Interview: James Urbaniak (Pt. 1)

There are those who know James Urbaniak more for his voice than his face, owing to the many years he’s been working on the now-iconic Adult Swim series The Venture Brothers, but rest assured that you know him for his face as well, even if you might not realize it off-hand.

Heck, he freely admits during our conversation that it took five years for one of his friends to realize that he played a memorable part on an episode of one of the most popular premium-cable sitcoms of all time!

You’d best believe that he’s played more than just one or two such roles over the course of his career. Indeed, James Urbaniak is a self-admitted go-to when it comes to red herrings and creepy characters on American procedural dramas…although he’s certainly played more than just those sorts of folks, as you’ll discover as you read Pt. 1 of my interview with him.,,

I'm going to be zigging and zagging throughout your career, but the first thing I wanted to ask about wasn't a reader request but, in fact, something I didn't know anything about until I spotted it on your filmography: The Sticky Fingers of Time.

Oh, yes! The Sticky Fingers of Time is an indie from...a long time ago! [Laughs.] From the mid-1990s. That was really the first movie I ever did. I had been in one feature before that never really came out, and that was basically made by a woman with a camera and a boom guy. But then Sticky actually had a little bit of a release, and was by a very talented filmmaker named Hilary Brougher. She's made a couple of other movies, too. She's really great. It's sort of a low-budget time travel story.

Yeah, I look forward to finding it and checking it out, because just the few clips that I saw... I don't know, I'm probably completely wrong, but it felt like it could've been part of the black and white episode from that most recent season of Twin Peaks. It struck me as very Lynch-ian, Maybe it's not. I'm just basing it on those few clips.

Oh, she's a very smart and witty filmmaker. I recommend it. Yeah, that was really, for all intents and purposes, the first feature film I had a real part in. 

I guess I'll go ahead and ask you the same thing I ask everyone I interview: how did you find your way into acting in the first place? Was it something you always wanted to do, or did you just sort of stumble into it?

As a kid, I always enjoyed it. When I was going to third, fourth, and fifth grade in New Jersey, each of those teachers had us write little plays and do little sketches and things. They all sort of did that now and then, so...I just enjoyed it! I had energy. [Laughs.] And I liked getting up there. And I was in a couple of school plays in elementary school, and then in high school... I actually didn't do that much.

I was in the chorus of Bye Bye Birdie, a very beloved high school play because the characters are all teenagers, when I was a freshman. And when I was a senior, I had a part in The Boyfriend, another very popular high school play where the cast is all young people. And I had a character role in that. I played a randy old English guy. And at the time, it was very high-concept casting, because I was a shy kid, pretty quiet...and suddenly I was onstage, acting like a randy old English guy, with this crazy accent, chasing girls. Frankly, it brought the house down. [Laughs.] And that was really the first time I got a real sense of being on the stage and getting a great reaction. It kind of took everybody by surprise...me included, I guess! And then...

Basically, the quick version is that I didn't really go to college. I went on and off to a community college in New Jersey for a couple of years, and they, in fact, had a great theater department and some good teachers. That's where I really got into acting. I was doing a lot of plays at that school, and local community theater. But I don't think I thought about doing it professionally until I was probably 21 or 22, and I vaguely thought, "Maybe I could do this." And I must say that there was a teacher at that school named Nina Garcia who one day said to me, "I think you could do this professionally."

And then I moved to New York, where the other big event for me was that I met a woman named Karin Coonrod, and she was a theater director, and she was kind of starting out and wanted to form a theater company. And we ended up forming this company together, and we worked off, off-Broadway, sort of the downtown scene, starting in the late '80s and pretty much through the '90s. And that was my world for a long time: doing so-called "downtown theater" in New York. I worked with our own company, and then other companies, working day jobs. None of us were making a living doing this. And then one thing led to another, and I eventually got cast in an off-Broadway play that paid me, and I started to get paid to do theater, and then eventually started meeting some filmmakers - most notably Hal Hartley - in the '90s, and then it just kind of... One thing sort of led to another, you know? [Laughs.] So that's how it happened!

Okay, let's dive into the reader requests, starting with the experience of playing R. Crumb in American Splendor.

Oh, well, that was really great. I love that film. 

As do I.

It's funny: when I was young, before I thought about being an actor, I loved to draw, and I drew cartoons, so I thought about being a cartoonist or a graphic artist. And then my interest in acting just took over. Today, I draw like a very promising 18-year-old.

