Psych set visit, part four: Spotlight on Tim Omundson

(Be sure to check out part one, two and three of the Psych set visit )

Timothy Omundson owned the room the minute he stepped into it, and he knew it. He was the hottest person in there and we, the geeky reporters, clamored over his every word (OK, maybe I was the only geek). While bringing his dog Lucy along made him seem quixotically irreverent, his kickass attitude said “I am the shit” in doing so. Seriously, look at those “devil may care” eyebrows. I’m pretty certain I tossed a modern-day version of my pantaloons at him.

He appeared a rock star in all meanings of the word. You can see it looking at his IMDb vitae, which includes every decent show/blockbuster film in recent media history from Swordfish, to MI:III, to Boston Legal, to Jericho and Deadwood. Even the “lesser ones” are still above the level of movies with names such as Slumber Party Massacre 2002. I loved SeaQuest 2032, Diagnosis Murder, and Jack & Jill.

He’s a grizzled veteran at 41, with the lawyer/doctor/agent character type on lock. Although he’s done drama since age 12 and kicked butt in forensics, both CSI and debate, (raise your hand if you did Dramatic Interpretation in college), I still had the feeling he knows he could do other things. He knows he could walk away from Hollywood today and find another gig, either on Broadway, locally, or in the “real world.” But I inferred that he had reached the point where the opinions of random passers-by wouldn’t break him. In fact, both he and C. Thomas Howell gave me the same feeling. They aren’t searching for themselves, their identities aren’t hinged on the ideas of others, and, unlike actors starting in the field who possibly adhere to overblown artistic ideals, at the end of the day, they realize it’s a job. But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t good, at it. In fact Tim’s darn good at it.

I have desired his lusty eyebrows ever since he played the prophet Eli during Xena’s later seasons and didn’t recognize him within his war-god Lassiter persona during the first half of Psych’s season one. He does a good job playing Lassiter’s laced straight humor while trying to avoid a cardboard stereotype.

Things I like about meeting the stars playing my favorite characters includes asking them questions that have rattled in my brain for weeks/years/days. Ever since I recognized those sensuous blue eyes from Eli’s calming presence, I have always wanted to know if we’d ever see Lassiter channel bits of his demi-prophet, particularly his connection with his then co-star, Renee O’Connor. However, the minute I said Xena, I’m surprised he didn’t run screaming from the room for fear of dealing with my uber-fandom. Luckily, he’s an actor and can hide his natural response.

Well, I do have a question about one of your older shows, and this is a two-part, geeky question. Considering you used to play Eli, and now you’re playing Lassiter, I can’t really remember if there has been an episode where Lassiter has gone and become this uber-peaceful character, but is there a possibility of Lassiter kind of breaking out of the extreme violence.
I think I pitched one time that — I don’t know, it’s after a therapy session, Lassiter becomes very Zen. I just think it would funny to seem him play that, where he’s just so, “Everything’s all cool, man. Everything’s okay,” and then slowly Shawnster’s chipping away at him. By the end of the episode, he’s shot three people in the face. That would be really fun for me to play. I don’t know if they’re going to do that.

If I could slide in another question, we’ve seen Lassiter frustrated in his social life. So I would like to see a little bit more of Lassiter possibly dating and, of course, possibly having [Renee O’Connor Guest Star]. But I would love to see Lassiter dating.
I would, too. Maggie has pitched, many times, that she signs him up on Match.com, and becomes his sort of — his love guide of trying to get him into that. I mean, we’ve touched on that a little bit. There hasn’t really been any Lassiter relationship stuff since the break-up of his marriage, which is okay. I mean, Maggie has sort of become his surrogate — well, not social life, but she’s really the only other human being he speaks to, I think. You know, other than the guy who clocks him in at the gun range.

So it — you know, we got to see a little bit of it in — which one? In, I think, A Very Juliet Episode, where he becomes her love counselor with the — you know, the Grease stuff. And I loved playing that, because then that came out of nowhere for him to be the one that she goes to, and you see this weird sensitive side, just these non-sequiturs like, “Wait, who was that that just — oh, that was Lassiter?” And then kind of never touched on it again. So we’ll see what happens.

[Lucy] be quiet. I’m talking to the reporters!

I don’t know if I can truly express his ‘lightning in a bottle’ personality and will include transcript excerpts, starting from the top. I’m tempted to include all of it, because his improvisational discourse is truly comedy gold. If you can’t smell the fandom, lean closer and inhale.

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Sep 08, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT