38 - Lance Reddick - Hollywood Unscripted

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
From CurtCo Media.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
There's no place like Hollywood.

Jenny Curtis (00:15):
Welcome to another special episode of Hollywood Unscripted
Home. I'm Jenny Curtis, and I am so delighted to
have our returning guest cohost Dana Gourrier back with us.
Welcome back, Dana.

Dana Gourrier (00:26):
Thank you, my dear. It is always, always a pleasure, and
I will come back any time you invite me. I am always
happy to be here.

Today's guest has done so much. It would probably take us the whole
episode just to list his credits, but he's best known
for his acting work on The Wire, Amazon's Bosch, and
Comedy Central's Corporate. So we're going to dig into all
of that and so much more. I am thrilled to
welcome Lance Reddick. Lance, thank you for joining us. We
are so happy to have you here today.

Lance Reddick (00:53):
Thank you.

I absolutely love talking about the creative connections in the
world. So I really want to start with this because
Dana and Lance, you both have actually shared projects together
even though you've never met. Dana was in American Horror
Story
you, Lance, and I would love to start with those projects.

Wow. My experience was so vivid on American Horror Story
because it was the... I don't want to say the only time,
but it's one of the few times in my career
where I feel like I almost went back to school
because my first day was a three- page scene with Jessica
Lange. And it was really interesting because whenever you work
with a star like that, at least for myself, I always

(01:34):
wonder what I'm going to get. I'm a little concerned
about protecting my work. And two things, first of all,
I realized very quickly that she's just all about the
work. So I didn't have to worry about that. But the other
thing was that it was the last scene of the
day, and that particular season was her season more than any other season.
So she was fried. We start the scene, and I

(01:56):
remember she's kind of doing this ritual, and she's kind
of mumbling to herself. My character, Papa Legba, he's a
spirit. He appears halfway through her incantation. So she's in
the middle of this incantation, and you hear, in the
next room, somebody drops something. Cut, cut, cut. She starts
over again. I swear to god, about 30 seconds in,

(02:17):
we hear clang! Somebody drops something else, and the room is
quiet. You hear Jessica almost in a whisper, " Jesus Christ,
when are we going to learn how to lock down a fucking set?" And I was like, "Oh, no. I better not mess up. Jessica Lange is mad."

Oh, my goodness.

But then it was great. I mean, it was great,
and the other thing that was interesting because I'm such
a stickler about being prepared and knowing my lines, when
you've got that much to do, and you're working hours
that long, you got a three- page scene, sometimes you're
going to go up on your lines. And the thing that I don't
remember ever seeing before was that when she went up on her
lines, she would just keep going. What was amazing to

(02:57):
me about it was that her going up on her lines
never took her out of it. She still stayed in it as
the character. The other thing was, being a theater actor, even
though you're always looking for something spontaneous on every take, once
you find it, you're still pretty much trying to do the same
thing. And I noticed that she was finding a little thing, because in some
ways, she's more quintessentially a film actor than anything else,
and I noticed how nuanced and different every single take

(03:20):
was. It was really fascinating to watch. It was really educational.
Then, of course, Kathy Bates is one of my idols. So that day was just nerve-
wracking, and the same thing with Angela Bassett.

I also had a similar Jessica Lange experience. She was
so wonderful and kind and humble to me, and she was
so sweet. But I saw her rip someone a new
one that was just not on point, and they needed
to be, and they were after that. And I just remember thinking, "
That's a boss lady."

Wow. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

It was like watching a queen on her throne. Then
there's also a fantastic grace and attitude that she had,
which was just about the work. She was just about
executing what needed to be done. That's literally one of
the highlights of my career thus far, is getting to
work with her and Angela, obviously, also Gabby Sidibe. That's
where she and I met, and that's where we forged

(04:08):
our friendship. We're still good friends to this day.

She's something else. What an intellect, too.

People don't realize it, or they realize it when they
meet her, within a few minutes. But I told her
just the other night. I said, " Have you been tested,
girl? You might be a little genius." And she was
like, "Hm, I don't know." I was like, " Easily, yeah, you are."
So we chuckled about that. She's like, "I'm just me, girl." I'm like, " You're
also a genius." So that's fun. But that time was wonderful

(04:38):
on American Horror Story, and I do remember your role
quite prominently because weird stuff started happening. Your character ushered
in a sort of spirit realm that was really freaky.
I'm from New Orleans. We don't play with any of
that stuff.

Oh. Wow.

Also, the local folks that they had hired to come
in and do the ritual practices with us, they made
us pray with them prior to, at least in the
scenes that I was in and some of the episodes that I
had done. And I really appreciated that they asked us
to humbly bow our heads and respect what was being
done because it's not a game. It's not just for
Hollywood film and television. It's a real thing to them.

(05:16):
So we had to pay homage and reverence, which I
really appreciated because you don't want to make nobody mad.

Oh, man. That is so cool.

Yeah, it was interesting. It was with Sarah Paulson. There was
a goat that had to be sacrificed all over her,
and it was very messy and very grotesque and everything.
But she was a champ and-

She is, yeah.

She's amazing. That's my girl. She's so amazing. I love Sarah.

I didn't work with her in that season, but they
had me come back for a cameo a couple seasons
later, and I did work with her.

I want to go back really quick to working across Jessica Lange. You
guys both strike me as you're about the work. So
being across from someone at that level of her career
who also is all about the work, does it affect
the way you approach your own work? Or is it
kind of matching the energy you already have?

I'm going to jump in really quick, Lance, because I'm not
on Lance's level at all. And that's not to impugn
my level. I consider myself a blue- collar actor. So, when
I'm considered a local hire, or at least I was
because now I'm based in Los Angeles. Before, when I
was working in New Orleans and a local hire, people
did treat you a different way, and you knew you
were a supporting character. So you kind of understood the

(06:22):
hierarchy of set life, if you will. Even still, I
always watched what the greats were doing. I always take
cues from them, and I let them dictate the temperature
and the culture of the set. And if they're talkative
and they're open, great. If not, I just kind of
follow their lead.

So, Lance, does that then affect you the way you
approach your own work, or is your method set and
some people fit better than others into your method of acting?

Fit better than others... Just a little point, I don't change my preparation based on who
I'm working with. It's weird to say, but in terms of how
I see myself as an actor, pretty much from the
time I got out of drama school, I just always thought of myself as a great
actor. So, in terms of the work, that never bothered
me. So, when I work with people, I may be

(07:10):
nervous to meet the person, but once the camera starts
rolling, it's just about locking in and doing the work, do you
know what I mean?

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Now, sometimes I may get (inaudible) . Perfect example is
with Kathy Bates because, like I said, she's one of my
idols. When I got out of drama school, it was Meryl Streep,
Marlon Brando, Daniel Day- Lewis, and Kathy Bates. So, when
I met her, and the scene that I had with
her... I got there on a Sunday. My first scene
was on a Monday. I think it was the second episode that I did. And somebody

(07:41):
said to me something about the scene that I had
with Angela and Kathy, and I said, " What scene with
Angela and Kathy?" They said, " Oh, yeah, we're shooting it
tomorrow. This is the writing." I said, " What?" So it ended up
being this three- page scene. I don't know if it
was the last scene or it was the penultimate scene. It's hard

(08:04):
to remember, but I think Kathy's dead, and she's in
hell. And she ends up having to be tortured by
Angela's character. So I get the scene in the afternoon,
and I'm trying to look at it in between setups.

Oh, my gosh.

And they did the scripts on red paper with black
ink so that it would be hard to copy because
they were so anal about secrecy.

Oh, that's right.

Well, I was wearing red contacts, trying to read stuff
on red paper in the dark because it was getting dark
for a scene that was the next day that was a three- page scene
with me and Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates. So I wrapped,
went home to study, took a nap, studied, took a nap,
and I was up and down all night doing that. So,
when we got to set that evening, we kind of

(08:48):
stumbled through the scene because we were all learning the
scene. But the thing about it is I had to work in
the morning, and they didn't. So we stumbled through the
master. Then I remember the director said, " Who wants to
go first with closeups?" It was so funny because me and Angela both
did this. And Kathy looked at us, and she said, " Fuck it, I'll
go first." The thing about the scene was that Kathy had a two-

(09:12):
page monologue before my character enters. So they shot that first. I'm
in my chair trying to learn my lines, and I'm
watching the crew go by. And after every one of
her takes, the crew were just shaking their head, going, "
Wow." So, then, I'm thinking, " Man, I can't afford to
get distracted. I can't afford to get distracted, but it's Kathy Bates. I've got to see what
she's doing." So I went over to one of the

(09:32):
monitors in video village, and I'm watching her do her
thing. It's Kathy Bates. She was breathtaking. She was stunning.
My heart kind of dropped into my stomach because I'm thinking, "
Oh, my god. Oh, my god, oh, my god, oh,
my god. I am so screwed. I am so fucking screwed." And
then it was like, " No, no, no. Just keep focused. Just keep focused. Keep running lines. Keep running
lines. Keep running lines." Finally, they finished that part of the scene, and they're

(09:53):
changing the setup. So the three of us are running
the lines. The first time we go to run the
lines, we get to my lines, and I'm in my little
method thing trying to find the character. And Kathy says, " What? Speak up. I can't hear you." I'm like...
So I raise my voice. Then, at one point, one

(10:13):
of the PAs says, " Ms. Bates, they're ready for you." She said, "Well, hold on. We got
to learn these lines." So we run it some more,
and then the PA interrupts again, and Kathy yells, (foreign language)
. I'm like, " Ooh," even though she didn't even say what...
in French. But, anyway, I'm thinking, " Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man." So we set up
for Kathy's closeup, and I enter. I have a paragraph,

(10:34):
and in the middle of a sentence, I just went
up. And all I'm thinking is, " Oh, my god. I'm
going up on Kathy Bates. I'm going up on Kathy Bates' closeup." To this day,
I don't know how I did it. I just kept
talking until I got through it, and it was fine.
And the funny thing about it is, when it came
to my closeup, we ran out of time so we
had to go to another day. So I had to leave and come back,

(10:57):
and by then it was fine. But that was quite an
experience.

That's incredible. Don't you love hearing stuff like that, Jenny, these
seasoned, outstanding, incredible actors like, " Oh, shit, I went up
on my lines"? There's something so magical for us, hearing
that from someone who has so many credits that you have,
who's such a consummate professional. It's, to me, it's inspiring,
and it reminds you we're all human beings. Calm down. You'll

(11:21):
get the work done. Relax. Everybody, in some way, feels
this way, even Kathy Bates herself, probably.

She's funny, too. This is another funny story about Kathy
because as a personality, she's diametrically opposed. She's (inaudible)
from Jessica. She's just loud and forceful. So we're walking
back to the trailers after we finished the scene, and
she said, " So how you like it? You having a good time?"
And I said, " Yeah, it's great." She said, " Yeah, because you never know with fucking
TV, man."

It's true, though. You never know. Yeah, everybody's winging it
a little bit.

I want to jump on to the fact that you
said you always knew you were a great actor, which
you are. But I read that you applied to Yale
School of Drama on a lark. Is there a story there?

