Tesh: Hi, I'm John Tesh and welcome to "One On One."  The classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" has had many lives including this year's hit movie.  Just two years ago, it was a hit television show.  Today on "One On One," we visit with the Beast from both.  Ron Perlman played the half-cat, half-man Beast  in the gothic love story on television, and for Perlman this was the career break for which he had waited fifteen years.

A theatre major with a Masters Degree from The University of Minnesota, he spent most of his career unemployed until he got the role of Vincent, the Beast, who lived in the sewer and protected Linda Hamilton from the perils of the city. The role earned Perlman a Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations.

[Clip shown from the pilot episode of “Beauty and the Beast.”]

He was half-man, half-Beast -an unlikely romantic hero who each week rescued the damsel in distress - and spoke like a poet.

[Clip shown from the B&B episode “China Moon.”]

No one was more surprised by the success of "Beauty and the Beast" than its co-star Ron Perlman who won a Golden Globe award for his performance.

[Clip shown from The Golden Globe Awards.]

Ron has had several false starts to stardom.

[Clip shown from “Quest For Fire.”]

In 1982, producers virtually guaranteed that his role as a cave man in "Quest For Fire" would put him in a league all his own. The movie didn't bring him stardom, but it did lead to his next feature part. This time
he journeyed into the future with Angelica Houston and Robert Urich in a space opera: Ice Pirates.

[Clip shown from “Ice Pirates.”]

It's been the parts under heavy makeup that have brought Ron critical acclaim.

[Clip shown from “The Name of the Rose.”]

Ron endured daily five-hour makeup sessions for his role as the handicapped hunchback in The Name of the Rose.

[Clip shown from “Blind Man's Bluff.”]

These days, Ron is performing without a mask as Robert Urich's betrayed best friend in the cable movie, Blind Man's Bluff.

[Picture shown of Ron with his wife, Opal.]

Ron has been married, for the past twelve years, to fashion designer, Opal Stone and they have two children.

[Pictures shown of Ron as a small boy and as a teenager]

He grew up in New York City insecure and overweight, and by his own admission -- a misfit.

Tesh:  What can happen to kids who are overweight - and you, I'm sure, were certainly big, as tall as you are now - is that you can loose your self-confidence.  Did that ever happen?

Perlman:  Oh, absolutely, absolutely.  Those feelings of insecurity and inferiority were things that I knew, but when I realised that we are talking about, how through something positive, like when I finally found my outlet which was acting; then I began to understand the struggle between the impulse to be very creative and what holds you back is self-esteem - self-confidence.

Tesh:  How did you discover the craft of acting?

Perlman:  It really wasn't until high school.  I had made the swimming team and as I'm in swimming practice, this guy comes in from the drama department saying "We got thirty girls in this play and no boys.  You got any guys that you can spare?"  I was this marginal swimmer so the guy says, "Hey, Perlman, out of the pool."  So I went and auditioned and got the lead in this thing.  It was my first narcotic feeling.

Tesh:  In those days when you were beginning acting, were you trying to get commercials and trying to get on Soap Operas--things like that?

Perlman:  Oh, yeah.  I tried to get everything.  There's nothing I didn't try.  The commercial people told me I wasn't commercial enough. The soap opera people told me I wasn't good looking enough.  So, I really never did any of that stuff - ever - at all.

Tesh:  You got slapped enough to quit.  Why didn't you quit?

Perlman:  Because the more I tried to think of what I would do if I wasn't an actor, the more I realised I had absolutely no talent to be anything else - no drive to be anything else - no spark. There was this little voice inside that said, "You win the war if you can find something that you feel passionate about."

Tesh:  At the time your daughter Blake was born, you weren't getting a lot of work, which happens in Hollywood.  You were a househusband during that time, taking care of the baby.  How was that for you?

Perlman:  I was Mr. Mom.  I mean really, from the first diaper in the morning to bath time and the final bottle at night.  We went to the park together; we went everywhere together.  It was tough while it was happening, but in retrospect, I think I was given this incredible gift.

Tesh:  That's the good stuff that comes from that.  Was there any damage during that time to your male psyche, of not going out and being the breadwinner?

Perlman:  Oh yeah, on a constant basis. The male psyche is designed, I'm convinced of it, to be in the game - to be in the hunt.

Tesh:  How did you overcome those feelings? 

Perlman:  You don't overcome those feelings, I don't think.  I think you just hope to get through them with some dignity and you get humble and you say to yourself, "If I ever do get busy, I'm not going to be a jerk.  I know what the value of getting work and being busy in this industry is truly.”

Tesh:  When "Beauty and the Beast" was offered to you, the Beast role, you at first didn't even 
want to consider it because you didn't want to do another role in heavy makeup.  What turned you around?

Perlman:  The script--totally.  I had just finished doing "The Name of the Rose" which was the second big makeup part in a row and I was afraid of becoming the Lon Chaney of my time.  The minute I told my agents and managers, this script arrived which I asked them to not even show me, so that there wouldn't even be an element of temptation.  There it was sitting there and I'd already read the paper and I had nothing else to read, so I started fingering through this thing.
By the time I had read the first two acts, I had cried about three times. It was just so moving and so beautiful and such a clever and inspired telling of a very classic, old tale, which is that there is beauty underneath the surface of things.  But it seemed to be the best version of me trying to make the pain of this childhood - to give it validity - to celebrate the fact that you can rise above....  There was no character that I had ever read who championed those ideals like the Beast - like Vincent.

Tesh:  What happened with the role that you played as Vincent was that many, many women fell in love with the way you played the character and the character himself.

Perlman:   What it seemed to do was it seemed to affirm the need to rise above whatever it is that's holding you back and I constantly, time and time again, would see people being inspired to rise above the malaise--and that was very gratifying -- very gratifying.

Tesh:  Was it difficult, Ron, being in the heavy, heavy makeup that you were doing in "Beauty and the Beast" to have your personality - your character, come through?

Perlman:  I never wanted to appear.  I never wanted Ron to be visible in any of the things that I've done.  That's the actor's job or that's the part of acting that really turns me on.

Tesh:  Would you do it again?  Would you take another heavy makeup role?

Perlman:  There are times in your life when great things find you and there are times when you find great things.  I have been very fortunate because really great things have found me, and I just have to leave the door open for that to continue to take place. It may never again… but - never say never.
 

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