Colin Hanks on The Good Guys, Mad Men, and Comparing Himself to Dad

Ever since Colin Hanks's first major film role in the 2002 teen comedy Orange County, he's been aware of his character niche: a likable, wry, non-threatening everyman. While he's played that type several times and bears a strong resemblance to his two-time Academy Award-winning father, Hanks still displays a balance of comic timing and magnetic sanity he can call his own. Now, on Fox's flashy new cop dramedy The Good Guys, we watch as the 32-year-old actor amps his appeal to an explosive high as Det. Jack Bailey, who must survive duty alongside his Starsky and Hutch caricature of a partner, Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford).

Hanks phoned Movieline last week to discuss what drew him to The Good Guys, his intriguing Mad Men stint, and the reason Turner and Hooch recently made him laugh.

Your character on The Good Guys, Jack Bailey, is a sane, by-the-book guy. On paper it sounds like some of your other roles. What's been surprising and new about this character for you?

Well, the thing that I enjoyed the most about it was that this was a character that actually talks back. There are two major things that I've noticed in a lot of the stuff I get sent. It's always sort of a sane person surrounded by insane people -- and constantly reacting big to the crazy people, and saying, "Why can't you be normal?" In this case, there is an element of that, of course. But it's not that he's surrounded by a whole bunch of crazy people, just one crazy person. Brad (Whitford), or Dan. But he speaks back. He speaks his mind. He does it in a sometimes-frustrated, but sometimes very funny (way). It was someone who I thought had more of a spine and more of a clear drive than the other characters I've played.

But also, he was his own obstacle. His insistence on being by-the-book was one of the things that prevented him from moving forward. His relationships with other people were prohibiting him from moving forward. There's an injustice in his world -- "If I could only just be invited to the party." Or, "If only I could get into the school." He's his own sort of problem. He insists on correcting people's spelling and he insists on telling his bosses when they're doing a horrible job. Well, that's not getting him anywhere. So it's a combination of himself and the things he shouldn't be doing with Dan Stark that put him in this place. Those kind of things may not jump out to most people as, "Oh, I get it, yeah." But when I'm reading it, those are the things, my homework that I have to do, that make me say, "Oh, I like this." It was familiar and yet a little bit different. And that's what I like.

Has it been unnerving to be considered a go-to for the kinds of characters who don't talk back?

Well, it's not exciting to me to have these roles in which the person doesn't speak up for themselves. That's not interesting to me. I wanted to be able to play a role in which a character spoke up for himself and said things and was in his own way funny. It's been really great to have that ability to be sort of a smart aleck and answer back. And have a little sting on certain comments -- as opposed to sitting around and saying, "Why are you all so crazy?!" There's only so many of those reactions I can do.

Bradley Whitford is certainly playing against type. How did you react when you saw him play a character who's such a break from his familiar presence?

I think what's been interesting is he sort of evolved over the past eleven episodes. For me, it's funny, I knew who he was. I watched episodes of The West Wing. I knew it was a good show. But I was by no means a "Winger," apparently, as they're called -- these people who are so obsessed with The West Wing that it's their end-all be-all. He's an insanely talented guy, and he's doing so different than what he had been doing for almost 10 years, I think. That's always really fun to see. It's a very similar thing to when I worked with [John] Malkovich in The Great Buck Howard where he was playing something so different from his norm that he was really enjoying it and having fun. He was so grateful to be able to do something different from his normal routine.

Bradley is the exact same way. He's no longer a guy in a suit talking about some sort of obscure political policy. This time he's talking about busting punks or wanting to sleep with women because, quote-unquote, "it's natural." I just think it's really funny. For me, it's really great when you see an actor who's totally devouring what he's doing, and Bradley is most definitely devouring everything that he's doing and chewing up tons of scenery all around him. It's a lot of fun for my own personal amusement because I've been laughing pretty much nonstop since we started working together. But it's really more fun egging him than everything else, to say, "Do that thing that seems wrong and a bit much, but trust me it's really funny."

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