Yeah, there is. I mean, my whole journey as an
actor is kind of weird because I didn't grow up
thinking I'd be doing this. If there was a thing that
was my thing growing up, it was music. I did a play in high school.
My senior year, I was in Fiorello! I played the
dealer in a card game. I think I had one line. It was the only thing I ever did just
for fun. So I decided I was going to pursue it
in college. I did productions in college for fun. I went to

(12:27):
the Eastman School of Music. My first year, I actually was at the University
of Rochester, and I transferred, but I'd go over to the campus
and do a play once a year. I dropped out of music
school because I realized that I didn't want to be a classical
composer. I wanted to be a rock star. I got
married straight out of school, and about a year after my
daughter was born, I had a back injury. At the
time, I was waiting tables, and I was delivering newspapers, and

(12:47):
I was delivering pizzas. So I was always working (inaudible) . So
I just started thinking, " Man, I need to reevaluate my
approach. I need to do something different or I'm going to be doing this for
the rest of my life." So my brilliant thinking, " I'll
be an actor."

Because it's way more stable of a career.

Then I'll have my music career. It was even about I wanted
to be an actor. It was like, " What can I do to have my music career?
I'll act." I was living in Boston at the time.
So I started going on local theater auditions and just getting
cast and getting cast and getting cast. One of the things that I did, my go-
to fallback job was working as an artist's model because there are
just so many schools and so many art schools in
Boston. One of the places I modeled at was this place called the Museum

(13:24):
School. And there was a guy who liked me from the
beginning, and I modeled for a lot of his drawing
classes. His name was Lou Geppetti, and about a year
into that, he started painting me privately. He had this
huge studio in this warehouse down by the railroad tracks.
I would go there, and I would just sit for three hours. I
was wearing these green khaki pants and this football jersey
from high school that I had. I would sit in the chair. He

(13:45):
would paint me for three hours at a time, and we would
just talk. And one day, we got on to the subject of training as an
actor. In my infinite arrogance, I said, " Oh, you don't
need to train. You just learn as you go," even
though I knew that that was bullshit because I was starting
to realize that the bigger the roles, the more trouble I
was having because I didn't have any technique. If the script
was bad or the director was bad, I was lost. And I didn't want to go

(14:05):
to New York City, The Actors Studio. The only place
I'd even consider is Yale, and I couldn't get into
Yale because I never finished my bachelor's degree. And the only reason I
said that bullshit was because of Meryl Streep. That the
only thing I knew. I just knew Meryl Streep went there. Then he says to me, "
Well, you might want to consider it because I have my master's in
painting from Yale. And I don't have a bachelor's degree because I

(14:25):
went to a diploma school." So I said, " Oh," and to
this day, I don't know why that stuck in my
head or what possessed me. But I ended up calling
up information for the drama school and calling the admissions
office and asking them. They said, " Oh, yeah, you can
apply as a certificate student, and if you get in,
you can just go through this program with everybody else as
a certificate student. You'll get a certificate instead of a
diploma at the end. And if you ever finish your bachelor's degree, all

(14:47):
you have to do is send up proof that you have your bachelor's, and we'll convert it to a
master's." So, really, it was my fallback plan. I applied,
and then I got in. Then it was like, " Oh, shit. What do I do
now?" My wife at the time, when I applied, she thought I was crazy. But
then, when I got in, she was like, " You got to go."

Absolutely.

And every actor I talked to said the same thing. The
only people who said I shouldn't was the casting director. " Just
go to L. A. and make movies." Yeah, because that's how that works.

You can't turn Yale down.

Yeah. So, 29 years old, with a three- year- old, married,
I went to Yale Drama School, and it changed my life.

Do you have a favorite speech warmup?

A favorite speech warmup? No. I have a vocal warmup
that I do.

What's the vocal warmup that you do?

Well, it's not like I can do it because it's a gradual thing. I just start
with a tone, and I go as long as I
can hold it. And I'll keep going up and up and up, and then I'll
do that for five minutes. Then I'll pick a song, and I'll
put it on, that's usually maybe four minutes. I'll make
sure it's something that makes me stretch my range, and
then I'll sing that. So I open up my chest

(15:48):
so that, on one hand, it keeps my voice grounded,
but on the other hand, it forces me to put
it forward, as well, so that it's in my mask,
you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because one of the things I discovered... The further on in
my career I got, I started getting into the habit,
and I started realizing in on Fringe, of not being
on my voice. Part of the reason I realized it
is because John Noble's voice is so deep and resonant.
There would be days when I would be on my voice, and there would
be days when I wouldn't be on it. I wouldn't know
why, and I realized I needed to start to vocalizing again. I needed to go back to basics. So that's something I do.

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amomentofyourtime. So your first role in TV was a Dick

(17:26):
Wolf show, right, New York Undercover? Is that correct, that was your
first role in TV?

Well, actually, no. That was my first role after I
graduated from Yale. But believe it or not, I had
a day player role as a local hire when I was living
in Boston on one of Fox's first dramatic shows ever.
It was called... Man, I hate saying that because this is telling you how old I am.
This is back in 1990, and it was called Against

(17:52):
the Law. It was starring Michael O'Keefe, and the guest
star was Keith David. So Michael O'Keefe is this attorney
in this big law firm. He decides he wants to work
for the people. So he opens up his own law firm. It
was a flashback scene because Keith David was on death
row. A cop went to arrest him, and he got
afraid. So he resisted, and then they (inaudible) for the gun,
and I think it was a mistaken identity thing. And he ended up

(18:15):
shooting the cop by accident. So he ended up being convicted
for murder. I played Michael O'Keefe's co- counsel in the original
trial and (inaudible) . So that's actually my first credit.
But New York Undercover was my first credit after Yale.
It's probably the first one on IMDB.

