Actor Lance Reddick (THE WIRE) joins host Jenny Curtis and guest co-host Dana Gourrier in a conversation about his career and craft. Through the conversation they discuss:

 

1:13 - Lance's experience on AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN and working with Jessica Lange

3:29 - Dana’s experience with Jessica Lange on COVEN, her friendship with Gabourey Sidibe, her recollection of Lance’s role and working with Sarah Paulson

6:01 - Dana’s take on working across actors of a certain level

7:19 - Lance’s experience working with one of his idols, Kathy Bates. 

12:03 - Lance’s beginnings in music and his path to drama school. 

15:23 - Lance’s vocal warm up

17:28 - Lance’s first role in TV, AGAINST THE LAW

18:36 - Working in theater and his transition to film & tv

20:31 - Changing lines versus being word perfect to the written script and the strict nature of FRINGE

25:07 - Dana’s experience of having to change a character while on set and her feel of creating a character for a network show. 

26:34 - Not getting time to prepare for a monologue in his audition for THE WIRE. 

28:11 - Being able to pull out an accent for JOHN WICK because of one of his early films

29:07 - The difference and similarities in maintaining a character through a series or through a franchise. 

30:27 - Ethan Peck’s memory of a line change in TENNESSEE

32:04 - Creating different characters within the same archetype 

34:07 - Choosing to play Broyles on FRINGE and Irving on BOSCH 

38:46 - Not getting CORPORATE at first and the genius of the creative crew. 

41:40 -  Working with Regina King on ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI

42:16 - Remembering some bad directions given to him. 

44:16 - A quote from Keanu Reeves about subtle acting. 

45:00 - Acting for an audio series and how voice acting is different than film & TV. 

46:08 - Dana and Lance share their experiences on THE DOMESTICS

47:24 - The importance of a life in storytelling. 

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Hosted and Produced by: Jenny Curtis

Executive Producer: Stuart Halperin

Edited and Co-Produced by: J Whiting

Theme Music by: Celleste & Eric Dick

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Transcript

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*PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK THE CORRESPONDING AUDIO BEFORE QUOTING IN PRINT.

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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  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: 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. 

 

Jenny Curtis: 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: Thank  you.

Jenny Curtis: 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:  Coven,  and  she  was  in  The  Domestics,  as  were  you,  Lance,  and  I  would  love  to  start  with  those projects.

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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,  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." 

 

Dana Gourrier: Oh,  my  goodness.

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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.

 

Dana Gourrier: 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."

 

Lance Reddick: Wow. Wow.  Wow,  wow,  wow.

Dana Gourrier: 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  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  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  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.

 

Lance Reddick: Oh.  Wow. 

 

Dana Gourrier: 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.  So  we  had  to  pay  homage  and  reverence,  which  I  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  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-

 

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  had  me  come  back  for  a  cameo  a  couple  seasons  later,  and  I  did  work  with her.

 

Jenny Curtis: 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?

 

Dana Gourrier: 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  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. 

 

Jenny Curtis: 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?

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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?

 

Jenny Curtis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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.

 

Dana Gourrier: Oh, my gosh.

 

Lance Reddick: 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.

 

Dana Gourrier: Oh,  that's  right.

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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- 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  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  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  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,  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,  and  by  then  it  was  fine. But  that  was  quite  an  experience. 

 

Dana Gourrier: 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  get  the  work  done.  Relax.  Everybody,  in  some  way,  feels  this  way,  even  Kathy  Bates  herself,  probably.

 

Lance Reddick: 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." 

 

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

 

Jenny Curtis: 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?

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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."

 

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  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  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  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  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  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  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."

 

Dana Gourrier: Absolutely.

​

Lance Reddick: 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.

 

Dana Gourrier: You  can't  turn  Yale  down.

 

Lance Reddick: Yeah. So,  29  years  old,  with  a  three- year- old,  married,  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  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  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  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?

 

Jenny Curtis: Yeah.

 

Lance Reddick: 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.

 

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  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  the  second  device.

Speaker 14: Pets  don't  love  humans.  We  never  did.  We  never  will.  We  just  find ones that  (crosstalk) .

Speaker 15: The beauty of  rock  climbing  is  that  you  can  only  focus  on  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.  Available  on  all  podcast  platforms.  Submit  your  piece  at  curtco. com/ amomentofyourtime.
So  your  first  role  in  TV  was  a  Dick  Wolf  show,  right,  New  York  Undercover?  Is  that  correct,  that was your  first  role  in  TV?

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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.

 

Jenny Curtis: 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. 

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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- 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  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  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.

 

Jenny Curtis: 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?

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  cast  about  not  changing  lines  without  calling.  I  was  like, " 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  create  a  character  because  the  format  is  so  different?

 

Lance Reddick: 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  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?

 

Jenny Curtis: I think I mean creating the character.

 

Lance Reddick: 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.

 

Dana Gourrier: 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.

 

Lance Reddick: Oh,  man.  That's  tough. That's tough.

 

Dana Gourrier: 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  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,  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  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  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,  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?

 

Lance Reddick: 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,  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."

 

Dana Gourrier: That's  right.

 

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

Jenny Curtis: Obviously  you  booked  the  part,  so  you  did  it  well.  But  do  you  remember  what  the  feeling  was  while  you  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  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. 

 

Jenny Curtis: 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. 

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