The Expurgated Bits: Blair Underwood

Sometimes my interviews for other outlets go long. When they do, here's where you can find the bits that had to be cut.

Blair Underwood in Longlegs [Photo courtesy of NEON]

When I interviewed Blair Underwood for the A.V. Club, it was still prior to the release of his latest film, Longlegs. Little did either of us know that it was going to end up being a major box office hit. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have spent nearly as long talking to me as he did (although he probably would have, if only because his publicist appreciates the importance of Random Roles in exploring an actor’s career), but as it is, we ended up talking for a little bit over an hour, which resulted in an interview that was deemed a bit too lengthy to run in its entirety. As such, anecdote sacrifices had to be made, which is something I was resigned to, but I made sure to check and see which bits were cut, so that I could still give them a chance to shine after the interview proper had run its course.

So here they are, and I think you’ll find that there are a couple of stories that are pretty great, particularly the one about directing the video for Tony Terry’s “With You,” which also includes a little story for the folks in Hampton Roads who might remember Underwood’s stint at Busch Gardens.

Enjoy!

The Event (2010-2011)—“President Elias Martinez”

Blair Underwood: You know, that's another one where it was funny how it was cast. Again, it was a Latin character. Cuban. I was doing a campaign around Los Angeles for an AIDS healthcare foundation, and I had my face on billboards all over the city. And it was on a billboard right outside the studio. They had actually gone to a Latin actor - Benjamin Bratt - and had been talking to him, but he fell out because he got another job. And the casting director was going to work, she said she looked up at the billboard, and she said, "Why aren't we talking to him to play the President?" And that's how it came about! They called my agent, and we sat down and talked, and I had the same conversation that I had about Terry Corsaro. "Now, he's Latin. Are you gonna change that?" "No, there are Afro-Cubans." They're darker than me! [Laughs.] So they said, "No, we'd like to keep that." And that's when they cast Lisa Vidal, who's a New York Puerto Rican, as my wife, because they wanted to kind of keep the Latin flavor of the character.

Oh, man, that was great fun, because it was science fiction, and I hadn't really done science fiction prior to that. Except for Deep Impact. But not on a regular basis, on a TV series. Again, that still has such a huge fanbase. I know people really loved that show. But the politics... It didn't last, unfortunately. But I enjoyed it. I also remember that playing the President was kind of heady stuff. Whenever you walk in a room, everybody stands up. You're followed by an entourage... I kind of liked it! [Laughs.] 

American Crime Story: Impeachment (2021)—“Vernon Jordan”

BU: You know, that project really came along at the right time, because that was... It was during the pandemic. It was 2021, so we weren't even really coming out of it yet. I just remember the pandemic regiment of that whole shoot. But aside from that, Vernon Jordan had just passed away months before that, so I never knew him or actually got to meet him. What I remember mostly about that was that I had to shave my head completely. [Laughs.] And luckily it came back!

You know, the older I get... You never know when you shave it if it's gonna come back! But what they did for that was, they shaved all of my hair off, made me completely bald, and then made a hairpiece that they then glued on to go around the side. I was, like, "Can't you just do a skullcap?" And they said, "Well, no, it'd be too bumpy," or whatever. So I said, "All right, I'm game." It was the pandemic. I didn't know if I was gonna work again anytime soon. I said, "I got time for it to grow back." 

Gattaca (1997)—“Geneticist”

Staying on follicular-challenged roles...

BU: [Laughs.] That was the last time I had shaved my head completely. The bald head and the beard. You know, that was a one-day shoot, and it's one of those projects I often forget that I even did or I'm in. And that's another film that - maybe because it's science fiction - very much has a cult following. So periodically somebody will hit me up about that, and I'll be, like, "Oh, yeah, that's right, I did that!" Because it literally was a one-day shoot. I came in, I did it, I forgot about it. I don't think I even went to the premiere! I did finally see the film...and it's a great film, I remember that! But I just remember that I was in and out. Otherwise, I don't remember much about it, really! 

I literally had to look twice to confirm that it was actually you when I saw a photo.

