Victor Webster (6/00 The Lot)
Excerpt from Victorwebster.com 6/00 | The Lot
VICTOR STARTS NEW SERIES
Victor stars in the new AMC (American Movie Classics) series "The Lot" which started shooting May 1st and scheduled to wrap July 5th."The Lot" was originally shot as a four part mini series and received such high acclaim that it was picked up as an original series. The series starts in and will begin with the original four parts to kick off the run. "The Lot" offers a unique blend of comedy and historical perspective about the golden age of the studio era in 1937 Hollywood. Victor Webster will portray the character Victor Mansfield son of Spanish immigrants who works as a cattle rancher, turned stunt man, reluctantly turned movie star who goes through a morphine addiction, car accident, sword fight and many roller coaster rides of emotional drama. Victor costars with such actors as Michael York (Austin Powers), Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks), Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek Next Generation), Holland Taylor (The Practice), Kim Rhodes (All My Children), Perry Stephens (Loving) as well as many other incredibly talented actors.
© Victorwebster.com
Excerpt from Ibsys On The Set 7/31/00: Victor Webster
Versatile Hunk Victor Webster Hits His Stride: 'Days Of Our Lives' Star Talks About Rise To Fame
In fact, the gig has done just that. Webster just wrapped an AMC television series called "The Lot." He stars as a fictitious 1930s movie star named Victor Mansfield. The show chronicles Mansfield's rocky rise to fame in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Webster tells me that the project, which premieres Aug. 29, is a mixture of comedy, romance and drama.
© Ibsys
Excerpt from Post Gazette 1/7/01: Victor Webster
Cable TV Previews: Cable networks ring in new episodes and series
By Rob Owen, Sunday, January 07, 2001
Here's a rundown of new cable programming hitting the air tonight: "The Lot" When: 10 tonight on American Movie Classics. AMC's Hollywood golden era comedy series returns at 10 p.m. tonight after a hiatus of more than a year, but the time away was well spent. When four episodes of "The Lot" aired in August 1999 (they'll repeat today from 5:30 to 7 p.m.), the show was disjointed and couldn't decide whether it wanted to be sentimental and nostalgic or mean-spirited and cynical. Producers have settled on the latter, and "The Lot" is better for it. Additional improvements can be found in the show's writing and the casting of Harriet Sansom Harris as a tart writer. "I require absolute silence and Absolut vodka continuously," Harris' boozy writer tells her writing partner, formally sweet, now corrupted Charlie Patterson (Steven Petrarca). Linda Cardellini, who starred in NBC's "Freaks & Geeks," returns as once sweet, now corrupted starlet June Parker. Tonight, morally bankrupt studio executive Jack Sweeney (Perry Stephens) begins corrupting handsome extra Victor Mansfield (Victor Webster).
© Post Gazette
ET Online 2/16/01: Victor Webster
If You Got It, Flaunt It
February 16, 2001
VICTOR WEBSTER takes a blast into the past playing movie matinee idol Victor Mansfield in AMC's half-hour comedy series "The Lot," which covers the dish and the dirt from the golden age of Hollywood.
ET: Your character -- Victor Mansfield -- is going through a lot in order to become a movie star. Do you see any parallels between what he is going through and your own struggle of becoming a successful actor in Hollywood?
VICTOR: I think the main difference for myself is that I want it to happen. It's going to happen for me. For Victor Mansfield, initially, he doesn't intend for that to happen. He is coming through town, his truck breaks down on the way through, so he's forced to make some money to get back to his cattle ranch. Then he gets caught up in the whole thing. For me it's a goal and a dream -- something that I'm striving towards. In the case of Victor Mansfield, he kind of fell into it. It's a whole new world for him and he's not prepared for it.
ET: What struck me as funny is that even though this is an AMC series and a sitcom, they still had you take your shirt off -- just like when you were on "Days of our Lives."
VICTOR (laughs) I can't seem to keep my damn clothes on.
ET: Does that ever bother you?
VICTOR: You know, I really felt it was right for the scene. What bothers me is gratuitous nudity -- where somebody's exposing his or her skin and it has nothing to do with the story line. It's just to attract attention. That to me is a little bit annoying. But in this particular scene you needed it, because the audience needed to have the feeling that Victor's being disrespected. That he's being pushed around a little bit. That he's a little naive. So, that was part of taking my shirt off and having to turn around, and being talked down to. But then I showed the side of me that is, "I'm not gonna take this crap anymore," when I knocked him on his butt.
