Random Reminiscing: Looking Back at my Many Random Roles Interviews (Part 4 of Quite a Few)

With the 10th anniversary of my career as a freelance pop culture journalist coming up on April 1st, I’m feeling a tad nostalgic, so I decided that I wanted to start looking back at the portion of my freelance career of which I’m most proud: my Random Roles interviews for the A.V. Club.

If you accidentally missed the previous part of this reminiscing, you can check it out by clicking right here…and if you missed the part before that, well, each installment has a link to the previous installment in the intro, so just keep on clicking back until you’ve read ‘em all!

If you’re all up to date, though, then for heaven’s sake, why are you wasting time with this intro? Just dive right in!

Alex Rocco:

Motor Psycho (1965)—“Cory Maddox”

Alex Rocco: Oh, my God, yeah! Russ Meyer! My first film. I went in for a small part, and I ended up with the lead. I didn’t know anything about his background, but it didn’t matter. I was just so excited to get the role. And then it was off to the races from that. He was a madman, Russ Meyer. You know, he was General Patton’s top photographer. I didn’t know that. When I was working with him, at one point, he was holding the camera with one hand and taking a dump and wiping his ass with toilet paper with the other hand. I actually witnessed that. I thought, “Boy, this guy’s gritty…”

So what was it like working on your first film? Was it intimidating for you?

You better believe it was. I was so excited when I got the role. I told my mom and everybody back home. My nickname is Bobo, so it was, like, “Hey, Bobo’s got a movie!” [Laughs.] So it was pretty exciting. Was I nervous? Yeah. I tried to act cool, though, and bluff my way through, so the other actors wouldn’t steal my lunch.

By the way, I don’t know if you know this, but I took Leonard Nimoy’s acting class when I first got out to L.A. You know, Mr. Spock? I wouldn’t spend five bucks to see Leonard in a film, but he was one of the greatest coaches I ever had.

Is it true that Nimoy told you to take speech lessons to drop your Boston accent?

Oh, you know about that? Yeah. The reason he’s a great coach is that he really embarrassed me. Some people go to acting classes to learn. I just kind of went for the dates. [Laughs.] But Leonard saw, I guess a germ of an idea in me. So I went to Los Angeles City College, to a speech clinic, and I started rounding my R’s or whatever you do. Now I sound like a New Yorker, but that’s totally acceptable in the business. But “pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd,” that don’t work. Either way, I’m probably not gonna do any Westerns. [Laughs.]

Getting back to Meyer, he also did something else I’ll never forget. We’re in the desert, 40 miles out, in Blythe, California, and the lead girl was very—she was something else. Haji. You remember her? He had me go to a motel with her for the night, so we’d be, uh, familiar with the next scene. Boy, I thought that’s what Hollywood was all about. [Laughs.] Can you imagine being broken in that way?

Krysten Ritter:

Breaking Bad (2009–2010)—“Jane Margolis”

Krysten Ritter: The best role ever. Honestly, it was the best fucking role. I’m so lucky to be a part of a show that is so well done. I think it’s a testament to how talented and how much of a visionary Vince [Gilligan] is. Every little thing is all him. No one strays a word from the script. You don’t wear a belt buckle on camera unless he’s seen it. And I think that the genius is in the details, and he’s a very detail-oriented guy. But I think the best part was working with Aaron Paul. I love him. I just want to eat him up. [Laughs.] He’s such a great, giving actor, and I would love to work with him again. It’s funny, ’cause that show seems to be just as popular as ever.

If not more so.

And that’s so weird, ’cause it was three years ago, and I feel like more people come up to me now than then. It’s really insane. I think the show just keeps spreading and… it’s all about Aaron for me. And Bryan Cranston as well, of course. You can’t do a scene with him without finding yourself watching him as if you’re an audience member. You’re, like, “Okay, right, I’m not gonna watch, I’m gonna work.” But then… [Stares blankly into space for a moment, then laughs.] “Right, sorry, I’m actually in the scene!” But I’m truly in awe of those boys. Between them and the writing… I got so lucky from that show. I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities because of that.

You get asked a lot about Aaron and Bryan, but what was it like working with John de Lancie, who played your father on the show?

You know, it’s funny, but… we really only worked together two days, and because of our relationship on the show, I’m either on drugs when I’m with him, or, y’know, I’m so afraid of him judging me. Because of the dynamic of the characters, we just never really got to know each other. But I will say that, as an actor, he was rad. [Laughs.] Everyone on that show is such a good actor.