Congratulations.

Yeah, my drawing style is frozen in amber. [Laughs.] I draw like someone who should go to art school, who's very promising, needs a little more technique. So I'm still stuck as a very promising high school student. That's my drawing style. 

Well, you're at least six or seven grades ahead of mine.

Yeah, there you go. [Laughs.] And I still doodle very regularly. My specialty is sort of frustrated-looking little men that I draw on pieces of paper. But anyway, so I'd become very interested in comics and illustration, and...I wasn't so much into superhero stuff, but I was very interested in alternative comics and underground comics, and for a couple of years in New York in the early '90s, I had a roommate who was - and is - a professional cartoonist (Robert Sikoryak), and he had a lot of original Zap Comix and R. Crumb. So I was very familiar with Crumb's work. And that just came up as an audition. My agent called and said, "They're making a movie called American Splendor," and I was familiar with the American Splendor comics as well, and of course everyone from my generation used to see Harvey Pekar on [Late Night with David] Letterman in the '80s. He was a regular guest.

Absolutely.

So I was very excited by that idea, and... You know, normally you go into these auditions, and you think, "Well, I'll do the best I can." But that was a case where I felt, "No! No one else is going to get this! This part is mine!" [Laughs.] And I had a friend who had a lot of hats, so I borrowed, like, a fedora, because he sort of dresses in an old-timey style, as you know. And I went, and I got it! And then that was really, really fun, and I sort of immersed myself in research. Obviously the Terry Zwigoff documentary, which is a masterpiece. I watched that a lot. But I also found some other material that was very helpful. There was a radio interview that I found that he had done in the '80s where he talks very wistfully about his time in San Francisco, and he has a kind of gentle quality, which is not the quality you see in the Terry Zwigoff film.

Not so much.

Yeah, he's very aware that he's on camera, and he has certain curmudgeonly aspects that he is deliberately projecting. And the filmmakers of American Splendor wanted part of that persona in there, but I found some other material where, like in this interview, he was a little less guarded. Because in the film American Splendor, the character of R. Crumb is not aware that he's in a movie. [Laughs.] Oh, and another big piece of research that was really interesting was his teenage diaries, which are published. He was a fanboy. It's all about him writing to his other friends about the new issue of Mad Magazine and the new Jack Davis cover. It's really a document of his enthusiasm. Those were fascinating. So that was just a delightful experience, and that was, like, Paul Giamatti's first leading role in a film. It was just really fun.

And then there's a couple of humorous stories. People ask if I've met Crumb, and I haven't. Harvey was on the set, of course, because he's in the movie, and Harvey was very generous and very appreciative. One day, Harvey came up to me and said in his raspy voice, "I called Bob, and I told him he's in good hands!" Bob being Robert Crumb.

And then once a friend of mine... [Starts to cackle.] After the movie was done, a couple of years later, Crumb had published a sort of autobiography, and I forget what it's called, but it's something like The R. Crumb Handbook, and it's sort of a history of his work, and he handwrites the text in it. It's sort of a memoir. So that got published, and a friend of mine sent me an email, and it said, "The R. Crumb Handbook," and a page number. That was the entire email. And I thought, "Okay, clearly this means he makes a reference to the film American Splendor." I just knew that's what that meant: that my friend was teasing me.

So I'm in New York at the time, and I go to Forbidden Planet, the comic book store on Lower Broadway that doesn't exist anymore. They have the book - it's just come out - and I turn to the page...and there's a photo of me as R. Crumb in American Splendor, and at the top of the page it says, "I thought the guy was a washout as me." And I had a moment of devastation.

I didn't feel great about it. But then I turned to the prior page...and he was actually talking about something else! The sequence in the book... He's been portrayed in a couple of plays as well, in San Francisco, so he's mentioning a play where somebody played R. Crumb, and he says, "This guy played me in a play, I thought the guy was a washout as me." So he's referring to another unfortunate actor. So I felt bad for that guy, but I thought, "Okay, I dodged a bullet, but...what does he say about the film?" And he says, "Then there was this film called American Splendor, and my wife thought I was nothing like that, and if I was anything like that, she wouldn't have married me." And then he goes on to the next thing. And I thought, "Now wait a minute: if R. Crumb, who doesn't stand on ceremony, who's a famous curmudgeon, he just fobs it off on his wife..." [Laughs.] I thought that was high praise.

