Speaker 1: From CurtCo Media.
Speaker 2: There's no place like Hollywood.
Jenny Curtis: Welcome to another special episode of Hollywood Unscripted: Stuck at
Jenny Curtis: Home. I'm Jenny Curtis, and I am so delighted to
Jenny Curtis: have our returning guest cohost Dana Gourrier back with us.
Jenny Curtis: Welcome back, Dana.
Dana Gourrier: Thank you, my dear. It is always, always a pleasure, and
Dana Gourrier: I will come back any time you invite me. I am always
Dana Gourrier: happy to be here.
Jenny Curtis: Today's guest has done so much. It would probably take us the whole
Jenny Curtis: episode just to list his credits, but he's best known
Jenny Curtis: for his acting work on The Wire, Amazon's Bosch, and
Jenny Curtis: Comedy Central's Corporate. So we're going to dig into all
Jenny Curtis: of that and so much more. I am thrilled to
Jenny Curtis: welcome Lance Reddick. Lance, thank you for joining us. We
Jenny Curtis: are so happy to have you here today.
Lance Reddick: Thank you.
Jenny Curtis: I absolutely love talking about the creative connections in the
Jenny Curtis: world. So I really want to start with this because
Jenny Curtis: Dana and Lance, you both have actually shared projects together
Jenny Curtis: even though you've never met. Dana was in American Horror
Jenny Curtis: Story: Coven, and she was in The Domestics, as were
Jenny Curtis: you, Lance, and I would love to start with those projects.
Lance Reddick: Wow. My experience was so vivid on American Horror Story
Lance Reddick: because it was the... I don't want to say the only time,
Lance Reddick: but it's one of the few times in my career
Lance Reddick: where I feel like I almost went back to school
Lance Reddick: because my first day was a three- page scene with Jessica
Lance Reddick: Lange. And it was really interesting because whenever you work
Lance Reddick: with a star like that, at least for myself, I always
Lance Reddick: wonder what I'm going to get. I'm a little concerned
Lance Reddick: about protecting my work. And two things, first of all,
Lance Reddick: I realized very quickly that she's just all about the
Lance Reddick: work. So I didn't have to worry about that. But the other
Lance Reddick: thing was that it was the last scene of the
Lance Reddick: day, and that particular season was her season more than any other season.
Lance Reddick: So she was fried. We start the scene, and I
Lance Reddick: remember she's kind of doing this ritual, and she's kind
Lance Reddick: of mumbling to herself. My character, Papa Legba, he's a
Lance Reddick: spirit. He appears halfway through her incantation. So she's in
Lance Reddick: the middle of this incantation, and you hear, in the
Lance Reddick: next room, somebody drops something. Cut, cut, cut. She starts
Lance Reddick: over again. I swear to god, about 30 seconds in,
Lance Reddick: we hear clang! Somebody drops something else, and the room is
Lance Reddick: quiet. You hear Jessica almost in a whisper, " Jesus Christ,
Lance Reddick: 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."
Dana Gourrier: Oh, my goodness.
Lance Reddick: But then it was great. I mean, it was great,
Lance Reddick: and the other thing that was interesting because I'm such
Lance Reddick: a stickler about being prepared and knowing my lines, when
Lance Reddick: you've got that much to do, and you're working hours
Lance Reddick: that long, you got a three- page scene, sometimes you're
Lance Reddick: going to go up on your lines. And the thing that I don't
Lance Reddick: remember ever seeing before was that when she went up on her
Lance Reddick: lines, she would just keep going. What was amazing to
Lance Reddick: me about it was that her going up on her lines
Lance Reddick: never took her out of it. She still stayed in it as
Lance Reddick: the character. The other thing was, being a theater actor, even
Lance Reddick: though you're always looking for something spontaneous on every take, once
Lance Reddick: you find it, you're still pretty much trying to do the same
Lance Reddick: thing. And I noticed that she was finding a little thing, because in some
Lance Reddick: ways, she's more quintessentially a film actor than anything else,
Lance Reddick: and I noticed how nuanced and different every single take
Lance Reddick: was. It was really fascinating to watch. It was really educational.
Lance Reddick: Then, of course, Kathy Bates is one of my idols. So that day was just nerve-
Lance Reddick: wracking, and the same thing with Angela Bassett.
Dana Gourrier: I also had a similar Jessica Lange experience. She was
Dana Gourrier: so wonderful and kind and humble to me, and she was
Dana Gourrier: so sweet. But I saw her rip someone a new
Dana Gourrier: one that was just not on point, and they needed
Dana Gourrier: to be, and they were after that. And I just remember thinking, "
Dana Gourrier: That's a boss lady."
Lance Reddick: Wow. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
Dana Gourrier: It was like watching a queen on her throne. Then
Dana Gourrier: there's also a fantastic grace and attitude that she had,
Dana Gourrier: which was just about the work. She was just about
Dana Gourrier: executing what needed to be done. That's literally one of
Dana Gourrier: the highlights of my career thus far, is getting to
Dana Gourrier: work with her and Angela, obviously, also Gabby Sidibe. That's
Dana Gourrier: where she and I met, and that's where we forged
Dana Gourrier: our friendship. We're still good friends to this day.
Lance Reddick: She's something else. What an intellect, too.
Dana Gourrier: People don't realize it, or they realize it when they
Dana Gourrier: meet her, within a few minutes. But I told her
Dana Gourrier: just the other night. I said, " Have you been tested,
Dana Gourrier: girl? You might be a little genius." And she was
Dana Gourrier: like, "Hm, I don't know." I was like, " Easily, yeah, you are."
Dana Gourrier: So we chuckled about that. She's like, "I'm just me, girl." I'm like, " You're
Dana Gourrier: also a genius." So that's fun. But that time was wonderful
Dana Gourrier: on American Horror Story, and I do remember your role
Dana Gourrier: quite prominently because weird stuff started happening. Your character ushered
Dana Gourrier: in a sort of spirit realm that was really freaky.
Dana Gourrier: I'm from New Orleans. We don't play with any of
Dana Gourrier: that stuff.
Lance Reddick: Oh. Wow.
Dana Gourrier: Also, the local folks that they had hired to come
Dana Gourrier: in and do the ritual practices with us, they made
Dana Gourrier: us pray with them prior to, at least in the
Dana Gourrier: scenes that I was in and some of the episodes that I
Dana Gourrier: had done. And I really appreciated that they asked us
Dana Gourrier: to humbly bow our heads and respect what was being
Dana Gourrier: done because it's not a game. It's not just for
Dana Gourrier: Hollywood film and television. It's a real thing to them.
Dana Gourrier: So we had to pay homage and reverence, which I
Dana Gourrier: really appreciated because you don't want to make nobody mad.
Lance Reddick: Oh, man. That is so cool.
Dana Gourrier: Yeah, it was interesting. It was with Sarah Paulson. There was
Dana Gourrier: a goat that had to be sacrificed all over her,
Dana Gourrier: and it was very messy and very grotesque and everything.
Dana Gourrier: But she was a champ and-
Lance Reddick: She is, yeah.
Dana Gourrier: She's amazing. That's my girl. She's so amazing. I love Sarah.
Lance Reddick: I didn't work with her in that season, but they
Lance Reddick: had me come back for a cameo a couple seasons
Lance Reddick: later, and I did work with her.
Jenny Curtis: I want to go back really quick to working across Jessica Lange. You
Jenny Curtis: guys both strike me as you're about the work. So
Jenny Curtis: being across from someone at that level of her career
Jenny Curtis: who also is all about the work, does it affect
Jenny Curtis: the way you approach your own work? Or is it
Jenny Curtis: kind of matching the energy you already have?
