Just hearing the introduction of Dr.Peter Wellerat university lecture halls or Comic Cons these days lets you know: he’s been a busy man.
Fans of great acting are sometimes tempted to think that the more acting roles and awards an actor accumulates, the more successful that actor is. And for good reason — professions are so competitive in our times that our world has become one of specialization. Just as most athletes have to be entirely focused on a single position in a single sport to reach championships, most actors have to be entirely focused on a type of role in as many top-tier acting projects as possible to be considered among the best.
But being successful can be more than costarring in blockbuster science fiction films — which Dr. Weller has done several times, fromScreamerstoStar Trek Into Darkness— or having recurring roles in many of the most popular streaming and television series of the last dozen years — which he has done with24, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, The Last Ship, Longmire,andMacGyver— or doing voice acting for cutting edge video game franchises — which he has done forBatman, Call of Duty,andMortal Kombat— or taking on multiple acting roles nearly every year over the last five decades.
It might be that measuring success can only be done by fully exploring the depths of one’s talents and the scope of one’s interests. And in that sense, Peter Weller might be the most successful actor in the world.
Peter Weller: The Actor Before Robocop
After a number of supporting roles in film, stage, and television throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Peter Weller’s first leading role in a major motion picture came in the George P. Cosmatos thriller,Of Unknown Origin,in 1983. It was a launching pad for both the actor and the director. Cosmatos (father of the director Panos Cosmatos, ofMandyandBeyond the Black Rainbowfame) went on to direct some hugely successful films over the next decade, includingRambo: First Blood Part IIandCobra,starring Sylvester Stallone;Leviathan,starring Peter Weller (again); andTombstone,starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, which frequently shows up on lists of the best western movies of all time.
Related:Watching Tombstone at an Old West Ghost Town with Val Kilmer Was AmazingFrom his first lead role, Peter Weller moved right into his second lead role in a film by W.D. Richter titled,The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.When it came out in 1984, critics and audiences weren’t sure what to think of its quirky blend ofscience fiction and pop-art comedy, but in the years since,Buckaroo Banzaihas become a beloved and enduringly quotable cult classic, much of that due to Weller’s charismatic performance. After three less-memorable roles, Weller jumped at the chance to work with director Paul Verhoeven, who gave Weller the lead in his upcoming futuristic look at law enforcement,Robocop.
Peter Weller: The Actor Behind Robocop
Robocopwas a science fiction crime thriller that made an instant impact. In hisreview, critic Roger Ebert praised it as “a thriller with a difference.” Beneath the gritty, crowd-pleasing action, Verhoeven delivered unexpected depth with acritique of socioeconomic valuesand an exploration of identity, but much ofRobocop’ssuccess can also be attributed to Peter Weller’s portrayal of Murphy, the cop who came back from the dead to find that he still had a job to do. The question at the heart of the film might be: who was he doing his job for?
The role was daunting even before the cameras rolled. Weller threw himself into the role of a police officer resurrected into a mechanical body, preparing for this unimaginable condition by working with mime and dance instructors for months before filming began. As a marathon runner, Weller’s great athletic condition also came into play, allowing him to meet the physical challenge of repeatedly working in a heavy and hot suit that could take up to six hours to be put on by a team of artists.
Peter Weller’s extreme dedication to the role of Murphy and the character’s transformation even tested the patience of his director and fellow actors, but it couldn’t be denied that it paid off in the nuances of the robotic hero. Ebert wrote that Weller did “an impressive job of creating sympathy for his character. He is more ‘human,’ indeed, when he is a robocop than earlier in the movie, when he’s an ordinary human being. His plight is appealing….”
Peter Weller: The Actor After Robocop
The role of Robocop was not just another lead role, but a breakthrough of sorts for Peter Weller. It assured him of lead roles in two films the following year, and in 1989, led to a reunion with director George P. Cosmatos on the big-budget thriller,Leviathan.In 1990, Weller revisited his role as Murphy inRobocop 2,directed by Irvin Kershner, who had directedEpisode V: The Empire Strikes Backfor the Star Wars franchise andNever Say Never Againfor the James Bond franchise.
Related:David Cronenberg’s Best Non-Horror Movies, Ranked
AfterRobocop 2,Weller’s next big film project was both ambitious and risky. He enthusiastically pursued and landed the lead role inNaked Lunch,a film adaptation bythe great David Cronenbergof the controversial Burroughs novel about a world of hallucination, addiction, and tragedy.Naked Lunchwas a surreal film that was either understood or rejected, loved or hated, and Weller’s performance was tied tightly to the overall impression it made — those who found the film disturbing found it hard to notice what Weller was doing as an actor.
Peter Weller: From Acting Out Stories to Telling Stories
Peter Weller has never stopped taking on acting roles in film, television, and on stage, but just two years afterNaked Lunch,a significant turning point in his life came when he moved from working in front of the camera to working behind it. In 1993, Peter Weller directed and wrote the teleplay for the short filmPartners,which was nominated in 1994 for the Oscar for Best Short Film, Live Action. This auspicious beginning opened up a new dimension of artistic expression for Peter Weller — he had become a storyteller.
To this day, Peter Weller still dominates his scenes as an actor, but his balance of work has shifted in recent years, gravitating toward more directing than acting. Going back to 2000, Peter Weller has directed 74 television series episodes from an impressive list of popular shows which includesOdyssey 5, Monk, House, The Strain, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Sleepy Hollow, Tyrant, Salem, Longmire, The Last Ship, Mayans, M.C, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver,andMagnum, P.I.,just to name some of them. One might wonder how he finds the time for both acting and directing, but there’s even more to Peter Weller than that.
Peter Weller: From Director to Doctor of Art History
Even as Peter Weller has worked nonstop as an actor and director, other parts of his artistic nature could not be contained. At the age of nine, Weller’s mother, a jazz pianist, introduced him to the music of legendary jazz artist Miles Davis, and Weller has worked at becoming an accomplished musician ever since. Weller has called Davis the most influential artist in his life, and continues to play the trumpet and sing, and often performs with long-time friend and fellow actor Jeff Goldblum.
Another huge interest in Peter Weller’s life led him to becoming Dr. Peter Weller. Pursuing his love for art and architecture, Weller was inspired by other artists to understand the context of the works he admired, which started him down the path to a Master’s Degree in Italian Renaissance Art from Syracuse University in 2004. Not stopping there, Weller went to the heights of scholarship, earning his doctorate in Renaissance Art History from UCLA in 2014. Somehow, Dr. Weller finds time to be a well-liked Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University, teaching students there and at other universities about what he has learned and loves.
And then, maybe even before all that, Peter Weller is a husband to wife Sheri, and a father to daughter Kate. The question isn’t really, what has the greatRobocopactor been doing; the question is, how in the world is Dr. Peter Weller able to do all this? Perhaps the answer is simply that his interests are broad, and his resources are abundant. But many could say the same, and most who could say so haven’t come close to what he has accomplished. If there is a simple answer at all, it might be that Dr. Weller is just one of those people gifted with extraordinary talent, drive and energy.
The many things Dr. Weller has done with his gifted life is the measure of his extraordinary success, and it’s been a gift to us all.
