Is Liev Schreiber Today's Best Actor?

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.

"You sit around all day, you know?" he said. "It's, you know, eatin' carrot sticks and crackers and cheese. And then you go and you act for five minutes and you go sit around some more. Then somebody comes up and powders your nose and you go and you act for two minutes. Then you go and you sit around some more. A producer comes over. Now you talk, and he shoots for a little while. And then you go back and you act some more. I mean, when is it gonna end?"

Even sipping tea with him at New York City's Russian Samovar, you get a sense that Schreiber is an actor who's never quite content to take it easy. It's evident in rehearsals for "Talk Radio." He is meticulous, demanding and generous with others.

Schreiber is a fascinating product of erudition and hard-knocks. He is a Shakespearean-trained actor who grew up as a squatter on New York's Lower East Side.

"My mom is a kind of wonderful, free spirit of a woman," he said. "You know the things that are really important to other people, weren't so important to her…like clothes."

"I had long blond hair down to my butt," he added. "My mom gave me a seal skin coat and cowboy boots that came up to my knees. I looked ridiculous. And I think I felt a little ostracized in the early days. She was a real bohemian character, and I'm very grateful for that. The things that were important to her were music and literature and art."

In high school, he used the arts to fit in. One of his first big roles was as Nick Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It was, he said, "the jackass part."

"I was 15 or 16 and I made the donkey noise, and I remember the audience laughing and I was like, 'Ooh, that was cool!' he said.

Schreiber went on to Yale, paid for by his father, but his biggest role model was his grandfather, who Schreiber said used his life savings to win a custody battle.

"A real great guy — in the Jewish vernacular, it's mensch," he said. "That was my grandfather."

When he died in 1993, Schreiber had just gotten out of grad school.

"It made me ask myself some tough questions," he said. "It made me depressed for a while and it made me angry for a while. It made me confused. But it was all the right things to feel. It was like, 'That's how life works. People die so that you can learn and you can move on.'"

Schreiber's breakout performance in the film "A Walk on the Moon" was influenced by his grandfather, and his directorial debut – a screen adaptation of Jonathon Safran Foer's bestseller "Everything is Illuminated," is essentially a young man's journey to learn more about his grandfather. He finished the film while he was doing "Glengarry Glen Ross," editing at night after he got off stage.

"Ya know, the safety zone is — is the safety zone. And after a while it's not that interesting. And so, I like things that are a little intense. I like things that are scary. Ya know, at the time I'll complain a lot. But like this, ya know, we're really comfortable having tea now at the Russian Samovar. I've got a show on Broadway. And, yeah, it's very easy to say that I grew doing "Everything is Illuminated," but if you ask me back then, I said I'll never do it again."

But in reality, Schreiber said he is dying to do it again.

As Schreiber's career is reaching new heights, so is his personal life. He is dating the well-known actress Naomi Watts and starred with her in last year's "The Painted Veil." He said they have made each other better actors.

"I think we're competitive," he said. "Definitely."

The two are expecting a child together.

"I'm very excited," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it. I'm scared. But I think it's just a — I think it's it, you know? It's the be-all, end-all."

But that's all in the future. Before the baby comes is this year's Tony Awards. Next Sunday night, Schreiber may once again find that his skill at being "someone else" is something that makes him one of Broadway's best.

"That's what I love about the theater," he said. "You put your best foot forward every time, always. It's live…it really is lightning in a bottle. It will never happen again ever. In the history or future of the universe, this event will never occur again, and you gotta get it."