And then there's a funny addendum to that story. A few years after that, I'd moved to L.A., and R. Crumb actually spoke at UCLA. He had published a new book, which was his illustrated book of Genesis, an amazing book. And I went with the same guy, my friend who had emailed me about the other book, and after the Q&A, they took questions from the audience. As you can imagine in an R. Crumb audience, there were a lot of statements, not so much questions. [Laughs.] But then someone asked him, "What did you think about your portrayal in American Splendor?" Now, obviously, he didn't know I was there, and I didn't stand up, because it wasn't my place to say, "I'm here!" But he said the same thing he said in the book: "Well, my wife hated it, and she said if I was anything like that, she wouldn't have married me!" So him saying it again while I was in the room... That was the closest I've gotten to meeting him. But when I was leaving that event, I was in the parking garage, and some guy came up to me and said, "You were very good in the film." So he recognized me! But R. Crumb never knew I was there.

Okay, for this next one, I’m going to use a visual aid from my own personal collection to introduce it as a topic of conversation.

Oh, that was such a delight! That was so up my alley. Yeah, [John] Mulaney asked me to do that. We knew each other a little bit, not very well. He had done an episode of Julie Klasner's show, Difficult People, where I met him. But, yeah, they asked me to do that, to play sort of a version of Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim's great collaborator and director. I don't sing on that, which is unfortunate, but maybe fortunate for other people. [Laughs.] But that's a great little episode. I mean, that whole show is brilliant. But that was another one that was like when I got American Splendor: I was, like, "I know what this is!" I'd seen the D.A. Pennebaker film [Company], and I was just so there for that gig. I'm just sort of a peripheral character in that, but it was such a fun thing to be a part of. And it's a great album. The guys who wrote that music wrote a wonderful pastiche, and Sondheim even... The New York Times did an interview with Sondheim where they had him watch it, and he said he enjoyed it. He said it was good. And I'm glad he did. 

I got this copy of the vinyl when I interviewed Richard Kind just before it premiered. 

Yeah, I got two copies of it, and I gave one to a friend who loved the show very much. But we have the other one here in the house.

That is good. Because if, for some ungodly reason you didn't have one, I was going to send it to you. But I didn’t want to.

[Laughs.] Oh, please: once I found out they were pressing it onto vinyl, there was no way I wasn't going to get my grubby hands on one. I love that LP. There are some really talented people in that episode.

I'll lead into asking about your Thrilling Adventure Hour experiences by mentioning that Paget Brewster said that you were great on Criminal Minds. 

Oh, yeah, well, my bread and butter is playing red herrings and/or actual criminals in procedurals. [Laughs.] You know, every working actor loves the American procedural drama, because they give a lot of work to people, and there's so many of them. They never go out of style. And I've known Paget for many years, so that was just a fun little thing where I got to be on her show. It's part of my gallery of procedural characters, but... I played a troubled figure in that, but he's not a bad guy, actually. He's just an intelligence guy who's under duress because he's been kidnapped. It's a crazy story.

It is, but it's a great two-partner. I really enjoyed it. 

Yeah! Well, as I say, I'm an old hand at the American procedural drama. [Laughs.] But I had a thing where I was playing a lot of red herrings, the suspect in the first half, and the murderer's hair was in his carpet, but he just bought the carpet secondhand. I usually do the scene where I'm at work and they bring me down to the station to interrogate me. I've done many of those scenes. It got to the point where I was thinking, "Are they still going to hire me? Because everyone who's watching is going, 'Oh, this guy never does it. He's the stock red herring!"

Yes, but you have that gift of possessing an air of creepiness...and I mean that in the best possible way!

[Laughs.] That's right. There is a certain default that casting directors and producers see, God love 'em, so it still happens. And occasionally I am the actual murderer or bad guy.

Just to throw them off-track.

Exactly. And now that production is starting up again on all these shows, hopefully there'll be another one soon! [Laughs.] 

So to jump back as promised, how did you first find yourself entering the Thrilling Adventure Hour family?

Well, when I first moved to L.A., Toby Huss was doing a monthly cabaret show, and Toby and I were old friends from New York, so it just happened that, when I moved to L.A., he was just starting that show at the Steve Allen Theater, and he asked me to be a part of it. It was sort of an ensemble of people in this show, which was an improvised, goofy show where he played this Frank Sinatra-like lounge singer character.