Well, I gotta tell you, I have always loved doing character work. Whenever I can change the look into something different than the so-called "leading man," I do enjoy that. Characters are always much more interesting when you can kind of get away from yourself and do something, look differently or act differently than you are every day. So that's another reason why, for Vernon Jordan, I was really up for shaving my head. Because they did say, "Well, you know, we can talk about it..." But I said, "No, no, no, I'll just shave it. I'd rather do that and just do something unique and different that I'm not used to."

The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-2010)—“Daniel Harris”

By coincidence, you're the second of Old Christine's ex-boyfriends that I've talked to recently: I just chatted with Andy Richter.

BU: Nice! That was a phenomenal experience.

I don't know if it's because it fell between two career-defining series for her, but it always feels like an underrated series. 

Yeah, I know what you mean, although it ran for, like, five years and she won the Emmy at least once and got nominated a couple of other times.

Oh, absolutely. But for some reason it just seems like it's flown under the radar ever since.

Yeah, you're right! You know, it's funny, a lot of the projects you're mentioning...and thank you for dusting off my memory banks, because I haven't thought about a lot of these projects or their experiences in a long time! But I'm always trying to do something different, to push myself and try different experiences, and I had not done a lot of comedy at all up to that time. And I don't even know how that came about! I know I didn't audition. I think they just called, and I was honored to do it, and to work with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who is a master comedienne, and to have the opportunity to do that. She could not have been sweeter and fun and open. I certainly took a lot of notes from her, and Wanda Sykes, who was on the show also.

I really just had to play the straight man to her comedy. But it was great. I love making fun of myself and... Oh, God, who's the guy who played her husband, who's in all the Marvel stuff? Clark Gregg! Yeah, he was wonderful. Just a great guy, and humble. But Julia, she's such a sweetheart, and she made it easy. I've been spoiled. I've had a lot of leading ladies, and I haven't had a rotten apple yet. But she was a doll. 

Tony Terry, “With You” (1993)—director

Since you brought up music videos, what was your favorite of the ones that you directed?

Listen, it's probably "With You," by Tony Terry. I directed that video 30 years ago. I just got remarried June 24 of last year, in the Dominican Republic, and my wife... We were planning the wedding last year, the song comes on, and she goes, "I really love that song!" She didn't know I directed the video. She said, "We should make that our first dance." I said, "Yes, we should!"

So I went off, I reached out to Tony Terry, who I'd not spoken to in 30 years, and he was so incredibly generous: he flew to the Dominican Republic, he sang live "With You" for our first dance...and she was shocked. Shocked! And to this day, she talks about it all the time. Literally last month we re-watched the wedding video. But it was because of that Tony Terry video. So it's my favorite video in terms of the experience, but also because that song, "With You," for about three or four years after that was one of the top wedding songs that people would play. So it was just a great surprise for my wife for our first dance. 

I was working in a record store at the time it came out, so I was probably selling cassingles of it.

[Laughs.] Probably! Wow. Where are you? Are you in California?

No, I'm in Virginia, actually...and that reminds me: we have to at least briefly talk about the time you worked for Busch Gardens, because I live in Chesapeake, so I'm only about an hour away from it.

Oh, man! Absolutely! Well, that's when I was at Carnegie Mellon. My major was music theater, so there was singing, dancing, and acting, and I did Busch Gardens for two summers. I think it had to be '83 and '84. Yeah, those summers. So one year I did the country show in French Canada, if that's still there, and the other one was the main stage show, "Hats Off to Hollywood." Yeah, man! Oh, we had a good time. It was summer camp, man. Who's zoomin' who? Everybody was zoomin' everybody! [Laughs.] Everybody was having a good time! But aside from that...You know, we'd do five shows a day, five days a week. It's one of the best training grounds you could have, just to be on stage and to feel comfortable onstage and have fun. Yeah, that was good times. That puts a smile on my face, thinking about those times... 

In Treatment (2008)—“Alex Prince”

BU: Oh, man. In Treatment. You know, that one came along at a time when... [Hesitates.] I don't know what I was doing before that, but again, it's always trying to do projects that you love and that the audiences love. You can do something fun like The Old Adventures of New Christine or something comedic like that, or you can do something that can be critically acclaimed...and that's what In Treatment was at the time. When we did that, I was in the very first season, and nobody knew what to expect. We didn't think anybody would watch this show. It was two people sitting in a room for 30 minutes talking. The fact that those that did watch... It had a very strong following. It was a smaller number, because it was HBO at the time, but those who did watch it really watched and committed to it.

