The Quad-City Times - News, Sports and more from the Quad Cities region or Iowa and Illinois

You are not logged in.
Login

Log in to qctimes.com
Email:
Password:
Remember my information.
Register
Quadsville
Site Help

Steeples doesn’t have a lot to say

Font Size:

By Scripps Howard | Wednesday, April 12, 2006 |

SCRIPPS HOWARD Eddie Steeple enjoys his role as “Crab Man” on “My Name is Earl” � even though he doesn’t get that many lines.

Whether he is playing the Rubber Band Man or the Crab Man, Eddie Steeples has come to accept that he’ll be a man of few words.

“I’m willing to roll with it,” says the actor who plays the quiet Darnell, also known as The Crab Man, on “My Name Is Earl” (8 p.m. Thursdays, NBC).

“I have to keep these parts really simple. When you don’t have a lot to say, you tend to express everything bigger than what it needs to be. It’s really all about saying those simple words and keeping it simple.”

Before being cast as the modest best friend of the title character in “Earl,” Steeple gained fame in commercials. He danced around to the tune “Rubber Band Man” while handing out supplies in Office Max commercials.

From the success of those commercials, in which he said nothing, Steeple landed “Earl.”

Now instead of hearing people refer to him as “that Rubber Band Man,” he’s hearing folks call him “Crab Man,” the nickname his character carries.

“It’s a really warm and good feeling,” he says. “I am digging the vibe that people get off ‘Earl.’”

The go-with-the-flow Crab Man may not be able to get a word in edgewise. He’s married to Joy (Jaime Pressly), the over-the-top ex-wife of Earl. The highly opinioned and bossy Joy says enough for her and her husband.

“Crab Man is a person who is very relaxed, very low key, very simple,” Steeples says. “He is one of those guys who doesn’t want to rock the boat. He’s all about making everything work.

“For him, it’s OK to disagree or to have a different opinion or to even be a bad person. What is, is. I don’t think anyone is that nice.”

In many episodes, Crab Man merely nods or chooses his words slowly and carefully. He might be stoned or he could be a guy who would rather stick to himself.

Steeples isn’t exactly foreign to the idea waiting for his turn to speak. A native of Texas, he grew up in a family of eight siblings. He’s the oldest.

“I wanted to act since I was 4 years old,” he says. “My mom was so sick of me saying I wanted to act that she was fine with it when I was 18.”

But when he moved to New York and nothing came of his career for eight years, she had a different opinion, he says.

“She thought I should maybe stop this and go to school and get a real job,” he says. “Now, she’s thrilled.”

Despite not having a lot of dialogue, Steeple says the critically acclaimed “Earl” has been a boost to his career, too.

“It’s helped get me in the door for parts I would not have been considered for a year ago,” the 32-year-old star says. “This has given me the ability to help my family, my brothers and sisters.

“It lets me go places I would never have gone before. It’s changed me. It’s changed the people around, hopefully for the better.”