In the mid-90’s Skeet Ulrich seemed like a likely candidate for heart-throb status and A-list stardom. After making some noise in a couple of cult films, Ulrich was poised for success. While few would deny the actor’s status as a heart-throb, movie stardom proved elusive. These days, Ulrich has gone from dangerous teen to TV dad.

What the hell happened?

Ulrich isn’t Skeet’s actual last name. He was born Bryan Ray Trout. Skeet Trout doesn’t sound like a name that would work well on a movie poster does it? The Ulrich part came from his first stepfather DK Ulrich, who was a NASCAR driver and team owner (no connection to Lars Ulrich, the drummer from Metallica, although that was the first person to leap to mind when I first heard about Skeet circa 1996). The “Skeet” parts comes from the nickname “Skeeter” his Little League Coach gave him, due to his small stature.

Ulrich was a sickly child who suffered from repeated bouts with pneumonia. At the age of ten, his doctors discovered a cleft mitral valve and a hole in his ventricular wall which required open heart surgery. Throughout his life, Ulrich has been defensive about the scar it left him.

Ulrich’s first acting appearances were as an extra in Weekend At Bernie‘s (no he didn’t play the corpse) and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ulrich says the experience changed his life:

I was a marine biology student at the time. But that was the thing that sort of turned my head toward storytelling, watching how it unfolded and seeing the collaboration. It just became very interesting to me, and that kind of changed my whole mindset about life and career and… thank god. But yeah, I started out doing it for beer money when I was at UNC Wilmington, and then it wound up being a whole lot more.

While attending the University of North Carolina, Ulrich began building sets for the theater department. This lead to a summer workshop run by playwright David Mamet. Once he was bitten by the acting bug, Ulrich transferred to NYU and began performing with Mamet’s Atlantic Theater Company.

Skeet Ulrich – CBS Schoolbreak Special – 1994

Director Stacy Cochran noticed Ulrich during a stage production and cast him in the leading role in the 1994 CBS Schoolbreak Special “Same Difference”. It was a classic tale of two teenagers with different backgrounds who fall in love and have to deal with their parents’ disapproval.

That connection proved useful when two years later, Cochran also cast Ulrich in the 1996 movie, Boys. Roger Ebert called Boys a “low-rent dumbed-down version of Before Sunrise.” When it bombed at the box office, it was a major blow to star Winona Ryder. But at this point in his career, just getting cast in a movie as big as Boys was a win for Ulrich.

Skeet Ulrich – The Craft – 1996

Boys was just the start of a banner year for Ulrich. Next up, he had a supporting role in the high school horror movie, The Craft.

Robin Tunney starred as the new girl in town who falls in with a a group of high school outcasts played by Fairuza Balk, Rachel True and Neve Campbell. The girls turn to witchcraft as a way of solving their problems and getting revenge on tormentors. Ulrich played one of those tormentors, your typical narcissistic high school jock. Spoiler warning: he ends up paying dearly for it.

Ulrich got his big break thanks to an existing relationship with the lead actress:

I had known Robin Tunney prior to either of us working much in film, if at all. We’d met in New York—I was still at NYU—and we became friends. She lived in the East Village, and I lived just north of the East Village. I was off doing Bruce Beresford’s movie Last Dance, and I guess she had talked to Doug Wick, who produced The Craft, and said he should look at me for the part. So they flew me out, and I had a few days off from the other film, and I went to Doug’s house and read scenes with Robin.

At this point in his budding acting career, Ulrich wasn’t living the life of a movie star. To save money, he pocketed his per diem. Instead of getting his own place, he crashed with friends.

Despite mixed reviews, The Craft was a sleeper hit at the box office. It opened in the top spot and remained in the top ten for its entire theatrical run. Since then, The Craft has gone on to develop a cult following. Plans for a remake have been rumored for a few years now.

Skeet Ulrich – Scream – 1996

Ulrich capped off his big year by reteaming with Craft costar Neve Campbell in Wes Craven’s comeback film, Scream.

Campbell played Sidney Prescott, a high school student whose mother had been murdered. Rose McGowan costarred as Sidner’s best friend and Ulrich and Matthew Lillard played their boyfriends. Drew Barrymore (the only actual movie star in the cast), had a heavily promoted cameo as an early victim. Courtney Cox appeared as a TV reporter who takes an interest in a deputy played by her future real-life ex-husband David Arquette. Jamie Kennedy stole several scenes as the film geek who is familiar enough with horror movie tropes to know what will happen next.

