{"id":9480,"date":"2014-02-14T16:31:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9480"},"modified":"2014-02-14T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:33:20","slug":"alda-ego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/alda-ego\/","title":{"rendered":"Alda Ego"},"content":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Alan Alda was Mainer Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H <\/em>for 11 years. He was nominated for an Oscar playing Maine Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in The Aviator<\/em>. What is it about Alda and Maine?<\/h3>\n

Interview by Diane Russell<\/p>\n

\"Alda-Ego\"<\/a>Although from away\u2013Alan Alda was born in New York\u2013\u201cI became a Mainer in 1957 when I played at the Kennebunkport Playhouse,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was beautiful there. I was just married, and my wife and I were busy exploring all the nooks and crannies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But does he talk like a Mainer? \u201cDo people from Maine speak with an accent? I don\u2019t think so. If they have an accent, how come Meryl Streep never played anyone from Maine?\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s played two characters from Maine, Hawkeye is pure fiction and Senator Brewster was an historical figure. Are there other differences?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a great similarity in that they\u2019re both played by me and therefore bear a remarkable resemblance to one another. Otherwise, they\u2019re as different as night and meatloaf,\u201d says Alda, 69. \u201cPierce took no guff and Brewster took no prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, \u201cand one of them was a lot older than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real-life Sen. Brewster was governor of Maine for five years before entering Congress in 1935 and then the Senate in 1941. It was in the U.S. Senate that he launched a controversial investigation of Howard Hughes, an eccentric, reclusive millionaire. The investigation and Senator Brewster\u2019s role in it are highlighted in The Aviator<\/em>, the 2004 Martin Scorcese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw film of Senator Brewster. He seemed like a really nice fellow,\u201d says Alda. \u201cI say that in case there are any relatives still around with access to a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Brewster\u2019s antithesis was fellow Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan, who spoke out against Senator Joseph McCarthy in her Declaration of Conscience in 1950.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcCarthy, you know, was on Brewster\u2019s committee when he held hearings in an attempt to destroy Hughes,\u201d Alda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, after he got popular, McCarthy tried to destroy Drew Pearson, the columnist who\u2019d sided with Hughes. Politics is a great contact sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hawkeye and Brewster in his repertoire, Alda believes Maine can transcend geography and become a state of mind. \u201cMaine has the allure of the exotic\u2013a place we\u2019ve all been to in our dreams, where romance comes like a breath of spring after the hard winter of our daily lives,\u201d says Alda. \u201cIt\u2019s where all Americans long to be now that we\u2019ve started hating France.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alda recently joined the cast of The West Wing<\/em> as another\u2013albeit fictional\u2013Republican senator, Arnold Vinick. With a combined history of playing characters from Maine and Republican senators, does Alda have any plans to portray any other GOP Maine senators anytime soon?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, I\u2019m planning a one-man show as Margaret Thatcher. But it\u2019s not too late to change it to Margaret Chase Smith. I could use the same handbag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Postcript: This interview is a legend at Portland Magazine<\/em> because it was written by an editorial intern on her first day. Today, Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, is serving her third term in the Maine House of Representatives. She serves on joint standing committees for Veteran and Legal Affairs and for Energy, Utilities, and Technology, and she\u2019s known for her advocacy for the statewide legalization of marijuana.<\/p>\n

Alan Alda has been seen most recently on the big screen in the Jennifer Anniston comedy Wanderlust<\/em> (2012) and in episodes of The Big C<\/em> and The Blacklist<\/em> on TV.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2014
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