Were you surprised when you got the call-up to do the flashback scene in season three?

Well, I knew that they wanted to do those. I think they wanted to do a few more flashbacks, in fact, but I was doing a TV show called Gravity on Starz. When your character’s dead, you can only do so much in flashbacks, and Gravity… it seemed like a good opportunity. The scripts were good, but the execution just wasn’t. I don’t have any regrets. But I was really honored and excited to go back to Breaking Bad. It was my birthday, and I’d spent my last birthday on the show, too, so it just felt really good. They had a big cake for me, and all this exciting stuff. And it was nice to go back and know what we knew. Like, people love these two characters together, so knowing that, it was like we got to give everybody a little bit of candy. [Laughs.]

Did you two fall back into your onscreen relationship pretty well?

Oh, yeah. If anything, it was even easier than before, because it was this day where we’re going to the museum, we’re in love, and after knowing how much the audience loved us together, it was really easy to start loving each other all over again. [Laughs.]

Were you aware of how Jane was originally supposed to have died?

Yeah, with Walt having a more direct hand in her death? I just think that would’ve been too much, you know? They have to protect the lead character at least somewhat. But, y’know, he still did have a hand. [Laughs.]

Even now, as the show prepares for its fifth season, Jane’s presence looms large over Breaking Bad. At some point before the end of the series, surely Jesse is finally going to learn about Walt’s semi-involvement in her death.

I know. It’s so sad. I never thought I would… I didn’t really feel affected by it throughout most of the time we were shooting that sequence and all that stuff was going down. We all knew it was coming. I think I was promoting Shopaholic or something, maybe doing photo shoots, and things were really busy, so I didn’t have time to let it sink in. It wasn’t until I was getting my death makeup. At first, I was like, “Oh, this is so cool! I look like a Tim Burton character! I look dead! Yeah!” I thought it was rad! [Laughs.]

And it wasn’t until the final scene, where I’m dead and he’s trying to give me CPR… They had this cast made to protect my chest, and they actually made it to fit my stand-in, who was smaller than me, so it wouldn’t close all the way. And it’s almost like wearing a tight dress: you can’t get a full breath. So I’m, like, “Okay, I can handle this… ” But my skin’s getting pinched, he’s on top of me and—God bless him, he’s such a wonderful actor—he’s pounding on my chest as hard as he can, and this thing is pinching me, I can’t get a full breath of air, and as I’m sitting here, trying to lay still and basically play dead, I’m thinking, “Oh, my God, this is what would happen if I was really dead. All of these people would be sad, and there’d be a boy on top of me, crying… ” It became very overwhelming. And then when you can’t get a full breath on top of that… We had to stop. Everyone else had been, like, “This is going to be so sad,” but I thought nothing of it until that moment. And when it hit, it was really crazy and weird to see how people would react to your death. And I think ever since then, I’ve been kind of fascinated by that. Which is why the suicide show [Gravity], honestly. I was, like, “Wow, this is what happens if you try to die and don’t.” It was insane.

Cloris Leachman:

Lassie (1957-1958)—“Ruth Martin”

Cloris Leachman: Oh, I have stories from that! [Laughs.] Every time I’d have a great idea, they’d say, “No, remember, Cloris: Lassie’s the name of the game.” I mean, I had what I’d call an egg-basket take, meaning I’d start to walk somewhere, and I’d have to stop the minute somebody started to talk—too early, really—so instead of continuing walking, I’d raise the egg basket I was carrying to give me a little more time to stop. Or I’d be washing the windows using a spray bottle, and the kid comes in with a broken leg or something, and I’d say, “Well, there’s chocolate cake and milk in the icebox.” I had a husband on the show, but he couldn’t do anything. He always had to be out in the north 40, because Lassie had to save the day. So I’d say, “Go tell Uncle Paul!” [Laughs.]

On the show, I’d say something like, “Timmy, time for bed now,” and he’d say, “But I’ve gotta go check the rabbits,” or whatever. Then I’d look at my husband, I’d look back at Timmy, and I’d say, “Okay, but hurry!” But when you watch it in the air, after Timmy said, “I’ve gotta go check the rabbits,” I look at the husband, he looks at me, the dog looks at me, the boy looks at me, I look at the dog, the dog looks at the little boy, the dog looks at the husband, the husband looks at the dog… Finally, I look at the husband, the husband looks at me, and then I say, “Okay, but hurry!” [Laughs.]

Tony Hale:

Dawson’s Creek (2001)—“Dr. Bronin”

Tony Hale: Oh my God, you’re pulling them out. [Laughs.] Okay, here’s a story about that. I was playing a doctor against James Van Der Beek, and this was definitely my very first TV gig, because I hadn’t moved up to New York yet. This was when I was living in Virginia Beach, and I was so stoked to do it, because it was shot in Wilmington, North Carolina, so all the Virginia actors were excited to get those kinds of gigs.

So I drove down and… you know, I was really young, it was my first gig, and I was working across from James Van Der Beek, and I was really nervous. And I remember he had a big coat on, and I said to him, “Dude, you look hot!” And he kind of looked at me, like, “What the hell are you talking about?” And he walked away, and before I could explain that it was the heat from his coat that I was talking about, it just all spiraled out. And once again, I was eating my foot. [Laughs.] I’m like, “Shut up, Tony. Just shut your mouth.”

Annie Potts:

Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers (1979)—“Flatbed Annie”

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s available for viewing [or was at the time, anyway] on Netflix.

[Deadpan.] Really.

Yeah.

I don’t recommend it. [Laughs.] Every experience is valuable for one reason or another, and… I forget what it was in that. But I think it was one of those things where I called my agent and I said, “Get me something that will get me out of town.” Y’see, I am a workaholic. I love to work, because I find value in almost all of it. I mean, some of it’s dreck, but mostly… Well, no, it’s all enjoyable to me, because I love to work. I like people, I like my work, and I like to do it, so I was, like, “Sure, I’ll go there and do that!” Okay, so maybe I should’ve been a little more discriminating. [Laughs.] But, really, it’s been a life well lived.

Do you remember anything about Billy Carter’s acting chops on that film?

Well, I’ll tell you, it endeared me to him forever. He was darling. You know, he was struggling with addiction problems that were rough, and it must’ve been a real challenge for him to be in the shadow of his brother. I had nothing but affection for him.

Jackie Earle Haley:

Planet Of The Apes (1974)—“Kraik” / Shazam! (1974) —“Norm Briggs”

JEH: Gosh, I remember both of those, amazingly enough. [Laughs.] Although with Shazam!, I think I more remember the show than being on it, because I think I watched it a bunch. Not every episode, but I dug it, because it was a guy who could fly. I remember how they did the flying shots, which were admittedly really cheesy. [Laughs.] Sometimes he’d be like, on the back of a truck or something, propped up, and it’d ruffle his cape and stuff as the truck was moving down the street, so it looks like he’s flying… but not really. And he’d just jump off a ladder or something and into a shot as if he’s coming in for a landing. So yeah, cheesy.

Planet Of The Apes, though, that one was really cool, getting that part. I was and still am a huge Planet Of The Apes fan. And, by the way, I loved the last movie. Honestly, I’ve liked all of the incarnations, if for different reasons. But back then, they’d done the original five movies, and… I guess all five had come out by the time they did the TV show, but either way, what was really cool was that Roddy McDowall was part of the series, so that was really exciting, because I was such a fan of his from the films. And then I became a fan in general, and just loved everything he was involved in. Even when he was a human. [Laughs.] So it was really cool just going and getting to meet him, but… gosh, I think the only time I ever saw Roddy, it was when he was an ape! I don’t think I ever actually talked to him when he wasn’t in his ape outfit. Which is somehow even cooler, I guess.

But at the end of the thing… I’m trying to remember the name of the makeup artist on the show, but he was a real renowned guy. At any rate, at the end of the episode, per my dad’s request, this guy just happily gave me a couple of the appliances. He just told us to bring in a black wig, so me and my dad went and bought a black wig, and he prepped up a couple of appliances, and then he totally showed me—while putting it on me—how to do it, and then he gave me all of the materials. So for the next several Halloweens, I’d pull out these old appliances, fix ’em up, and throw on my own Planet Of The Apes makeup. And that was extra-cool, because I only played a human on the show. [Laughs.] I finally had to throw out the box where I kept them, because after a decade and a half or so, they just started to deteriorate. But they lasted me a good long time.

Ted McGinley:

Batman: The Brave And The Bold (2011)—“Aquaman 2”

Ted McGinley: Voice work is the best job in America. [Laughs.] There’s no doubt about it. Voiceover stuff, doing cartoons, you cannot have more fun than that. Animation stuff is really the greatest job. It doesn’t matter what you look like. You show up, do it, you go home. And when you’re there, you play. It’s like a fantasy. It’s really a cool deal. And I’ve loved all of those gigs I’ve done. That would be my ideal job.

