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A Racer Success Story: W. Earl Brown to Give Presidential Lecture at Murray State University

W. Earl Brown presents the 2023 Presidential Lecture on Tuesday, February 28th, at 7:30 pm in Lovett Auditorium.
W. Earl Brown
/
Murray State
W. Earl Brown presents the 2023 Presidential Lecture on Tuesday, February 28th, at 7:30 pm in Lovett Auditorium.

Murray State University welcomes W. Earl Brown, critically acclaimed actor and Golden Pond, Kentucky, native, for the 2023 Presidential Lecture on Tuesday, February 28th, at 7:30 pm in Lovett Auditorium. The free public event is a rescheduling of the 2022 presidential lecture, which was postponed due to inclement weather. Tracy Ross speaks with Brown ahead of his presentation about his career, starting with his time as a student at Murray State in the '80s.

Brown has had a prolific career in television and film and is well-known for roles like Warren in Something About Mary, Dan Dority in Deadwood, and Kenny in Scream. However, he says the acting bug first 'bit' him while at Murray State. "I remember the exact moment," he recalls. "It was October of 1984 in the Johnson Theatre." Brown was asked by the theatre department head at the time to choose his preferred role in Championship Season by Jason Miller, an off-Broadway hit in the early '70s.

"I chose the coach of that team, who was a 70-year-old man, and I was all of 21. But it was the first time things transcended in the craft. Making art. I lost track of self, time. When the curtain fell on the final performance, I remember thinking, 'this is over, but I have to chase this feeling forever.' This is the most transcendent—for lack of a better word—experience I've ever had. Nothing else comes close to comparing. So I did. I didn't know how the hell I was going to do it. I had never lived outside of Murray. But I knew I had to pursue that. It was spiritually altering, and that set me on course."

In 1985, a year before Brown graduated from Murray State, he worked with Chicago-based Second City touring company, making the haul from western Kentucky to Chicago every Saturday for six weeks. He later received his Master of Fine Arts from DePaul University's Theatre School in 1989. While studying in Chicago, Brown continued to perform and audition, including an audition for a role that Chris Farley would later receive. Brown says witnessing Farley's trajectory was a significant learning experience for him.

"I saw his rocketship take off, and it burned him up. I was always wary of that happening to me, personally, to get sucked into that vacuum. My goal when I was in school was I want to have a family, a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and I want to do it doing the things I love. That's what I set my sights on, and that's what I've been able to achieve. I was incredibly ambitious and driven when I first started out, keeping notes of all the meetings and auditions I went on and who was doing what. When I finally got agents, I was pushing them to get me in the door for certain things."

Under the management of Michael Green, with whom he's worked for 12 years, Brown feels less inclined to "read every trade magazine and keep track of everything going on in Hollywood. This is the first time that I don't feel like I have to do all the legwork."

At the end of the day, Brown says his passion has always been telling stories. When he was an undergrad student at MSU, Brown says, "I toyed with the idea of going into advertising, which is still a creative pursuit—creative copywriting. I had a professor who was a retired ad copywriter. He had retired and come to Murray State to teach to get out of New York City. For a brief moment, it crossed my mind. But advertising was as competitive as the TV industry, if not more so."

These days, Brown says he is continually looking for something that challenges him. When asked what his ideal role would be, he replies, "something I haven't done before. Or some artist, filmmaker, writer, or other actor whose work I love and really admire. If I know i"mg going to be challenged, either by the role or the circumstance, then that's what I want to do. I try not to repeat myself as much as possible."

"That's the irony of show business," he continues. "They want to hire you to do what they've seen you do before. After Something About Mary, there was another comedy that came out, and it was a character like Warren. They approached me about it, and I said, 'no, I'm not interested.' I didn't want to repeat myself, and I didn't want to make it seem like it was a trick of me goofing on someone with a disability. Four years after Something About Mary, Deadwood happened. That was a very dark, violent character. I was heavy. Then, I had the toughest time getting in on comedy because people saw me because of Deadwood. They want to hire you based on what they think they've seen you do. I don't want to do that."

Some of Brown's most recent projects include a half-hour comedy series called Hello Tomorrow. "It's like Glengarry Glen Ross set on the moon—the 1950's view of what the future is going to be when we had timeshares on the moon." Additionally, Brown was featured in a limited series on Apple Plus alongside Paris, Tennessee, native Cherry Jones. Five Days At Memorial "traces Hurricane Katrina and Memorial Hospital, where they, unfortunately, had to euthanize several terminal patients because they were stranded. There was no way out. It's a very difficult show to watch. It grabs you by the throat; it does not let up. It raises a lot of very deep, ethical, and moral questions of what our responsibilities are to each other."

Sometimes, Brown's family plays a part in which roles he selects. Paul T. Goldman, currently streaming on Peacock, is described by Brown as "the weirdest" recent project. "It's a comedy—I'll put it that way. But you ain't seen anything like it. It's so odd. It's th sesame director that made Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and our show is in that vein in that it's that really uncomfortable, awkward kind of comedy. That's the stuff my kid absolutely loves. My daughter, it's right up her alley. So, I did it, and it was a very rewarding experience. She went with me to the premiere, and she's actually in it because the last episode includes the premiere of the show. It's a show about itself both in its creation and everything—highly recommended."

"There's a Shirley Chisholm biopic with Regina King, and I play Alabama governor George Wallace. Then, I shot a western last fall down in Durango, Mexico, that Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed. It's called The Dead Don't Hurt, and it's kind of a traditional good guy, bad guy Western. He tells it non-linear, so it's a little out of the mainstream."

In 2017, Brown received the Murray State Distinguished Alumni Award, a prestigious honor that is presented annually to alumni who have made meaningful contributions to their profession on a local, state, and national level. The award is the highest honor granted by the Murray State University Alumni Association. In 2017, Brown also returned to his roots in MSU's theatre department to perform the role of Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof alongside theatre students while mentoring them. Brown has remained very engaged with the department, often returning to the university to lead theatre workshops and host Q&A sessions for current students.

Brown will present "A Racer Success Story," 2023 Presidential Lecture, this Tuesday, February 28th, at 7:30 pm inside Lovett Auditorium.

Tracy started working for WKMS in 1994 while attending Murray State University. After receiving his Bachelors and Masters degrees from MSU he was hired as Operations/Web/Sports Director in 2000. Tracy hosted All Things Considered from 2004-2012 and has served as host/producer of several music shows including Cafe Jazz, and Jazz Horizons. In 2001, Tracy revived Beyond The Edge, a legacy alternative music program that had been on hiatus for several years. Tracy was named Program Director in 2011 and created the midday music and conversation program Sounds Good in 2012 which he hosts Monday-Thursday. Tracy lives in Murray with his wife, son and daughter.
Melanie Davis-McAfee graduated from Murray State University in 2018 with a BA in Music Business. She has been working for WKMS as a Music and Operations Assistant since 2017. Melanie hosts the late-night alternative show Alien Lanes, Fridays at 11 pm with co-host Tim Peyton. She also produces Rick Nance's Kitchen Sink and Datebook and writes Sounds Good stories for the web.
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