September 27, 2021 • 32 mins
Carlos talks to American actor, director and producer Vincent D’Onofrio about how he first got involved in acting, his role on Law and Order and his new project, The Eye of Tammy Fye.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Vincent Dinofrio began his career on the theater stage, making
his Broadway debut in the production of Open Admissions, before
making a jump to the big screen. He can be
seen in some of the biggest movies and television series
like Men in Black, The Cell, and Law and Order
Criminal Intent. On this episode of The Carlos Watson Show podcast,
(00:23):
Vincentinofrio reflects on how he first got involved in acting,
his role on Law and Order and his new project,
The Eye of Tammy Faye. Hey, Vincent, Hey, how are
you good? How are you good? Good? I understand what
(00:44):
you're fellow Miamian's well high Leah, Oh, I love that.
I love a guy that's not willing to say Miami
that he's doing high. Were you highly high or highly
in Miami Lakes? Highly and Miamis? I love that you
guys had some You guys had some talent back in
the day. You guys had some in the in the
football team. Yeah, we did, We did good for a
(01:06):
while back in yeah, seventiess yeah, seventy I think seventy five,
seventy six. Yeah, you guys had a guy named Michael Timpson.
I think who was who was one of your guys
who later went to the league. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
he played for he went to Penn State, and then
(01:27):
I think he ended up playing for a bunch of people,
including the Dolphins and uh maybe the Patriots. And then
you guys have really good basketball later on. Um. I
don't know if you followed their basketball in the eighties,
but you guys won state championships and uh um, you
guys were a pretty ferocious team back in the day.
I didn't know that. Actually, yeah, did you know did
(01:49):
you grow up in Miami the whole way or did
you you moved there later in life or live? Yeah?
I lived both in New York and in Florida, and
then eventually after high school, I ended up in New
York studying acting. But my grandfather and all of my
relatives were in Brooklyn, and uh so I was raised
(02:11):
partly in my grandfather's house and then partly in Hi
Alien And and now why hyoliyah, what what brought you
guys down to uh? South Florida? I think that that's
where my my um my parents met in Hawaii, my
mom's my grandfather on my mom's side, opened the first
(02:32):
fried chicken Italian restaurant in Honolulu and that that's a
true little bit of information. And uh, and then my
dad was in the Air Force, he was his family
was from Brooklyn as well. But they they met, they
met in the restaurants. She was a waitress in my
grandfather's restaurant, and they met, and they went to New
(02:53):
York for a little while, and then they moved down
to Florida. Well, so you and Obama, both of you
parents in Hawaii, Uh, right around the same time. That's
uh pretty cool, right, Yeah, yeah, did you ever spend
any time in Hawaii at all, either for fun or
for you know, with fil went to Yeah, I went
to um Elementary school partly there and then and then
(03:20):
you know, I've been back since and I have a
lot of relatives there still. So was anyone an actor
in the family or were you the first? My sister,
My sister was um an actress when she was younger.
She was she did it in high school. I didn't
do any of that kind of stuff, but um, we
actually when when she decided to study more seriously, I
(03:46):
kind of tack along and we ended up in our
first school to get there, called the American Stanislaska theater
company run by a woman named Sonya More and we
used to do place with them. That's where I started
doing theater and that in that and her troop of
actors and uh yeah, so my sister and my dad
was always involved in community theater though he was an
(04:07):
interior designer by trade, and he was really into um
starting community theaters and stuff wherever he lived, and so
he used to. Uh So, I grew up a lot
of the time, you know, doing tech and lights and
you know, sound and building sets and stuff like that.
I so love I met a couple of people like you.
(04:29):
I feel like I got a chance to learn in
some way from their parents and and and got to
kind of see it up close. I was talking to
uh Felicia Rashad's daughter, Gondola Rijade, who was talking about
getting a chance to be her mom's right hand and
see it all up close in person. Yeah yeah, I
love Lisa, She's awesome. Yeah yeah, yeah, No, it was
(04:52):
you know, acting was never intimidating for me. Um. I
grew up watching a lot of people get nervous, have
butterflies and stuff like that, and and I don't know,
being a techie just kind of like, you know, it's
more about you know, getting this this the show right.
You know, there's really no time to be nervous. You
can't miss your ques and stuff like that. I always
(05:14):
think that that kind of helped me because I don't
I don't get nervous. Um. I get nervous about things
in real life, but I don't get nervous about acting
at all. And I think that has a lot to
do with being a techie when I was younger and
just watching actors. You know, Oh I really so is
that even true with auditions? Like with auditions, do you
get nervous or did you get nervous when when you
(05:37):
were auditioning a lot? No, I never, I've never experienced
butterflies or I mean, it's it's uh, it's not because
I'm you know, you know, any braver than the next
actor or anything. It's just it's just something that I don't.
I don't. I just don't experience it, you know, I
just um. And then later, you know, I just never have.
(06:00):
And then later in age, when I started to study,
it all just made more sense to me and more
focused that I am on um servicing the story. When
the cameras rolling, and or when I walk out on
stage that you know, there's there there's no time to
be um, I just don't have any talk to me
about it. And I've seen other actors like that too.
There's there's there's a there's other actors as well that
(06:23):
don't get nervous. It's uh. I sometimes wish that I
could join the club of people get nervous because when
you're doing theater, you know, people are you are, you
are waiting for your queue with other actors a lot
of the time, you know, you know, So it's it's
interesting not too but if you know what I found
it um interesting about it is that if something happens
(06:46):
on stage that's unexpected, you know, in a live performance,
um it, it's like I'm first too to be able
to fix it while I'm on stage, you know. Like
I had a very close friend of mine. He was
wearing spurs on his boots and while we were on
stage live and he his spurs got linked up together
(07:11):
and and he couldn't he couldn't walk, he couldn't move
because the spurs got tangled up. There's like a little
chain hanging next to him, and so I had to
reach down and undo his spurs, and I did it,
like mid dialogue. You know, it's like there's stuff like that.