Dana Gourrier: I'm going to jump in really quick, Lance, because I'm not
Dana Gourrier: on Lance's level at all. And that's not to impugn
Dana Gourrier: my level. I consider myself a blue- collar actor. So, when
Dana Gourrier: I'm considered a local hire, or at least I was
Dana Gourrier: because now I'm based in Los Angeles. Before, when I
Dana Gourrier: was working in New Orleans and a local hire, people
Dana Gourrier: did treat you a different way, and you knew you
Dana Gourrier: were a supporting character. So you kind of understood the
Dana Gourrier: hierarchy of set life, if you will. Even still, I
Dana Gourrier: always watched what the greats were doing. I always take
Dana Gourrier: cues from them, and I let them dictate the temperature
Dana Gourrier: and the culture of the set. And if they're talkative
Dana Gourrier: and they're open, great. If not, I just kind of
Dana Gourrier: follow their lead.
Jenny Curtis: So, Lance, does that then affect you the way you
Jenny Curtis: approach your own work, or is your method set and
Jenny Curtis: some people fit better than others into your method of acting?
Lance Reddick: Fit better than others... Just a little point, I don't change my preparation based on who
Lance Reddick: I'm working with. It's weird to say, but in terms of how
Lance Reddick: I see myself as an actor, pretty much from the
Lance Reddick: time I got out of drama school, I just always thought of myself as a great
Lance Reddick: actor. So, in terms of the work, that never bothered
Lance Reddick: me. So, when I work with people, I may be
Lance Reddick: nervous to meet the person, but once the camera starts
Lance Reddick: rolling, it's just about locking in and doing the work, do you
Lance Reddick: know what I mean?
Jenny Curtis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lance Reddick: Now, sometimes I may get (inaudible) . Perfect example is
Lance Reddick: with Kathy Bates because, like I said, she's one of my
Lance Reddick: idols. When I got out of drama school, it was Meryl Streep,
Lance Reddick: Marlon Brando, Daniel Day- Lewis, and Kathy Bates. So, when
Lance Reddick: I met her, and the scene that I had with
Lance Reddick: her... I got there on a Sunday. My first scene
Lance Reddick: was on a Monday. I think it was the second episode that I did. And somebody
Lance Reddick: said to me something about the scene that I had
Lance Reddick: with Angela and Kathy, and I said, " What scene with
Lance Reddick: Angela and Kathy?" They said, " Oh, yeah, we're shooting it
Lance Reddick: tomorrow. This is the writing." I said, " What?" So it ended up
Lance Reddick: being this three- page scene. I don't know if it
Lance Reddick: was the last scene or it was the penultimate scene. It's hard
Lance Reddick: to remember, but I think Kathy's dead, and she's in
Lance Reddick: hell. And she ends up having to be tortured by
Lance Reddick: Angela's character. So I get the scene in the afternoon,
Lance Reddick: and I'm trying to look at it in between setups.
Dana Gourrier: Oh, my gosh.
Lance Reddick: And they did the scripts on red paper with black
Lance Reddick: ink so that it would be hard to copy because
Lance Reddick: they were so anal about secrecy.
Dana Gourrier: Oh, that's right.
Lance Reddick: Well, I was wearing red contacts, trying to read stuff
Lance Reddick: on red paper in the dark because it was getting dark
Lance Reddick: for a scene that was the next day that was a three- page scene
Lance Reddick: with me and Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates. So I wrapped,
Lance Reddick: went home to study, took a nap, studied, took a nap,
Lance Reddick: and I was up and down all night doing that. So,
Lance Reddick: when we got to set that evening, we kind of
Lance Reddick: stumbled through the scene because we were all learning the
Lance Reddick: scene. But the thing about it is I had to work in
Lance Reddick: the morning, and they didn't. So we stumbled through the
Lance Reddick: master. Then I remember the director said, " Who wants to
Lance Reddick: go first with closeups?" It was so funny because me and Angela both
Lance Reddick: did this. And Kathy looked at us, and she said, " Fuck it, I'll
Lance Reddick: go first." The thing about the scene was that Kathy had a two-
Lance Reddick: page monologue before my character enters. So they shot that first. I'm
Lance Reddick: in my chair trying to learn my lines, and I'm
Lance Reddick: watching the crew go by. And after every one of
Lance Reddick: her takes, the crew were just shaking their head, going, "
Lance Reddick: Wow." So, then, I'm thinking, " Man, I can't afford to
Lance Reddick: get distracted. I can't afford to get distracted, but it's Kathy Bates. I've got to see what
Lance Reddick: she's doing." So I went over to one of the
Lance Reddick: monitors in video village, and I'm watching her do her
Lance Reddick: thing. It's Kathy Bates. She was breathtaking. She was stunning.
Lance Reddick: My heart kind of dropped into my stomach because I'm thinking, "
Lance Reddick: Oh, my god. Oh, my god, oh, my god, oh,
Lance Reddick: my god. I am so screwed. I am so fucking screwed." And
Lance Reddick: then it was like, " No, no, no. Just keep focused. Just keep focused. Keep running lines. Keep running
Lance Reddick: lines. Keep running lines." Finally, they finished that part of the scene, and they're
Lance Reddick: changing the setup. So the three of us are running
Lance Reddick: the lines. The first time we go to run the
Lance Reddick: lines, we get to my lines, and I'm in my little
Lance Reddick: method thing trying to find the character. And Kathy says, " What? Speak up. I can't hear you." I'm like...
Lance Reddick: So I raise my voice. Then, at one point, one
Lance Reddick: of the PAs says, " Ms. Bates, they're ready for you." She said, "Well, hold on. We got
Lance Reddick: to learn these lines." So we run it some more,
Lance Reddick: and then the PA interrupts again, and Kathy yells, (foreign language)
Lance Reddick: . I'm like, " Ooh," even though she didn't even say what...
Lance Reddick: in French. But, anyway, I'm thinking, " Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man." So we set up
Lance Reddick: for Kathy's closeup, and I enter. I have a paragraph,
Lance Reddick: and in the middle of a sentence, I just went
Lance Reddick: up. And all I'm thinking is, " Oh, my god. I'm
Lance Reddick: going up on Kathy Bates. I'm going up on Kathy Bates' closeup." To this day,
Lance Reddick: I don't know how I did it. I just kept
Lance Reddick: talking until I got through it, and it was fine.
Lance Reddick: And the funny thing about it is, when it came
Lance Reddick: to my closeup, we ran out of time so we
Lance Reddick: had to go to another day. So I had to leave and come back,
Lance Reddick: and by then it was fine. But that was quite an
Lance Reddick: experience.
Dana Gourrier: That's incredible. Don't you love hearing stuff like that, Jenny, these
Dana Gourrier: seasoned, outstanding, incredible actors like, " Oh, shit, I went up
Dana Gourrier: on my lines"? There's something so magical for us, hearing
Dana Gourrier: that from someone who has so many credits that you have,
Dana Gourrier: who's such a consummate professional. It's, to me, it's inspiring,
Dana Gourrier: and it reminds you we're all human beings. Calm down. You'll
Dana Gourrier: get the work done. Relax. Everybody, in some way, feels
Dana Gourrier: this way, even Kathy Bates herself, probably.
Lance Reddick: She's funny, too. This is another funny story about Kathy
Lance Reddick: because as a personality, she's diametrically opposed. She's (inaudible)
Lance Reddick: from Jessica. She's just loud and forceful. So we're walking
Lance Reddick: back to the trailers after we finished the scene, and
Lance Reddick: she said, " So how you like it? You having a good time?"
Lance Reddick: And I said, " Yeah, it's great." She said, " Yeah, because you never know with fucking
Lance Reddick: TV, man."
Dana Gourrier: It's true, though. You never know. Yeah, everybody's winging it
Dana Gourrier: a little bit.
Jenny Curtis: I want to jump on to the fact that you
Jenny Curtis: said you always knew you were a great actor, which
Jenny Curtis: you are. But I read that you applied to Yale
Jenny Curtis: School of Drama on a lark. Is there a story there?
Lance Reddick: Yeah, there is. I mean, my whole journey as an
Lance Reddick: actor is kind of weird because I didn't grow up
Lance Reddick: thinking I'd be doing this. If there was a thing that
Lance Reddick: was my thing growing up, it was music. I did a play in high school.
