Brian Geraghty on Easier with Practice, The Hurt Locker, and His Oscar Blinders

Did you just not have enough preparation time?

I mean, we had three nights on the stage with tech. It's a very big difference to get on the stage with real props and time it. It made a huge, huge difference once we got there. Saturday was probably our best night, that and opening night, we were like, "OK, we figured it out, we're OK."

Is it exciting -- or daunting -- to realize that even if you have one good night where you nail it, tomorrow's show could be a whole other story?

If I could nail it every night, I'd let my understudy go on, you know what I mean? It's what keep you young, it's what keeps you working, it's what keeps it exciting. Sometimes these magical things will happen. It's funny, the audience doesn't know when we're on autopilot -- how spontaneous and free we are is up to us. That's what I want, to go in there and forget about it and act opposite these two great actors, but it is daunting. I don't know how much longer I can do it for, this particular piece. It would be difficult to do this for a six-month run. [Laughs]

Between this, The Hurt Locker, and Jarhead, do you think you've done your trilogy of boyish soldiers now?

That's funny, I've never thought of that. Hey man, if the right role came along...I don't think I'd ever get typecast as a soldier. I'd get typecast as Davy Mitchell if I played three more of those characters. These are great roles I've gotten to play, all of them, and any actor would give his left arm to do a movie with Sam Mendes, Kathryn Bigelow. They're the best roles out there, and I'll take another one.

You know, I think about The Hurt Locker, and we made a film about three guys, three different looking guys with three very different energies. At the end of the day, I never thought about this while I was filming -- and this is the truth -- but with movies like that, you can be on location for five months and not really get one scene or get to really act. It's a lot of work. If you really want to act, you're better off doing a play in a black box in Burbank or off-off-off-Broadway. On movies like that, you could sit around watching other actors act and you just blend in with the shaved head, so to have The Hurt Locker was a very different thing. It would be hard to get me back to be in a platoon, you know what I'm saying?

And you made The Hurt Locker so long ago. When did it dawn on you that it's the Oscar frontrunner?

It still honestly hasn't dawned on me. Maybe it will when I'm at the Oscars, we'll see if it's the frontrunner or not. The past couple of weeks have been different -- people seem to be really seeing the film now and they're blown away. As far as the Oscars, I don't know. All I've been doing is working on this play, which is the greatest thing because I don't have time to read articles. I get sent things, and I've archived them but I haven't read anything, really. I know when people win, and we did go to the Golden Globes and the SAGs, obviously, but we don't know when it's going to happen...

So you didn't see Jeremy Renner singing on The View?

No, I gotta check that out. Jeremy Renner is a great person, a great guy.

And he's using that Hurt Locker heat to snag some good roles. Have you started looking at your next move yet?

You know, I've just started to look at things. Hey man, I don't know -- I hope I can get a job! It's tough times, man. Whatever it is I'll be doing, I hope it's the same kind of creative and collaborative process that I went through on this play, that I went through on The Hurt Locker. It's gratifying because I've had a process where the actors and directors really listen to each other, and it's been fulfilling. If people see them...hey, some people like the play, some people think it's dated. It happens. What are you gonna do? Can't win 'em all, you know?

Did you see that there's a movie blog out there lobbying for you to play Captain America?

Yeah, I didn't know that. Huh. I have a friend who just screen-tested for that. No, I never even read it, I don't know what it's about. He said it's like a comic book? I honestly don't even know. I feel like I remember a cartoon, but I never read any comics as a kid. I was deprived of toys and comics.

Isn't this the next thing that happens, Brian? You start going in for all the comic book heroes and villains?

Right. And then they're like, "Well, he's a little off," or they want you to come in and say, "You're perfect," then they love to tell you no. Listen, would I do a big, fun movie? Sure. There's only so much pain I can take. [Laughs]

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