It comes in handle to have been a techie, you know,
you could take care of problems. Um and still saying Mines,
(07:36):
that is awesome, that that is true about you. I
wonder where else that that kind of dynamic happens where
you feel so comfortable with the technicals that you could
actually free layouts and you could actually you know, do
that juggling. Yeah. Yeah, but you know in real life,
you know, because I have kids and because you know, um,
(07:57):
you know, I get nervous for them and and and
anxious for them all the time, you know, having to
learn new things in life and facing new experiences. You know,
a thirteen year old went back to um, you know,
real school for the first time in over a year,
and so I was I was very nervous for him.
And uh, but so it only applies to act. So
(08:21):
what kind of dad are you? Are you a are
you a very hands on dad? Or you are you
a soft touch dad? Or you are you the tough dad?
What kind of what kind of dad are you? Unfortunately
I'm not a tough dad, you know, I do draw
lines that, you know, with certain things. Um, but I'm
very you know, I'm I'm very mushy when it comes
(08:44):
to my kids, you know. And and so they I'm
a real They can they can really, you know, manipulate
the hell out of me. You know that. Were you
always that way? Or have you like if you like,
if your defense is worn down over the years, and
now with the thirteen year old, you know, you're you're
just putty. Yeah, I mean, you know, I I you know,
(09:09):
I tried to enter their world as much as I can.
It's hard, you know when when you as you know,
when you work a lot too to keep up with
the way to communicate with them what they're into, all
the things, you know, because I like to be able
to relate to them on on their level, you know,
when it comes to how much social activity has done
(09:32):
on the computer and the phones and and you know,
I try to I try to get into all that
with them, and and and sometimes I do pretty well,
But most of the time I'm being schooled by them
constantly when it comes to that stuff. But but I
think that, you know, I think that the effort, the
constant effort to do that is it gets you closer
in a relationship with them, you know, And so I
(09:55):
try to I've learned over the years to when I
do have the time to to try and get to
their level, like where they are, and you know, because
they're way far behind beyond me when it comes to
social media and stuff. So I learned a lot from them.
And I also like to understand what they're up to
(10:15):
and why. You know. I love that, and I love
your openness to doing that, and it probably makes them
smile to see you, uh see you engage with them
and try and uh and meet them where they are.
(10:46):
What did you learn doing Law in Order? It's such
an iconic series, And as I think about you, and
I think about your life as a New Yorker who
lived in Waii but also lived in Miami, and um,
you know, I could see you learning so many different
things in Law and Order as a franchise, or about
the police and or about crime or about crime solving,
(11:06):
or about just all sorts of things. What what did
you take away from there? I don't have any you know,
preconceived ideas as to what you did learn, but I'm
just curious for someone to get a chance to be
a part of that. What were two or three of
the interesting things that you learned or took away from
from that? Yeah, it was the nine year job in
ninth season job. It was actually a ten year job
at nine seasons. But no, you know, you know it's interesting.
(11:30):
I never played the character like he was a cop.
I just played him as a person, you know that
that have a job, and so law enforcement rarely. Even
with Kate Herby, who played my partner, you know, Lawn,
we would constantly have to remind ourselves that we were
playing law enforcement because we we both approached it as
(11:52):
people first, you know, and reacted to to to a lot. Uh,
to a certain extent, we reacted like, um, like anybody
with two situations, you know. Um, there was always an
underneath of how we really felt as people about what
we were doing stuff. But I would say that, you know,
one when you asked that question just now, it's always
(12:15):
the same thing comes to my mind, is that I'm
even though it was really hard to work all those
hours and for that long because um, back then the
network television, UM, they were allowed to work for you
for sixteen, seventeen, sometimes eighteen hours a day, you know,
and that's you know, that's six days a week because
you bleed into Saturday and then you basically only have
(12:37):
Sunday off. So that's hard. Um uh, you know you
get paid well for it, but it's it's tough. And
but you know, in hindsight, I'm a better actor after
coming out of that than I am that I was
going in. I'm I had my chops were honed in
(12:58):
a way that I don't think I could have gotten
um in another in another format or another platform. It was.
The scripts are always, i would say, cent of the time,
really tight and really good um written in with a
certain kind of structure that Law and Orders are written.
(13:20):
Even though my character was you know, it was a
kind of individual and are some of the scenes in
our series were kind of different than the other the
other Law and Orders, but still in the end um
you had to make several transitions within one scene. I
don't know if this is boring after talking, not at all,
not at all. So unlike in a movie where you
(13:43):
your character transitions over a few scenes are sometimes over
an act, you know, whole a full act um and
then has this complete arc through the whole three acts
or however many acts that the film is. But in
the television show like that, you were making transitions many
during one scene, and so to be able to be
(14:04):
able to get away with that and constantly not lose
focus and constantly be telling story um for the audience
to to to like lean forward into you know you
you you get good at it, you really do. And
you know, I fortunately had somebody like Kate Herby working
(14:24):
with we was theater actress from Chicago. It's amazing and
she um, she was very good at at that and uh,
and then we would have guest stars on the show
that we're also really really good at that. And so
I learned a lot, I'm telling you. Once I came
out of that show, I was a better actor for sure.
(14:47):
For for your money, using whatever uh terms you want
to use, who's on your amount rushmore of great actors? Gosh,
um you mean now or forever, forever, forever or you know,
you could give me both of you wanted. You could
give me here's who's in the game today, and you
(15:07):
could give me here's you know all time if you want, well,
Alec Ginnis, Denzel Um, John Garfield. I mean some of
them are pretty obvious. Meryl Streep. You know, she's some
of her performances when she was younger, UM where a
(15:28):
true inspiration for me. You know, I'd never since like
Live Allman. You know, she's also was an inspiration to me.
