Speaker 1: It's night Sided with Dan ray Don w BZY Constance
Speaker 1: News Radio. You want us to day with a grand jury?
Speaker 2: We will. What do you say, Johnny, what do you
Speaker 2: say any question? I take the Fifth Commandment? And if
Speaker 2: they offer you immunity to testify against your union brothers,
Speaker 2: I don't remember, don't remember what?
Speaker 3: Nothing?
Speaker 2: But you're forgetting?
Speaker 3: Detective, is that every IBS local on the East Coast
Speaker 3: has had its ass in front.
Speaker 2: Of a federal grand jury two or three times already.
Speaker 3: You want to throw your summonses, throw them.
Speaker 2: You want to subpoena our records. You don't even hear
Speaker 2: a subpoena no more. Our books have been open to
Speaker 2: the Justice Department for eight years.
Speaker 4: We're here through Bobby Kennedy, Tricky, Dick Nixon, Ronnie the
Speaker 4: Union Buster, Reagan and half a dozen other sons of
Speaker 4: bitches will be.
Speaker 2: Here through your week book. No problem, ah. Chris Barr
Speaker 2: is with us. How do you like that, Chris? How
Speaker 2: about that for a show open?
Speaker 3: Who is that guy?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's so good, dude, It's so good. Okay,
Speaker 2: Chris is joining us here, Chris Bauer. And what we
Speaker 2: like to do on this show is we like to
Speaker 2: bring on actors who are great actors who don't really
Speaker 2: get the credit they deserve or maybe get the spotlight
Speaker 2: the desert. Now this guy has it. I mean he's
Speaker 2: got one hundred and six credits. You know, we're gonna
Speaker 2: go through all your shows in your career. But like
Speaker 2: O'Malley is a really good friend of mine. So anything
Speaker 2: O'Malley does, I'm really into and like. And I love
Speaker 2: character actors. I mean I love like the Bowers and
Speaker 2: Wendell Pearce. You know that scene with Wendell Pearce who
Speaker 2: got to play Willy Loman on Broadway, which was awesome,
Speaker 2: I mean phenomenal, and he's great and everything he's in
Speaker 2: Like Brian Cranston's of the World, you know, he gets
Speaker 2: a leading role, you know, by playing a chemistry teacher
Speaker 2: that starts selling drugs. I mean, all of this great
Speaker 2: TV has just been great for great character actors like you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I agree. I mean, I'm so blessed you
Speaker 3: kidding me, like all of us. You know, there's always
Speaker 3: been a Brian Cranston, whether it was a Gene Hackman
Speaker 3: before that John Riley. On occasion, it's like they let
Speaker 3: one of us in you know, there's a slot for
Speaker 3: one every now and then, and then you get to
Speaker 3: be nominated for an oscar maybe or suddenly. You know,
Speaker 3: everybody bends with the rules for what a leading man is,
Speaker 3: but in whether or not that ever happens. What a
Speaker 3: great life man being able to play all these different people,
Speaker 3: different classes, different places, different morality. That's my real education,
Speaker 3: if you ask me, I've learned more about being a
Speaker 3: human being from my work than I have almost from church.
Speaker 2: That totally, because as we go through your career here,
Speaker 2: you've you've been able to go from you know, from
Speaker 2: Frank to you know, a sheriff who's a drug addict,
Speaker 2: to you know, a wrestler. I mean, while Bill is like,
Speaker 2: I mean I love that guy. I mean he was phenomena.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean you must have like died and
Speaker 2: gotten hemming when you got to play that. But again,
Speaker 2: our guest is Chris Bauer. You guys know him, You've
Speaker 2: seen him in a million things. But I want to
Speaker 2: start with the Wire because, uh, at that point in time,
Speaker 2: you know, and I read the you know, I've read
Speaker 2: all about the David Milchers of the world and the
Speaker 2: guys on the Wire you know who you know, knew
Speaker 2: Baltimore went on to work on NYPD, NYPD Blue. I
Speaker 2: believe television just changed with the Sopranos with the Wire,
Speaker 2: you know, and even Amy Ryan, you know, I forgot
Speaker 2: all about her. I mean, she's awesome, She's been in movies,
Speaker 2: Sharon Bossy. But but just tell us about that time
Speaker 2: and how the wire and went down and why it
Speaker 2: was the damn good oh man.
Speaker 3: You know, well, David Simon's the you know, the DNA
Speaker 3: of the Wire and homicide before that, and he was
Speaker 3: a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a really
Speaker 3: uh you know, hardcore old school journalist, feet on the ground,
Speaker 3: went to the crime scenes, and I think he's gonna
Speaker 3: he was a really brave, smart guy with a conscience,
Speaker 3: and his body of work certainly speaks to that. The Wire, interestingly,
Speaker 3: such a kind of fascinating study in having faith in quality.