Lance Reddick: My senior year, I was in Fiorello! I played the
Lance Reddick: dealer in a card game. I think I had one line. It was the only thing I ever did just
Lance Reddick: for fun. So I decided I was going to pursue it
Lance Reddick: in college. I did productions in college for fun. I went to
Lance Reddick: the Eastman School of Music. My first year, I actually was at the University
Lance Reddick: of Rochester, and I transferred, but I'd go over to the campus
Lance Reddick: and do a play once a year. I dropped out of music
Lance Reddick: school because I realized that I didn't want to be a classical
Lance Reddick: composer. I wanted to be a rock star. I got
Lance Reddick: married straight out of school, and about a year after my
Lance Reddick: daughter was born, I had a back injury. At the
Lance Reddick: time, I was waiting tables, and I was delivering newspapers, and
Lance Reddick: I was delivering pizzas. So I was always working (inaudible) . So
Lance Reddick: I just started thinking, " Man, I need to reevaluate my
Lance Reddick: approach. I need to do something different or I'm going to be doing this for
Lance Reddick: the rest of my life." So my brilliant thinking, " I'll
Lance Reddick: be an actor."
Jenny Curtis: Because it's way more stable of a career.
Lance Reddick: Then I'll have my music career. It was even about I wanted
Lance Reddick: to be an actor. It was like, " What can I do to have my music career?
Lance Reddick: I'll act." I was living in Boston at the time.
Lance Reddick: So I started going on local theater auditions and just getting
Lance Reddick: cast and getting cast and getting cast. One of the things that I did, my go-
Lance Reddick: to fallback job was working as an artist's model because there are
Lance Reddick: just so many schools and so many art schools in
Lance Reddick: Boston. One of the places I modeled at was this place called the Museum
Lance Reddick: School. And there was a guy who liked me from the
Lance Reddick: beginning, and I modeled for a lot of his drawing
Lance Reddick: classes. His name was Lou Geppetti, and about a year
Lance Reddick: into that, he started painting me privately. He had this
Lance Reddick: huge studio in this warehouse down by the railroad tracks.
Lance Reddick: I would go there, and I would just sit for three hours. I
Lance Reddick: was wearing these green khaki pants and this football jersey
Lance Reddick: from high school that I had. I would sit in the chair. He
Lance Reddick: would paint me for three hours at a time, and we would
Lance Reddick: just talk. And one day, we got on to the subject of training as an
Lance Reddick: actor. In my infinite arrogance, I said, " Oh, you don't
Lance Reddick: need to train. You just learn as you go," even
Lance Reddick: though I knew that that was bullshit because I was starting
Lance Reddick: to realize that the bigger the roles, the more trouble I
Lance Reddick: was having because I didn't have any technique. If the script
Lance Reddick: was bad or the director was bad, I was lost. And I didn't want to go
Lance Reddick: to New York City, The Actors Studio. The only place
Lance Reddick: I'd even consider is Yale, and I couldn't get into
Lance Reddick: Yale because I never finished my bachelor's degree. And the only reason I
Lance Reddick: said that bullshit was because of Meryl Streep. That the
Lance Reddick: only thing I knew. I just knew Meryl Streep went there. Then he says to me, "
Lance Reddick: Well, you might want to consider it because I have my master's in
Lance Reddick: painting from Yale. And I don't have a bachelor's degree because I
Lance Reddick: went to a diploma school." So I said, " Oh," and to
Lance Reddick: this day, I don't know why that stuck in my
Lance Reddick: head or what possessed me. But I ended up calling
Lance Reddick: up information for the drama school and calling the admissions
Lance Reddick: office and asking them. They said, " Oh, yeah, you can
Lance Reddick: apply as a certificate student, and if you get in,
Lance Reddick: you can just go through this program with everybody else as
Lance Reddick: a certificate student. You'll get a certificate instead of a
Lance Reddick: diploma at the end. And if you ever finish your bachelor's degree, all
Lance Reddick: you have to do is send up proof that you have your bachelor's, and we'll convert it to a
Lance Reddick: master's." So, really, it was my fallback plan. I applied,
Lance Reddick: and then I got in. Then it was like, " Oh, shit. What do I do
Lance Reddick: now?" My wife at the time, when I applied, she thought I was crazy. But
Lance Reddick: then, when I got in, she was like, " You got to go."
Dana Gourrier: Absolutely.
Lance Reddick: And every actor I talked to said the same thing. The
Lance Reddick: only people who said I shouldn't was the casting director. " Just
Lance Reddick: go to L. A. and make movies." Yeah, because that's how that works.
Dana Gourrier: You can't turn Yale down.
Lance Reddick: Yeah. So, 29 years old, with a three- year- old, married,
Lance Reddick: I went to Yale Drama School, and it changed my life.
Jenny Curtis: Do you have a favorite speech warmup?
Lance Reddick: A favorite speech warmup? No. I have a vocal warmup
Lance Reddick: that I do.
Jenny Curtis: What's the vocal warmup that you do?
Lance Reddick: Well, it's not like I can do it because it's a gradual thing. I just start
Lance Reddick: with a tone, and I go as long as I
Lance Reddick: can hold it. And I'll keep going up and up and up, and then I'll
Lance Reddick: do that for five minutes. Then I'll pick a song, and I'll
Lance Reddick: put it on, that's usually maybe four minutes. I'll make
Lance Reddick: sure it's something that makes me stretch my range, and
Lance Reddick: then I'll sing that. So I open up my chest
Lance Reddick: so that, on one hand, it keeps my voice grounded,
Lance Reddick: but on the other hand, it forces me to put
Lance Reddick: it forward, as well, so that it's in my mask,
Lance Reddick: you know what I mean?
Jenny Curtis: Yeah.
Lance Reddick: Because one of the things I discovered... The further on in
Lance Reddick: my career I got, I started getting into the habit,
Lance Reddick: and I started realizing in on Fringe, of not being
Lance Reddick: on my voice. Part of the reason I realized it
Lance Reddick: is because John Noble's voice is so deep and resonant.
Lance Reddick: There would be days when I would be on my voice, and there would
Lance Reddick: be days when I wouldn't be on it. I wouldn't know
Lance Reddick: why, and I realized I needed to start to vocalizing again. I needed to go back to basics. So that's something I do.
Jenny Curtis: A Moment of Your Time, a new podcast from CurtCo Media.
Speaker 6: I'm currently 21 years old, and today I'm going to read a poem for you.
Speaker 7: It felt like magic extended from her fingertips down to the base of my spine.
Speaker 8: You have to take care of yourself because the world needs you and your voice.
Speaker 9: Trust me. Every do- gooder that asked about me was ready
Speaker 9: to spit on my dream.
Speaker 10: Like her fingers were facing me.
Speaker 11: It can feel like your purpose and your worth is really being questioned.
Speaker 12: Ain't going to stop me from playing the piano.
Speaker 13: She buys walkie- talkies, wonders to whom she should give
Speaker 13: the second device.
Speaker 14: Pets don't love humans. We never did. We never will.
Speaker 14: We just find ones that (crosstalk) .
Speaker 15: The beauty of rock climbing is that you can only focus on
Speaker 15: what's right in front of you.
Speaker 16: And so our American life begins.
Jenny Curtis: We may need to stay apart, but let's create together.
Jenny Curtis: Available on all podcast platforms. Submit your piece at curtco. com/
Jenny Curtis: amomentofyourtime. So your first role in TV was a Dick
Jenny Curtis: Wolf show, right, New York Undercover? Is that correct, that was your
Jenny Curtis: first role in TV?
Lance Reddick: Well, actually, no. That was my first role after I
Lance Reddick: graduated from Yale. But believe it or not, I had
Lance Reddick: a day player role as a local hire when I was living
Lance Reddick: in Boston on one of Fox's first dramatic shows ever.
Lance Reddick: It was called... Man, I hate saying that because this is telling you how old I am.