But I had never since Live Allmand seen a woman
carry a monologue the way that Merrill did, and and
that was just so inspiring to see somebody hold you
(15:49):
for over two minutes when the cameras rolling, um, without
the camera you know, moving at all. And you know,
so that is always very impressive that she was so
able to do that and so so Live Alman would
be Live Olman would be another one as well. Um,
I was very very impressed by her. So you know,
(16:13):
that's pretty much it nowadays. You know, I really I
find a lot of the young actors are really good.
I don't want to to pick favors, but there's a
couple of them, men and women that I find to
be extremely good actors. UM and that that's really nice
to see because a few years ago it was there
(16:34):
I thought that the young actors were suffering a little
bit and there in their schooling or something was wrong.
But nowadays I think there's some really great um up
and coming actors men and women, young men and women
that are just amazing and they just swore me in
the performances. And uh, but again, I don't want to
(16:55):
pick favorites. But yeah, so people like that, you know,
Oh shoot, I kind of want you to pick a
young bucker to give me a young bucker two to watch?
Who should I Who should I be paying attention to?
I'm not gonna do it. No, I'm not gonna do it.
I think that I don't think it's I actually I
don't think it's a good idea for them to get
(17:17):
too much praise. Yeah, it'll they I'm afraid that what
what what will happen to them is what happened to
what I saw when I was a kid to other
actors that were extremely talented, that they started to believe
the myth and they stopped evolving, you know. And I'm
(17:39):
very protective of that because I'm very I'm very snobby
when it comes to acting. I I do think it
requires um a lot of effort. And so that's what
I'm seeing from some of these young people. I'm seeing
a lot of effort and that's very very inspiring, even
for me. It inspires me. But basically That's how I
(18:01):
feel about it. You know, Yeah, I also like you know,
I also I I've just worked with but before I
worked with her, I was I was also inspired by
her talent. It's Jessica Chesstnain. I think she's really really good. Yeah,
and I have the I have the opportunity to know
Denzel for a long time, not not well, but we
met at Sundance Laboratory many many years ago, and just
(18:25):
his first few performances, um, we're just amazing to me.
And then I recently worked with him on on We
did a film, a remake of The Magnificent seven Years
a few years ago, and he's you know, you know,
there are certain guys like him, Robert Duval. You know
(18:45):
when the cameras rolling, it's just every breath they take
is on film is just amazing to watch. And do
you think it is their skill? Do you think it
is their love for what they're doing. I think it's both.
I think they're both well studied, either by circumstance over
(19:06):
the years or by you know, just actual studying. Tell
(19:27):
me a little bit about this, uh, this new one
you mentioned Jessica chas Stain, Tammy Faye Baker. I still
can remember being young with my dad and watching Jim
and Tammy Faye on Nightline if you remember Nightline back
in the day, and and seeing them even before their
fall actually seemed kind of the build up in them
inner prominence, and then seeing them go sideways. What was
(19:50):
it like filming this with Jessica and Andrew Garfield and
the rest. They're just so good, you know, they're you know,
speaking of you know, great actors, Andrew and her just
you couldn't ask for a better, better people to be
on set with. I mean, the scenes that we did
together were just amazing. We we had a good time,
(20:11):
but um, there was no everybody was so focused, there
was no wasting time, there was no um, there were
no misunderstandings of the scene. I mean, it was just
we were just on and it was just it's just
so nice when the cameras rolling to be able to
(20:31):
just feel like you can take you know, it's interesting
you you approach a set for the first time pre
rehearsal and it's just a cold set, you know, literally cold,
like the seats are called PROPSICLD and and and it's
just there's no there's no nothing there and then you
(20:53):
sit with them and you start to rehearse, and you
start to create warmth, and you you create a real
thickness in the air and like something you can cut
with a knife. You know, it becomes has it takes
on its own life. The scene takes on its own life.
(21:14):
It's pretty amazing. And it's it's always been like that
for me. And it's I find it when there's when
you're working with actors as good as they are, that
that just happens every time. You know, it's it's fantastic,
and that's what they were like working with, you know,
I remember um. I also remember when I was a
(21:34):
kid in Florida, you know, speaking of evangelist TV evangelists
like like Jim Jim Baker that the you know, I
grew up in a very liberal house. You know, My
parents were kind of hippies. You know, my dad was
an interior design They were all kind of free thinking,
very always voted Democrat, very liberal, and I'm a very
(21:58):
liberal person in my family now of my own is
all they're all living rolling. So I have there's lines
that I draw when it comes to civil liberties and
equal rights and just all of the issues at the
forefront that that are causing some division in our country.
But I think that can be taken too far. When
(22:19):
I was a kid, our neighbors, you know, when I
would go over their house, they would have a TV
evangelists on their television, you know, and but I was
I didn't they were I loved them, they were awesome people.
And uh so there was no division, you know, I didn't.
We didn't have that in my house and nor did
(22:40):
we we think in those terms. But there was no
division as far as humanity. You know, there was no hatred,
there was no there wasn't even discussion beyond what we believed.
But minus any threat to each other, you know, there
(23:01):
was no threat to each other. And and so when
you're approached to do a film, I mean, you know,
Jessica emailed me and asked me if I'd be interested
in playing Jerry Folwell. And you know, I've never imagined
playing Jerry Folwell before, obviously, or anybody that or our
TV evangelists at all. But you know, one of the
(23:23):
first things I thought of was the vision in this country.
And I thought when I read the script and I'd
watched the documentary documentary leaned a little bit towards sarcasm
and judging them a little bit, Whereas whereas the script
it's just kind of like it's just a story and
(23:44):
we don't pull any punches. But yet we also don't,
um try to make any kind of assumptions for the audience,
so the audience make the assumptions themselves. And I felt
that was a really fair way of doing it. And
the portrayal that Esska does Tammy Faye has so much
humility in it that it's fantastic. It's a fantastic examination
(24:09):
of that woman. Um because the woman that later on
in the eighties in the nineties was made fun of
so much because of her the skits on Saturday Night
Live and just endless amounts of jokes at her expense.