Speaker 3: Really because at the time I had come to that
Speaker 3: project because they asked me to audition when they were
Speaker 3: doing the pilot with a part of McNulty, and I
Speaker 3: read that script for the pilot and thought it was
Speaker 3: the best thing I'd ever read. And I meant, like
Speaker 3: the quality of the writing, and I came from theater,
Speaker 3: so I had a couple of amazing larks where I
Speaker 3: had relationships with David Mammott and John Patrick Shanley and
Speaker 3: these writers that are, you know, world class authors. So
Speaker 3: I knew good writing when I saw it, and that
Speaker 3: was very evident in the pilot of The Wire. I
Speaker 3: was hungover. You know, I swing about fifteen pounds one
Speaker 3: direction or another depending on the month, right, And I
Speaker 3: think when I went in, brother, don't we all maybe
Speaker 3: it's depending on the meal for the weekend. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: it's unbelievable, but I think that I was definitely looking,
Speaker 3: you know, more on the haggard side when I went
Speaker 3: and read for the pilot, because the following year with
Speaker 3: the second season, when they offered me the role of
Speaker 3: Frank Sabadka, I was only thirty six years old and
Speaker 3: we closed the deal and I started reading the scripts,
Speaker 3: and I panicked because I thought, this guy's got like
Speaker 3: a twenty something old son, and he's been around for
Speaker 3: a long time, and he's got to be at least
Speaker 3: fifteen years older than I actually am in life. And
Speaker 3: I must have really looked bad a year ago.
Speaker 5: I mean, I look like yeah, whatever impression I made,
Speaker 5: they thought it was totally plausible that I could play
Speaker 5: a late forties dock worker, you know, with a grown child.
Speaker 3: So you know, I have found that, uh, necessity is
Speaker 3: the mother of invention and in the desperation behind that
Speaker 3: leads to some of the best creative choices. And very quickly,
Speaker 3: you know, all my focus went into I had a
Speaker 3: fitting with that costume designer. I said, we got a
Speaker 3: make me look gold, we got to make me look
Speaker 3: out of shape. And I tell that story because there
Speaker 3: was such a there was just such a kind of
Speaker 3: stroke of luck for me with the whole experience of
Speaker 3: the wire because I was actually on another show at
Speaker 3: the same time. It was unheard of at the time
Speaker 3: to be able to do two shows, especially going from
Speaker 3: network to premium cable like that, right, and the Heaven's
Speaker 3: really parted in a way I think to give me
Speaker 3: that shot also known as my wife said, you got
Speaker 3: to figure out how to do both these shows. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's unbelievable how much how influential she's been in my
Speaker 3: career in ways like that. I got to give her credit.
Speaker 3: But the experience of doing the show was I would
Speaker 3: imagine the same as it is for anybody who's running
Speaker 3: a good small business kind of under the radar, slightly
Speaker 3: off grid. There was no holly vibes. There was no uh,
Speaker 3: nothing extra, nothing superficial about the production experience. It was
Speaker 3: an amazing It was kind of like being on a
Speaker 3: good football team, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Right, Well, the great thing about streaming and about cable
Speaker 2: is it gave opportunities to people who look like real people.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's why these shows work, you know, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: and that's why you know, my wife who has a
Speaker 2: real job and uh, you know, unlike us, when she
Speaker 2: she sits down and watch TV at night, she just says,
Speaker 2: I just want to watch Marishka Hartigaye and zone out.
Speaker 2: And I go, okay, everybody on that show is a
Speaker 2: freaking model, and you know what, good for them, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm like, good for them. That's great, you know, fine, awesome.
Speaker 2: You know I want to get.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah yeah, I'm not waiting by the phone, brother,
Speaker 2: let me tell you. But you know, like I just
Speaker 2: I like to see repeople like as I always revisiting
Speaker 2: your scene on the wire or you mentioned like homicide,
Speaker 2: like homicide with and I have to ask you about
Speaker 2: Andre Brower, you know, the late Great. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you ever had a chance to work with it,
Speaker 2: but I mean these are real people, like like you
Speaker 2: mentioned that, Okay, you were thirty six, but you put
Speaker 2: yourself in that scene in the trailer, which a lot
Speaker 2: of people have seen, but it's all set up. I mean,
Speaker 2: the cops driving up to talk to the people look
Speaker 2: like real cops. Wendell Pearce looks like a real human being.
Speaker 2: You know, the guy in the construction hat, he looks
Speaker 2: like a real human being. They're all real people put
Speaker 2: in dynamic situations and that's why this stuff works. Like
Speaker 2: I can understand that you're thirty six, I get it,
Speaker 2: But you put you in that ratty sweater, you put
Speaker 2: you in that trailer right, you probably don't have any
Speaker 2: makeup on you, and they give you crappy lighting. I mean,
Speaker 2: even Amy Ryan, who I am a huge fan of
Speaker 2: and I think is beautiful in that scene, she can't
Speaker 2: look beautiful because it's not gonna work.