Ulrich was just coming off playing a messianic character in another movie and he said he had difficulty getting into the head of a deranged teenager (it probably didn’t help that he was in his mid-twenties at the time. In order to prepare for the role, Ulrich did some research:

I was fortunate in that the hotel suite they gave me had two rooms, so I used one just to sleep, and the other one… I was 26, I think, when I made it, and I was playing a 17- or 18-year-old, so I went straight to the mall and bought every hard-rock poster and black lights and everything, and I turned the other room into Billy’s room. And I’d sit in there and just read about John Wayne Gacy and play the most satanic music I could find and just try and find him rather quickly in that environment. It was interesting. In my mind, it was a documentary about two high school serial killers, and that’s the way I approached it. I sort of negated any of the tongue-in-cheek humor of it in my mind. So when I finally saw it, I was blown away by what it was, and how terrifying it was, but also how funny it was.

Prior to Scream, the slasher movie craze of the 80’s had pretty much petered out. Even Freddy and Jason were between gigs. Writer Kevin Williamson set out to revive the genre with a self-aware script that balanced scares with laughter. The movie succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Not only did Scream revive Craven’s flagging career, it also resuscitated the horror film genre, just as it was on its way to direct-to-video purgatory. But according to Ulrich, Scream almost didn’t get made:

There was a point early on where Miramax pulled the plug on it, and it took Wes cutting together that opening with Drew [Barrymore] and sending it to Bob and Harvey [Weinstein] to get them to let us keep going. So that movie was so close to not even happening, and we were in Napa Valley feeling like some independent film. We shot, I think, five weeks of nights to start. It was so much fun and yet so dark at the same time, both literally and figuratively.

Scream received mostly positive reviews. Ultimately, it was a hit at the box office. But it didn’t exactly start out that way. Harvey Weinstein insisted on releasing Scream during the Christmas movie season. He argued that since horror movies were never released during this season, that the target audience wouldn’t have any other alternatives.

Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich – Scream – 1996

In its opening weekend, Scream grossed roughly $6 million dollars which was considered a disappointment. Traditionally horror movies dropped about 50% in their second weekend. That would put Scream on a path to failure. But Scream didn’t drop 50%. Instead, it became a word-of-mouth hit. For the next few weeks, Scream‘s box office take increased ultimately grossing over $100 million dollars in the US.

Dimension couldn’t wait to capitalize on their success. They rushed out a sequel the following year, but Ulrich’s character wasn’t coming back for any of the follow-ups. That meant that if he was going to capitalize on the success of Scream, he was going to have to do so without the benefit of a franchise.

Skeet Ulrich – Albino Alligator – 1997

Ulrich opened 1997 with a supporting role in the crime drama, Albino Alligator. Matt Dillon and Gary Sinise played brothers who participate in a hold-up gone wrong. When a police officer is killed, they retreat to a bar where they take hostages. Faye Dunaway and Viggo Mortensen costarred.

Albino Alligator received a limited release in just a dozen theaters and was greeted by mixed reviews. Today, it is best-known for having been Kevin Spacey’s directorial debut.

Bridget Fonda and Skeet Ulrich – Touch – 1997

Later that, Ulrich starred in Paul Schrader’s adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel, Touch.

Ulrich played a miracle worker who heals the sick and suffers from stigmata. Christopher Walken played an ex-evangelist who encourages a character played by Bridget Fonda to get close to Ulrich and push him into the spotlight. Tom Arnold appears as a fundamentalist who objects to Ulrich and Fonda’s relationship.

Touch was the movie Ulrich filmed right before he made Scream. Like Albino Alligator, it received a limited release early in the year when studios burn off movies they don’t really believe in.

Skeet Ulrich – As Good as It Gets – 1997

Towards the end the year, Ulrich played a supporting part in James L Brooks’ comedy, As Good As It Gets. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both won Oscars for playing a mismatched couple. Nicholson starred as a misanthropic author who suffers from obsessive–compulsive disorder. Hunt portrayed a single mom who works as a waitress at a restaurant Nicholson frequents.

The supporting cast included Greg Kinnear as a gay painter who lives in the same building as Nicholson. Ulrich appeared as a hustler who starts a relationship with Kinnear’s character. The part was originally larger, but according to Ulrich a lot of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor:

There was a whole relationship that developed between Greg Kinnear’s character and mine. And [James L. Brooks’s] first cut of the film was nearly five hours long. I had to fly out to do looping, and Jim met me in the parking lot and told me what happened, and I was crestfallen. He was remiss about it, because we spent a long time making that movie, and I was there for most of it, and to know that there was going to be very little of what I’d done in it… But he gave me the painting that Greg supposedly does in the film.

As Good As It Gets was a critical and commercial hit. Had Ulrich’s scenes been left in tact, it could have been a big boost to his career. But since he was barely in the final cut, all he got out of the movie was the painting which he says he gave to his mom.

Skeet Ulrich – the Newton Boys – 1998

In 1998 Ulrich teamed up with Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’onofrio and Dwight Yoakam for Richard Linklater’s 1920’s-set crime film The Newton Boys. McConaughey played the elder son of a farmer who convinces his brothers to give up the family business and start robbing banks.