You know. But yet you know, if you really try
and look for a piece of videotape where her mask
(24:30):
care is running, you can't find them. You know, she
she she was not. She was judged wrongly, you know,
I think a lot and but the but the my
point is is that as an actor, your job is
to service the story and if people you have to
(24:50):
go into that like I had to go into Jerry folwell.
Even though he was he did see an opportunity to
take over their jobs and money for himself. Like for
sure he did that. But you have to go into
a project like that with an open mind. You can't
go in with a with a divide between you and
the other part of the world, or the other part
(25:12):
of anything for that matter. You have to be open
otherwise you can't understand the story fully and you can't
play the character fully. So um that that this is
what I what I have. This is the residual I
have left in me from being involved in that film
and and in this film it's coming out. Um. I
(25:33):
hope I didn't go on too long, But that's that's
does with my feelings about no no no. I love
that you said that, Vincent. They're telling me only me
have a minute or two more with you, But I
have to ask you. I've always been taken and I
love you. By the way, in The Godfather of Harlem,
I think you and and gian Carlo and Forest and
everybody same money fee you guys. It's the best show
(25:55):
in the of of of COVID that in the last
Dance or the two best shows of COVID. You guys.
You guys got us through, so so thank you for that. Um,
You've got a way about you that I like it.
It is not textbook leading man. You have you embrace
a hesitation even in the way you talk and the
(26:17):
way you turn your neck and the way sometimes you
grab your ear. You do it in a way that
most people would be self conscious about, but you let
yourself do that. Am I right? Am I? Am I
noticing something that is true about you? And where does
it come from? Why most of us are so as
you said, we're fearful you talked about Tammy Faye. We're
(26:38):
fearful of how people will judge us, how they'll see us,
what they'll expect, and therefore we try to conform to
what the way they expect us to. But I find
in your way of being you seem to have a
comfort about you and doing it your own way, which
is a little quirky. But I don't see you hesitate
from it. And I like seeing that, and I almost
wish it were true for more of us. I wish
(26:59):
more of us? Uh, you know allowed that? Am I right?
That that that is you? And that that's part of
what I'm saying, or is that you acting. Oh well,
I'm definitely not acting right now. You're getting me fully um.
You know, if the wrong if the wrong subject subject
came up when we were talking, of course I would
(27:19):
segue out of it somehow. But but you're getting the truth.
I don't know about what you say. UM. I I
don't know how to judge myself when it comes to
what you're saying. I think that I am comfortable, UM
being me. I've never um taken my my celebrity too seriously,
(27:42):
you know, I've never I'm certainly not UM. I've never
had the attitude of becoming like a superstar or anything
like that. I don't feel like, um, I'm the I'm
the personality type to do that. I've never felt that way.
So maybe that has something to do with what you're saying.
I think that I don't have anything to prove really
(28:04):
other than that it's my job to act and I
try to do the best I can. You know, kind
of the thing I don't Does that? Does that help?
Does that answer your question? At all? It does? It does?
Final thing I wanted to do with you is something
i'd call rapid fire. Could I hit you with three
or four quick questions and get your reaction. What do
I how do I answer them? Just one word or
(28:25):
two words or yeah, just a couple of words or
one word, whatever is easy for you. What's your favorite
book of all time? Oh? My god, um, yeah, wow. Uh,
that's that's too hard, man, that's too hard. You know,
that's too hard. That the list is is too long.
(28:48):
Right now, I'm reading a lot of poetry and stuff.
I love poetry. Um. You know what, let me change
Let me change it. What's one of your favorite books? Well,
I mean they're probably the same ones A lot of
people like like Atlas Shrugged, and you know that that's
one of my favorites. You know, I think that it's
it enlightened me. I read it a couple of times
(29:10):
through my life, and it enlightened me in a way
to how um, you know, the worst case scenario of
humanity and and also um and also if you lend
yourself to it in some ways, the best case scenario.
And so and I think it. I think about it
(29:33):
a lot these days because it has a lot of
Steward's going with what's happening now, um, in people's attitudes
and and the way UM society is it been. If
you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who
would you love to have dinner with? Oh my god, Um,
I mean it's gonna be an actor, you know, it's
(29:55):
it's it's gonna be like Monty Cliff, or it's gonna
be somebody like that. It's gonna be Anna mc nanny,
or you know. I had dinner once with Marcillo Monstriani,
So I can't say that, but you know people like that, uh,
(30:15):
sliding doors. If you hadn't become an actor, what would
you have done? A teacher or or a street artist? Maybe?
You know, I'm very into art. I'm very into all
kinds of art. Maybe if I would have picked up
an instrument earlier in life, maybe a musician. But I
basically I think that I would have gone a teacher route.
(30:37):
I think I would have been, um, some kind of
you know, something to do with with story, probably um,
some some kind of creative subject English teacher, high school, college, yeah,
I think probably. I think probably high school, maybe college
of something, either creative writing or or yeah English. Yeah.
(31:02):
The final question your karaoke song. You and I are
out doing karaoke? What are you singing? I mean it's
it's definitely gonna be like a Stevie Wonder song. You
know it's or Marvin Gay. You know, um, you know
what's going on, you know it's. Yeah, I think Marvin Gay.
(31:25):
I love that. I love that. I love Marvin Gay
on his own love Marvin Gay with Tammy Terrell love Marvin.
Oh my god. Yeah yeah, I mean I think we
were around maybe they around the same age. I think
we grew up with that music. Yeah, Havins and they
they're making me let you go. But but I'm only
letting you go because they're making me let you Please
know that you got a big fan out here in California.
