Letting Them Talk with Will Harris

Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 32 - Kevin Dunn (Mermaid / Veep / Snake Eyes)

This time I’m letting Kevin Dunn talk. Kevin is a gentleman who’s been working in front of the camera since the mid-1980s, but it’s arguable that the role that transformed him from “oh, that guy” to being an “oh, that guy” from a very specific thing was playing White House Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty on VEEP. At the moment, however, he’s doing press for Tyler Kornack’s new film, MERMAID, which premiered at last year’s SXSW Festival, received a brief theatrical run earlier this month, and is on the cusp of receiving a digital release. I made this remark to Kevin during our conversation, but it bears mentioning here as well: MERMAID is a weird fucking movie, but it’s a weirdness that sucked me in and kept me glued to the screen until the very end. SPLASH it is not, nor is it THE SHAPE OF WATER, but all three films share a certain amount of DNA, and… Well, I don’t really want to say much more about it, except that Kevin’s role, while relatively small in the grand scheme of things, is one that provides him with a moment that would be a must-add to any actor’s clip reel. Of course, we talked about other topics as well, although I’ll tell you right now: Kevin’s a guy who has plenty of stories, and given the name of this podcast, it should go without saying that I didn’t get to ask him about everything that you rowdy lot wanted me to ask him about. This, of course, means that a sequel is a must if we can get it scheduled. For now, though, just know that we discussed VEEP, of course, along with MISSISSIPPI BURNING, LUCK, THE PRACTICE, SNAKE EYES, MARKED FOR DEATH, THE BEACH BOYS: AN AMERICAN FAMILY, and HOT SHOTS! And I’m sure a few other things came up as well, but suffice it to say that there’s a lot of great material to be found within those topics. And with that said, I think that’s plenty enough of an intro. It’s time to let Kevin Dunn talk.

Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 31 - Sam Anderson (Matlock / Friends / Lost / ER / WKRP in Cincinatti))

This time I’m letting Sam Anderson talk. Sam is someone who’s been a working character actor since the 1970s, popping up in dramas and comedies alike. At the moment, he’s living the character actor’s dream, in that he’s a series regular on one of the most entertaining dramas on network television, playing Kathy Bates’ husband on CBS’s extremely creative reboot of Matlock. Like so many actors, Sam got his start in the theater, but once he made the move to California, he jumped in front of the camera and has rarely found himself without work. As far as where you might know him from, it’s virtually impossible to know, given the width and breadth of his filmography, but some key moments from his career have found him playing an obstetrician obsessed with Arthur Fonzarelli on Friends, being stranded for several seasons on Lost, playing principal to a young Forrest Gump, and sparring with just about every doctor at Cook County General on ER. From Perfect Strangers and Growing Pains to four episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati, each one of which found him playing a different character, Anderson has been all up and down your TV dial and then some. Basically, if you look at this man’s list of credits, you’ll realize that he’s been in just about everything at some point, and while that might be hyperbole with some actors, with Sam Anderson, it’s way closer to the truth than not. As such, there was never any chance that we’d get to everything that you folks asked me to ask him about, but I did my best, and he offered up some great stories to go with all the things that I threw at him. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Sam Anderson talk.

Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 30 - Jay O. Sanders (JFK / Law & Order: Criminal Intent / The Day After Tomorrow / True Detective) /

This time I’m letting Jay O. Sanders talk. Jay started in the theater, quickly found his way in front of the camera, and has successfully forged an extremely substantial career as a character actor. Before that, though, he made his New York theater debut in a “Shakespeare in the Park” performance of Henry V alongside such fellow cast members as William Hurt, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty, and Bruce McGill, which – all things considered – is a pretty amazing way to kick off a career. Thankfully, he didn’t stop there, but since it’s statistically unlikely that most listeners have had the opportunity to catch Jay in his various theater performances, don’t worry, you’ll almost certainly recognize him from any number of TV or film appearances. For me, as I mention in the course of our conversation, he’s instantly Kevin Costner’s right-hand man in JFK. If you’re a fan of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, you might recognize him either from his first appearance, which was as a bad guy working alongside a funeral home owner played by Jim Gaffigan, or you might remember him when he stepped in to keep Goren and Eames in line for the series’ final season. More recently, you might’ve seen him on NBC’s Blindspot, Prime Video’s Sneaky Pete, USA’s The Sinner, or Discovery’s Manhunt: Deadly Games, i.e. the season about the Unabomber. But Jay’s done so much stuff that there’s really no telling where you might’ve seen him. AfterMASH? Crime Story? Roseanne? Eddie Macon’s Run? Okay, that’s kind of an outlier, but if you’re from my generation, they played that thing incessantly on HBO back in the day. He’s also in The Young Riders, Angels in the Outfield, The Big Green, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, The Day After Tomorrow… He’s definitely an actor where you can comfortably use the phrase, “And the list goes on…” And suffice it to say that he’s got at least as many stories as he’s got roles in his back catalog. That feels like a more than sufficient intro. It’s time to let Jay O. Sanders talk.

Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 29 - Mark Harmon (NCIS / Ghosts of Sicily / Summer School / The West Wing)

This time I’m talking to someone who was once named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Not that it came up in the conversation, but it just feels like a real pop culture badge of accomplishment, so I felt like I needed to mention it. Mark Harmon has been acting since the ‘70s,  but while he earned an Emmy nod for his work in the 1977 miniseries Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, it really wasn’t until the ‘80s that he started to hit his stride in terms of mainstream popularity. From Flamingo Road to St. Elsewhere, playing Ted Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger to playing against Kirstie Alley in Carl Reiner’s film Summer School, he was a major figure on both TV and film. In the 1990s, however, despite working steadily in film and on TV, Harmon struggled to find a long-term foothold on the small screen. That situation changed in a big way in the early 2000s, when an arc on The West Wing led to a backdoor pilot on JAG that turned into the most popular role of his lengthy career: playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS. In the series 19th season, Harmon stepped away from NCIS, and although he’s kept a foot in that world by narrating the prequel series, NCIS: Origins, and continued to act when he’s of a mind to do so, he’s spent more time writing of late, collaborating with Leon Carroll, Jr. on a series of books: Ghosts of Honolulu, Ghosts of Panama, and the just-released Ghosts of Sicily. Military history buffs will particularly enjoy the series, and as I mention to him during the course of our conversation, the latest book could be subtitled Military and Mobsters. It’s a great read. Given how carefully Gibbs used to choose his words on NCIS, it may surprise you that Harmon is a talker, and as a result, I didn’t get to hit on every topic I would’ve liked, but I’ll say that just about anything we didn’t touch on in this conversation, we talked about it in my Random Roles interview with him, which can find in the AV Club archives. Suffice to say, however, that we had a great chat that makes for a fun listen. And with all of that said, it’s time to let Mark Harmon talk.

Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 28 - Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law / Psych / Major League / Star Trek))

This time, I’m letting Corbin Bernsen talk. As one of the leads of NBC’s long-running legal drama L.A. LAW, Corbin was one of the biggest TV stars of the ‘80s, and he’s managed to maintain a significant career ever since, not only as an actor but as a director as well. On paper, he seems to be someone who was always destined to work in Hollywood, given that his mother, Jeanne Cooper, was a soap opera star on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, and his father, Harry Bernsen, Jr., was a producer. But as you’ll hear, Corbin really wasn’t all that enthused about the idea of becoming an actor. Obviously, he changed his mind, but it took a little while for him to come around. Currently, Bernsen is busy talking up his latest film, THE YETI, a horror movie that centers around – you guessed it – a yeti, but it’s a period piece, and even with all of the horror movies emerging nowadays, it stands out both in its look and its substance. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of blood, too. Our conversation starts with the new movie, of course, and from there we delve into various other highlights from his career, including as many listener requests as we had time to tackle. I also reached out to a couple of his former co-stars – including two of his PSYCH castmates – who I’ve interviewed over the years and got some questions from them. One of them is so well-considered and absolutely unlike the relationship he has with that actor that it completely blew his mind, but his response proved to be so philosophical that it blew my mind. Anyway, yes, we talked about MAJOR LEAGUE, and, yes, I asked him about guest-starring on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION…and he teased that he has something else STAR TREK-oriented coming up. We also talked about his appearance on SEINFELD, some of his other horror films, most notably THE DENTIST and TALES FROM THE HOOD, briefly popping up in the blaxploitation classic THREE THE HARD WAY, how his version of faith-centered films doesn’t necessarily mesh with the general definition of that genre, and why he thinks the never-aired attempt at an L.A. LAW revival didn’t work. No, we didn’t hit everything that I would’ve liked to have hit, but that just means there’s plenty of material left for a sequel. That’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Corbin Bernsen talk.