Either way, I'd love to hear about what, emotionally, a
first day professionally on set is compared to where you
are now, how things have changed.

That happened two years after I graduated. My first job
out of school, I was understudying on Broadway. I did
that for the first six months after school. Then, almost immediately,
I got cast in an off- Broadway play at Manhattan
Theatre Club that then later moved off Broadway to another
theater and ran for a year. I'd just been doing theater
straight for like five years. So I get on set, immediately
I'm going to go into my theater thing and my

(18:59):
Brando thing. And I remember the first scene that I
shot was the first scene that I had in the show.
It's when Malik Yoba and Lauren... I can't remember their characters' names.
They come to tell me that my son's been killed. In
rehearsal, there were two things that happened. Number one, we
rehearsed it a couple times, and the script supervisor said, "
Oh, in the last rehearsal, you did such- and- such- and-

(19:20):
such. You did something different. Which are you going to do?" I said, " Well, I don't know.
It depends on... And she said, "Oh, but it has to
match." I said, " What do you mean, it has to match?"
She said, " For editing, once you do a behavior, you have
to do it the same every time." I'm like, " What? Oh, my
god. That's ridiculous." The other thing was I had all the

(19:42):
lines. Malik and Lauren basically had two lines each. So we go
to read the scene, and Malik says... I can't remember
what my name was, but, " Mr. So- and- so... I'm
sorry. Can I see the... What's the line? Oh." I was like, " He doesn't know his
lines? What is going on? He's in the show. He doesn't know his lines. What
the hell is going on? What is that?" So I was like, "You have to do the same thing every take, and the leads in the show

(20:12):
don't know their lines. Man, what is this TV thing? This is
ridiculous." That my naïve, self- important theater attitude my first
day on set.

Following that, throughout your career, have you found there are
some sets that are way stricter on staying word perfect
on the script and sets that aren't so much?

Well, coming from the theater as opposed to sketch comedy,
I've always been kind of... The words matter. As I've
gotten older, and we film in television, I'm a little
less strict about that, although by the time I actually shoot
something, I want the words to be set. I don't
want to be editing them on shoot. It's interesting because on The Wire,
I found, after doing that show for five seasons, I
didn't even realize that I had gotten into the habit of changing

(20:53):
lines if I found that it just came out better. It got to
where I didn't even check. And I remember, I think it was the
last season, David had written that particular episode. There was
always a writer on set, usually whoever wrote the episode,
but not always. David Simon said to me, " Oh, no,
the line is... I said, " Yeah, but it just doesn't feel
as natural." He said, " Yeah, but you have to say it this way because... It had something

(21:16):
to do with the nature of what I was saying
and the legality and what it meant in cop- speak. So I had
to say it the right way. But the first time that
I actually experienced script police being word perfect, which I
thought was kind of ridiculous was Fringe. I went from
The Wire to Fringe. So I'd go from shooting on

(21:37):
location with the showrunner, the creator of the show or
the person who wrote the episode there all the time.
We're shooting the first season of Fringe in New York. The
writers room is in Los Angeles. I'd change something in a scene so
it comes out better. I'd get a note, "Oh, that's not what
it says." I said, " Yeah, but it comes out better
if I just change the wording." It wasn't even like I wanted
to change the meaning. I just wanted to change the wording of the sentence, and it

(21:58):
was one sentence. He said, " Well, you've got to call L.
A. because these people, they know what they're doing." What? Come
on, really? This was my first day, not the pilot,
but the first day shooting after it went into production. So, yeah,
that kind of sucked. It was also the difference between cable
and network television. I remember there was a scene, and this

(22:20):
situation was a clusterfuck, anyway, because it was a re- shoot of
a scene that Anna hated in the first place. To add insult
to injury, I had flown to Los Angeles for some
kind of publicity thing for Fox. I was supposed to
catch a flight that morning to go to set, and
I set my alarm for p. m. instead of a. m. by
accident. So I missed my flight. I wake up to my phone ringing and

(22:44):
people saying, " Lance, where are you?" I said, " I'm in bed." They went, "
What? You're supposed to be on set." I said, "What? I'm in
Los Angeles." Also, the lines had been changed. So I'm learning the new
lines on the plane. I don't even remember how many hours
late I am. Then we go to set to do
this re- shoot, to re- shoot the scene. We read
through the scene. We go to shoot the scene, and after the
first take, and Anna's apoplectic by now because she just

(23:06):
hates the scene, anyway, and the script supervisor says, " That's the
wrong line. It's been changed." I said, " You know what? At this point, I'm just going to
say the line that I've been saying. I'm just going
to do that." So we shot the scene. That evening, I get
a call from Joe Wyman, the showrunner. I say, " Hey,
Joe, what's up?" He said, " I heard you were in
the scene today, and you didn't want to say a line?" I said, "
Well, yeah. The line they wanted to change didn't make

(23:27):
it better, and it was throwing me. And it was
already a mess because Anna was upset throughout the whole
scene because she didn't want to do the scene." He said, " Well, you
need to check if you want to change a line from now
on." I said, " Really?" He said, " Yeah. Well, the problem
is the line was, 'We've lost the battle, but we're
going to win the war.'" He said, " The network wants
us to try to avoid using the word war right

(23:47):
now because it has something to do with politics." I'm like, "
The storyline is that our universe is at war with
another universe. Are you fucking kidding me?" Excuse me. I
didn't say that, but I'm... And now, every time I want
to change a word, I got to call and wait for an answer
through Los Angeles? This is absurd. Then, a couple days
later, there was a memo that went out to all the

(24:09):
cast about not changing lines without calling. I was like, "
Oh, boy. Okay. We are on network television. That's what it is."