(31:47):
Really appreciate you, appreciate your work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, be safe,
have a terrific, terrific week. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Okay,
take care. Thank you for listening to this episode of
(32:14):
The Carlos Watson Show podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,
please leave us a review where ever you listen to
your podcast
Vincent Dinofrio began his career on the theater stage, making
his Broadway debut in the production of Open Admissions, before
making a jump to the big screen. He can be
seen in some of the biggest movies and television series
like Men in Black, The Cell, and Law and Order
Criminal Intent. On this episode of The Carlos Watson Show podcast,
(00:23):
Vincentinofrio reflects on how he first got involved in acting,
his role on Law and Order and his new project,
The Eye of Tammy Faye. Hey, Vincent, Hey, how are
you good? How are you good? Good? I understand what
(00:44):
you're fellow Miamian's well high Leah, Oh, I love that.
I love a guy that's not willing to say Miami
that he's doing high. Were you highly high or highly
in Miami Lakes? Highly and Miamis? I love that you
guys had some You guys had some talent back in
the day. You guys had some in the in the
football team. Yeah, we did, We did good for a
(01:06):
while back in yeah, seventiess yeah, seventy I think seventy five,
seventy six. Yeah, you guys had a guy named Michael Timpson.
I think who was who was one of your guys
who later went to the league. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
he played for he went to Penn State, and then
(01:27):
I think he ended up playing for a bunch of people,
including the Dolphins and uh maybe the Patriots. And then
you guys have really good basketball later on. Um. I
don't know if you followed their basketball in the eighties,
but you guys won state championships and uh um, you
guys were a pretty ferocious team back in the day.
I didn't know that. Actually, yeah, did you know did
(01:49):
you grow up in Miami the whole way or did
you you moved there later in life or live? Yeah?
I lived both in New York and in Florida, and
then eventually after high school, I ended up in New
York studying acting. But my grandfather and all of my
relatives were in Brooklyn, and uh so I was raised
(02:11):
partly in my grandfather's house and then partly in Hi
Alien And and now why hyoliyah, what what brought you
guys down to uh? South Florida? I think that that's
where my my um my parents met in Hawaii, my
mom's my grandfather on my mom's side, opened the first
(02:32):
fried chicken Italian restaurant in Honolulu and that that's a
true little bit of information. And uh, and then my
dad was in the Air Force, he was his family
was from Brooklyn as well. But they they met, they
met in the restaurants. She was a waitress in my
grandfather's restaurant, and they met, and they went to New
(02:53):
York for a little while, and then they moved down
to Florida. Well, so you and Obama, both of you
parents in Hawaii, Uh, right around the same time. That's
uh pretty cool, right, Yeah, yeah, did you ever spend
any time in Hawaii at all, either for fun or
for you know, with fil went to Yeah, I went
to um Elementary school partly there and then and then
(03:20):
you know, I've been back since and I have a
lot of relatives there still. So was anyone an actor
in the family or were you the first? My sister,
My sister was um an actress when she was younger.
She was she did it in high school. I didn't
do any of that kind of stuff, but um, we
actually when when she decided to study more seriously, I
(03:46):
kind of tack along and we ended up in our
first school to get there, called the American Stanislaska theater
company run by a woman named Sonya More and we
used to do place with them. That's where I started
doing theater and that in that and her troop of
actors and uh yeah, so my sister and my dad
was always involved in community theater though he was an
(04:07):
interior designer by trade, and he was really into um
starting community theaters and stuff wherever he lived, and so
he used to. Uh So, I grew up a lot
of the time, you know, doing tech and lights and
you know, sound and building sets and stuff like that.
I so love I met a couple of people like you.
(04:29):
I feel like I got a chance to learn in
some way from their parents and and and got to
kind of see it up close. I was talking to
uh Felicia Rashad's daughter, Gondola Rijade, who was talking about
getting a chance to be her mom's right hand and
see it all up close in person. Yeah yeah, I
love Lisa, She's awesome. Yeah yeah, yeah, No, it was
(04:52):
you know, acting was never intimidating for me. Um. I
grew up watching a lot of people get nervous, have
butterflies and stuff like that, and and I don't know,
being a techie just kind of like, you know, it's
more about you know, getting this this the show right.
You know, there's really no time to be nervous. You
can't miss your ques and stuff like that. I always
(05:14):
think that that kind of helped me because I don't
I don't get nervous. Um. I get nervous about things
in real life, but I don't get nervous about acting
at all. And I think that has a lot to
do with being a techie when I was younger and
just watching actors. You know, Oh I really so is
that even true with auditions? Like with auditions, do you
get nervous or did you get nervous when when you
(05:37):
were auditioning a lot? No, I never, I've never experienced
butterflies or I mean, it's it's uh, it's not because
I'm you know, you know, any braver than the next
actor or anything. It's just it's just something that I don't.
I don't. I just don't experience it, you know, I
just um. And then later, you know, I just never have.
(06:00):
And then later in age, when I started to study,
it all just made more sense to me and more
focused that I am on um servicing the story. When
the cameras rolling, and or when I walk out on
stage that you know, there's there there's no time to
be um, I just don't have any talk to me
about it. And I've seen other actors like that too.
There's there's there's a there's other actors as well that
(06:23):
don't get nervous. It's uh. I sometimes wish that I
could join the club of people get nervous because when
you're doing theater, you know, people are you are, you
are waiting for your queue with other actors a lot
of the time, you know, you know, So it's it's
interesting not too but if you know what I found
it um interesting about it is that if something happens
(06:46):
on stage that's unexpected, you know, in a live performance,
um it, it's like I'm first too to be able
to fix it while I'm on stage, you know. Like
I had a very close friend of mine. He was
wearing spurs on his boots and while we were on
stage live and he his spurs got linked up together
(07:11):
and and he couldn't he couldn't walk, he couldn't move
because the spurs got tangled up. There's like a little
chain hanging next to him, and so I had to
reach down and undo his spurs, and I did it,
like mid dialogue. You know, it's like there's stuff like that.
