Badge rang up Movieline this week to talk about Rubicon, the expectations that come with following Mad Men and Breaking Bad on the AMC roster of dramas, and just what happens when a bunch of New York theater actors have dinner together.
When you last spoke with Movieline, you were just about to start shooting Rubicon again, 14 months after making the pilot. Was it hard to get back into character after all that time?
I think the hardest part was for hair and makeup to deal with the fact that I had twice as much hair.
Did they fit you with a wig?
No, I knew it was coming, so I grew it back out. I usually keep my hair long and wild; I like to have options.
Was it difficult to transition back into Will Travers after playing Robert Leckie on The Pacific?
[Will] was a lot different, which was nice for me. I spent a year of my life trying to get into the shoes of Robert Leckie. He was a very complicated man, and it was a complicated character and it took its toll on me and a lot of the other actors. To kind of get the jump over into Will Travers and to do something different -- it's a lot of fun. And nothing is blowing up, there's no mortars. [Laughs]
Had the expectations for Rubicon changed after all that time away -- between being a pilot and getting picked up for series?
I try to work without expectations one way or the other. Expectations in the entertainment business will kill you, because you are bound to be disappointed. So when we shot the pilot, I kinda took it as a one-off: "We'll go in, we'll do this and I'm not in control of what happens." Hope the right thing will happen -- you just have to trust that. When we actually got to do the season, we all ran in there very excited and invigorated. It's a privilege to get to do a season. All the actors are excited, the crew is excited. We shoot in New York. It's an all New York crew, all New York actors. Summertime in New York and we're shooting a television show. It doesn't get much better than that.
Does filming in New York bring something extra to the show?
The great thing about New York for our show -- our show is about the unknown, about mystery. That there's a world outside of your own that you can't stop. It's about powerlessness in some sort of way. There's this machine that's going and swirling and there is nothing you can do about that. But it will affect you. And that's New York City. If you stand on a rooftop and look around New York City -- this is a beast, it's a living entity. It's moving hard and fast and there's nothing you can do about it. That's the great thing about shooting in New York for our show. We try to use that. It's not the magic of New York but the attitude and personality of New York.
And that's where having New York actors helps too.
Everyone shows up prepared. Everyone has done their homework. It's a talented group of people. The guys are very experienced, they're very good at what they do. We show up and do our job. That said, we're kind of a quirky group. I remember the first cast dinner we had -- it was geek-a-thon. We just started geeking out, dorking out. I think that's what happens when you get a bunch of New York theater actors together -- everything becomes a song. [Laughs]
What was it like to play a character in a conspiracy theory that isn't actually rooted in science-fiction, like many other shows of this ilk?
To be quite honest with you, I'm still playing it. We're shooting the last episode now -- this week. It's grounded in reality. The thing for us is that we've created our own world. It's kind of a cross between 2010 meets 1974. Because we've created our own world, we can kind of hold up a mirror to our world and what's going on today. To be able to work on material that's grounded in reality and not dealing with science-fiction aspect. It's pretty cool -- I think it's a strength of the show.
Are you prepared for the level of scrutiny this type of show invites? Like people coming up to you on the street and saying, "You have to tell me what the clover means?!"
I'm never prepared for people to come up to me. I'm a private person. I hope people enjoy it. If you can find me, good luck, dude. [Laughs]
You mentioned the '70s before and Rubicon does feel like those '70s conspiracy thrillers like The Conversation...
Man, that's a great movie! Three Days of the Condor is one of my favorite movies. I actually had a little talk with Robert Redford -- I did a movie he directed last year (The Conspirator) -- and we talked about Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men and how they did it and why they did it and the difference between then and now. I'm very familiar with those films. What I didn't want to get into was watching those movies as research and then starting to kinda copy them. Which you can do subconsciously.
Rubicon is the third dramatic series from AMC after Mad Men and Breaking Bad -- how has it been working with them as a network?
They're kind of like those parents: You can be whatever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do. They're not scared. They're not operating out of fear. That allows us to do what we're hired to do -- which some days, I don't know what that is -- but, they're very supportive. We want to do something different, we want to take a risk. If we fall on our face, fine, so be it. The middle of the road is not good enough -- especially when we're following up shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which have taken risks and succeeded. They have their own voice. We have to take a stab at our own voice.
So like you said, you're filming the finale of season one right now. Without spoiling, do you think this show lends itself to further seasons?
This is a tricky one, because you get a little superstitious about this. I don't want to talk about that -- whatever -- second thing that might be out there. I don't want to get ahead of myself. What I know is that we are shooting this last episode now, we're finishing this first season and it will be the strongest story that we can make it. And that's... [long pause] I don't want to get into the future of this. I feel like once it comes out of my mouth, I will jinx it.