But I just remember being so overwhelmed when we first started shooting, because we'd do, like, eight pages a day, all dialogue. And when I thought about it through the prism of shooting a TV show, which you wouldn't shoot that many pages normally, it was overwhelming. But I think it was one of the directors who said, "It's just a one-act play," And when they said that, I knew, "Oh, okay, I'll approach it as a play!" Because with plays you consume pages of dialogue. You learn the whole play. So when I thought of it in those terms, and you learn your lines accordingly, it was easier to just wrap my head and arms around the sheer volumes of words, of dialogue.

That, and I just remember having such respect for Gabriel Byrne. You know, you're in the trenches together, because you're constantly working hours around the clock, and...God bless him. I'd come in, I'd shoot for two days - each character had two days - and I'd leave, go learn my lines, and meet him again the next week for the next episode. But he was in every episode, just dialogue after dialogue after dialogue. It was a lot. It was a bear. But I was very pleased with how people responded to it. I think there was a Golden Globe nomination that came out of that. People really took to it, and I was glad that I had a chance to play a little part in it.

Posse (1993)—“Sheriff Carver”

BU: Well, you have to understand: I'm a cowboy lover. My family used to own a ranch in the Rocky Mountains, in Duffy, Colorado, and horses and cattle and five ponds. I love the old west. I live in Utah now, so I'm surrounded by mountains right now, but...that spoke to my heart and my love. I remember we shot that in Arizona, and they had some of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen in my life. And Mario [Van Peebles] had built this entire town to film. I played Carver, the corrupt sheriff. Like Just Cause, you think he's a good guy, but he's not. [Laughs.] But that was amazing. The climax of the movie is burning down that whole makeshift town out there in Arizona. But, yeah, I just remember that it was an exciting time. Personally, I think I was engaged and about to get married. But, yeah, you can put me anywhere around horses and cattle...and then you put some cameras around so I can work and get paid at the same time? It was all beautiful to me!

LAX (2004-2005)—“Roger De Souza”

Ironside (2013)—“Robert Ironside”

You've obviously had a number of single-season series over the years, as every actor has. Of the ones that we didn't actually tackle, do you have a particular favorite?

I enjoyed LAX because it was just fun. It was upbeat and light and all that stuff. But Ironside was a disappointment. It really was a disappointment.

I wanted it to be good. I really did. I was - and remain - a huge fan of the original Raymond Burr series, so the idea of a modern-day reboot sounded like a great idea, theoretically.

Yeah, and you just never know. I liked what we did, to be honest with you, but after three weeks they pulled it, and I find out three years later from an executive at Universal that it was making a lot of money and doing really well overseas. But I think things have now changed. I haven't done a lot on network TV in awhile, but just in terms of reading those overnight Nielsen ratings, they used to carry so much weight in the '80s and '90s, and even when we did Ironside in 2013, it was just starting to change. I don't know if people put so much weight on it now. Now I know it's the numbers plus seven, because people record it and watch it later or whatever. It's just hard to track that stuff. I didn't think it had any relationship, really, to how many people were actually watching it and tuning in and enjoying it. But it was disappointing because we worked so hard on it, and they just pulled the plug on it after three weeks. But it happens. 

So I think that was probably the most disappointing of those series. And after that year, I told my agents and managers, "I don't want to see a camera for a year. I don't. And God willing, I'll be able to come back." And I remember going to Israel, I came back and did Othello in San Diego, which was probably the highlight of my career in stage, really. I went back to the theater, basically. I did A Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams. We took the play on tour.. So 2014 was a pivotal year, because it was like a reset year...and one that I needed after the disappointment of Ironside. I was just burnt out. And I needed to remember why I love what I do. It had gotten to be too much about the business and the ratings and the numbers, and nothing about the quality of the work. So I decided, "I just want to go back to the stage." So that's what I did for that year. 

And going back to the stage in general paid off for you, since - as you mentioned - a few years later you got nominated for a Tony. 

BU: Yeah! Listen, there's nothing like Broadway. I did A Streetcar Named Desire, and then got the Tony nod for A Soldier's Play, and just the experience of that... Because New York is its own animal and its own subculture. And I look forward to doing that again with the right project.