On "Saturday Night Live," Rob Schneider has plays many characters: a sensitive naked man, a pothead Weed Guy, and, of course, the nickname-obsessed Copy Machine guy, Richard (Rich-meister) Layner.
But as a character actor in movies like "Demolition Man" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," this puckish 30-year-old plays the same character over and over. Call him the Smarminator.In `The `Beverly Hillbillies," he says, "I was a smarmy obsequious guy, whereas in `Demolition Man' I got to stretch. I was an obsequious smarmy guy."
In "Demolition Man," Schneider plays a hapless cop of the future, the sort of gunless wonder who chirps "Mellow greetings" at everyone until Sylvester Stallone turns up.
The movie has earned more than $50 million in five weeks. In "The Beverly Hillbillies" the Schneider character is a junior banker with an evil agenda: to steal Jed Clampett's millions.
"I knew he did weasely really well from the characters he had played on `Saturday Night Live,' " said Glenn Daniels, the casting director for "Beverly Hillbillies."
The movie opened and closed quickly in New York but continues to play well across the country. In a month it made more than $30 million.
Schneider's film career began a year ago with "Home Alone 2," in which he played a bellhop (smarmy and obsequious) at the Plaza Hotel. Ever since, he says, "those are the roles I'm being offered."
Things could be worse. He is a fully accredited member of the "Saturday Night Live" cast, having graduated in three years from writer to featured performer to repertory player. His office at the show's Rockefeller Center headquarters has a view of the Empire State Building.
The office is, however, barely large enough to fit the 5-feet-5-inch-tall performer and three of his fellow writers. It is a Tuesday, and they are concocting a sketch, a fake ad by American labor unions that attacks the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Schneider - wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and black construction boots - swivels in his chair, which is surrounded by coffee cups and deli refuse. He ad libs a line in a broad Mexican accent: "I will take your jobs and steal your women!" His baby face cracks into a wicked grin.
Adam Sandler, another cast member on "Saturday Night Live," calls Schneider "not just a great performer but one of the best writers on the show."
Penelope Spheeris, who directed "The Beverly Hillbillies," agrees that Schneider can write; in fact, she let him rewrite most of the scenes involving his money-grubbing banker in "Hillbillies."
Spheeris likened Schneider to Dana Carvey and Mike Myers, two other "Saturday Night Live" comedians, whom she directed in the first "Wayne's World." "They're very professionally competitive and assertive about wanting to keep creative control," she says.