Lance Reddick: This is back in 1990, and it was called Against
Lance Reddick: the Law. It was starring Michael O'Keefe, and the guest
Lance Reddick: star was Keith David. So Michael O'Keefe is this attorney
Lance Reddick: in this big law firm. He decides he wants to work
Lance Reddick: for the people. So he opens up his own law firm. It
Lance Reddick: was a flashback scene because Keith David was on death
Lance Reddick: row. A cop went to arrest him, and he got
Lance Reddick: afraid. So he resisted, and then they (inaudible) for the gun,
Lance Reddick: and I think it was a mistaken identity thing. And he ended up
Lance Reddick: shooting the cop by accident. So he ended up being convicted
Lance Reddick: for murder. I played Michael O'Keefe's co- counsel in the original
Lance Reddick: trial and (inaudible) . So that's actually my first credit.
Lance Reddick: But New York Undercover was my first credit after Yale.
Lance Reddick: It's probably the first one on IMDB.
Jenny Curtis: Either way, I'd love to hear about what, emotionally, a
Jenny Curtis: first day professionally on set is compared to where you
Jenny Curtis: are now, how things have changed.
Lance Reddick: That happened two years after I graduated. My first job
Lance Reddick: out of school, I was understudying on Broadway. I did
Lance Reddick: that for the first six months after school. Then, almost immediately,
Lance Reddick: I got cast in an off- Broadway play at Manhattan
Lance Reddick: Theatre Club that then later moved off Broadway to another
Lance Reddick: theater and ran for a year. I'd just been doing theater
Lance Reddick: straight for like five years. So I get on set, immediately
Lance Reddick: I'm going to go into my theater thing and my
Lance Reddick: Brando thing. And I remember the first scene that I
Lance Reddick: shot was the first scene that I had in the show.
Lance Reddick: It's when Malik Yoba and Lauren... I can't remember their characters' names.
Lance Reddick: They come to tell me that my son's been killed. In
Lance Reddick: rehearsal, there were two things that happened. Number one, we
Lance Reddick: rehearsed it a couple times, and the script supervisor said, "
Lance Reddick: Oh, in the last rehearsal, you did such- and- such- and-
Lance Reddick: such. You did something different. Which are you going to do?" I said, " Well, I don't know.
Lance Reddick: It depends on... And she said, "Oh, but it has to
Lance Reddick: match." I said, " What do you mean, it has to match?"
Lance Reddick: She said, " For editing, once you do a behavior, you have
Lance Reddick: to do it the same every time." I'm like, " What? Oh, my
Lance Reddick: god. That's ridiculous." The other thing was I had all the
Lance Reddick: lines. Malik and Lauren basically had two lines each. So we go
Lance Reddick: to read the scene, and Malik says... I can't remember
Lance Reddick: what my name was, but, " Mr. So- and- so... I'm
Lance Reddick: sorry. Can I see the... What's the line? Oh." I was like, " He doesn't know his
Lance Reddick: lines? What is going on? He's in the show. He doesn't know his lines. What
Lance Reddick: 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
Lance Reddick: don't know their lines. Man, what is this TV thing? This is
Lance Reddick: ridiculous." That my naïve, self- important theater attitude my first
Lance Reddick: day on set.
Jenny Curtis: Following that, throughout your career, have you found there are
Jenny Curtis: some sets that are way stricter on staying word perfect
Jenny Curtis: on the script and sets that aren't so much?
Lance Reddick: Well, coming from the theater as opposed to sketch comedy,
Lance Reddick: I've always been kind of... The words matter. As I've
Lance Reddick: gotten older, and we film in television, I'm a little
Lance Reddick: less strict about that, although by the time I actually shoot
Lance Reddick: something, I want the words to be set. I don't
Lance Reddick: want to be editing them on shoot. It's interesting because on The Wire,
Lance Reddick: I found, after doing that show for five seasons, I
Lance Reddick: didn't even realize that I had gotten into the habit of changing
Lance Reddick: lines if I found that it just came out better. It got to
Lance Reddick: where I didn't even check. And I remember, I think it was the
Lance Reddick: last season, David had written that particular episode. There was
Lance Reddick: always a writer on set, usually whoever wrote the episode,
Lance Reddick: but not always. David Simon said to me, " Oh, no,
Lance Reddick: the line is... I said, " Yeah, but it just doesn't feel
Lance Reddick: as natural." He said, " Yeah, but you have to say it this way because... It had something
Lance Reddick: to do with the nature of what I was saying
Lance Reddick: and the legality and what it meant in cop- speak. So I had
Lance Reddick: to say it the right way. But the first time that
Lance Reddick: I actually experienced script police being word perfect, which I
Lance Reddick: thought was kind of ridiculous was Fringe. I went from
Lance Reddick: The Wire to Fringe. So I'd go from shooting on
Lance Reddick: location with the showrunner, the creator of the show or
Lance Reddick: the person who wrote the episode there all the time.
Lance Reddick: We're shooting the first season of Fringe in New York. The
Lance Reddick: writers room is in Los Angeles. I'd change something in a scene so
Lance Reddick: it comes out better. I'd get a note, "Oh, that's not what
Lance Reddick: it says." I said, " Yeah, but it comes out better
Lance Reddick: if I just change the wording." It wasn't even like I wanted
Lance Reddick: to change the meaning. I just wanted to change the wording of the sentence, and it
Lance Reddick: was one sentence. He said, " Well, you've got to call L.
Lance Reddick: A. because these people, they know what they're doing." What? Come
Lance Reddick: on, really? This was my first day, not the pilot,
Lance Reddick: but the first day shooting after it went into production. So, yeah,
Lance Reddick: that kind of sucked. It was also the difference between cable
Lance Reddick: and network television. I remember there was a scene, and this
Lance Reddick: situation was a clusterfuck, anyway, because it was a re- shoot of
Lance Reddick: a scene that Anna hated in the first place. To add insult
Lance Reddick: to injury, I had flown to Los Angeles for some
Lance Reddick: kind of publicity thing for Fox. I was supposed to
Lance Reddick: catch a flight that morning to go to set, and
Lance Reddick: I set my alarm for p. m. instead of a. m. by
Lance Reddick: accident. So I missed my flight. I wake up to my phone ringing and
Lance Reddick: people saying, " Lance, where are you?" I said, " I'm in bed." They went, "
Lance Reddick: What? You're supposed to be on set." I said, "What? I'm in
Lance Reddick: Los Angeles." Also, the lines had been changed. So I'm learning the new
Lance Reddick: lines on the plane. I don't even remember how many hours
Lance Reddick: late I am. Then we go to set to do
Lance Reddick: this re- shoot, to re- shoot the scene. We read
Lance Reddick: through the scene. We go to shoot the scene, and after the
Lance Reddick: first take, and Anna's apoplectic by now because she just
Lance Reddick: hates the scene, anyway, and the script supervisor says, " That's the
Lance Reddick: wrong line. It's been changed." I said, " You know what? At this point, I'm just going to
Lance Reddick: say the line that I've been saying. I'm just going
Lance Reddick: to do that." So we shot the scene. That evening, I get
Lance Reddick: a call from Joe Wyman, the showrunner. I say, " Hey,
Lance Reddick: Joe, what's up?" He said, " I heard you were in
Lance Reddick: the scene today, and you didn't want to say a line?" I said, "
Lance Reddick: Well, yeah. The line they wanted to change didn't make
Lance Reddick: it better, and it was throwing me. And it was
Lance Reddick: already a mess because Anna was upset throughout the whole
Lance Reddick: scene because she didn't want to do the scene." He said, " Well, you
Lance Reddick: need to check if you want to change a line from now
Lance Reddick: on." I said, " Really?" He said, " Yeah. Well, the problem
Lance Reddick: is the line was, 'We've lost the battle, but we're
Lance Reddick: going to win the war.'" He said, " The network wants
Lance Reddick: us to try to avoid using the word war right
Lance Reddick: now because it has something to do with politics." I'm like, "
Lance Reddick: The storyline is that our universe is at war with
Lance Reddick: another universe. Are you fucking kidding me?" Excuse me. I
Lance Reddick: didn't say that, but I'm... And now, every time I want
Lance Reddick: to change a word, I got to call and wait for an answer
Lance Reddick: through Los Angeles? This is absurd. Then, a couple days
Lance Reddick: later, there was a memo that went out to all the
Lance Reddick: cast about not changing lines without calling. I was like, "
Lance Reddick: Oh, boy. Okay. We are on network television. That's what it is."