Speaker 3: Well, no, and that's that's you know again, credit to
Speaker 3: David Simon, Bob Colesberry and they rest in peace. You know,
Speaker 3: he was the producer who kind of made sure everything
Speaker 3: went well. George Pelecanos, all the writers, Rothielle Alvarez, they
Speaker 3: were not gonna you know those guys. I mean, the
Speaker 3: thing about them is like there is no artifice. The
Speaker 3: aesthetic is we believe people are interesting enough on their
Speaker 3: own to justify your attention, and what they're going through
Speaker 3: is relevant enough to justify your attention. Everybody doesn't look
Speaker 3: have to look like they just jumped off the billboard,
Speaker 3: you know, and everybody doesn't have to have a twelve
Speaker 3: pack to be a sort of to have some status.
Speaker 3: They're real people. And my whole career has been like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I just I I am so vain until
Speaker 3: I get to work.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. Can you hold that thought? Do not? I
Speaker 2: have to take a break hold that thought. The great
Speaker 2: Chris Bauers where there's you know it from the Wire
Speaker 2: and True Blood on Heels. He's great, and we're going
Speaker 2: to continue talking about that. I want him to continue
Speaker 2: that thought right after this on WBZ.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News.
Speaker 2: Radio, Chris Bauer portrays a drug addicted sheriff whose image
Speaker 2: is anything but sexy on HBO's hit series True Blood.
Speaker 4: And they didn't write a guy who's like, you know,
Speaker 4: a part time sheriff and like a full time bodybuilder.
Speaker 4: You know, he's he's a lonely, frustrated, emotionally confused authority
Speaker 4: figure with some serious substance abuse issues.
Speaker 2: I will talk to people, and this.
Speaker 3: Is not uncommon.
Speaker 4: Who are True Blood fanatics have seen every episode three
Speaker 4: times and it's ten minutes into the commerce before they.
Speaker 2: Go, oh are you are? You're Andy Belfering in the chapter?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 2: And the real guy is with us, the guy that
Speaker 2: played Andy in True Blood. And it ties into what
Speaker 2: we're you're saying here. Chris Bauer, one of the great
Speaker 2: character actors. You know, you mentioned you're vein until you
Speaker 2: show up at the set. I think that is a
Speaker 2: that is a brilliant piece of advice for an actor.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well, I mean I got to let go
Speaker 3: of everything, and I would you know, That's that's what
Speaker 3: I would suggest anybody does who's going to go do
Speaker 3: some legitimate work. I mean, it's it's a fascinating experience.
Speaker 3: On one hand, you know you have to master it.
Speaker 3: Let's say, you get you know, if you're lucky enough
Speaker 3: to have you know, if you're a hitter and you
Speaker 3: have enough you see enough pitches, you start to know
Speaker 3: what ball's coming at you and what you're going to
Speaker 3: do with it. But you can't really do that until
Speaker 3: you get the swings right. So it's tricky with that acting,
Speaker 3: especially working on camera. If you're lucky enough to get
Speaker 3: enough shots at it and you start to frankly know
Speaker 3: how to do it, well, what's so? What's It's such
Speaker 3: a paradox because you start to realize that the less
Speaker 3: you do, the better it is. Now, Now, am I
Speaker 3: not just going to do less in terms of the
Speaker 3: scale of my performance, But I'm going to listen to
Speaker 3: my thoughts less. I'm going to listen to my ego less,
Speaker 3: and all that attention is instead going to go into
Speaker 3: the words, the text, the scene, the other actor, and
Speaker 3: and and it's you know, good news. Bad news. Good
Speaker 3: news is people respond. Bad news is you can't really
Speaker 3: take credit for.
Speaker 2: You just showed up.
Speaker 3: You showed up and you let something happen. You didn't
Speaker 3: get in the way right.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I was going to ask you next about
Speaker 2: your process, because I geek out on the acting and
Speaker 2: the movie stuff. And my friends all roll their eyes
Speaker 2: at me and they say, come on, you just get
Speaker 2: up and say your lines. I go, no, that's bull crap.
Speaker 2: There is so much more to it than that. You
Speaker 2: just don't You don't understand the amount of work that
Speaker 2: that put person put into making that look easy. So
Speaker 2: what's your process?
Speaker 3: Well, preparation, preparation, preparation, How.
Speaker 2: Do you prepare? Bring it down for me? How do
Speaker 2: you prepare?
Speaker 3: I would say, you know, the sort of broad strokes
Speaker 3: like checklist. That's a must every job is being so
Speaker 3: familiar with the words that there is zero chance for
Speaker 3: physical tension to manifest while I'm trying to remember what
Speaker 3: it as I'm supposed to say, like the words, because
Speaker 3: tension now we're getting. I mean, listen, you're talking the
Speaker 3: right guy if you want to get nerdy about acting,
Speaker 3: because I'm so obsessed with with it. It's my vocation
Speaker 3: and it's frankly the one thing that I do well.
Speaker 3: And you know, I guess you only need one. But
Speaker 3: it's physical tension is an interesting I won't go down
Speaker 3: the rabbit hole.
Speaker 2: Too much, but please do because it's my show, So
Speaker 2: please do this yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3: Go okay, let me get I'll give you a quick
Speaker 3: anecdote I worked. I did a whole play in New York.