Is there a different approach from cable to network in how you
create a character because the format is so different?

Well, sometimes the work is frustrating because a lot of
times your preparation ends up being thrown out the window on set. That's
hard, particularly when scripts change so much day to day.
That was really frustrating on network, but that didn't happen very
often with The Wire. Or, if it did happen, it started
happening more toward the end of the season but not so much
at the beginning of the season. And it was a shorter season. It was half as long. But

(24:48):
it turns out, the preparation... I mean, you prepare, you
prepare. Now, do you mean preparing for a scene, or do you
mean creating a character?

I think I mean creating the character.

No, because it's all the same work. You try to
figure out as much as you can about who the
person is. That doesn't change just because you're doing network
or... at least not for me.

You can do all the preparation in the world, but you
can show up to a set, and then a (inaudible) or
a director may say, " That's not how I envisioned her."
And you have to, on a dime, recalibrate and reassess.

Oh, man. That's tough. That's tough.

That's a real acting exercise. That's a real challenge, I
think, as an artist, when you've done months of preparation,
and you get there, and it's like, " No, that's not quite it," even after you've had
rehearsals. It's like, " We changed our mind. It's this other
thing now," and you have to, in three seconds, make
a decision, find a word, dig deep, lean on your
training, and find a way to create a whole new

(25:44):
character in three seconds. That's absolutely happened. It's so funny,
too. Lance may not feel the way, but I do
feel like there is a difference, at times, between creating
a character... Of course you go at the work the
same way. But the feel I feel with, say, an
HBO series versus, like Lance was talking about, network series,
there is a different temperature. There is a different vibe,

(26:05):
a whole different culture on the set, a whole different
energy. But he's right in the sense that you're bringing
what you're bringing no matter what. They're going to take
it and cut it and edit it the way that
they do to make it fit into their mold of
their television show. The war comment was also interesting to
me because everything is, for better or worse, politics and

(26:25):
who's going to sponsor and marketing. Everything has to be considered.

Yeah. Well, that war comment... I don't remember what it
was because it was 17 years ago, but it had something to do with Iraq and Afghanistan.

I want to, really quick, jump back to The Wire,
because, after auditioning for a couple roles, you were auditioning
for Daniel's, and you didn't get the third page of your audition
sides. So you had to prep your monologue in two
minutes outside and then go back in and nail it.
Do you think there's a freedom to that, when you
actually don't have the time to prepare? Does it bring
something different to the character?

It brings something different to me. One thing that's kind of funny about that is that, and it's
something that I had been discovering in the course of auditioning
for television, that if I had a week, I'd be
great. Or if I had it the day before, I'd be great
because there was something psychological about knowing things are an even playing field. If I
had two days, it was never enough time. I mean,

(27:20):
I know that sounds crazy. So having to cold read that
monologue, there's just a part of you that just says, " Fuck it.
Let me just do what I can do." Do you
know what I mean? I don't know how to describe it, but there's a part of you
that says, "It's not even worth being nervous. The only thing that matters is being focused."

That's right.

So find what you can find. Figure out your marks, and just make
sure you hit those marks.

Obviously you booked the part, so you did it well.
But do you remember what the feeling was while you
were doing that monologue?

I felt transparent. In other words, I was just in it, do you know what I mean? It was
one of those things where, because it required so much of
my focus, I didn't let my brain have any room to wonder about how
I was doing or what the casting director was thinking.

Then, speaking about not having a ton of time, I
know, for John Wick, you had a week to basically
perfect your African accent. And you had to pick between
South African and Kenyan.

So here's what happened. When I got the offer, which was like the
week before, I read it, and for some reason, I didn't
notice it when I read it, that in the stage directions,
it said with an African accent. Looking at the role
again, I said, " Oh, my god, it says African accent." So I
call my agent. I said, " I'm not sure. It says African
accent." So he checked, and then he came back to me. He says, " You don't have to do an African accent."

(28:33):
I said, " Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, I think that could be cool. I think I want to try it." So
I had (inaudible) South African accent. It's funny how you
never know how your preparation's going to pay off. I did a
movie in 1998 called I Dreamed of Africa that was
set in Kenya. And I was cast without reading a
script. So part of my preparation, I called up the
embassy in Kenya, and I found a guy. He had

(28:53):
agreed to talk to me. So I interviewed him, and I taped
his accent. Then, once I got the script, I realized
that all my lines, the few that I had, were
in Swahili. So, being able to do a Kenyan accent, speaking English with a Kenyan accent was not
a thing. But I had it. So I tried the South
African accent, and it just didn't seem to fit the
character. Then I just picked up the Kenyan accent, and I
tried it, and it was working. So I just went with it.

(29:16):
Then, when I got on set, I told Chad... I remember saying this to Chad Stahelski, "
You know I'm doing the African accent, right?" He said, "
Yeah. Well, let's hear it." So I did it. He's like, " Sounds great."
We just went with it. Yeah.

I love that.

Is there a difference, speaking of that character, in living
in a character for a franchise for film rather than
living in a character for a series?

Wow, that's a good question. I mean, John Wick's the
only franchise I've been a part of. I guess Angel
Has Fallen, but I came in at the end. It's a little similar
in that you pick a character up. Then you put
it down. Then you come back to it a year later
or two years later, and you have to find it
again. You have to find the accent again. I had to find his attitude,

(29:57):
how he moved because he's so taciturn and reserved. But
at the same time, he has so much power as
a being. But part of his job is to pretend
he doesn't, which is very different from other characters that
I've played which are overt alpha males, from the cops
that I've played. So, in that regard, it's similar. And I remember... Well, Irving was interesting because when I
first started Bosch, I actually had a difficult time finding

(30:19):
his accent, finding how he speaks. But I remember coming back second season and feeling like I had to find him all
over again. So, in that regard, it's very similar.