Jenny Curtis: Is there a different approach from cable to network in how you
Jenny Curtis: create a character because the format is so different?
Lance Reddick: Well, sometimes the work is frustrating because a lot of
Lance Reddick: times your preparation ends up being thrown out the window on set. That's
Lance Reddick: hard, particularly when scripts change so much day to day.
Lance Reddick: That was really frustrating on network, but that didn't happen very
Lance Reddick: often with The Wire. Or, if it did happen, it started
Lance Reddick: happening more toward the end of the season but not so much
Lance Reddick: at the beginning of the season. And it was a shorter season. It was half as long. But
Lance Reddick: it turns out, the preparation... I mean, you prepare, you
Lance Reddick: prepare. Now, do you mean preparing for a scene, or do you
Lance Reddick: mean creating a character?
Jenny Curtis: I think I mean creating the character.
Lance Reddick: No, because it's all the same work. You try to
Lance Reddick: figure out as much as you can about who the
Lance Reddick: person is. That doesn't change just because you're doing network
Lance Reddick: or... at least not for me.
Dana Gourrier: You can do all the preparation in the world, but you
Dana Gourrier: can show up to a set, and then a (inaudible) or
Dana Gourrier: a director may say, " That's not how I envisioned her."
Dana Gourrier: And you have to, on a dime, recalibrate and reassess.
Lance Reddick: Oh, man. That's tough. That's tough.
Dana Gourrier: That's a real acting exercise. That's a real challenge, I
Dana Gourrier: think, as an artist, when you've done months of preparation,
Dana Gourrier: and you get there, and it's like, " No, that's not quite it," even after you've had
Dana Gourrier: rehearsals. It's like, " We changed our mind. It's this other
Dana Gourrier: thing now," and you have to, in three seconds, make
Dana Gourrier: a decision, find a word, dig deep, lean on your
Dana Gourrier: training, and find a way to create a whole new
Dana Gourrier: character in three seconds. That's absolutely happened. It's so funny,
Dana Gourrier: too. Lance may not feel the way, but I do
Dana Gourrier: feel like there is a difference, at times, between creating
Dana Gourrier: a character... Of course you go at the work the
Dana Gourrier: same way. But the feel I feel with, say, an
Dana Gourrier: HBO series versus, like Lance was talking about, network series,
Dana Gourrier: there is a different temperature. There is a different vibe,
Dana Gourrier: a whole different culture on the set, a whole different
Dana Gourrier: energy. But he's right in the sense that you're bringing
Dana Gourrier: what you're bringing no matter what. They're going to take
Dana Gourrier: it and cut it and edit it the way that
Dana Gourrier: they do to make it fit into their mold of
Dana Gourrier: their television show. The war comment was also interesting to
Dana Gourrier: me because everything is, for better or worse, politics and
Dana Gourrier: who's going to sponsor and marketing. Everything has to be considered.
Lance Reddick: Yeah. Well, that war comment... I don't remember what it
Lance Reddick: was because it was 17 years ago, but it had something to do with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jenny Curtis: I want to, really quick, jump back to The Wire,
Jenny Curtis: because, after auditioning for a couple roles, you were auditioning
Jenny Curtis: for Daniel's, and you didn't get the third page of your audition
Jenny Curtis: sides. So you had to prep your monologue in two
Jenny Curtis: minutes outside and then go back in and nail it.
Jenny Curtis: Do you think there's a freedom to that, when you
Jenny Curtis: actually don't have the time to prepare? Does it bring
Jenny Curtis: something different to the character?
Lance Reddick: It brings something different to me. One thing that's kind of funny about that is that, and it's
Lance Reddick: something that I had been discovering in the course of auditioning
Lance Reddick: for television, that if I had a week, I'd be
Lance Reddick: great. Or if I had it the day before, I'd be great
Lance Reddick: because there was something psychological about knowing things are an even playing field. If I
Lance Reddick: had two days, it was never enough time. I mean,
Lance Reddick: I know that sounds crazy. So having to cold read that
Lance Reddick: monologue, there's just a part of you that just says, " Fuck it.
Lance Reddick: Let me just do what I can do." Do you
Lance Reddick: know what I mean? I don't know how to describe it, but there's a part of you
Lance Reddick: that says, "It's not even worth being nervous. The only thing that matters is being focused."
Dana Gourrier: That's right.
Lance Reddick: So find what you can find. Figure out your marks, and just make
Lance Reddick: sure you hit those marks.
Jenny Curtis: Obviously you booked the part, so you did it well.
Jenny Curtis: But do you remember what the feeling was while you
Jenny Curtis: were doing that monologue?
Lance Reddick: I felt transparent. In other words, I was just in it, do you know what I mean? It was
Lance Reddick: one of those things where, because it required so much of
Lance Reddick: my focus, I didn't let my brain have any room to wonder about how
Lance Reddick: I was doing or what the casting director was thinking.
Jenny Curtis: Then, speaking about not having a ton of time, I
Jenny Curtis: know, for John Wick, you had a week to basically
Jenny Curtis: perfect your African accent. And you had to pick between
Jenny Curtis: South African and Kenyan.
Lance Reddick: So here's what happened. When I got the offer, which was like the
Lance Reddick: week before, I read it, and for some reason, I didn't
Lance Reddick: notice it when I read it, that in the stage directions,
Lance Reddick: it said with an African accent. Looking at the role
Lance Reddick: again, I said, " Oh, my god, it says African accent." So I
Lance Reddick: call my agent. I said, " I'm not sure. It says African
Lance Reddick: accent." So he checked, and then he came back to me. He says, " You don't have to do an African accent."
Lance Reddick: I said, " Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, I think that could be cool. I think I want to try it." So
Lance Reddick: I had (inaudible) South African accent. It's funny how you
Lance Reddick: never know how your preparation's going to pay off. I did a
Lance Reddick: movie in 1998 called I Dreamed of Africa that was
Lance Reddick: set in Kenya. And I was cast without reading a
Lance Reddick: script. So part of my preparation, I called up the
Lance Reddick: embassy in Kenya, and I found a guy. He had
Lance Reddick: agreed to talk to me. So I interviewed him, and I taped
Lance Reddick: his accent. Then, once I got the script, I realized
Lance Reddick: that all my lines, the few that I had, were
Lance Reddick: in Swahili. So, being able to do a Kenyan accent, speaking English with a Kenyan accent was not
Lance Reddick: a thing. But I had it. So I tried the South
Lance Reddick: African accent, and it just didn't seem to fit the
Lance Reddick: character. Then I just picked up the Kenyan accent, and I
Lance Reddick: tried it, and it was working. So I just went with it.
Lance Reddick: Then, when I got on set, I told Chad... I remember saying this to Chad Stahelski, "
Lance Reddick: You know I'm doing the African accent, right?" He said, "
Lance Reddick: Yeah. Well, let's hear it." So I did it. He's like, " Sounds great."
Lance Reddick: We just went with it. Yeah.
Dana Gourrier: I love that.
Jenny Curtis: Is there a difference, speaking of that character, in living
Jenny Curtis: in a character for a franchise for film rather than
Jenny Curtis: living in a character for a series?
Lance Reddick: Wow, that's a good question. I mean, John Wick's the
Lance Reddick: only franchise I've been a part of. I guess Angel
Lance Reddick: Has Fallen, but I came in at the end. It's a little similar
Lance Reddick: in that you pick a character up. Then you put
Lance Reddick: it down. Then you come back to it a year later
Lance Reddick: or two years later, and you have to find it
Lance Reddick: again. You have to find the accent again. I had to find his attitude,
Lance Reddick: how he moved because he's so taciturn and reserved. But
Lance Reddick: at the same time, he has so much power as
Lance Reddick: a being. But part of his job is to pretend
Lance Reddick: he doesn't, which is very different from other characters that
Lance Reddick: I've played which are overt alpha males, from the cops
Lance Reddick: that I've played. So, in that regard, it's similar. And I remember... Well, Irving was interesting because when I
Lance Reddick: first started Bosch, I actually had a difficult time finding
Lance Reddick: his accent, finding how he speaks. But I remember coming back second season and feeling like I had to find him all
Lance Reddick: over again. So, in that regard, it's very similar.
