I've always loved Maury Chaykin. He's been one of my favourite actors since I remember first seeing him in a standout performance in Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster.
If you're not familiar with Mr Egoyan's work, he's one of the best writer/ directors, and is easily a national treasure of Canada.
He works with a somewhat nebulous 'troop' of actors in many of his film's. I describe his story telling as pulling the layers off of an onion; There's a central theme, and we're introduced to a group of seemingly disconnected individuals, but as the film plays out, youvslowly - inexorably - come to understand these connections are a lot more important than they first seemed.
One aspect of Mr Egoyan's films is that - whilst they're not specifically categorisable as being of a specific type (murder, drama, horror, etc), they all encompass some of man's basest aspects.
In The Adjuster, Mr Chaykin's character is that of a wealthy older man married to a woman a lot younger than he, but more importantly, they seem to be of two totally different types.
Though often said, 'opposites attract', the actual truth is closer to the opposite; a person might be attracted to someone totally different than they, but people tend to marry alike types.
Simply put, a man will most likely find a woman who's got very similar qualities to the woman who had the most influence on his formative life - usually a mother.
That doesn't mean he won't go for the opposite, i.e.., in young adult-hood, he'll find women who are nothing like his mother.
In The Adjuster, Chaykin's character is known as 'Bubba'. I don't think we ever 'meet' the man he's supposed to be, as every time we see Mr Chaykin, he's playing a character (yes; a character - of the film, pretending to be another character, for those he encounters in his 'life').
I'm trying to not give too much away of the Adjuster, because it was the first Egoyan film I saw, and it played out with such a shock it unnerved me - not something easily done -and it still does, all these decades later.
It was so... hidden, that I don't think many people in the theatre watching it with me understood exactly what happened, and though there's no (visible) physicality shown (of either a sexual or violent nature), Mr Chaykin's Bubba is involved in something which still - 3 decades later - gives me chills.
I've seen Mr Chaykin's work a lot after that - many times I'd go to something BECAUSE he was in it.
He was in a terrific Nero Wolfe series in the early years of the 21st century.
Here, in Pieces of Eight, he's the head of a family which had ties to the original Commonwealth, but, as Tri-Jema says to Dylan, since he (he goes by the moniker, 'number eight') became the family head 300 years after the original Commonwealth fell, though he's figuratively in the same position as his ancestors, he's definitely not 'cut from the same cloth', as they were.
When we first met him, he's sitting there, pondering a very valuable gemstone he's holding (which is obviously his), and he obsequiously asks Dylan 'how it got that way' (not specifying whether or not he's referring to how the gemstone came to be, or how its exorbitant value has come to be). Dylan - already on the lookout for something, just replies, 'pressure', which can also be taken two ways - one for each of the two possible variations of Citizen Eight's 'question'.
He then immediately goes into a disarming banter, but as the episode plays out, though we - the audience - have been aware that Eight is hiding something, he doesn't let it slip.
He wants to appear to be the 'fool', in order to hide his true self.
I'm relatively new to Andromeda. I've been a Rodenberry fan since watching Start Trek (TOS), when it appeared in weekly syndication years ago, and I even watched the first couple of years of Earth; Final Conflict, before I felt it was just getting to messy, plot-wise, that is.
I first saw Andromeda only about 2 years ago (2020-ish), during the global COVID shut-in, and I really enjoyed it.
Right after seeing this episode the first time, and seeing Mr Chaykin in it, I immediately wanted to see what other work he'd been doing these past few years, and I was saddened to find out he had passed away.
I can't tell you how wonderful am actor he is. It's just something one has to see for themselves.
I watch a lot of true crime, and many times, they share a commonality. No matter what awful crime's being told on a particular show, the people telling the story almost always say (the bad person) 'didn't seem' to be anything but a lovable person, and they're always surprised that this supporsed 'wonderful' person butchered kids, or some other awfulness.
The fact is, a serial killer isn't going to look like the cliché most people have in their mind. If that were the case, they'd never be able to get close to anyone. The real serial killer ALWAYS looks like the person you'd never expect.
Like my (very few) other favourite actors, he's a master at misdirection. His character could be the most frightening thing imaginable - but he never lets that be seen, instead, he IS that goofy, slovenly, not-to-bright person. No one would peg him for anything nefarious.
It's that simple fact that makes Mr Chaykin's performances so terrifying., and here in Pieces of Eight, it's no exception.
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