Chat with "Oz's" Tobias Beecher

HBO presents

July 20, 2000

Actor Lee Tergesen, who plays the role of Tobias Beecher in the television series "Oz", discusses in an online interview, his career and experiences as an actor.

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HBO: Welcome to Oz Chat! Tonight's guest is Lee Tergesen who plays the unpredictable Tobias Beecher. Lee's been with the show from the beginning and has watched his character take on many changes and challenges. Lee will answer questions about his career and his unique experience portraying Beecher.

Lee Tergesen: Hey, how you doing? I want to say hello and happy birthday to Dean Winters. I hope everybody is having a good summer!

Petey: How did you get this role?

Lee Tergesen: Well, I had worked with Tom Fontana on "Homicide" and he asked me to come do this after I had done my last episode of "Homicide".

PreciousOne: How did you feel at first when you joined "Oz"? Your character was right in a mess at first. How did you handle that emotionally?

Lee Tergesen: It was scary on a bunch of levels actually. You know, no one had seen the show, so the stuff we were doing, well, we were sticking our necks out. We didn't know how it would be received. The set itself is very intimidating. And that all fed into Beecher, as he was torn away from everything that he knew.

Symmy: Lee, How do you get into the character of a Yuppie who is convicted of DUI and murder? How did you research your role?

Lee Tergesen: I talked to a few prisoners, guys who had done time; specifically one guy who had done 10 years for killing his girlfriend while he was drunk. I asked him what his time was like. A lot of what I did the first year was tough to do and humiliating. I kind of let the base of Emerald City for the idea of the prison. I didn't visit any prisons. I used Emerald City for the prison, as it were.

BrightAngel: If someone had never watched "Oz" and asked you to tell them about it, what would you say?

Lee Tergesen: It's a prison show that uses prison to point out how things are in the world. It's a microcosm. It's a show that allows people to look at characters that are despicable and repulsive. But after you sit with them a few episodes, you begin to understand them and why they do what they do. And that's what is powerful about the show. We all know Schillinger is not a nice guy, but you can understand it. People get a connection to that which is not like them.

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