BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — A year ago, James Woods was a bit nervous about signing on to star in a weekly television series. But heading into the second season of "Shark," he has absolutely no regrets.
"I'd like to sort of give you some dirt on how tough it is," Woods said. "But it's really a joy going to work every day. I love the people I'm with. I love the stories. I love the character. I love the money. I love the environment.
"The only thing that I don't like is it keeps me away from my family back in Rhode Island on a more regular basis because I am working pretty much every day. But other than that, I have to say the show itself is a pretty great experience." (Woods was born in Vernal, Utah, although he said he doesn't remember anything about the town.)
He has no regrets about tying himself down to a weekly TV series instead of doing supporting roles in theatrical films where, "I go in and do a couple of scenes and I'm the bad guy."
"It's fun to be able to drive four minutes to the set," Woods said, "work with Jeri Ryan in unbelievable skintight clothes, have a great character to play, make tons of money — or I could go to Canada and sit in a big (expletive) box and eat stale donuts for 14 weeks while some star misbehaves and does drugs."
And, at the age of 60, his starring role in "Shark" has made him feel like he's arrived, in a way. "I did, like, 127 movies and I never made a dime. I wasn't really sure how much of a star I was, frankly," Woods said. "But for the first time ... I sort of feel like it.
"I think that not because it's successful, but I think you are a star in a sense when a character meshes with what people may really hope to expect from you. I never really had a character that was kind of smart and funny and fast talking and maybe kind of cut the corners a little bit. And was a little bit, sometimes, ethically challenged in tactics and strategies, but certainly ethically solid when it came to the final goal of right and wrong."
In "Shark," Woods plays Sebastian Stark, a cut-throat, high-profile defense attorney. But, after a client he got off turns around and commits murder, Stark has a crisis of conscience and switches sides, becoming a top prosecutor. He sometimes plays fast and loose — in the season finale, he framed a serial killer he had been unable to convict for a murder the guy didn't commit — but always in the pursuit of justice.
It turned out to be more than a fulltime job for Woods to play the part. And last spring, he was threatening not to return for Season 2 if his work schedule wasn't reduced.
If his salary were divided by the number of hours worked, "I actually could sue under minimum-wage law," he joked. "I could have worked at McDonald's for 17 hours a day and made more money."
However, he said he was only looking for "about 5 percent less" working time.
"When I said more time off, for example, I said it would be nice if I could just do a 10-hour day from time to time as opposed to an 18-hour day," Woods said. "It's not like I said, 'Hey, can I have a four-hour day and a three-day week?' It was, like, 'How about if I only work 140 hours on the show this week instead of 160."'
The show's creator/executive producer, Ian Biederman, acknowledged that Season 1 was tough on Woods — as it would be on any actor in a single-lead, hourlong network show.
"It's a ridiculous workload you wouldn't wish on anybody except for Jimmy. It's just absolutely brutal," he said. "So ... you always have the plan to scale it back (in Season 2). The question is how you do so and still maintain what the show is, and still keep Jimmy in enough of the stuff and interacting with other people and surrounding him with great people."
And the answer was staring him right in the face. Woods and co-star Jeri Ryan, who played District Attorney Jessica Devlin, had great onscreen chemistry — but because she played Stark's boss and was busy running the D.A.'s office, she wasn't onscreen all that much.
So, at the end of last season, Jessica lost her race for re-election. And, at the beginning of Season 2 (which kicks off Sunday, Sept. 23 on CBS/Ch. 2), she becomes a member of the Stark prosecution team.
"A lot of the reason to bring Jeri onto the team is when these two are together," Biederman said, "it's just a home run on screen, bottom line. ... So now it's like, that's great, she can carry scenes without Jimmy. And now we have Kevin Pollak (in a recurring role as the new district attorney) and our ensemble cast that has a year under their belt. So it's a natural progression of things. So I don't think it's going to be a huge challenge." (How Ryan's pregnancy — she's due in March — will affect all this remains to be seen.)
Is there a romantic relationship in the offing for Sebastian and Jessica? "I think the potential is there. It will always linger there," Biderman said. "There's an attraction between these characters on a number of different
levels. So we will just have to see how it goes."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com