The Petersen Puzzle : Actor Makes an Impression Yet Manages to Sidestep Stardom

Six years ago, William Petersen seemed destined for movie stardom. The Chicago-based stage actor had received a lot of attention for his first film, 1985’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” Rolling Stone magazine touted him as the “hot” actor of the summer of 1986 because of his lead role in Michael Mann’s thriller “Manhunter.”

“But I showed them,” Petersen said, laughing.

“Manhunter” failed at the box office and is widely known only in hindsight as the movie that introduced the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (“The Silence of the Lambs”) to the screen.

Most of Petersen’s subsequent features--”Amazing Grace and Chuck,” “Cousins,” “Hard Promises” and “Passed Away”--fared poor to moderately and have done little to boost his status in the Hollywood community.

This week he turns to cable television, as his own film company’s “Keep the Change” appears on TNT.

Yet his lackluster movie career doesn’t seem to faze Petersen, 39, who said he doesn’t care if he is a movie star or not:

“I will run into major-league players and they will go, ‘Sit down. How come you are not a movie star? I don’t understand it.’ I will say, ‘I don’t know. I am not that interested. Have you seen any of my movies?’ They will go, ‘Well, sort of. We saw one or two.’ I said to them, ‘They don’t stay out very long.’ ”

He said he actually believes it’s better for his career that his films don’t do well. “In a way,” Petersen reflected, “it keeps you completely free.”

Petersen has even seriously considered quitting movies, but he realized it would be foolish. “I am one of the most fortunate actors,” he said. “I have a film company (High Horse Films), where we actually get to produce stories we want to tell, a theater company which has been successful for 13 years and I can do whatever I want there. And I don’t have to live in L.A.”

Show business annoys him in many ways.

“I see such talented people who will never, ever be in anything that the world will see, and then I see all the people who are in all of the movies, how much money they make and how many movies they do and you say, ‘This is not right. This is not good.’ But this is the way it is.”

These days Petersen is looking to find good scripts for his film company to produce and challenging plays to do at his Chicago theater company, Remains Theatre Ensemble.

The two films that Petersen’s company has produced reflect the unrest and angst in Petersen’s life. The feature “Hard Promises,” which disappeared without a trace in theaters earlier this year, was actually based on his own life. He played a carefree wanderer who returns to his hometown to win back his ex-wife (Sissy Spacek) when he learns she is about to remarry.

And in the TNT drama, “Keep the Change,” based on Thomas McGuane’s novel, Petersen is a painter pushing 40 who returns to his Montana hometown for inspiration and to rekindle an old romance. Buck Henry, Oscar-winner Jack Palance and Lolita Davidovich co-star.

Petersen acknowledged he and his alter egos all have one thing in common. “They’re lost,” he said with a smile.

“The reason I like McGuane’s stuff is because McGuane is writing about how does a man be a man and an artist?,” he said. “How do you have sensitivity and masculinity? That is a struggle I can relate to. Although, I think for now, we are done with the idea of my problems on screen. You know what I mean?”

Petersen is leaving behind the Hollywood rat race for a while. This month, he’s heading back to Chicago to star in the Remains production of Raymond J. Barry’s play, “Once in Doubt.”

But Petersen said he isn’t really looking forward to returning to the theater where, in Chicago, he is a star.

“We were going to do something else this summer but it fell through,” he said. “This is a much bigger job than I wanted to do this summer. I was hoping to do some light summer fare because I am tired of acting right now. I am bored. I don’t feel my acting is very good any more. It has become flat. The problem is when you start to make TV and movies, you start to see yourself act and you start to hate it. There is almost no way around it.”

“Keep the Change” airs Tuesday at 5, 7 and 9 p.m., Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. TNT.