Ulrich said the movie was difficult for Linklater who wasn’t used to working within the studio system. But the cast got along very well and had quite a bit of fun making the movie. It was while filming The Newton Boys that Matthew McConaughey was arrested for dancing naked and playing the bongo drums.

Although I personally enjoyed it quite a bit, The Newton Boys received mixed reviews and under performed at the box office. It barely cracked the top ten when it opened with a 9th place debut behind U.S. Marshals which had been in theaters for four weeks.

Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich – Chill Factor – 1999

Up to this point, most of Ulrich’s performances have been in ensemble and supporting parts. In 1999, he made an attempt at a leading man part.

Chill Factor was an action-thriller that teamed Ulrich with Cuba Gooding Jr. One of the reasons Ulrich took the part was the opportunity to hang out with his costar:

Cuba [Gooding Jr.] and I had, like, 12 scenes cut out of As Good As It Gets, so he and I had worked together on that. And he’s one of the funniest human beings I’ve ever been around. So that experience was a blast. I could not wait to leave set every day, my stomach hurt so bad from laughing all day long. So it was a great time and, you know, there are a lot of people who really like that movie. I don’t necessarily see why, but they do.

Unfortunately, lightning didn’t strike twice as Chill Factor bombed. It opened in 6th place at the box office behind the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair which had been in theaters for more than a month. Both critics and audiences said “no thanks”. Three years after Scream, Ulrich still hadn’t capitalized on that movie’s success.

Skeet Ulrich and Tobey Maguire – Ride with the Devil – 1999

Later that year, Ulrich appeared in Ang Lee’s Civil War drama, Ride With The Devil.

Ulrich played a man whose father was killed by Union soldiers. Tobey Maguire costarred as Ulrich’s friend who follows him when he joins the Bushwhackers, an informal group that fought for the South. When the group takes refuge on the property of a sympathetic family, Ulrich becomes romantically involved with a young widow played by world-renowned poet and yodeler, Jewel. Maguire ends up befriending a freed slave played by Jeffrey Wright which causes him to question the righteousness of the Confederacy.

Ulrich was disappointed by the way the movie’s release was handled:

It’s really the only unseen Ang Lee movie. October Films was our original distributor, and he had just won for Sense And Sensibility. It was a seven-month shoot, and during the shoot, October Films was bought by USA Films, and their first release was The Muse, with Sharon Stone, and Ride With The Devil was supposed to be their second release. And they became so terrified. I mean, the film is multi-themed, but the whole notion that there was a black Confederate soldier scared the shit out of them, so they let it out for four days and then shelved it. And [Lee] went off to make his next film, and Ride With The Devil just kind of went away.

Reviews were mixed. Several influential critics complained that the movie was boring. Roger Ebert compared it to a history class while Entertainment Weekly called it “unengaging”. Ride With the Devil never received a wide release. It played in at most 60 theaters and peaked at 50th at the box office. It grossed just over $600,000 with a $38 million dollar budget!

As the decade came to an end, Ulrich decided to focus more on spending time with his family. In 1997, he had married English actress Georgina Cates. They had a small ceremony on farmland Ulrich had purchased in Virginia. In 2001, the couple welcomed a pair of twins. Ulrich continued working, but his film roles have been in movies that received either a very limited theatrical release or went straight to video.

Skeet Ulrich – Miracles – 2003

However, he has found a place for himself on TV.

In 2003, Ulrich starred in the short-lived thriller, Miracles, on ABC. The show was a supernatural take on The X-Files with Ulrich as a former investigator for the Catholic Church. The show was executive produced by David Greenwalt who had experience with this sort of thing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off show, Angel.

ABC pulled the plug on Miracles after airing only six episodes. Fans sent the network messages written on napkins (which makes sense if you have seen the show’s pilot), but ultimately it wasn’t enough to save the show.

Skeet Ulrich – Jericho – 2006-2008

In 2006, Ulrich was at it again in the post-apocalyptic drama, Jericho. Ulrich starred as one of the residents of a small town in Kansas following a nuclear attack on several major cities in the US. Jericho was cancelled after its first season which resulted in another campaign by fans who wanted to save the show. This time fans sent in over 20 tons of nuts to the network (a reference to events from the first season finale.

The effort paid off in the form of a second season, but low ratings continued to plague the show. The second season finale was shot with two endings; one a cliffhanger in case the show got picked up for a third season and one that offered Jericho‘s fans closure. They ended up airing the latter when the show was cancelled a second time.

