Steve Zahn on Treme and the Joys of 'Magic Time' in New Orleans

Davis is a really uninhibited character, and you've played your fair share of uninhibited characters in the past. As an actor, is there a certain point in your career when you get to the point where you can just be free without consequence? Or is that ability -- to get into a yoga position completely nude and not worry about who is watching -- just something that you are born with?

Yeah. Well, [Davis] can be grating and a complete asshole, but I mean, you said the words yourself: I am playing a character. I am not really thinking about consequences or how it comes off except for in the structure of the show. I am just doing my job, and if I have to do things that are against the grain, that's kind of the fun of it. But yeah, I have always gravitated towards parts like this -- roles that are unique and real but had a sense of humor. It's always fascinating, you know. I am on a short list for characters like this, yet here I live on a farm. I hunt and fish and listen to Steve Earle. I really am kind of the opposite of these guys.

If you are drawn to these kinds of characters in film and television, do you find that you are drawn to people with those same characteristics in real life? Is there any relationship between the roles you are interested in and the people that interest you?

I don't know. I just find them all interesting -- as a voyeur, as an outsider. I look at my character [on Treme] and think, "Wow, what a fascinating dude." He's just kind of driven by his own thing and can be blinded by it at times. He gets in people's ways and yet there is something appealing about him on another level. And some people really hate him.

But what I absolutely love about him is that that's the real guy in New Orleans. There are lots of people like that down there. It is such an incredible, unbelievable city. It's one of those places that you can't describe to someone. You really have to go and be a part of it and really do it -- you know what I mean? I have been around the world a couple of times and I have never been to a city quite like it.

Did you get a lot of feedback from the people of New Orleans while you were shooting?

Are you kidding? [Laughs] Oh my God. It was constant. Everyone was aware of this show. And now, there is not a person in that town that hasn't heard of the show. People watch it in bars there like they are watching an NFL playoff game. They sit in packed bars completely quiet, just listening. It is incredible. I was in New Orleans for the first three weeks that the show aired and every week, I went somewhere different to watch. Before it aired, people were very skeptical of it. They were supportive, too, but they were like, "Hey, I hope you get it right." Because they have been portrayed so poorly in the past -- with crazy accents and they were always written sort of from an outsider's perspective. New Orleans was always used as a backdrop in projects instead of as the soul of a show.

So the main thing for us was that we had to get it right. More than half of the people from the show are from there. Even the cast, you know -- Jacques Morial plays Jacques Morial, Dr. John is Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins is Kermit Ruffins. The Rebirth Brass Band plays the Rebirth Brass Band.

The show was picked up for a second season almost immediately after the premiere. Do you worry about upholding this precedent of portraying post-Katrina New Orleans as truthfully as possible?

I think the beauty of this show is that [the writers] are real patient and it's like reading a novel. It's slow and it takes time to get to know characters and to develop story lines, and if you take your time, it works. That way, you don't have to write in zombie attacks in order to keep people interested. It's like real life.

There may not be zombie attacks in real life, but there are other crises that are affecting Louisiana, like the BP oil spill. Hopefully the show will go into its fifth season so Treme can explore that catastrophe.

Yeah, how crazy would that be if the show went that far? That would be maybe the last show of the last season would be, maybe. Actually, I was [in New Orleans] for Jazz Fest when it happened. It was burning that week and people weren't really focused on the spill because it was Jazz Fest, you know? New Orleans during Jazz Fest is pretty much like New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It's like the town just shuts down. I was unaware of anything going on outside that city for like three weeks when I was down there for Mardi Gras. I remember on Mardi Gras day actually -- on Tuesday -- people were calling me, like my agent. I would look at the phone and be like, "Who the F*CK is calling me at 8 a.m. in the morning on Christmas? Don't they know it's f*cking Christmas?"

But then you realize, "Oh sh*t, the entire country is just having another boring Tuesday. And here in New Orleans, it's like magic time."

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