Speaker 3: Writer named Jez Butterworth, one of the best writers in
Speaker 3: the world. There's a world premiere play of his, and
Speaker 3: I was playing a character that a big hit in
Speaker 3: New York. And this character was, you know, from about
Speaker 3: two hundred miles outside of London, very idiot, syncratic accent,
Speaker 3: and known for his lack of charisma. So the other
Speaker 3: characters are describing this character as boring, right, And well,
Speaker 3: how do you do that? Because you can't literally be boring.
Speaker 3: It's impossible, because you know, drama doesn't justify unremarkable people.
Speaker 3: People who are in the architecture of performance are remarkable
Speaker 3: no matter what for some reason, maybe even in their plainness.
Speaker 3: But I found it really hard, and so I told myself,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna do absolutely nothing. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do the minimal of what's required, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: be completely relaxed. I'm gonna let my body relax. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna scan it for physical tension anywhere I find some.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let go. And I got a couple months
Speaker 3: into that performance, and I was just patting myself on
Speaker 3: the back because it was, like I said, it was
Speaker 3: kind of a hit to play. And I was just,
Speaker 3: you know, so sure that I was making progress in
Speaker 3: my little experiment. And one night we're in the middle
Speaker 3: of a scene. It was me and Emily Mortimer, great.
Speaker 2: Actor from Newsroom.
Speaker 3: Yeah among many many of you.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I love her.
Speaker 3: If she's extraordinary, And I'm like, god, I'm so relaxed.
Speaker 3: I'm so relaxed while I'm in the scene. And I
Speaker 3: looked down and my three fingers on my left hand
Speaker 3: are curled into a tight little ball. The rest of
Speaker 3: my body totally relaxed. You could have, like I mean,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like you could have knocked
Speaker 3: me over with a You could have flicked me and
Speaker 3: I would have fallen over. I was so relaxed, but
Speaker 3: I wasn't because all that tension just curled up down
Speaker 3: and just collected down on this little part in my hands.
Speaker 3: Strasburg used to do this with people. Find where the
Speaker 3: physical tension is is it above your eye eyebrow? And
Speaker 3: now when you go watch and I watch this all
Speaker 3: the time, watch our fellows while they're doing their work.
Speaker 3: There's certain people who have a mask almost of physical tension.
Speaker 3: Still great performances, still, you know, really well received. But
Speaker 3: I'll look and I'll see the physical tension, and I'll
Speaker 3: know that something is inhibiting their full surrender to that character.
Speaker 3: So letting go. Man, it's the most dangerous thing. It is.
Speaker 3: It's such a counter it's it's such a counter strategy
Speaker 3: to the mission of your ego, which is to look
Speaker 3: like you know what you're doing, no matter what, justify
Speaker 3: why you're there, no matter what. It's true for a
Speaker 3: lot of us in life, let alone, when they're pointing
Speaker 3: a camera at you. It elicits this this almost compulsive
Speaker 3: habit to simultaneously play your character and remind everybody that
Speaker 3: you're really interesting, you're funny, you're worth listening to. In
Speaker 3: other words, there's this insecurity that comes with a human
Speaker 3: being that is really put on blast when you're standing
Speaker 3: in hot lights with a camera pointed at you. And
Speaker 3: the most interesting thing, in the most rewarding part of
Speaker 3: my creative growth has been integrating that, letting it exist,
Speaker 3: letting it be okay, like it's just an ugly moment
Speaker 3: for that character. Hell yes, it is, well, guess what
Speaker 3: it's going to look like. It's gonna look ugly. And
Speaker 3: you know, someone in the audience. I remember I was
Speaker 3: doing a play and I was playing a character whose
Speaker 3: nickname was Skinny. I was fat at the time, and
Speaker 3: this first time this lady or first time this other
Speaker 3: character had called me skinny. Oh I'm skinny, Come over him.
Speaker 3: I know that I heard this lady and the audience
Speaker 3: go skinny. Yeah, he's not skinny, right, And and you
Speaker 3: you that's such a tea little example. But we when
Speaker 3: we're doing this at the highest level, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: we completely open ourselves up and expose ourselves to whatever
Speaker 3: the audience is going to say.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the ultimate it's the ultimate level of vulnerability.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's why. You know, when my friends and I try
Speaker 2: to tell them about acting, they don't understand. I said,
Speaker 2: you have to realize that you could suck, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the big thing. Like, and I've heard
Speaker 2: other actors say it, whether they like, you know, my
Speaker 2: first five. You know, I'm gonna go out and I'm
Speaker 2: going to do this and there's gonna be some takes
Speaker 2: that just don't work. But in order to get to
Speaker 2: the one that does. That's what you have to do.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I thought I found frustrating,
Speaker 2: like in broadcasting sometimes you know, we were like you
Speaker 2: got to do one or two takes and then you're done.
Speaker 2: You know, we got to get it done. It's got
Speaker 2: to and there's no room for experimental growth. I mean,
Speaker 2: you have to you have to throw the crap against
Speaker 2: the wall. That's the tough part of auditioning. As you know,
Speaker 2: you know, you go in, you get one or two
Speaker 2: cracks at it. Whereas if you get cast in a
Speaker 2: part and somebody says, you know you're gonna play Andy,
Speaker 2: I mean when you're working on that character, I mean,
Speaker 2: how many times do you throw the bad stuff out? Right?