Jenny Curtis: I wanted to jump backwards to Tennessee, which was a
Jenny Curtis: movie you did with Mariah Carey.
Lance Reddick: Wow.
Jenny Curtis: Tennessee was also done with Ethan Peck. I was speaking
Jenny Curtis: with him this week, and he says you might not
Jenny Curtis: remember, but I should ask you about the line replacement, "
Jenny Curtis: It makes your tongue hard thinking about it, doesn't it?"
Jenny Curtis: He said there might be a story there.
Lance Reddick: Oh, yes. Wow. Man, what a memory he's got. He
Lance Reddick: was on the receiving end of that monologue. So I
Lance Reddick: played Mariah Carey's husband in that. I think he's a state
Lance Reddick: trooper who's also a psychopath, an ambitiously abusive man. She
Lance Reddick: meets these boys in a bar and brings them home because
Lance Reddick: they need a place to stay. I don't even realize
Lance Reddick: they're there, and then she says something I don't like because I'm
Lance Reddick: back playing cards, drinking with my boys. And I threaten
Lance Reddick: her. So I've got her by the throat, and she's up against a wall.
Lance Reddick: Then she's like, " We're not alone. We've got company." I said, "What?" So I
Lance Reddick: peek around the corner. I see these two white boys
Lance Reddick: sitting on my couch. So I go out there, and I
Lance Reddick: sit in between them and ask them if they think my
Lance Reddick: wife's attractive. And, at one point, I say something lascivious,
Lance Reddick: and I said, " It makes your dick hard just thinking about
Lance Reddick: it, don't it?" And we needed, for TV, a PG version.
Dana Gourrier: So that was the PG version?
Lance Reddick: That was the line they came up with. I kid you
Lance Reddick: not. That was the for- TV version, " It makes your
Lance Reddick: tongue hard just thinking about it, don't it?"
Dana Gourrier: Wow.
Jenny Curtis: Oh, that's certainly something.
Lance Reddick: Ethan was great in that movie. He was great in that.
Jenny Curtis: Yeah, he said he absolutely loved working with you. That
Jenny Curtis: was a little bit of a deviation. I don't want to keep asking the
Jenny Curtis: same question of how do you create different characters within
Jenny Curtis: the same archetype, but I know you've been cast a
Jenny Curtis: lot as the authoritative figure.
Lance Reddick: That's actually a great question, and it's not a question that
Lance Reddick: I really get, at least not asked that intelligently or
Lance Reddick: nuanced. One of the interesting things for me about the difference between particularly
Lance Reddick: Daniels and Irving is just being so much older and
Lance Reddick: looking so much different. I've gained a lot of weight since then.
Lance Reddick: Daniels is essentially... His ambition in terms of rank was
Lance Reddick: driven a lot by his relationship with his wife. This
Lance Reddick: is a gross analogy, but it was a bit of
Lance Reddick: a Macbeth/ Lady Macbeth type of situation, whereas Daniels really
Lance Reddick: just loved the job. He just wanted to do the police
Lance Reddick: work. The thing about Broyles is that Broyles is essentially
Lance Reddick: a soldier doing a cop's job. But his mentality is
Lance Reddick: that of a soldier. Irving is the quintessential politician. He
Lance Reddick: loves power, and he loves the structures of power. So,
Lance Reddick: in that regard, he's very, very different in terms of
Lance Reddick: his personality, from Daniels. And that was the thing that I could find.
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Jenny Curtis: Playing roles where you've covered similar territory, do you find
Jenny Curtis: that you still have a fire in your belly about
Jenny Curtis: it? Or does it become a job that you still love
Jenny Curtis: but comfortable in?
Lance Reddick: Broyles to Irving were different experiences because Broyles came right
Lance Reddick: on the heels of The Wire. So, on the one hand,
Lance Reddick: I felt like I really didn't want to play the same
Lance Reddick: character again. But on the other hand, it was J.
Lance Reddick: J. Abrams first big show after Lost. So we thought
Lance Reddick: it was going to be the next Lost, even though it didn't end up being that. And it
Lance Reddick: was really the only role that I felt right for, and
Lance Reddick: it also happened kind of organically because I'd just been cast in Lost.
Lance Reddick: I was cast on Lost literally two weeks before I wrapped on The
Lance Reddick: Wire. So I was little bit in family, and I was really excited about
Lance Reddick: that character because... It changed at the beginning of the second season, but at
Lance Reddick: the beginning of the series, there's a cold, calculating way
Lance Reddick: that he is. There's kind of a cold- blooded killer
Lance Reddick: in him that Daniels didn't have. I liked that, and
Lance Reddick: I also liked the fact that there was a mystery
Lance Reddick: to his backstory, which the way the show was unfolding
Lance Reddick: for a season, part of the unfolding of the mystery
Lance Reddick: of his backstory was tied to the unfolding of the
Lance Reddick: overarching plot that was set up at the beginning of the
Lance Reddick: series and was moving through the first season, which was supposed to move through the show.
Lance Reddick: But unfortunately, it just kind of went away the second season.
Lance Reddick: With Irving, quite frankly, when it first came up to
Lance Reddick: me, I didn't want to do it. I threw a tantrum. The
Lance Reddick: offer came in, and I blew my top. I was
Lance Reddick: ranting and raving at my wife, "Goddammit, I told them no more cops." So I go to call my
Lance Reddick: agent, and I see that I have a message. For some
Lance Reddick: reason, I decided to listen to the message first, and it was from my agent. She said, "
Lance Reddick: Lance, you're getting an offer. Don't freak out. I need
Lance Reddick: to talk to you about it first." So I call her. The thing
Lance Reddick: I didn't know about Irving when I got the offer was
Lance Reddick: I had no idea who Michael Connelly was. So I
Lance Reddick: didn't know that it was based on a series of books that
Lance Reddick: were huge all over the world. The other thing I
Lance Reddick: didn't know is that the offer came from Eric Overmyer,
Lance Reddick: who was the showrunner, the co- creator of the series. But,
Lance Reddick: in addition to being a famous playwright, Eric and I
Lance Reddick: know each other from The Wire because he came on as
Lance Reddick: a writer/ producer in the fourth season. So, basically, I had
Lance Reddick: a conversation with Eric, and he said, " We really need
Lance Reddick: a great actor for this role." I said, " I'm hesitant because I
Lance Reddick: just finished playing two cops in a row." He says, "
Lance Reddick: Oh, yeah. Well, sorry." He said, " We'll write it however you
Lance Reddick: want us to write it. We'll write it as big
Lance Reddick: or as small as you want. Michael Connelly's, Michael's happy
Lance Reddick: to talk to you." So I called Michael Connelly, and we talked. Then I
Lance Reddick: decided okay. And another part of me saying okay was that
Lance Reddick: first season, Irving was only supposed to be a recurring
Lance Reddick: character. And at the time, it was never going to
Lance Reddick: happen because the writer's agent didn't want him to do it. But I
Lance Reddick: was trying to get the writer who wrote... There's a
Lance Reddick: skit that went viral that I did on Funny or
Lance Reddick: Die called Toys R Me.
Jenny Curtis: We watched it yesterday.
Dana Gourrier: Yeah, we watched it last night. It's great.