The role on The Brave And The Bold also gave you a chance to poke a little fun at your reputation.

Yeah, for sure. At that point—I don’t really know that it’s the greatest idea, but that one was pretty special and unique. I’ve been lucky enough to do a few Family Guys, too. Just little parts.

It has to be asked: How do you feel about people calling you “the patron saint of shark-jumping” and so forth?

Um… [Sighs.] I used to have sort of a line that it wasn’t that big a deal. But look, this is the way I really feel. I’m ticked off that the guy who started it [Jon Hein, founder of JumpTheShark]—well, first of all, I feel like he got the idea from me. I mean, I’m the one who used to go around talking about how I’d been on all these shows. I’ve got articles from before the website came up where I was actually saying these things, quoted in the articles. So I sort of was my own worst enemy. But I don’t like the fact… I think it’s sad that the Internet is so filled with negativity, and that some guy who’s never done anything or couldn’t do anything can just get up and start this negative thoroughfare for just what a horrible guy I am, I guess. Or how horrible a show is. It’s just a copout. So, y’know, I’m unhappy that it exists, and I used to not make such a big deal about it, but I feel like it’s definitely damaged my career a little bit. I think there are people that are scared of that. Not many, but I think probably once or twice, someone will go, “Oooh, probably not.” It’s not been the highlight of my career, that’s for sure.

But the truth is, I can name actors who’ve had one show after another that just came and went like candy. My thing is that I’ve come on iconic, classic television shows, and… I mean, I worked seven and a half seasons on Married With Children, four on Happy Days, and probably three, three and a half on Love Boat. I didn’t just show up and then… I like to think I helped extend the life of the shows, and that I actually helped add to the show. And I don’t really appreciate being the one you can blame for it, because it’s actually not the case. I just think that it’s a shame that you can make a living doing something like [JumpTheShark]. It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes. I feel like the whole thing has kind of died out somewhat. What I’d really like to do is figure out a way to profit off of it. [Laughs.] I don’t know how, but there’s gotta be a way. I’ve just got to figure it out.

It’s funny, because I’m at a weird stage. I’m in my 50s, you know? My wife’s in her 40s, and now she’s playing grandmas on television. But that’s just the way it works here. When you age up a little bit, things get trickier. I used to go out for shit in pilot season and have, like, three auditions in one day. This year, it was, like, three for the whole pilot season. And I tested for them, I went up for them, but it just gets trickier and trickier as you get older, so now I’ve got to sort of start thinking about what I might be doing. It’s going to be interesting.

At least you’re still keeping busy: You’ve done a couple of one-off episodes on shows like Psych and Breaking In, and if the IMDB can be trusted, you’ve got a pair of indie films in post-production—180 and Right Next Door.

Yeah, and I could do that all the time, those little one-episode deals, but it’s hard for them to see you as a guy who can have a show if that’s what you’re doing all the time. But, you know, if I’ve got to keep my kids in health care and I’ve got to keep everyone fed, then I’ll do whatever I have to do.

Jack McGee:

Showgirls (1995)—“Jack, Stagehand”

We keep coming back to it, so we might as well go ahead and talk about it.

I’m at the opening, and I walked into the bathroom afterwards with a bunch of the other guys. I’m standing at the urinal, and I said, “All right, anybody know how I can get my name off those credits without anybody seeing me?” [Laughs.] I spent three weeks on that. Elizabeth Berkley, she was a sweet kid, but, you know, this is a business where they bash you if you’re not Olivier. But it was still great. I’d worked on Basic Instinct with Verhoeven, so when he asked me to do it… I spent three weeks up in Tahoe looking at women’s breasts. I thought, “This isn’t such a bad gig.”

Did you sense it was going to be a trainwreck even as you were filming it?

Nah. You can’t tell. You go in and work, you do your stuff… movies are made in the editing room. Ron Howard’s the guy I learned that from, hearing him talk about it. They have a concept, they have a vision, they gather as much information as they can, and then they cut it together as a movie. Now I think it’s one of these cult movies like Rocky Horror, where they show it every week somewhere, because it was so poorly written… and yet, even though it was so poorly written, everybody you talk to knows dialogue from it. They remember it. There’s even a box set! So, you know, somebody made a couple of bucks off it. [Laughs.] I still get a couple of checks. It gets me gas money.