I wanted to jump backwards to Tennessee, which was a
movie you did with Mariah Carey.

Wow.

Tennessee was also done with Ethan Peck. I was speaking
with him this week, and he says you might not
remember, but I should ask you about the line replacement, "
It makes your tongue hard thinking about it, doesn't it?"
He said there might be a story there.

Oh, yes. Wow. Man, what a memory he's got. He
was on the receiving end of that monologue. So I
played Mariah Carey's husband in that. I think he's a state
trooper who's also a psychopath, an ambitiously abusive man. She
meets these boys in a bar and brings them home because
they need a place to stay. I don't even realize
they're there, and then she says something I don't like because I'm

(31:12):
back playing cards, drinking with my boys. And I threaten
her. So I've got her by the throat, and she's up against a wall.
Then she's like, " We're not alone. We've got company." I said, "What?" So I
peek around the corner. I see these two white boys
sitting on my couch. So I go out there, and I
sit in between them and ask them if they think my
wife's attractive. And, at one point, I say something lascivious,
and I said, " It makes your dick hard just thinking about

(31:33):
it, don't it?" And we needed, for TV, a PG version.

So that was the PG version?

That was the line they came up with. I kid you
not. That was the for- TV version, " It makes your
tongue hard just thinking about it, don't it?"

Wow.

Oh, that's certainly something.

Ethan was great in that movie. He was great in that.

Yeah, he said he absolutely loved working with you. That
was a little bit of a deviation. I don't want to keep asking the
same question of how do you create different characters within
the same archetype, but I know you've been cast a
lot as the authoritative figure.

That's actually a great question, and it's not a question that
I really get, at least not asked that intelligently or
nuanced. One of the interesting things for me about the difference between particularly
Daniels and Irving is just being so much older and
looking so much different. I've gained a lot of weight since then.
Daniels is essentially... His ambition in terms of rank was

(32:37):
driven a lot by his relationship with his wife. This
is a gross analogy, but it was a bit of
a Macbeth/ Lady Macbeth type of situation, whereas Daniels really
just loved the job. He just wanted to do the police
work. The thing about Broyles is that Broyles is essentially
a soldier doing a cop's job. But his mentality is
that of a soldier. Irving is the quintessential politician. He

(33:01):
loves power, and he loves the structures of power. So,
in that regard, he's very, very different in terms of
his personality, from Daniels. And that was the thing that I could find.

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Playing roles where you've covered similar territory, do you find
that you still have a fire in your belly about
it? Or does it become a job that you still love
but comfortable in?

Broyles to Irving were different experiences because Broyles came right
on the heels of The Wire. So, on the one hand,
I felt like I really didn't want to play the same
character again. But on the other hand, it was J.
J. Abrams first big show after Lost. So we thought
it was going to be the next Lost, even though it didn't end up being that. And it

(34:26):
was really the only role that I felt right for, and
it also happened kind of organically because I'd just been cast in Lost.
I was cast on Lost literally two weeks before I wrapped on The
Wire. So I was little bit in family, and I was really excited about
that character because... It changed at the beginning of the second season, but at
the beginning of the series, there's a cold, calculating way

(34:50):
that he is. There's kind of a cold- blooded killer
in him that Daniels didn't have. I liked that, and
I also liked the fact that there was a mystery
to his backstory, which the way the show was unfolding
for a season, part of the unfolding of the mystery
of his backstory was tied to the unfolding of the
overarching plot that was set up at the beginning of the
series and was moving through the first season, which was supposed to move through the show.

(35:15):
But unfortunately, it just kind of went away the second season.
With Irving, quite frankly, when it first came up to
me, I didn't want to do it. I threw a tantrum. The
offer came in, and I blew my top. I was
ranting and raving at my wife, "Goddammit, I told them no more cops." So I go to call my
agent, and I see that I have a message. For some
reason, I decided to listen to the message first, and it was from my agent. She said, "

(35:35):
Lance, you're getting an offer. Don't freak out. I need
to talk to you about it first." So I call her. The thing
I didn't know about Irving when I got the offer was
I had no idea who Michael Connelly was. So I
didn't know that it was based on a series of books that
were huge all over the world. The other thing I
didn't know is that the offer came from Eric Overmyer,
who was the showrunner, the co- creator of the series. But,

(35:59):
in addition to being a famous playwright, Eric and I
know each other from The Wire because he came on as
a writer/ producer in the fourth season. So, basically, I had
a conversation with Eric, and he said, " We really need
a great actor for this role." I said, " I'm hesitant because I
just finished playing two cops in a row." He says, "
Oh, yeah. Well, sorry." He said, " We'll write it however you

(36:25):
want us to write it. We'll write it as big
or as small as you want. Michael Connelly's, Michael's happy
to talk to you." So I called Michael Connelly, and we talked. Then I
decided okay. And another part of me saying okay was that
first season, Irving was only supposed to be a recurring
character. And at the time, it was never going to
happen because the writer's agent didn't want him to do it. But I
was trying to get the writer who wrote... There's a
skit that went viral that I did on Funny or

(36:47):
Die called Toys R Me.

We watched it yesterday.

Yeah, we watched it last night. It's great.