It comes in handle to have been a techie, you know,
you could take care of problems. Um and still saying Mines,
(07:36):
that is awesome, that that is true about you. I
wonder where else that that kind of dynamic happens where
you feel so comfortable with the technicals that you could
actually free layouts and you could actually you know, do
that juggling. Yeah. Yeah, but you know in real life,
you know, because I have kids and because you know, um,
(07:57):
you know, I get nervous for them and and and
anxious for them all the time, you know, having to
learn new things in life and facing new experiences. You know,
a thirteen year old went back to um, you know,
real school for the first time in over a year,
and so I was I was very nervous for him.
And uh, but so it only applies to act. So
(08:21):
what kind of dad are you? Are you a are
you a very hands on dad? Or you are you
a soft touch dad? Or you are you the tough dad?
What kind of what kind of dad are you? Unfortunately
I'm not a tough dad, you know, I do draw
lines that, you know, with certain things. Um, but I'm
very you know, I'm I'm very mushy when it comes
(08:44):
to my kids, you know. And and so they I'm
a real They can they can really, you know, manipulate
the hell out of me. You know that. Were you
always that way? Or have you like if you like,
if your defense is worn down over the years, and
now with the thirteen year old, you know, you're you're
just putty. Yeah, I mean, you know, I I you know,
(09:09):
I tried to enter their world as much as I can.
It's hard, you know when when you as you know,
when you work a lot too to keep up with
the way to communicate with them what they're into, all
the things, you know, because I like to be able
to relate to them on on their level, you know,
when it comes to how much social activity has done
(09:32):
on the computer and the phones and and you know,
I try to I try to get into all that
with them, and and and sometimes I do pretty well,
But most of the time I'm being schooled by them
constantly when it comes to that stuff. But but I
think that, you know, I think that the effort, the
constant effort to do that is it gets you closer
in a relationship with them, you know, And so I
(09:55):
try to I've learned over the years to when I
do have the time to to try and get to
their level, like where they are, and you know, because
they're way far behind beyond me when it comes to
social media and stuff. So I learned a lot from them.
And I also like to understand what they're up to
(10:15):
and why. You know. I love that, and I love
your openness to doing that, and it probably makes them
smile to see you, uh see you engage with them
and try and uh and meet them where they are.
(10:46):
What did you learn doing Law in Order? It's such
an iconic series, And as I think about you, and
I think about your life as a New Yorker who
lived in Waii but also lived in Miami, and um,
you know, I could see you learning so many different
things in Law and Order as a franchise, or about
the police and or about crime or about crime solving,
(11:06):
or about just all sorts of things. What what did
you take away from there? I don't have any you know,
preconceived ideas as to what you did learn, but I'm
just curious for someone to get a chance to be
a part of that. What were two or three of
the interesting things that you learned or took away from
from that? Yeah, it was the nine year job in
ninth season job. It was actually a ten year job
at nine seasons. But no, you know, you know it's interesting.
(11:30):
I never played the character like he was a cop.
I just played him as a person, you know that
that have a job, and so law enforcement rarely. Even
with Kate Herby, who played my partner, you know, Lawn,
we would constantly have to remind ourselves that we were
playing law enforcement because we we both approached it as
(11:52):
people first, you know, and reacted to to to a lot. Uh,
to a certain extent, we reacted like, um, like anybody
with two situations, you know. Um, there was always an
underneath of how we really felt as people about what
we were doing stuff. But I would say that, you know,
one when you asked that question just now, it's always
(12:15):
the same thing comes to my mind, is that I'm
even though it was really hard to work all those
hours and for that long because um, back then the
network television, UM, they were allowed to work for you
for sixteen, seventeen, sometimes eighteen hours a day, you know,
and that's you know, that's six days a week because
you bleed into Saturday and then you basically only have
(12:37):
Sunday off. So that's hard. Um uh, you know you
get paid well for it, but it's it's tough. And
but you know, in hindsight, I'm a better actor after
coming out of that than I am that I was
going in. I'm I had my chops were honed in
(12:58):
a way that I don't think I could have gotten
um in another in another format or another platform. It was.
The scripts are always, i would say, cent of the time,
really tight and really good um written in with a
certain kind of structure that Law and Orders are written.
(13:20):
Even though my character was you know, it was a
kind of individual and are some of the scenes in
our series were kind of different than the other the
other Law and Orders, but still in the end um
you had to make several transitions within one scene. I
don't know if this is boring after talking, not at all,
not at all. So unlike in a movie where you
(13:43):
your character transitions over a few scenes are sometimes over
an act, you know, whole a full act um and
then has this complete arc through the whole three acts
or however many acts that the film is. But in
the television show like that, you were making transitions many
during one scene, and so to be able to be
(14:04):
able to get away with that and constantly not lose
focus and constantly be telling story um for the audience
to to to like lean forward into you know you
you you get good at it, you really do. And
you know, I fortunately had somebody like Kate Herby working
(14:24):
with we was theater actress from Chicago. It's amazing and
she um, she was very good at at that and uh,
and then we would have guest stars on the show
that we're also really really good at that. And so
I learned a lot, I'm telling you. Once I came
out of that show, I was a better actor for sure.
(14:47):
For for your money, using whatever uh terms you want
to use, who's on your amount rushmore of great actors? Gosh,
um you mean now or forever, forever, forever or you know,
you could give me both of you wanted. You could
give me here's who's in the game today, and you
(15:07):
could give me here's you know all time if you want, well,
Alec Ginnis, Denzel Um, John Garfield. I mean some of
them are pretty obvious. Meryl Streep. You know, she's some
of her performances when she was younger, UM where a
(15:28):
true inspiration for me. You know, I'd never since like
Live Allman. You know, she's also was an inspiration to me.
