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Interview: WAREHOUSE 13’s Saul Rubinek on the Serious Business of Being Funny

Posted on 06 August 2009

Tags: Interviews, Saul Rubinek, television, Warehouse 13

Some actors make it look so easy, stealing every scene they’re in, generating laughs with gestures both big and small.

Of course, it helps if you’re as talented and experienced as Saul Rubinek, one of those long-time actors who everyone recognizes, but many people can’t quite name.

In Rubinek’s case, he’s appeared in everything from the movies Unforgiven and True Romance, to the television shows Star Trek: The Next Generation and Frasier (where he played Donny Douglas, Daphne’s fiance).

But more and more people are remembering his name these days, now that he’s been cast as Arthur “Artie” Nielsen, the hilarious, socially awkward caretaker on Warehouse 13, a break-out hit for the newly-renamed SyFy Network.

Recently, I got a chance to talk to the veteran character actor about whether he’s a geek in real life, how it might have been very embarrassing if the show had tanked, and the serious business of being funny:

TheTorchOnline: When did you realize that the show was going to be so funny?

Saul Rubinek: When they hired me. If they wanted the show to take itself seriously, they wouldn’t have hired me. Or Eddie McClintock, for that matter.

[The producers] always knew that they needed to have a grain of salt, they needed to walk a tightrope. If they take themselves too seriously, they fall over. If they don’t take themselves seriously enough there’s no tension in the show.

TTO: How much of the humor comes from the script, and how much do the actors contribute?

SR: The show’s are written, and the writers are wonderful, and they have a great sense of humor. And some of the jokes that look like they’re off-the-cuff are because the writers happen to be very funny, and we [the actors] try to make it look off-the-cuff.

That said, everybody’s been given an edict to let the actors loose a little. We’ve been hired to invest the roles with our own senses of humor, our own personalities, and our own dramas — we’re let loose on the serious side as well. Occasionally, if [we say] a funny line, if [executive producer] Jack Kenny is on the set, he’ll make it funnier, trust me.

TTO: Are you surprised that the show is such a big hit?

SR: I’m pleasantly surprised. I was hoping against hope that it would be, because I love doing it. If it’s a hit, that means we get to do more of them.

The executives are very happy. Look, it was their flagship show, rebranding an entire network, huge for them and for us.

TTO: In other words, it could’ve been very embarrassing if you’d tanked!

SR: Could’ve been, yeah!

TTO: From my point-of-view as a non-actor, it seems to me you have the best role on the show, because you get to steal every scene you’re in, but you’re not in every scene. True?

SR: I only have the fun of having a character that doesn’t have to carry the weight of the action the way Eddie and Joanne do. Luckily, they’ve thrown Allison [Scagliotti] to play Claudia Donovan into the mix, and it gives me kind of a daughter. Artie had no life, he’s been married to the warehouse, his children are the artifacts, he has no life. And now he’s got an ethical responsibility to this very young person, who’s brilliant and a trouble-maker.

We all are scene-stealers in our own way [on the show]. They’ve given us that opportunity.

TTO: Are you a geek in real life?

SR: I like to play chess, I’ve always liked good story. I haven’t run after sci-fi. I like science fiction if it’s well-written. I like so many different genres that I wouldn’t call myself a geek. I’m a lover of great stories, and I’m even more a lover of acting them out.

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Review: WAREHOUSE 13 Goes for Broad, Campy Fun (And it Sorta Works)

Posted on 05 July 2009

Tags: CCH Pounder, Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Reviews, Saul Rubinek, television, The SyFy Channel, three-torch reviews, Warehouse 13

Three Torches (Out of Five)

There are two kinds of programs on the Sci Fi Channel: those like Battlestar Galactica that are better and more sophisticated than almost anything you’re going to see on the traditional networks, and those like Sanctuary that, while they may have a certain campy charm, simply don’t hold a candle to the more established network shows in terms of acting, production values, and, especially, writing.

Now that I think about it, Battlestar Galactica might be the only Sci Fi Channel show to fall into the former category. But definitely put Warehouse 13 in the latter.

The show isn’t a disaster. But given that it’s Sci Fi’s Big New Show — the one they’re rolling out with much fanfare on the day they’re changing their name to “The SyFy Channel” — it’s also a bit of a disappointment.

Pete and Myka, two seemingly down-on-their-luck Secret Service agents, are assigned to work a secretive facility in South Dakota, a warehouse where mysterious magical items and inventions are stored by the government. Artie, an eccentric caretaker (veteran character actor Saul Rubinek), tries to make sense of them all.

“It’s an invitation to endless wonder,” says Mrs. Frederick (CCH Pounder), the enigmatic woman who oversees the project.

Awkward hyperbole aside, it’s a great premise — part X-Files, part Indiana Jones.

What works in the show?

The producers have definitely gone the “Ken and Barbie” route in casting oh-so-pretty Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly as Secret Service Agents Pete and Myka, but the two have a nice, easy-going chemistry together.

Rubinek steals almost every scene as Artie, and Pounder is terrific (as usual) in a small, but effective part.

Likewise, the show really embraces its humor, which is a nice change after decades of earnestness and angst in similarly paranormal-themed shows like The X-Files, Fringe, and Supernatural.

What works less well?

Well, too much of the humor falls flat. A “wishing pot” creates a ferret whenever the holder wishes for something impossible? And compared to shows like The X-Files and Supernatural, Warehouse 13 has very little subtly and doesn’t miss a chance to dumb things it down.

Many of the items in the warehouse combine lousy science and with outright hokiness. A car built by Thomas Edison runs on body electricity (to the show’s credit, it’s the slowest-moving car ever created — but, weirdly, this isn’t played for laughs).

Artie keeps in contact with the agents with something called a “Farnsworth” — an awkward, bulky video communicator built in 1929 by the inventor of the television. But wouldn’t a cell phone adapted for use in Warehouse 13 be a whole lot easier?

It’s not just the humor that’s broad; the plots and characterizations are too. The central mystery in the two-hour premiere episode involves an ancient Italian comb that turns the wearer in a power-hungry despot and … well, let’s just say the episode won’t be winning any Peabody Awards.

(And can I just say? It seems bizarre to me that the show pairs an ultra-competent, “by the books” woman with an easy-going, rakish guy — a dynamic that already a cliche way back when The X-Files did it. Why make The X-Files comparisons even more inevitable?)

But this isn’t a show that was made to be seriously pondered. It was made to be fun.

And for the most part, it is.

Warehouse 13’s two-hour premiere movie airs Tuesday, July 7th at 9 PM. Future installments will air on Wednesdays at 9 PM. Check out their genuinely clever website here.