Speaker 3: I have a crate, Yes, yes, I mean that's certainly
Speaker 3: I would say an accurate description of the day to day, right.
Speaker 3: But I've had so many experiences and this is what
Speaker 3: I'd like to put in a bottle where I get
Speaker 3: this is why the preparation is so important, learning the lines,
Speaker 3: breaking down the scene, understanding the art of the character.
Speaker 3: You got to always look at your character. As you know,
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've heard this before, but like, what is
Speaker 3: the note in the chorus that youraracter is playing. For example,
Speaker 3: Andy and True Blood. If I saw the cast as
Speaker 3: a band, basically every now and then, I got to
Speaker 3: play the e string, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 3: I was going to play pretty much the same note,
Speaker 3: which was this sort of buffoonish frustration with the circumstance,
Speaker 3: which is kind of a device because I was the
Speaker 3: only I was I was the proxy audience. I was
Speaker 3: the guy who was going to go, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: That guy just just run by me naked, right, So
Speaker 3: I had to do it, and I had to do
Speaker 3: that over and over. But if I didn't do that,
Speaker 3: it would throw the music off your job, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. It was my job so preparation, getting
Speaker 3: all that stuff out of the way, saying you know
Speaker 3: exactly where you're supposed to pitch your performance. There are
Speaker 3: there have been times when I walked through a door
Speaker 3: and I'll tell you what wild and heels and we
Speaker 3: maybe talk about that later. But like perfect example, immersed
Speaker 3: myself in the research, did the right preparation. I had
Speaker 3: no idea what that character was going to sound like,
Speaker 3: move like, how he would react, but it just it
Speaker 3: just came out. It's just like, so I I believe
Speaker 3: there's a way we can prepare if we get relaxed
Speaker 3: and concentrated enough where you kind of do it perfectly
Speaker 3: the first time.
Speaker 2: Wow. Really, that's.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, if you bottle it up, you're
Speaker 2: going to be a billionaire, you know, I mean, and wow,
Speaker 2: that was great. I mean, yeah, we are going to talk.
Speaker 2: We're definitely coming up. We get it. But that's that's God.
Speaker 2: That's if you could do it the first time, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: And sometimes you know, you like some people like I know,
Speaker 2: the Fairly Brothers, you know from around you know, Bobby
Speaker 2: and Pete and Eastwood. You know, three takes and you're
Speaker 2: done right for sure, you know.
Speaker 3: And work with Clint twice and both times you know,
Speaker 3: it was like, uh did a master in the first
Speaker 3: take and a little bit of coverage and that was it.
Speaker 3: You could hear a pin drop the whole time and
Speaker 3: there was no there was no like, hey can I
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 2: Again right now?
Speaker 3: Which I love because actors always forget that if you
Speaker 3: got to take a break soon, let me know. But this,
Speaker 3: you wound me up, dude.
Speaker 2: So this is what happened is well, no, I'm good man,
Speaker 2: and this is fine, this is what I wanted. This
Speaker 2: is no I will ask you real quick, on on,
Speaker 2: just finish that statement. Then we'll take a break and
Speaker 2: then we'll get back to it. But you know you
Speaker 2: you you, you like you, you like it when you
Speaker 2: do a few takes or you obviously liked working with Clinton.
Speaker 3: I loved removing myself from the authority position, right right.
Speaker 3: I love availing myself of the collaboration. There is there
Speaker 3: is a power structure in place. There is a director
Speaker 3: by title who is in charge of whether we move.
Speaker 2: On or not me right, and you have to trust him, obviously,
Speaker 2: and you trust.
Speaker 3: Him, yes, And as far as I'm concerned, going to
Speaker 3: set for the first time is no different than getting
Speaker 3: in a three point stance and waiting for the count.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna explode off the line because I am ready.
Speaker 3: I know the play, right, I'm going to execute it
Speaker 3: to the best of my ability. And if he says
Speaker 3: that was good enough on that day, he gets to
Speaker 3: be right, right, I don't all right.
Speaker 2: Chris Bower's with us, terrific actor going over his career
Speaker 2: from True Blood. We're going to get the heels and Also,
Speaker 2: Chris doesn't know this, but we're gonna I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: him who my favorite Bauer character is and he's going
Speaker 2: to be surprised. Coming up next on WBZ.
Speaker 1: Night Side God Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, Gary in for day tonight, and Chris Bower is
Speaker 2: with us, and you know him from the wire, you
Speaker 2: know him from True Blood. But one of my favorite
Speaker 2: Bauer characters is some people may not even know when
Speaker 2: I mentioned the name Jimmy Flaherty, Jimmy Flaherty is my fash.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you why. I'm gonna tell you why.