Lance Reddick: I was really hot on trying to develop that as a
Lance Reddick: television series, preferably for Adult Swim. So I figured, " Well,
Lance Reddick: I got a year to do that while I'm doing
Lance Reddick: this," because the plan was for me to recur the first season, have
Lance Reddick: a big storyline second season, become a series regular second
Lance Reddick: season, and then figure it out from there. Well, we shot the pilot
Lance Reddick: in the fall of 2013. In May of 2014, it gets announced to
Lance Reddick: the trade that it got picked up for series. And the day that it was
Lance Reddick: announced to the trades, I get a call from my agent. "
Lance Reddick: Lance, they want to make you a series regular for the first season." And I was like, "
Lance Reddick: Fuck. What do I do now?" Because on the one
Lance Reddick: hand, it's not like I got Big Bang Theory money.
Lance Reddick: I still got to pay a mortgage, but on the other hand, it's like, "
Lance Reddick: Am I doing something that's going to be the nail
Lance Reddick: in the coffin for my career artistically and professionally?" You know what I mean,
Lance Reddick: in terms of doing the kinds of things that I
Lance Reddick: wanted to do? And it took me long enough to
Lance Reddick: make up my mind that the producers started to get
Lance Reddick: pissed. But I decided to jump off the deep end
Lance Reddick: and just go for it. And it has been great, a great role, part
Lance Reddick: of a great show. The other thing is, unbeknownst to
Lance Reddick: me, between 2013, it was not only when we shot the
Lance Reddick: pilot for Bosch, it's also when I shot John Wick.
Lance Reddick: It's also when The Guest got into Sundance. It's also
Lance Reddick: the year that I did American Horror Story. So all
Lance Reddick: these other things were happening in my career that were
Lance Reddick: so different from that. And they continued to happen. It was
Lance Reddick: really fortunate. In terms of people seeing me a particular
Lance Reddick: way, I'm not in danger of that anymore. It's been
Lance Reddick: a great ride.
Jenny Curtis: Not only that, but you've also been on Corporate, which
Jenny Curtis: is an authoritative character but completely different. We wanted to talk to you about your
Jenny Curtis: approach to comedy because your comedy characters are so dramatic.
Lance Reddick: Except for Key & Peele. That was...
Dana Gourrier: I was going to say we watched in Key & Peele, and that was actually just hilarious.
Jenny Curtis: When do we get to sing Over the Rainbow? Yeah.
Lance Reddick: I mean, I guess those are the characters that I've been
Lance Reddick: cast as. I'm sure it has something to do with the persona
Lance Reddick: of my cop roles in the past. Corporate was one of
Lance Reddick: those things where I didn't get it. So I have to take
Lance Reddick: my hat off to my agent. When I read it, I just didn't
Lance Reddick: get it. I was like, " Another asshole boss in a
Lance Reddick: suit, I don't need to do that." I said, " I don't usually
Lance Reddick: do this, but what do you think? I want your opinion." She said, "I think you should
Lance Reddick: do it." I said, " Why?" She said, " Because I promise you,
Lance Reddick: Lance, it's a different asshole boss in a suit." And
Lance Reddick: the other thing is they really captured the culture of
Lance Reddick: fear that pervades corporate working culture, and it's truly been
Lance Reddick: one of the highlights of my career. I can honestly
Lance Reddick: say I'm as proud of Corporate as I am The Wire. What
Lance Reddick: an incredible group of people. I'm so fortunate. My only regret
Lance Reddick: about Corporate is that it's (inaudible) .
Jenny Curtis: Was it a set that would break out into laughter all
Jenny Curtis: the time?
Lance Reddick: People were cracking up all day. I'm not saying... People would get through takes.
Lance Reddick: Sometimes not, but most did get through takes, and then they'd start
Lance Reddick: laughing a lot at the end of them. But one of the
Lance Reddick: things that was challenging for me in Corporate was having to
Lance Reddick: let go a little of thinking that I can be better in terms
Lance Reddick: of my character preparation. I remember Pat Bishop, when we
Lance Reddick: were shooting... First of all, Pat is about 5'2", and he
Lance Reddick: looks like he's 12. So the first scene we shot for
Lance Reddick: the pilot was my first entrance, where you see me
Lance Reddick: get out of bed and working out and making my protein shake. I
Lance Reddick: read this biography of this black billionaire and did all this
Lance Reddick: preparation about who the guy is. They had stuck a
Lance Reddick: bunch of pills all over the counter. I'm like, " He wouldn't
Lance Reddick: do that. This guy's really fastidious. He wouldn't have this
Lance Reddick: shit all over the counter like that." Pat's like, "Yeah, but it'll be funny." He said, " It'll be fine."
Lance Reddick: I'm like, " This kid's telling me what my character is, and he's
Lance Reddick: walking away. What the fuck, man? These guys don't know what the fuck
Lance Reddick: they're doing. I just got to get through this, get
Lance Reddick: my paycheck, and get out." And it was funny. Also, the shot went by so
Lance Reddick: fast you hardly noticed. Now I know Pat's a fucking
Lance Reddick: genius, and I don't say that lightly. I mean, they all are, but Pat's really fucking smart. The
Lance Reddick: other thing is that, except for Anne Dudek, who is
Lance Reddick: her own phenomenon of just amazingly talented, everybody else is just either
Lance Reddick: from sketch comedy or standup comedians, particularly Adam Lustick. He
Lance Reddick: would improvise take after take after take for days and do different
Lance Reddick: stuff and have you rolling in the aisles. I'm sorry
Lance Reddick: that I keep using this word for the people in this
Lance Reddick: show, but he's a fucking genius. It was just amazing.
Jenny Curtis: Would you improv?
Lance Reddick: Did I, or would I ever?
Jenny Curtis: Did you in the show?
Lance Reddick: Not a lot. It's interesting. One of the things that
Lance Reddick: Jake Weisman, who plays Jake on the show, he told me one of
Lance Reddick: the things that they loved doing was figuring out how
Lance Reddick: to give me a monologue that the language was as
Lance Reddick: convoluted as possible to see what I would do with it.
Jenny Curtis: Recently, One Night in Miami premiered at Venice and Toronto
Jenny Curtis: to absolutely rave reviews. It was the directorial debut of
Jenny Curtis: Regina King, which she's so phenomenal as an actress. I'm
Jenny Curtis: really curious to know how that translates to being a
Jenny Curtis: director and what it's like working with someone on their
Jenny Curtis: directorial debut.
Lance Reddick: It's one of those rare instances where I didn't do it... Similarly to Little Woods,
Lance Reddick: I didn't do it for the role, I did it
Lance Reddick: for the project but also because I wanted to work
Lance Reddick: with Regina. There's something about actors that direct. They just
Lance Reddick: know how to talk to actors because a lot of
Lance Reddick: directors, they don't really understand acting. They don't understand how
Lance Reddick: to talk in terms of motivation. If you're giving an
Lance Reddick: acting note, unless something is just too fast or too soft
Lance Reddick: or too loud, unless it's purely technical, you need to
Lance Reddick: be able to speak that way. Yeah, and she's great at that.
Jenny Curtis: In the span of your career, can you think back
Jenny Curtis: to one of your favorite directions you've ever received?
Lance Reddick: Wow, nobody's ever asked me that. I got to think about that one.
Lance Reddick: See, the problem is that, usually, it's the bad direction that
Lance Reddick: sticks out, that you remember.
Dana Gourrier: I was going to say that.
Lance Reddick: I mean, I could give you a couple bad ones. And part of what makes me angry
Lance Reddick: is that I took it. This was a director who...
Lance Reddick: I'm not going to say his name. He was French, and
Lance Reddick: this is a director that they loved on Fringe. And he disrespected
Lance Reddick: me from the first day. He didn't even start treating me
Lance Reddick: with respect until people started talking about The Wire, and then he put two and two
Lance Reddick: together because I don't think that he'd ever seen the show. But there's a
Lance Reddick: scene where it's an alternate universe, and my character, he's
Lance Reddick: been blackmailed by the archvillian, which is played by Jared
Lance Reddick: Harris. And my son had this rare disease that he
Lance Reddick: had a cure for, but he'd only give it to
Lance Reddick: me if I would betray my universe. So I did
Lance Reddick: something that caused the death of one of the big people. So,
Lance Reddick: after the funeral, I come home, and when I return to my wife,
Lance Reddick: she asks me... Karen. I remember her name. I can't remember the character's name. Anyway,
Lance Reddick: she asks me if I'm okay. How I played it when I
Lance Reddick: came in is I came in, she looks at me, and
Lance Reddick: she says, " Are you okay?" And I say, " I'm fine,"
Lance Reddick: and I go and I start looking at the mail.