According toUlrich, Jericho just wasn’t a good fit for the network it was on:

It wasn’t a show that was a CBS-type show. Now they have their summer miniseries that are sort of similar to it, but they had never really stepped outside of cops and lawyers and doctors, and they were scared of it… The thing that killed that show was the marketing strategy that they had for it. Lost was in its fourth season when they split it into basically two 11-episode half-seasons, with a three-month hiatus in between the 11th and 12th episodes. But they had four seasons, and they had a following, and they did a massive amount of marketing when they broke between the 11th and 12th to let people know when it was coming back. And CBS wanted to use that model of marketing for Jericho. And it killed it. I mean, we had a big fan base, but they didn’t do the marketing to let people know when it came back, and then when the numbers dropped, they blamed us.

Skeet Ulrich – Jericho – 2006-2008

After the show was finally cancelled for good, fans continued trying for a revival. There was some interest from Netflix which had brought back shows like Arrested Development, but ultimately a deal could not be struck:

We were close [to a third season] about four or five years ago. Karim Zreik, one of the producers, called me and said, “Netflix has a schedule, they have budget, they have locations. Are you in?” I said, “Absolutely, with one proviso: That first script back has to time-jump five years, and the world has devolved way lower than we could ever have imagined.” And they were on board with it. And CBS wouldn’t sell it. The deal wouldn’t work for them.

Jericho continues to have a cult following. The story has continued on in comic book form.

Skeet Ulrich – Law & Order: LA – 2010-2011

Starting in 2010, Ulrich played Detective Rex Winters on Law & Order. His character debuted in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Ulrich was then cast as the lead on Law & Order: LA which ran from for just one season. Part way through the first season, Ulrich’s character was killed off as part of a creative shake-up. In a move that left viewers scratching their heads, episodes were aired out of sequence.

Ulrich didn’t enjoy his time on the show which he described as “one of the least creative experiences I’ve ever had.” He blamed his firing on network politics:

The only time I’ve ever been fired in the 27 years I’ve been doing this, and the reasons were just nebulous. It had a bit to do with [Bob] Greenblatt’s takeover, coming from Showtime to NBC and wanting to make his mark, and Dick Wolf’s love/hate relationship with NBC. There was a lot going on at the upper echelon that had nothing to do with the day-to-day of making that show and the results of it. And the only comeuppance I had is that they lost six million viewers after I was killed. And I was laughing on a beach in Italy when I heard.

Skeet Ulrich – Riverdale – 2017

In addition to recurring roles, Ulrich has appeared in several TV movies and guest spots on shows like CSI: NY and Unforgettable. Most recently, he’s gone to the CW show Riverdale. The show is based on the Archie comics, but unlike the squeaky clean source material, Riverdale is dark and sexy. The show’s first season focused on a murder mystery in which Ulrich’s character was a prime suspect. The tone of the show is Archie by way of Twin Peaks.

Ulrich plays Forsythe “FP” Jones, Jughead’s estranged father. Several of the parents on the show are played by actors with a background in coming-of-ages movies and TV shows. Archie’s parents are played by Luke Perry and Molly Ringwald. And Mädchen Amick from Twin Peaks plays Betty’s mom. Ulrich says he is excited to be involved in the show:

The way he approached it, I was blown away by the writing and the skill of it, and then when I saw the pilot, even more so. So I jumped at the opportunity. They initially went, “Would you do three with the potential of doing more?” I said, “Yeah, sure!” And then it just kept growing. And now I get to go do a bunch of them.

The hit CW show was recently renewed for a second season with Ulrich promoted to a member of the regular cast.

So, what the hell happened?

In this case, the answer should be pretty obvious. While Skeet did (and still does have) fans, he was never a major box office draw. He was in films that were successful critically and commercially and a couple that have become cult favorites. But he was never the primary reason people went to those movies.

After Scream, Ulrich had a narrow window in which to establish himself as a movie star. But it was a crowded field for young actors in the late 90’s. Even within his own movie, Ulrich faced competition from costar Matthew Lillard. Scream spawned knock-offs like I Know What you Did Last Summer which minted potential movie stars like Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ryan Phillippe. Just as the teen horror craze was dying out due to over-saturation, the high school romcoms launched more potential rivals for Ulrich like Heath Ledger.

For the most part, Ulrich (who was 26 when he made Scream) sidestepped the high school roles. He can be credited for seeking out parts in prestige pictures like As Good As It Gets and Ride With the Devil. Unfortunately those choices didn’t pay off as Ulrich’s part got cut from As Good As It Gets and Ride With the Devil turned out to be one of Ang Lee’s least-watched movies. But at least Ulrich can say he didn’t take the easy way out by starring in a bunch of Scream knock-offs.

After his attempt at establishing himself as a leading man in movies failed, Ulrich took a step back and started a family. He rebuilt his career on TV. Despite several setbacks, he’s currently a regular on a hit show. That’s a reasonably happy ending for a WTHH article.

2 2 votes Article Rating

Advertisements