Speaker 2: And because of course, I mean, I was a sportscaster
Speaker 2: up here forever, and you know, that's how I knew Mike,
Speaker 2: and I did I did the Celtics and all that,
Speaker 2: and now I'm tired of sports, so they let me
Speaker 2: talk about other stuff. But like when Mike went on
Speaker 2: the air with you know, with Survivors Remorse and Lenny
Speaker 2: Clark's a friend of mine, he was in it, and
Speaker 2: then I, you know, I was watching the show and
Speaker 2: I said, Okay, Mike, there's never been an NBA player
Speaker 2: coming out of you, and ah, that's like six ' one,
Speaker 2: but I'll go with you. And then I was like,
Speaker 2: who I go, this is Jimmy, and I didn't really
Speaker 2: know it was you. I didn't make the connection. I
Speaker 2: think your hair was kind of blunt at first. You
Speaker 2: played the owner of the Atlanta Hawks. And what I
Speaker 2: loved about the character, and I believe me, I've dealt
Speaker 2: with owners of my entire career. He was not the
Speaker 2: typical owner. He wasn't an ass, you know, he didn't
Speaker 2: have a big ego. He wasn't chopping on a cigar.
Speaker 2: He wasn't you know. There was no sexual harassment. He
Speaker 2: was like he was just I just really liked him,
Speaker 2: and I really loved the character. And I love the
Speaker 2: fact that even at the end, like you came back
Speaker 2: to the house, you were kind of involved with the family.
Speaker 2: I just love the whole character.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad you saw that. And you know, Michael Mallley,
Speaker 3: I owe him a lot. He's a great friend. But
Speaker 3: he's a phenomenal writer, and he is a phenomenal human being.
Speaker 3: And he's always writing characters who succeed in a way
Speaker 3: where they may have some influence and they become obsessed,
Speaker 3: whether they know it or not with trying to use
Speaker 3: that influence for good. He creates these characters who are
Speaker 3: looking to sort of, you know, put into the world
Speaker 3: what they didn't have at some point in their life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you're such a conscience. Yeah I didn't.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right in over Sully and then which brings
Speaker 2: me to I love the storyline how Jimmy was friendly
Speaker 2: with m Chuck the great Erica Ash tragically, I mean
Speaker 2: from cancer passing away. I loved her. I was like, who,
Speaker 2: you know, I would bug my poor guy still picks
Speaker 2: up the phone when I call. I'm like, who's that?
Speaker 2: You know, she's awesome. I was like, you know, And
Speaker 2: there was a relationship you know that worked between Jimmy
Speaker 2: and m Chuck that I found very endearing.
Speaker 3: I did too, And I think, you know, again insight
Speaker 3: to the writer, creator, Michael Mallett. You know, Jimmy Flaherty
Speaker 3: saw courage and I think courage was for him the
Speaker 3: only virtue that mattered at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: And I think he totally saw in that character. And
Speaker 3: You're right, Erica Ash was extraordinary and it is just
Speaker 3: one of those miserable mysteries to try to understand why
Speaker 3: she was taking so sidy. She was she was she
Speaker 3: was really really special. But you know, the great thing
Speaker 3: about uh, the Internet, I guess streaming whatever it's called,
Speaker 3: is that you know now that those shows exist. Like
Speaker 3: we were just talking about The Wire, I shot that
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. I know, I don't really I hope
Speaker 3: Survivor's Remorse is one of those shows in four or
Speaker 3: five years that people find and are talking about because
Speaker 3: it is so good.
Speaker 2: I thought it was so good and so well written,
Speaker 2: you know, and I've had a chance to meet Vic Levin.
Speaker 2: Two's awesome, and ron Rico Lee was an act just
Speaker 2: the acting was I mean, the cast was unreal. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's the thing with the here's the thing with the
Speaker 2: O'Malley Show, all right, and it's the same thing with Heels.
Speaker 2: You got to get actors that know what the hell
Speaker 2: they're doing. I mean, you just do. I mean that's
Speaker 2: what he doesn't. You know, You're just going to get
Speaker 2: people to know what the hell they're doing.
Speaker 3: And that's well on every level because also Mike's writing
Speaker 3: is not uh you know, it's not first draft writing,
Speaker 3: like you really have to be prepared to do his work,
Speaker 3: and by the way Lenny in Survivors Morris, who I
Speaker 3: think is a genius, and you know it's well known
Speaker 3: to be a genius. And Chappie Kevin Chapman and I
Speaker 3: to go to UH to Boston that seems one of
Speaker 3: my favorite teams.
Speaker 2: And he's in the garden he's the security guards. Yeah yeah, Chappy,
Speaker 2: Yeah good. It's very good. I mean in Lenny in
Speaker 2: the fat suit. And I say, I told him when
Speaker 2: I said to Lenny, I go, Lenny, you know why
Speaker 2: you were good in that? He I said, because you
Speaker 2: weren't jumping around all the time. They had so much
Speaker 2: fat on you you couldn't move. You're really good. He goes,
Speaker 2: I know, I can't sit still. I go, I know,
Speaker 2: but you did. You were really good in that.
Speaker 3: Okay, he was so good.