But I had never since Live Allmand seen a woman
carry a monologue the way that Merrill did, and and
that was just so inspiring to see somebody hold you
(15:49):
for over two minutes when the cameras rolling, um, without
the camera you know, moving at all. And you know,
so that is always very impressive that she was so
able to do that and so so Live Alman would
be Live Olman would be another one as well. Um,
I was very very impressed by her. So you know,
(16:13):
that's pretty much it nowadays. You know, I really I
find a lot of the young actors are really good.
I don't want to to pick favors, but there's a
couple of them, men and women that I find to
be extremely good actors. UM and that that's really nice
to see because a few years ago it was there
(16:34):
I thought that the young actors were suffering a little
bit and there in their schooling or something was wrong.
But nowadays I think there's some really great um up
and coming actors men and women, young men and women
that are just amazing and they just swore me in
the performances. And uh, but again, I don't want to
(16:55):
pick favorites. But yeah, so people like that, you know,
Oh shoot, I kind of want you to pick a
young bucker to give me a young bucker two to watch?
Who should I Who should I be paying attention to?
I'm not gonna do it. No, I'm not gonna do it.
I think that I don't think it's I actually I
don't think it's a good idea for them to get
(17:17):
too much praise. Yeah, it'll they I'm afraid that what
what what will happen to them is what happened to
what I saw when I was a kid to other
actors that were extremely talented, that they started to believe
the myth and they stopped evolving, you know. And I'm
(17:39):
very protective of that because I'm very I'm very snobby
when it comes to acting. I I do think it
requires um a lot of effort. And so that's what
I'm seeing from some of these young people. I'm seeing
a lot of effort and that's very very inspiring, even
for me. It inspires me. But basically That's how I
(18:01):
feel about it. You know, Yeah, I also like you know,
I also I I've just worked with but before I
worked with her, I was I was also inspired by
her talent. It's Jessica Chesstnain. I think she's really really good. Yeah,
and I have the I have the opportunity to know
Denzel for a long time, not not well, but we
met at Sundance Laboratory many many years ago, and just
(18:25):
his first few performances, um, we're just amazing to me.
And then I recently worked with him on on We
did a film, a remake of The Magnificent seven Years
a few years ago, and he's you know, you know,
there are certain guys like him, Robert Duval. You know
(18:45):
when the cameras rolling, it's just every breath they take
is on film is just amazing to watch. And do
you think it is their skill? Do you think it
is their love for what they're doing. I think it's both.
I think they're both well studied, either by circumstance over
(19:06):
the years or by you know, just actual studying. Tell
(19:27):
me a little bit about this, uh, this new one
you mentioned Jessica chas Stain, Tammy Faye Baker. I still
can remember being young with my dad and watching Jim
and Tammy Faye on Nightline if you remember Nightline back
in the day, and and seeing them even before their
fall actually seemed kind of the build up in them
inner prominence, and then seeing them go sideways. What was
(19:50):
it like filming this with Jessica and Andrew Garfield and
the rest. They're just so good, you know, they're you know,
speaking of you know, great actors, Andrew and her just
you couldn't ask for a better, better people to be
on set with. I mean, the scenes that we did
together were just amazing. We we had a good time,
(20:11):
but um, there was no everybody was so focused, there
was no wasting time, there was no um, there were
no misunderstandings of the scene. I mean, it was just
we were just on and it was just it's just
so nice when the cameras rolling to be able to
(20:31):
just feel like you can take you know, it's interesting
you you approach a set for the first time pre
rehearsal and it's just a cold set, you know, literally cold,
like the seats are called PROPSICLD and and and it's
just there's no there's no nothing there and then you
(20:53):
sit with them and you start to rehearse, and you
start to create warmth, and you you create a real
thickness in the air and like something you can cut
with a knife. You know, it becomes has it takes
on its own life. The scene takes on its own life.
(21:14):
It's pretty amazing. And it's it's always been like that
for me. And it's I find it when there's when
you're working with actors as good as they are, that
that just happens every time. You know, it's it's fantastic,
and that's what they were like working with, you know,
I remember um. I also remember when I was a
(21:34):
kid in Florida, you know, speaking of evangelist TV evangelists
like like Jim Jim Baker that the you know, I
grew up in a very liberal house. You know, My
parents were kind of hippies. You know, my dad was
an interior design They were all kind of free thinking,
very always voted Democrat, very liberal, and I'm a very
(21:58):
liberal person in my family now of my own is
all they're all living rolling. So I have there's lines
that I draw when it comes to civil liberties and
equal rights and just all of the issues at the
forefront that that are causing some division in our country.
But I think that can be taken too far. When
(22:19):
I was a kid, our neighbors, you know, when I
would go over their house, they would have a TV
evangelists on their television, you know, and but I was
I didn't they were I loved them, they were awesome people.
And uh so there was no division, you know, I didn't.
We didn't have that in my house and nor did
(22:40):
we we think in those terms. But there was no
division as far as humanity. You know, there was no hatred,
there was no there wasn't even discussion beyond what we believed.
But minus any threat to each other, you know, there
(23:01):
was no threat to each other. And and so when
you're approached to do a film, I mean, you know,
Jessica emailed me and asked me if I'd be interested
in playing Jerry Folwell. And you know, I've never imagined
playing Jerry Folwell before, obviously, or anybody that or our
TV evangelists at all. But you know, one of the
(23:23):
first things I thought of was the vision in this country.
And I thought when I read the script and I'd
watched the documentary documentary leaned a little bit towards sarcasm
and judging them a little bit, Whereas whereas the script
it's just kind of like it's just a story and
(23:44):
we don't pull any punches. But yet we also don't,
um try to make any kind of assumptions for the audience,
so the audience make the assumptions themselves. And I felt
that was a really fair way of doing it. And
the portrayal that Esska does Tammy Faye has so much
humility in it that it's fantastic. It's a fantastic examination
(24:09):
of that woman. Um because the woman that later on
in the eighties in the nineties was made fun of
so much because of her the skits on Saturday Night
Live and just endless amounts of jokes at her expense.