I was really hot on trying to develop that as a
television series, preferably for Adult Swim. So I figured, " Well,
I got a year to do that while I'm doing
this," because the plan was for me to recur the first season, have
a big storyline second season, become a series regular second
season, and then figure it out from there. Well, we shot the pilot
in the fall of 2013. In May of 2014, it gets announced to

(37:13):
the trade that it got picked up for series. And the day that it was
announced to the trades, I get a call from my agent. "
Lance, they want to make you a series regular for the first season." And I was like, "
Fuck. What do I do now?" Because on the one
hand, it's not like I got Big Bang Theory money.
I still got to pay a mortgage, but on the other hand, it's like, "
Am I doing something that's going to be the nail

(37:34):
in the coffin for my career artistically and professionally?" You know what I mean,
in terms of doing the kinds of things that I
wanted to do? And it took me long enough to
make up my mind that the producers started to get
pissed. But I decided to jump off the deep end
and just go for it. And it has been great, a great role, part
of a great show. The other thing is, unbeknownst to
me, between 2013, it was not only when we shot the

(37:57):
pilot for Bosch, it's also when I shot John Wick.
It's also when The Guest got into Sundance. It's also
the year that I did American Horror Story. So all
these other things were happening in my career that were
so different from that. And they continued to happen. It was
really fortunate. In terms of people seeing me a particular
way, I'm not in danger of that anymore. It's been
a great ride.

Not only that, but you've also been on Corporate, which
is an authoritative character but completely different. We wanted to talk to you about your
approach to comedy because your comedy characters are so dramatic.

Except for Key & Peele. That was...

I was going to say we watched in Key & Peele, and that was actually just hilarious.

When do we get to sing Over the Rainbow? Yeah.

I mean, I guess those are the characters that I've been
cast as. I'm sure it has something to do with the persona
of my cop roles in the past. Corporate was one of
those things where I didn't get it. So I have to take
my hat off to my agent. When I read it, I just didn't
get it. I was like, " Another asshole boss in a
suit, I don't need to do that." I said, " I don't usually

(38:59):
do this, but what do you think? I want your opinion." She said, "I think you should
do it." I said, " Why?" She said, " Because I promise you,
Lance, it's a different asshole boss in a suit." And
the other thing is they really captured the culture of
fear that pervades corporate working culture, and it's truly been
one of the highlights of my career. I can honestly
say I'm as proud of Corporate as I am The Wire. What

(39:19):
an incredible group of people. I'm so fortunate. My only regret
about Corporate is that it's (inaudible) .

Was it a set that would break out into laughter all
the time?

People were cracking up all day. I'm not saying... People would get through takes.
Sometimes not, but most did get through takes, and then they'd start
laughing a lot at the end of them. But one of the
things that was challenging for me in Corporate was having to
let go a little of thinking that I can be better in terms
of my character preparation. I remember Pat Bishop, when we

(39:48):
were shooting... First of all, Pat is about 5'2", and he
looks like he's 12. So the first scene we shot for
the pilot was my first entrance, where you see me
get out of bed and working out and making my protein shake. I
read this biography of this black billionaire and did all this
preparation about who the guy is. They had stuck a

(40:09):
bunch of pills all over the counter. I'm like, " He wouldn't
do that. This guy's really fastidious. He wouldn't have this
shit all over the counter like that." Pat's like, "Yeah, but it'll be funny." He said, " It'll be fine."
I'm like, " This kid's telling me what my character is, and he's
walking away. What the fuck, man? These guys don't know what the fuck
they're doing. I just got to get through this, get
my paycheck, and get out." And it was funny. Also, the shot went by so
fast you hardly noticed. Now I know Pat's a fucking

(40:31):
genius, and I don't say that lightly. I mean, they all are, but Pat's really fucking smart. The
other thing is that, except for Anne Dudek, who is
her own phenomenon of just amazingly talented, everybody else is just either
from sketch comedy or standup comedians, particularly Adam Lustick. He
would improvise take after take after take for days and do different
stuff and have you rolling in the aisles. I'm sorry

(40:53):
that I keep using this word for the people in this
show, but he's a fucking genius. It was just amazing.

Would you improv?

Did I, or would I ever?

Did you in the show?

Not a lot. It's interesting. One of the things that
Jake Weisman, who plays Jake on the show, he told me one of
the things that they loved doing was figuring out how
to give me a monologue that the language was as
convoluted as possible to see what I would do with it.

Recently, One Night in Miami premiered at Venice and Toronto
to absolutely rave reviews. It was the directorial debut of
Regina King, which she's so phenomenal as an actress. I'm
really curious to know how that translates to being a
director and what it's like working with someone on their
directorial debut.

It's one of those rare instances where I didn't do it... Similarly to Little Woods,
I didn't do it for the role, I did it
for the project but also because I wanted to work
with Regina. There's something about actors that direct. They just
know how to talk to actors because a lot of
directors, they don't really understand acting. They don't understand how
to talk in terms of motivation. If you're giving an

(42:01):
acting note, unless something is just too fast or too soft
or too loud, unless it's purely technical, you need to
be able to speak that way. Yeah, and she's great at that.

In the span of your career, can you think back
to one of your favorite directions you've ever received?

Wow, nobody's ever asked me that. I got to think about that one.
See, the problem is that, usually, it's the bad direction that
sticks out, that you remember.

I was going to say that.