Speaker 2: He was so good in that. While Bill Heels coming
Speaker 2: up next quick break. Then we're going to really get
Speaker 2: into what Chris Bauer is doing right now and why
Speaker 2: you have to watch Heels on Stars next on wb Z.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: You need to send him a message.
Speaker 4: Like Esaw and Jacob and the Lord said, unto her
Speaker 4: two nations.
Speaker 3: Are in a womb, and the elder shall serve the younger.
Speaker 2: Jacob had a gust and wrestle with God. How about you,
Speaker 2: Chris Bauer playing wild Bill on Heels on Stars? And
Speaker 2: that part must be so fun to play. It's the
Speaker 2: most fun you can have with your clothes on because
Speaker 2: he barely has his clothes up. But I want people
Speaker 2: to know, you got to check this out on Stars.
Speaker 2: You gotta watch Heels and what it is is if
Speaker 2: you haven't seen it, it's about a regional wrestling family
Speaker 2: and wild Bill comes back into the picture as a
Speaker 2: guy who started in the small towns and then rose
Speaker 2: to the top and now he's being sent back down again.
Speaker 2: And Chris, it's such a great part for you because
Speaker 2: it's I don't want to say it's over the top,
Speaker 2: because that's in something you're acting ability, but you know
Speaker 2: where as Frank on the Wire, you know this is
Speaker 2: the opposite, like you get to really play with this guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And first of all, for anyone listening, I want
Speaker 3: to let people know that it's going to be on Netflix.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Number fifteenth Stars produced it, It ran on Stars and
Speaker 3: now it's moved over to Netflix and on September fifteenth,
Speaker 3: both seasons are available.
Speaker 2: Thank you, I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 3: I'll thank you. But listen, I'm a glutton. I can
Speaker 3: tell you that I do better when there's more on
Speaker 3: the plate, for sure. And this character while Bill and
Speaker 3: heals there, it's like the last plate in the buffet,
Speaker 3: but the whole buffets on the plate, right, I mean,
Speaker 3: and there is you can't get to the bottom of
Speaker 3: it because he's a he's such an extrovert and he's
Speaker 3: a creature of the circus. Plus I'm a huge wrestling fan.
Speaker 2: Is he based on anybody he is?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, for sure. But it's a you know, it's
Speaker 3: a recipe, it's a hybrid.
Speaker 2: There is you want to share those names, if you
Speaker 2: want to keep in private, that's fine. But like.
Speaker 3: Jake the Snake, aspects of Jake the Snake, because Jake
Speaker 3: the Snake had a danger in the ring, there was
Speaker 3: a sort of psychology and a tempo, a slow tempo
Speaker 3: to his presence in the ring. Kerry Funk, who you
Speaker 3: know again rest in peace passed away recently, but that
Speaker 3: man left it all in the ring. There's nothing he
Speaker 3: wouldn't do to get over for a crowd, and that
Speaker 3: is I think for me, the example of what one
Speaker 3: of the ethics of wrestling is is like, it is
Speaker 3: all these guys do.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what they do. I mean their bodies.
Speaker 2: I mean their bodies just get you know, it's not
Speaker 2: we all know, Hey, it's vague, but it's it's it's professional.
Speaker 2: I don't know even know how to describe professional tumbling, professional,
Speaker 2: whatever it is.
Speaker 3: It's like it's if you ask me, it's like jazz,
Speaker 3: but there's no pianos, saxophones or guitars. They're just giant bodies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they get the crap kicked out of them, there's
Speaker 2: no doubt. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: And they're they're they're in a zone. Man. First of all,
Speaker 3: they're incredibly well trained, but they're in a zone, and
Speaker 3: they physically improvise combat with you know, basically integrating with
Speaker 3: the laws of physics, which basically says gravity means if
Speaker 3: you're off the ground when you hit it, it's going
Speaker 3: to hurt. And it does hurt, you know. Their level
Speaker 3: of commitment to entertaining a crowd I find so cathartic
Speaker 3: and probably emblematic of a much longer legacy than just
Speaker 3: you know, uh entertainment, but uh, that show. It's something
Speaker 3: that we all, I think had an incredible experience on.
Speaker 3: My wife in fact, died. The costumes which are extraordinary.
Speaker 6: Oh wow, wow, it's so good, you'll notice, because I
Speaker 6: think I kind of feel like I have the best
Speaker 6: costumes of everybody in the in the well, I think.
Speaker 2: That I think that what I'm saying, I don't know,
Speaker 2: but you know, I don't know wild Bill. But maybe
Speaker 2: the pants were a little too tight at time, but
Speaker 2: too not that I was check it out, But I
Speaker 2: mean the characters, because I mean there's time you wake
Speaker 2: up in the parking lot and there's a there's a
Speaker 2: presence about them, but there's still such a vulnerability about
Speaker 2: wild Bill, the over the hill wrestling, there's still such
Speaker 2: a he's still you kind of like you kind of
Speaker 2: want to hug them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, isn't that amazing? I mean, what a privilege to
Speaker 3: play a character like that because for me, drilling it
Speaker 3: down to the diamond of it, he is such an
Speaker 3: optimist that there is no mess that can't be turned
Speaker 3: into Yeah, he is fil No, you're right.