And then around the same time, I met Ben Acker at an event, and we were chatting. He knew who I was - he was a fan of The Venture Brothers - so he just invited me to be a guest, and then I did it regularly for a couple of years. A lot of wonderful, talented people in that. And between that show and Toby's show, I met a lot of great friends and great actors who I'm still in touch with in L.A. That was a great experience, because moving here... I knew a lot of New York ex-pats, but doing those two shows really opened up my circle, which was fun.

Photo by Liezl Estipona - ThrillingAdventureHour.com

Do you have a favorite Thrilling Adventure episode?

Oh, I don't know. People like the evil clown guy. [Laughs.]

Well, who doesn't like an evil clown?

Exactly!

Let's see... Okay, we've got a reader request to hear about your episode of Sex and the City, where you play the shoe salesman / foot fetishist. 

Yes! Another one in my gallery of creepy people. [Laughs.] He's not necessarily a bad guy, but he's a bit ethically dubious, that character. That was the second season. The show wasn't quite the phenomenon it would become. I think it had been popular, but only season one had aired, so that was before it had become this hugely iconic thing. That was a long time ago. That was the late '90s. We shot it in Manhattan at an actual shoe store on Madison Avenue. And that episode was directed by Allison Anders, the independent film director. 

Absolutely. I'm a huge fan of Grace of My Heart.

Oh, and I remember that, at the time, I did not have HBO...and I got HBO so I could watch that episode. [Laughs.] But I must say, if you have a one-off part in an iconic show, people still remember it. And I still get recognized. When I moved to L.A., I was friends with a girl, and we'd been friends for, like, five years when she came up to me one day and said, "James! I just realized you were the creepy foot fetishist in Sex and the City! All this time, I didn't realize that was you!"

And one time I was in a bar in New York, and a fratboy-type came up to me and said, "Are you an actor?" And I said, "Yes." And he said, "Were you in Sex and the City?" And then he called to his friends, like the scene in Annie Hall. "This guy's the foot fetishist!" And I was, like, "This is a very fratty young man!" [Laughs.] He seemed out of what you'd think was the demo for that show. But I guess not! it appeals to so many people...although it was definitely a lot of women who watched it during its original airing! But a lot of people still remember that, and that was a fun character. That scene was on my reel for many years.

Literally just this morning, based on the assurance of a reader that it was a must-ask, I watched your Lone Star 9-1-1 episode, and... Well, all I can say is, "Kudos."

Yeah! That was a recent one. That was actually shot during the pandemic. 

It seemed like it could've been. Like, enough so that I wondered if it had been.

It was! I did, like, three jobs during quarantine. I did some voice work, but I had three TV jobs, all of which were very rigorously controlled with testing and so forth. You couldn't be on the set unless you'd been tested and cleared. So it actually felt safer going to those soundstages than going to the supermarket! And it all worked out. But yes, my goodness, it's just another in my gallery of creepy characters. It's sort of a comic sequence where a guy is with a dominatrix and he's been tied up, and then she has a seizure, and he's stuck tied up. He just uses his voice - through modern technology! - to call for help, and...that was through an audition. Through this past year, you auditioned at home, so I auditioned at home with my hands behind my back to simulate that I was tied up...and I got it! They, were, like, "There's our..." [Pauses.] I...don't want to use any pejorative terms for a man who enjoys being tied up in the privacy of their own home.

Sure. Maybe they just said, "There's our guy!"

There you go: "There's our guy!" [Laughs.] I like auditioning at home. My wife is my reader, and you can do more takes to get it right. Usually when you go to a casting office, you do maybe two takes, and then you're out of there, but at home you can really fine-tune it. Although it can make you a little crazy, too, because if you're on your twelfth take, you're, like, "Are we ever gonna get this thing?" You get a little obsessive. So there's something to be said for being in the room with the casting people, but I do like home auditions. I think in the future there's probably going to be a split. It's gonna be one of those things where, even post-quarantine, the behavior is going to continue. I mean, at this point everyone's got a laptop and a good microphone, right?

I keep hoping that the same will occur with writers, where freelancers can become staffers even if they don't live anywhere near the office. 

Well, I have a writing partner who lives in Portland, and we have meeting every week. We fire up a Google doc and Skype, and it's like being in the room together. It's a non-issue! 

That’s it for Pt. 1, folks! Stay tuned for Pt. 2, in which we discuss a wide variety of Urbaniak’s other roles, including appearances on The Office, Difficult People, Review, and much more.

Oh, and if you liked what you’ve read so far, consider upgrading to a paid subscription, won’t you? Please? I’ll be your best friend!*

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