
It was Roger Ebert who observed that Kevin Kline is moustachioed for comedies and clean-shaven for dramas. It’s not universally true, but it’s frequently true. While he has a reputation as a comic actor, he first came to the public’s attention in Sophie’s Choice. Apparently, Pirates of Penzance, which he’d been in on Broadway, filmed first but was released later. Still, he’s done both comedy and drama his whole career, including a bunch of Shakespeare. Is it really a surprise to learn that he’s done both Bottom and Falstaff?
Honestly, I feel like Shakespeare would’ve loved to have written for the guy. This may seem like hyperbole, but he’s got exactly the set of skills Shakespeare would’ve loved. I saw his Hamlet, actually, and he was pretty good. He was astounding in Sophie’s Choice. He was very good in The Ice Storm. And, of course, there are the comedies. And he can even sing and swashbuckle. He was called the American Olivier, but I at bare minimum think he’s funnier than Olivier ever was.
The more I write about him, the more I wonder why it took me this long to get to him, and I think the problem is back to the underrating of comedy. He’s one of the only people to have won an Oscar for comedy, actually, for his portrayal of Otto in A Fish Called Wanda. And frankly, it’s a damn fine performance. He’s good in it, one of the shining lights of a well-packed movie. It’s something that comes up every time Kevin Kline’s career gets discussed, and it’s absolutely right to do so.
But let me throw out some love for Soapdish, which brought us here in the first place. Because wow, Soapdish. He plays Jeffrey Anderson, the former love interest of Sally Fields as Celeste Talbert. He’s eaten with self-consciousness and low self-esteem and grandiosity and so forth. The finale of the movie is one of the funniest scenes in cinematic history. I saw it in the theatre and have been proselytizing it ever since. No lie, I think Shakespeare would’ve loved it.