Speaker 2: And you got the long hair and you got the
Speaker 2: mustache and you go shirtless and you're walking around and you, oh,
Speaker 2: I remember the scene you well Mary McCormack, right, is
Speaker 2: that that you're in You're in your ex wife's house
Speaker 2: or your old house.
Speaker 3: Yes, and.
Speaker 2: The new husband comes down and you're like, hey, what's
Speaker 2: going on? I mean, I'm laughing my ass, I go,
Speaker 2: this is fantastic. McCormack's terrific. By the way, I'm so
Speaker 2: glad she's in this, you know. Yeahs But but like, okay,
Speaker 2: so there's while Bill with his ex wife who's living
Speaker 2: in his house with her new husband, and I got
Speaker 2: and they're all getting along there.
Speaker 3: At a minute.
Speaker 2: Yeah for a minute, Yeah, for a minute. It's just
Speaker 2: it's and also the great thing about Heels is while
Speaker 2: it's a wrestling story, it's a story about family. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, that's what it comes down to, which is
Speaker 2: a typical O'Malley's script. It's about family.
Speaker 3: He is always trying to figure out how to subtly
Speaker 3: provide instructions for people to work together in harmony and
Speaker 3: find meaning out of coming together as a group for
Speaker 3: a common purpose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the greatest member. I mean, he's just like
Speaker 2: one of you know, the fact that he so I
Speaker 2: met I met somebody from the show. I went out
Speaker 2: there once and I met him and Vic and it
Speaker 2: was talking and one of the people said, he's Mike
Speaker 2: from New Hampshire. He's never changed. He was Mike from
Speaker 2: the I believe it, and I'm sorry, go ahead, Chris.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to say when we started this conversation,
Speaker 3: you know, talking about the Wire, and like, uh, you
Speaker 3: know how much you love character actors, which I so appreciate.
Speaker 3: And the fact of the matter is, I play all
Speaker 3: these different characters. It's been my experience, after thirty years
Speaker 3: of my career that generally people don't know that I'm
Speaker 3: the same actor who has played these different characters. And
Speaker 3: I can't tell you what a humbling blessing that is
Speaker 3: to have been given to me.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what was the same guy. I mean,
Speaker 2: I love Jimmy. I go, that's wait a minute. But
Speaker 2: you know, because I am, I amdb it and look
Speaker 2: at it and you know it. Yeah, no, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was you. I didn't know it
Speaker 2: was the same dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of
Speaker 3: that because I've always thought, Uh, my career is something
Speaker 3: that other people just describe. My vocation is meeting these
Speaker 3: extraordinary writers and other crafts people and artists at their
Speaker 3: level of ability and not letting them down.
Speaker 2: Well, you don't. And the reality is, and we have
Speaker 2: to wrap it up, Chris, unfortunately, is that we need
Speaker 2: actor like you. And I had my friend Chris Pappers,
Speaker 2: who's a writer and a producer on The Gemstones, and
Speaker 2: it's the same thing. You know, we need. Oh it's crazy.
Speaker 2: I mean they're they're out of their minds. I mean,
Speaker 2: you want to work on a fun show. I mean
Speaker 2: they're they're I mean McBride says, everybody, come to Charleston.
Speaker 2: We're going to make a TV show, you know, And
Speaker 2: but we need the real people. We need actors like
Speaker 2: you to make it sing. I mean even Seinfeld said,
Speaker 2: without Kramer, they're screwed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 2: It's true. I mean you need Wild Bill. I mean
Speaker 2: you need these guys in Frank and While Bill and
Speaker 2: you know you need them, I mean in True Blood
Speaker 2: or you know, even you know when you when you're
Speaker 2: playing in the opposite Edie Falco. I mean, we need guys,
Speaker 2: we need actors like you. And there's a time, you know,
Speaker 2: we just do it. And I really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you're okay with O'Malley, you're okay
Speaker 2: okay with me.
Speaker 3: And vice versa. You got to get an automatic pass
Speaker 3: for that reason.
Speaker 2: All right, Chris, It's been a real pleasure having you on,
Speaker 2: and you know we can't wait for you. We'll always
Speaker 2: be looking out. Netflix. September fifteenth, Watch Heels, and I
Speaker 2: think people are gonna your starts is great, but Netflix
Speaker 2: has a broader reach. You have to watch the first
Speaker 2: the two seasons of Heels. Please check it out. Chris,
Speaker 2: have a good night, buddy, Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Gary appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Okay, anytime. Chris Bauer a great character actor, and I
Speaker 2: love to give these guys attention. Just watch Heels on Netflix.
Speaker 2: It's such a great story. It's such a great family
Speaker 2: story setting around a small town wrestling family. It's great stuff,
Speaker 2: you know from O'Malley, who does great stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: and we all remember him from Yestar and all that
Speaker 2: we've had Mike on, but I love his I love
Speaker 2: his cable stuff. Outside of this world. Coming up, we
Speaker 2: get political with the moderate from Hollywood Sam Metler next
Speaker 2: to WBZ