Actor James Spader made his Broadway debut late last year in Race, the new play by David Mamet. He plays a lawyer in the show — something audiences are used to seeing him do on T.V. through his role as Alan Shore on The Practice and Boston Legal.
In a recent interview posted on Broadway.com, Spader discusses his motivations behind taking on legal roles:
I like confrontation. I like argument and drama. Those definitely exist within the stories that take place in the world of law. If one day, there was an edict that was passed that there could be no more plays or movies or television shows about the world of law, the world of medicine and the world of cops…well, that would be the end of that. It makes sense that they are popular; those are the worlds where stakes are very high very often. They’re fertile ground for drama and for comedy, too….I don’t know how much relation there is between the law or medicine or police work of the fictional world and what exists in real life. I don’t think any of us really endeavor to depict real life—that would be awfully hard on the audience.
Read the full interview here.