James Spader on Broadway

James Spader – Blog – Images by Robert Caplin

Last week I received a New York Times assignment to shoot a portrait of James Spader for an article about his role on Broadway in a new David Mamet play called “Race”. The brief shoot took place at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in mid-town and was another one of those “set-up in advance and bang out a handful of frames with the talent” quickies.

I knew James Spader primarily from his Boston Legal television show in which he starred opposite William Shatner, but I’ve also seen a few movies where he plays eccentric characters, so I had no idea what he’d be like in real life. I found him to be one of the kindest and most willing celebrities to shoot with. I did have trouble trying to get much expression from him, but never the less I feel we had a very successful shoot.

For this particular shoot I met up with the play’s publicist who showed me around the theater, back rooms, basement, dressing rooms and I decided to choose the basement and a stairwell as the locations. With the help of my good pal and assistant, Noah Gilbert, I took some lighting tests and waited for Mr. Spader to arrive.

Once James arrived for the shoot it was very obvious he was going to be very easy to work with. When I shoot these celebrity assignments, I often bring a handful of lighting set-ups to get a variety of portrait options for my editor. I decided to bang out a few ring-light portraits while I had him near a brick wall…the first flash surprised him because of the brightness of the ring-light. At first I thought he was upset, but he quickly laughed it off and said, “It’s ok, I can handle the first act tonight seeing rings of light….anything for a good picture.”

Also, during the shoot another actor in the play came and pulled James away for a few minutes. Afterward James apologized explaining that he insists the entire cast gets weekly B-12 vitamin shots administered by his doctor to keep the cast healthy, and that was what the interruption was about. Smart idea considering the winter season and all the germs the playgoers must bring in each night. You have to be healthy to perform on Broadway.

Interesting fact I learned from James. As we were walking down to the basement to take a few more portraits, we passed an old poster for a play from nearly a half-century ago. On it was the profile of a woman and he mentioned how uncanny the resemblance was to Drew Barrymore. It took me a moment to put together that the woman in the poster was actually Ethel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore’s great-aunt, for whom the theater was named. Fancy that!

Here’s a quick snap I took with James in my basements set-up:

See the entire shoot by clicking here.