Source Boston Herald
Date May 20, 2004
One-time Boston law student Enrique Murciano followed hunch to
Hollywood
Enrique Murciano has Boston to thank for his acting career.
Murciano stars as FBI Agent Danny Taylor in the CBS detective drama
"Without a Trace," which airs its second-season finale tonight at 10
on WBZ (Ch. 4).
But in 1996, Murciano was enrolled in the New England School of Law
and enduring a brutal winter.
"I used to walk by Wang Theatre and see the actors and think,
`That's what I want to be doing,' " Murciano said in a recent
telephone interview. "I always had an interest in acting. I was in
grade school plays and high school productions. But as I got older,
I started making responsible decisions. I went to college and
studied Latin American studies."
It was a disastrous moot court - a mock court in which law students
argue hypothetical cases - that clarified his goals.
"It was the worst moot court they had even seen. I knew at that
point my career as a lawyer wasn't going to explode. I went to a
cafe by the Wang Theatre, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning: Go
be an actor."
At first, his parents were horrified.
"My dad is a doctor; my grandfather is a doctor," he said. "The only
way to get anywhere in life is to go be a doctor or a lawyer."
Murciano moved back home to Miami to reorganize and strategize.
"My first audition ever was `Speed 2.' I got the job and took off
for a production that lasted six months."
A role in Jerry Bruckheimer's "Black Hawk Down" led to a role in the
mega-producer's TV series "Without a Trace."
Murciano is still adjusting to his newfound fame. Recently a woman
approached him at an airport. "I thought that I knew her and didn't
remember her name," he said. "She asked me, `How's your girlfriend,
Molly Sims of "Las Vegas"? How's the show? How's the movie?' She
said, `My mom loves you.' And I said, `Oh, how's your mom doing?'
After about nine minutes, she said, `I've taken enough of your time.
Can you sign my People magazine?' She didn't know me. She had
learned everything from People magazine. It catches me off- guard."
He's also amazed by the broad appeal of the show. "That's my
favorite part: the people who really watch the show. I went to In-N-
Out Burger, and I pulled up to the window, and the guy at the window
was telling me how great an episode was and said, `Man, that
(expletive) was deep, yo.' "
"Without a Trace" isn't the typical TV crime procedural.
"After one episode, they put up a suicide hotline (number),"
Murciano said. "In three minutes, that hotline got five or six
hundred calls. Usually they get 100 calls in 24 hours. To me, that
felt really good - to go beyond whether or not the show did well in
the ratings or got nominated for a (Screen Actors Guild) award."
During the show's first two seasons, Murciano learned his onscreen
alter-ego had lost his parents at a young age in a car accident and
that he had a brother in jail.
"I had no idea," he said. "I get my scripts on Monday morning. Much
of the time I'm surprised. `Wait a minute, I have a brother and he's
in jail?' To me, it's exciting fun, it's almost like real life. . .
. I get to go on that ride with my character."
But Murciano, who hopes to direct a couple of episodes next season,
is always pushing for "more character stuff, less procedural stuff."
"It's much more exciting to do a scene with a brother I haven't seen
than look through a file," he said.
During the show's hiatus, Murciano is filming "Miss Congeniality 2"
in Las Vegas.
"We're almost halfway through shooting," he said. "It's going to be
great. It's so well-constructed, so well-written, so funny and
fresh. It's a whole new adventure."
But don't ask him for words of wisdom for aspiring actors. "I know
nothing about wisdom," he said, then laughed. "I'm just lucky."