ET: "The Lot" deals with Hollywood history -- in disguise. Were you familiar with any of this history before you began?
VICTOR: I was familiar with the idea that a lot of storylines were going to be based on factual events. And yeah, before I started, I brushed up on some old movies to check things out -- to see the way they spoke and the way they acted -- and I tried to emulate some of that, but then I added in my own flavor as well.
ET: What one have you learned that surprised you the most?
VICTOR: You know what? To be honest with you, nothing in Hollywood surprises me anymore. I hear so many crazy stories and read so many things -- it's like a living, breathing soap opera. It's so crazy.
ET: So, actually what goes on behind the scenes is often more interesting than what people see on the screen?
VICTOR: Absolutely. The reason we watch movies is because we want to escape from our lives. We find there is some kind of release or escapism -- some reason to travel into somebody else's world for an hour or two. Everything's going to be much grander -- more glorified. Everything's going to be more beautiful, and the experiences are going to be deeper. Whether they're deeper pain, or deeper pleasure, it doesn't matter. That's what we look for in entertainment. That's why it's even there. But behind the scenes is where all the drama happens and the negativity and the drugs and the abuse of power. And that hasn't changed in Hollywood. It's only metamorphosized from a different animal but the same intentions and the same greed drives that animal.
ET: The show is a half-hour comedy but it's very stylized. You briefly mentioned that you watched old movies and picked up some tips from that. But how do you modify your acting to achieve the '30s style?
VICTOR: Definitely the acting was a little different. When we were acting as characters on the show -- when we were actually portraying the actors -- we would have to get into a broader, bigger scope of acting. And when we were just portraying the people that would be toned down and be much more normal. You couldn't use slang that we use now and you'd have to watch some of the pronunciation a little bit. I know I had to do a redo a few scenes because I would say a word in a way that it would never have been said in the '30s.
ET: Do you think "The Lot"'s take on the '30s is how things really were, or just our idea of how they were?
VICTOR: Absolutely, history is his-story. It's only a matter of perception. It is one person's idea -- the executive producer or the writer -- of how everything was. It's also their idea on how to entertain us using that story line. A lot of it had validity because our executive producer, RICH MITZ, really did a lot of research. He has a wealth of knowledge in that genre and I feel like it was very accurate.
ET: Your character's Latino and you're from Canada??
VICTOR: Yeah.
ET: Has there been any criticism about that? A non-Latino playing a Latino role?
VICTOR: I was born in Canada, but ancestrally, I'm Latino. My mom is Spanish/Italian so I definitely have that running through my veins. I lived in Spain for a while.
ET: When you were modeling?
VICTOR: Yeah. I really got a feel of what it was like and where part of my family is from, so no criticism whatsoever.
ET: While you were in Spain -- and you also modeled in the Netherlands -- you wore Armani, Versace, Valentino. One of the things I noticed about "The Lot" was the beautifully classic clothes. How do you think those clothes stack up to the clothes you wore when modeling? Did you love what you were wearing?
VICTOR: The wardrobe was so beautiful. A lot of the clothes were custom made to fit. The fabrics were beautiful. The colors they used to compliment all of the looks. It was kind of like an artist painting a picture. We would see a scene and the head of the wardrobe department would paint these beautiful pictures in his head of all these different fabrics and colors and styles. And I loved it. Once I put on those clothes, I felt like a completely different man ? the hat, the beautiful wing-tip shoes, the suspenders and everything. I was transformed into another time period.
© ET Online
Excerpts from Visimag's Xpose #67 4/02: Victor Webster, on Pink Hearts V.W.M.X. Pages 1, 2 and 4 *Property of Pink Hearts V.W.M.X.
Live Wire: Mutant X's Victor Webster tells Bryan Cairns why he doesn't want his character to become a sex symbol. Some hope!
His presence, and no doubt good looks, then caught the attention of NBC's Days of Our Lives where he remained for a year before notching up roles in the AMC's series The Lot, the recent TV movie The Chippendale Murder, and the feature film Gangland.
© Visimag's Xpose