In Step With

Vincent

D'Onofrio

by James Brady

I'm a supporting-type actor," Vincent D'Onofrio insisted, speaking mostly in a voice so low I found myself leaning forward to catch the words. "That's what I am. I feel happier being that. I've done it half my life."

Vincent and I were talking in his big, cluttered dressing room/office along the Hudson River in Manhattan. Outside, maybe 30 extras were hanging around on Pier 61. Some were in police uniforms, some studying their lines. We were on the set of NBC's wonderful Law & Order TV show, which shares space with Law & Order: Criminal Intent, of which D'Onofrio - despite his modest claims - is inarguably the star. I asked about the genius behind the series, Dick Wolf.

"He's straightforward," Vincent said. "And he doesn't make promises he can't keep."

D'Onofrio is a big, impressive guy in his early 40s with an uncanny resemblance to the young Orson Welles but in need of a shave. It's hardly coincidental that Vincent portrayed Welles in the 1994 flick Ed Wood.

On Criminal Intent, D'Onofrio plays the decidedly offbeat Detective Bobby Goren, a copy whose interrogation methods some viewers consider scary. I asked him how Goren came about.

"Wolf came to me," Vincent said. "No audition. I was allowed to create the character. Goren is well-educated, single, and he does quirky things at all the wrong times. I plan some of that, but sometimes my character mystifies even me.

"This show is different from the other Law & Orders. It's based more on psychology - the intent of the criminal." Do the casts ever mingle? D'Onofrio laughed. "Sometimes they let us use their courthouse," he said. "But mostly our show is done on location."

On the day we met, it was half-sleeting, half-raining, with a cold front, coming in. "Will you be in here today or outside on location?" I asked.

He gave me a look. "We'll be working outside," he said.

Does D'Onofrio see himself playing Bobby Goren years from now, as Jerry Orbach has done with Detective Lennie Briscoe? Vincent doesn't double-talk: "My contract runs for - I think it's four more years," he said. "After that, I'm out of here. So far, so good."

For more on Vincent D'Onofrio, visit www.parade.com and click on "In Step With."