Lance Reddick: He says to me, " Lance, what are you doing? It's not about
Lance Reddick: the mail. We need to see your eyes. We need to see
Lance Reddick: your eyes. Look at her." Like, " Dude, you fucking idiot,
Lance Reddick: I'm responsible for the murder of one of my people.
Lance Reddick: The last thing I want is for the person who
Lance Reddick: knows me better than anyone in the world to look
Lance Reddick: in my eyes right now. I'm sorry. I'm not playing with
Lance Reddick: mail. I'm trying to avoid her eyes, you dipshit." He
Lance Reddick: was looking for melodrama rather than what makes sense psychologically
Lance Reddick: for the character in the moment, which is just stupid.
Lance Reddick: Sorry, sorry. Yeah, and also, the other thing was he would love me giving me this, "
Lance Reddick: He needs more intensity," which really meant, " I need to
Lance Reddick: see you doing something because I can't see what you're doing." You know what I mean?
Jenny Curtis: Yeah.
Lance Reddick: It's like, "It's because you're a fucking idiot. It'll be there on the screen." That
Lance Reddick: reminds me of a great Keanu Reeves quote. I was talking to
Lance Reddick: Chad Stahelski, and we were in the lobby of the Continental.
Lance Reddick: It was in between takes after a walk and talk
Lance Reddick: that I had to be in with Ian McShane. And somehow we got on the subject
Lance Reddick: of Keanu, and he said that when they first started
Lance Reddick: 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
Lance Reddick: you watch it on the small screen, it's going to
Lance Reddick: look like I'm not doing anything. But I'm actually doing
Lance Reddick: a lot."
Dana Gourrier: I love that guy. He's so great.
Lance Reddick: Wow. Isn't he magical? I mean, his energy.
Dana Gourrier: And it's not just his skills and artistry. It's also
Dana Gourrier: his humanity.
Lance Reddick: Yeah, he's like a different being. Yeah, he's extraordinary.
Jenny Curtis: I want to quickly ask, because I'm just personally really curious because I'm a podcaster, you're
Jenny Curtis: in a series, a podcast called DUST: CHRYSALIS?
Lance Reddick: Yes.
Jenny Curtis: I'd love to hear about the process of acting in
Jenny Curtis: a podcast. I know you've done voice acting for video
Jenny Curtis: games and all of that. But is it different doing something for a podcast?
Lance Reddick: So, for me, voice acting is different. It tends to
Lance Reddick: be different from acting on camera because you don't have your face. You can't use
Lance Reddick: your face and your body to communicate anything. The other
Lance Reddick: thing is you don't tend to memorize the lines, and often
Lance Reddick: you don't act with the other people. So you have
Lance Reddick: to rely a lot on the director. With film and
Lance Reddick: television, usually my rule of thumb is unless you see
Lance Reddick: something egregious, just stay out of my way because I know what I'm
Lance Reddick: doing, with directors. But with voice acting, it's like, " What do
Lance Reddick: you got? What do you want me to do?" Do you know what I mean?
Jenny Curtis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lance Reddick: I really found that because I've done so much voiceover work for the
Lance Reddick: video game Destiny. I definitely found that out with Destiny because
Lance Reddick: often I'd have lines I wouldn't have any context for. But
Lance Reddick: even with dramatic things, you don't always know when something
Lance Reddick: is communicating, or when you think something's communicating and it's not.
Jenny Curtis: I can't wait to listen. I'm very excited to hear that show.
Dana Gourrier: Did you enjoy working on The Domestics? Because it was a lot of
Dana Gourrier: fun for me.
Lance Reddick: It was so much fun, once again, to be able to play the
Lance Reddick: kind of character that I don't get to play. I had a great time. There was
Lance Reddick: one argument I had with the director that I lost that I shouldn't have.
Dana Gourrier: With Mike? Mike was so sweet and docile.
Lance Reddick: Docile is definitely not a word I would use for Mike. But by the same token,
Lance Reddick: I loved working with Mike. Like I said, there was only one scene where we disagreed, and
Lance Reddick: I lost that argument, and I shouldn't have.
Dana Gourrier: When Jenny asked you about the question of, " What's a
Dana Gourrier: direction that you have gotten that you loved?" And it's definitely
Dana Gourrier: been from Mike, which was just, " Go further, and literally
Dana Gourrier: fuck them up." It was a blast to work with him on The Domestics.
Jenny Curtis: I like that you say he was a character you don't get to play
Jenny Curtis: much. You mean the sweet, kind, generous family man who's
Jenny Curtis: a cannibal? Yeah, I'd assume.
Lance Reddick: Both of those things, a guy who's sweet and just
Lance Reddick: laughs and dances with his wife and makes goofy jokes with his son, and also
Lance Reddick: who says, "You know what? If you say anything right now, I
Lance Reddick: will fucking gut you and feed you to my wife and children," which is
Lance Reddick: pretty close to the line I said. Yeah, I don't get to play characters who do that, either.
Jenny Curtis: I want to wrap up with my favorite closing question. What
Jenny Curtis: does it mean to you to have a life in storytelling?
Lance Reddick: Wow, what a question to ask when we don't have a lot
Lance Reddick: of time. Yeah, that's deep. When I feel like I
Lance Reddick: get it right, both in my performance and with the
Lance Reddick: material that I'm working on, I feel that I'm doing
Lance Reddick: something important. I feel like it's important to feel that way for
Lance Reddick: two reasons. Number one, I just feel like it's a fundamental
Lance Reddick: human need to feel that what you do matters. But the
Lance Reddick: other thing is that one of the things that makes
Lance Reddick: human beings unique as beings is language. So everything about
Lance Reddick: how we relate to our reality is a story. So
Lance Reddick: the kinds of stories matter. I can give you a perfect example. There's a
Lance Reddick: woman very close to my wife who told her the
Lance Reddick: story of when her son was about six years old.
Lance Reddick: He was the younger of her two boys, and they were in a
Lance Reddick: McDonald's. And he never really met any Black people before.
Lance Reddick: There was a Black guy in the McDonald's. And she
Lance Reddick: said she was mortified because he walked up to the guy, he said, "
Lance Reddick: Hey, are you a bad guy?" because his only orientation
Lance Reddick: with Black people is what he'd seen on television.
Jenny Curtis: Oh, god.
Lance Reddick: So, to me, there's no such thing as just entertainment. All
Lance Reddick: the stories we tell matter because they shape our values
Lance Reddick: and they shape our standards of beauty. They shape how
Lance Reddick: we relate to each other.
Jenny Curtis: Lance Reddick, thank you so much for joining us today.
Jenny Curtis: I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with
Jenny Curtis: us. And Dana, as always, thank you for joining, as well.
Dana Gourrier: My pleasure.
Jenny Curtis: I really appreciate it. So thank you, Lance.
Lance Reddick: Thank you.
Jenny Curtis: Hollywood Unscripted was created by CurtCo Media. This special episode
Jenny Curtis: of the Stuck at Home series was hosted and produced
Jenny Curtis: by me, Jenny Curtis, with guest co- host Dana Gourrier
Jenny Curtis: and guest Lance Reddick, co- produced and edited by J
Jenny Curtis: Whiting. The executive producer of Hollywood Unscripted is Stuart Halperin.
Jenny Curtis: The Hollywood Unscripted theme song is by Celleste and Erik
Jenny Curtis: Dick. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any
Jenny Curtis: special episodes of Hollywood Unscripted: Stuck at Home. Stay safe
Jenny Curtis: and healthy, and thanks for listening. CurtCo Media, media for
Jenny Curtis: your mind.