TV is kind of messed up in terms of stereotypes and who plays the leading man and leading lady.
I’ve always tried to stray towards characters who are way more faceted than your standard leading man role, and I’ve been fortunate to play some parts who have this awkward tension to them.
It’s the unusual leading man. Most of the Hollywood leading men are powerful and capable and strong, heroes. He has this vulnerability, he’s fragile, he struggles to find a way to live from day to day that we can identify with, that we can understand.
Earlier in my career, I needed to be the writer, casting director, set designer, leading man, and producer. I’ve been eliminating a lot of those jobs. I’m an executive producer right now. I still get to pick the best screenplays.
In Hollywood if you’re good looking, tall, have okay teeth and nice skin, the odds of being successful are great. If you’re short and fat, it’s a different story. But as long as you look like a leading man type, half your job is done already.
One of the things about having played a lot of villains is… I don’t have the same experience of someone who maybe has been a leading man since they were 22 and therefore looks at certain things in a character to romanticize themselves. I actually very much embrace the bad stuff.
Pages: 1 2
