Will the REAL Steve Jaax please stand up?
Steve Jaax, the hero of HOT DISH, wasn’t patterned after an actor but a role played by an actor. This actor is not gorgeous; his body is sometimes actually UNappealing, and he’s not young. At all. But frankly, I would rather wake up in bed next to any number of the characters he’s played than the real Gerard Butler, Clive Owen, or Hugh Jackman.
Who is he?
Bill Murray.
Wait! Stay! Read! Hear me!
I liked Bill Murray in his SNL days. Not only did he look like he was having a great time, but he never seemed to take himself too seriously. His rubbery, pock-marked face, sad-bad forlorn eyes, thinning unruly hair, and gangly body might not scream “I Am Sexy!” but the glint of mischief in his eyes, the wry smile, the self-mocking pronouncements and faux hubris achieved what his physical appearance didn’t. They made him unaccountably sexy. Who couldn’t fall for Ghostbusters’ Dr. Peter Venkman? Or the camp counselor from Meatballs? Or John Winger, the unlikely bootcamp hero from Stripes?
But while he courted me with the charm of these characters, he won me over entirely with portrayal of older heroes. In his more recent “Indie God” roles, Bill Murray is oblivious and confounded, egocentric and Machiavellian, world-weary and childish, but determined to find something of value not only in his life but in himself. Characters like Raleigh St. Clair in The Royal Tenebaums (featuring another fabulous character actor—Gene Hackman), Herman Blume in Rushmore, Bob Harris in Lost in Translation and Don Johnston in Broken Flowers, make me laugh, break my heart, and shove a mirror in front of my face.
But my favorite Bill Murray role is Steve Zissou from The Life Aquatic, the inspiration for my own Steve, Steve Jaax. Both men are celebrities riding the coattails of past glory, both are effortlessly charismatic, both are egomaniacal, neither have the least bit of maliciousness in their make-up, but they do have a smidge of pettiness. And both men are just self-aware enough, just honest enough to glance back with regret before bulling forward with desperate determination. 
When Steve Zissou single-handedly take on the pirates, I know he’s only able to do so because he’s written himself into the role of hero and, by god, he’s going to play it regardless of who gets hurt. I despised him a little then. Yet when he finally tracks down his Moby Dick, the leopard shark, and whispers, “I wonder if he remembers me,” I end up bawling anyway. It doesn’t matter that this is the ultimate narcissism, that he needs to think he’s as important to a fish as the fish is to him. Because, just like the rest of the characters in the movie who all crowd around to offer him comfort, I’m moved by compassion the character makes me feel.
That’s the magic of Bill Murray’s acting. He makes you like the unlikeable, see in the petty something worth salvaging, finds the humanity hidden beneath a life’s worth of mistakes and missteps.
What anti-heroes do you enjoy the most? Did you see or suspect Bill Murray if (when?) you read Hot Dish?
And about that Iron Chef appearance… he wasn’t a guest chef, I never said he was a chef. He was interviewed in the audience with his wife and kid when he was there to cheer on a chef buddy of his.