Is Liev Schreiber Today's Best Actor?

Some Critics Say His Performance In "Talk Radio" Places Him Atop The Heap

(CBS)  At a time when talk radio is what America is talking about, "Talk Radio" is what Broadway is talking about — and actor Liev Schreiber is the reason why.

"There's an anonymity to talk radio," he told Saturday Early Show co-anchor Tracy Smith. "That is, no one can see your face. And in the privacy of your own home you can talk trash."

Schreiber likes his anonymity in real life, and even though his star is rising — with a Tony-winning role in "Glengarry Glen Ross" and the revival of Eric Bogosian's "Talk Radio" — he says he is able to keep it in his hometown, New York City.

"People don't really give a crap in New York because they know in a block they're gonna see somebody else," he said. "That's why they just keep going. They can upgrade right around the corner."

At 39, Schreiber enjoys a flirtation with fame that hasn't quite blossomed into a steady relationship. For 15 years he's moved easily from theater to film to TV, and he says not being a superstar has helped him.

"I think audiences want to maintain a certain level of anonymity," he said. I think they don't want to know your dirty bits and pieces when they're seeing you in a play or in a film because they want to believe."

For his performance as talk radio host Barry Champlain in "Talk Radio," critics are calling him the finest actor of his generation. He plays an acerbic, bullying know-it-all who ferociously berates co-workers, a cast of unseen callers and himself. He seems just a phone call away from a breakdown. Audiences should hate him, but instead, director Robert Falls said, they are intrigued.

"And there's always something in Liev's eyes which keep you a little distant, which are a little mysterious, and that's what draws an audience in," Falls said. "That's what Liev has created in Barry Champlain: a character who doesn't explain himself completely but makes you wanna find out more just by watching his every action on stage."

Playing a likeable jerk is what won Schreiber a 2005 Tony award as the cutthroat real-estate salesman Ricky Roma in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Reviews called that performance "mesmerizing" and "brilliant."

"They loved 'Glengarry.' So, it was great. It was a treat. But you gotta find a way to feel the same way when they hate it. Ya know, it's still gotta be a treat, ya know?"

Playwright Eric Bogosian — himself the star of "Talk Radio" 20 years ago — says Schreiber was his only choice for the part.

"I think Liev has got that great actor thing, like kind of a Richard Burton," Bogosian said. "The insanity, the excitement, it happens in the way that he completely throws himself into the role. That's where you're going to find the madman in Liev."

The truth is that Schreiber rarely gets a bad review. After a turn in "Cymbeline," The New York Times implored, "More Shakespeare, Mr. Schreiber." He obliged. And through the years, he's alternated critically acclaimed performances in plays like "Henry V" with movies like the "Scream" trilogy, and "The Manchurian Candidate." Schreiber also received an Emmy nomination when he played a young Orson Welles in the made-for-TV movie "RKO 281," about the making of "Citizen Kane."

But Schreiber is not the biggest fan of making films. He once made a presentation to a class and said making movies was boring.