You know. But yet you know, if you really try
and look for a piece of videotape where her mask
(24:30):
care is running, you can't find them. You know, she
she she was not. She was judged wrongly, you know,
I think a lot and but the but the my
point is is that as an actor, your job is
to service the story and if people you have to
(24:50):
go into that like I had to go into Jerry folwell.
Even though he was he did see an opportunity to
take over their jobs and money for himself. Like for
sure he did that. But you have to go into
a project like that with an open mind. You can't
go in with a with a divide between you and
the other part of the world, or the other part
(25:12):
of anything for that matter. You have to be open
otherwise you can't understand the story fully and you can't
play the character fully. So um that that this is
what I what I have. This is the residual I
have left in me from being involved in that film
and and in this film it's coming out. Um. I
(25:33):
hope I didn't go on too long, But that's that's
does with my feelings about no no no. I love
that you said that, Vincent. They're telling me only me
have a minute or two more with you, But I
have to ask you. I've always been taken and I
love you. By the way, in The Godfather of Harlem,
I think you and and gian Carlo and Forest and
everybody same money fee you guys. It's the best show
(25:55):
in the of of of COVID that in the last
Dance or the two best shows of COVID. You guys.
You guys got us through, so so thank you for that. Um,
You've got a way about you that I like it.
It is not textbook leading man. You have you embrace
a hesitation even in the way you talk and the
(26:17):
way you turn your neck and the way sometimes you
grab your ear. You do it in a way that
most people would be self conscious about, but you let
yourself do that. Am I right? Am I? Am I
noticing something that is true about you? And where does
it come from? Why most of us are so as
you said, we're fearful you talked about Tammy Faye. We're
(26:38):
fearful of how people will judge us, how they'll see us,
what they'll expect, and therefore we try to conform to
what the way they expect us to. But I find
in your way of being you seem to have a
comfort about you and doing it your own way, which
is a little quirky. But I don't see you hesitate
from it. And I like seeing that, and I almost
wish it were true for more of us. I wish
(26:59):
more of us? Uh, you know allowed that? Am I right?
That that that is you? And that that's part of
what I'm saying, or is that you acting. Oh well,
I'm definitely not acting right now. You're getting me fully um.
You know, if the wrong if the wrong subject subject
came up when we were talking, of course I would
(27:19):
segue out of it somehow. But but you're getting the truth.
I don't know about what you say. UM. I I
don't know how to judge myself when it comes to
what you're saying. I think that I am comfortable, UM
being me. I've never um taken my my celebrity too seriously,
(27:42):
you know, I've never I'm certainly not UM. I've never
had the attitude of becoming like a superstar or anything
like that. I don't feel like, um, I'm the I'm
the personality type to do that. I've never felt that way.
So maybe that has something to do with what you're saying.
I think that I don't have anything to prove really
(28:04):
other than that it's my job to act and I
try to do the best I can. You know, kind
of the thing I don't Does that? Does that help?
Does that answer your question? At all? It does? It does?
Final thing I wanted to do with you is something
i'd call rapid fire. Could I hit you with three
or four quick questions and get your reaction. What do
I how do I answer them? Just one word or
(28:25):
two words or yeah, just a couple of words or
one word, whatever is easy for you. What's your favorite
book of all time? Oh? My god, um, yeah, wow. Uh,
that's that's too hard, man, that's too hard. You know,
that's too hard. That the list is is too long.
(28:48):
Right now, I'm reading a lot of poetry and stuff.
I love poetry. Um. You know what, let me change
Let me change it. What's one of your favorite books? Well,
I mean they're probably the same ones A lot of
people like like Atlas Shrugged, and you know that that's
one of my favorites. You know, I think that it's
it enlightened me. I read it a couple of times
(29:10):
through my life, and it enlightened me in a way
to how um, you know, the worst case scenario of
humanity and and also um and also if you lend
yourself to it in some ways, the best case scenario.
And so and I think it. I think about it
(29:33):
a lot these days because it has a lot of
Steward's going with what's happening now, um, in people's attitudes
and and the way UM society is it been. If
you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who
would you love to have dinner with? Oh my god, Um,
I mean it's gonna be an actor, you know, it's
(29:55):
it's it's gonna be like Monty Cliff, or it's gonna
be somebody like that. It's gonna be Anna mc nanny,
or you know. I had dinner once with Marcillo Monstriani,
So I can't say that, but you know people like that, uh,
(30:15):
sliding doors. If you hadn't become an actor, what would
you have done? A teacher or or a street artist? Maybe?
You know, I'm very into art. I'm very into all
kinds of art. Maybe if I would have picked up
an instrument earlier in life, maybe a musician. But I
basically I think that I would have gone a teacher route.
(30:37):
I think I would have been, um, some kind of
you know, something to do with with story, probably um,
some some kind of creative subject English teacher, high school, college, yeah,
I think probably. I think probably high school, maybe college
of something, either creative writing or or yeah English. Yeah.
(31:02):
The final question your karaoke song. You and I are
out doing karaoke? What are you singing? I mean it's
it's definitely gonna be like a Stevie Wonder song. You
know it's or Marvin Gay. You know, um, you know
what's going on, you know it's. Yeah, I think Marvin Gay.
(31:25):
I love that. I love that. I love Marvin Gay
on his own love Marvin Gay with Tammy Terrell love Marvin.
Oh my god. Yeah yeah, I mean I think we
were around maybe they around the same age. I think
we grew up with that music. Yeah, Havins and they
they're making me let you go. But but I'm only
letting you go because they're making me let you Please
know that you got a big fan out here in California.
(31:47):
Really appreciate you, appreciate your work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, be safe,
have a terrific, terrific week. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Okay,
take care. Thank you for listening to this episode of
(32:14):
The Carlos Watson Show podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,
please leave us a review where ever you listen to
your podcast
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