I mean, I could give you a couple bad ones. And part of what makes me angry
is that I took it. This was a director who...
I'm not going to say his name. He was French, and
this is a director that they loved on Fringe. And he disrespected
me from the first day. He didn't even start treating me
with respect until people started talking about The Wire, and then he put two and two
together because I don't think that he'd ever seen the show. But there's a

(42:46):
scene where it's an alternate universe, and my character, he's
been blackmailed by the archvillian, which is played by Jared
Harris. And my son had this rare disease that he
had a cure for, but he'd only give it to
me if I would betray my universe. So I did
something that caused the death of one of the big people. So,

(43:08):
after the funeral, I come home, and when I return to my wife,
she asks me... Karen. I remember her name. I can't remember the character's name. Anyway,
she asks me if I'm okay. How I played it when I
came in is I came in, she looks at me, and
she says, " Are you okay?" And I say, " I'm fine,"
and I go and I start looking at the mail.
He says to me, " Lance, what are you doing? It's not about

(43:31):
the mail. We need to see your eyes. We need to see
your eyes. Look at her." Like, " Dude, you fucking idiot,
I'm responsible for the murder of one of my people.
The last thing I want is for the person who
knows me better than anyone in the world to look
in my eyes right now. I'm sorry. I'm not playing with
mail. I'm trying to avoid her eyes, you dipshit." He

(43:53):
was looking for melodrama rather than what makes sense psychologically
for the character in the moment, which is just stupid.
Sorry, sorry. Yeah, and also, the other thing was he would love me giving me this, "
He needs more intensity," which really meant, " I need to
see you doing something because I can't see what you're doing." You know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's like, "It's because you're a fucking idiot. It'll be there on the screen." That
reminds me of a great Keanu Reeves quote. I was talking to
Chad Stahelski, and we were in the lobby of the Continental.
It was in between takes after a walk and talk
that I had to be in with Ian McShane. And somehow we got on the subject
of Keanu, and he said that when they first started
working together, Keanu said, "When you watch the dailies, you're going to have to watch them on the big screen. You can't watch them on the small screen because if

(44:37):
you watch it on the small screen, it's going to
look like I'm not doing anything. But I'm actually doing
a lot."

I love that guy. He's so great.

Wow. Isn't he magical? I mean, his energy.

And it's not just his skills and artistry. It's also
his humanity.

Yeah, he's like a different being. Yeah, he's extraordinary.

I want to quickly ask, because I'm just personally really curious because I'm a podcaster, you're
in a series, a podcast called DUST

Yes.

I'd love to hear about the process of acting in
a podcast. I know you've done voice acting for video
games and all of that. But is it different doing something for a podcast?

So, for me, voice acting is different. It tends to
be different from acting on camera because you don't have your face. You can't use
your face and your body to communicate anything. The other
thing is you don't tend to memorize the lines, and often
you don't act with the other people. So you have
to rely a lot on the director. With film and

(45:37):
television, usually my rule of thumb is unless you see
something egregious, just stay out of my way because I know what I'm
doing, with directors. But with voice acting, it's like, " What do
you got? What do you want me to do?" Do you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

I really found that because I've done so much voiceover work for the
video game Destiny. I definitely found that out with Destiny because
often I'd have lines I wouldn't have any context for. But
even with dramatic things, you don't always know when something
is communicating, or when you think something's communicating and it's not.

I can't wait to listen. I'm very excited to hear that show.

Did you enjoy working on The Domestics? Because it was a lot of
fun for me.

It was so much fun, once again, to be able to play the
kind of character that I don't get to play. I had a great time. There was
one argument I had with the director that I lost that I shouldn't have.

With Mike? Mike was so sweet and docile.

Docile is definitely not a word I would use for Mike. But by the same token,
I loved working with Mike. Like I said, there was only one scene where we disagreed, and
I lost that argument, and I shouldn't have.

When Jenny asked you about the question of, " What's a
direction that you have gotten that you loved?" And it's definitely
been from Mike, which was just, " Go further, and literally
fuck them up." It was a blast to work with him on The Domestics.

I like that you say he was a character you don't get to play
much. You mean the sweet, kind, generous family man who's
a cannibal? Yeah, I'd assume.

Both of those things, a guy who's sweet and just
laughs and dances with his wife and makes goofy jokes with his son, and also
who says, "You know what? If you say anything right now, I
will fucking gut you and feed you to my wife and children," which is
pretty close to the line I said. Yeah, I don't get to play characters who do that, either.

I want to wrap up with my favorite closing question. What
does it mean to you to have a life in storytelling?

Wow, what a question to ask when we don't have a lot
of time. Yeah, that's deep. When I feel like I
get it right, both in my performance and with the
material that I'm working on, I feel that I'm doing
something important. I feel like it's important to feel that way for
two reasons. Number one, I just feel like it's a fundamental

(47:44):
human need to feel that what you do matters. But the
other thing is that one of the things that makes
human beings unique as beings is language. So everything about
how we relate to our reality is a story. So
the kinds of stories matter. I can give you a perfect example. There's a

(48:05):
woman very close to my wife who told her the
story of when her son was about six years old.
He was the younger of her two boys, and they were in a
McDonald's. And he never really met any Black people before.
There was a Black guy in the McDonald's. And she
said she was mortified because he walked up to the guy, he said, "
Hey, are you a bad guy?" because his only orientation

(48:27):
with Black people is what he'd seen on television.

Oh, god.

So, to me, there's no such thing as just entertainment. All
the stories we tell matter because they shape our values
and they shape our standards of beauty. They shape how
we relate to each other.

Lance Reddick, thank you so much for joining us today.
I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with
us. And Dana, as always, thank you for joining, as well.

My pleasure.

I really appreciate it. So thank you, Lance.

Thank you.

Hollywood Unscripted was created by CurtCo Media. This special episode
of the Stuck at Home series was hosted and produced
by me, Jenny Curtis, with guest cohost Dana Gourrier
and guest Lance Reddick, co- produced and edited by J
Whiting. The executive producer of Hollywood Unscripted is Stuart Halperin.

(49:17):
The Hollywood Unscripted theme song is by Celleste and Erik
Dick. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any
special episodes of Hollywood Unscripted
and healthy, and thanks for listening. CurtCo Media, media for

(49:39):
your mind.

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