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The title ofStarzsHeelsis a layered one.
This character seems like so much fun!
I havent loved a show really sinceTrue Blood.
And it has a similar kind of genesis in that it all just came together and felt right.
And in particular, the world of independent wrestling.
Because Ive never been a huge fan of a cowboy gimmick.
So I didnt really have much of a reaction to it beyond that.
But this character literally played me … And I wanted to play the character like that, which was a gross misperception on my part.
Luckily, thats whats fun about a web connection process and collaboration.
People can say, Yeah, I get it, but hes a showman and hes a peacock.
Hes a little more vain than that beard suggests.
You also do some nudity in the second episode.
How did you feel about that?I just didnt give a shit.
But I think Wild Bill is way more comfortable being naked than I am, and hes in charge.
I thought,Oh God, the accountant is back.
But hes so alive and well in me.
Youve said that youve based this character on wrestlers like Randy Savage and Terry Funk.
But [creator] Michael Waldron and [showrunner] Mike OMalley are both very explicit authors.
So whatever I say, they put on the page.
But that was very rare.
And hes a man who is most alive when theres 360 degrees of eyeballs right on him.
So there are a couple of moments like that in the show where even I couldnt resist the temptation.
And I said some things that Wild Bill thought that they hadnt written yet.
Your wife, Laura Bauer, is the costume designer on the show.
Shes always building costumes from the character out.
I would say the one concept that we used to build out from is that hes this psycho cowboy.
He persuaded me to go see this indie wrestling league in L.A. called Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
And I just fell in love with it.
So we were frequent attendees of PWG.
And on my bill were [pro-wrestling tag-team all-stars] the Young Bucks.
What I consistently walked away with was a huge sense of relating as an old-fashioned theater actor.
What do you say to the people who say wrestling is fake?I say gravitys not.
Listen to the sound that makes and tell me if you think thats fake.
It is not a fatalistic act of self-destruction only.
Its also a rare example of physical sacrifice for the amusement of your ticket-buying audience.
Youve played a lot of characters where you become almost unrecognizable because you so fully embrace that role.
And a lot of these are smaller roles.
Do you actively look for parts like this?All my strategies are instinctive.
I have no game whatsoever when it comes to career or how Im perceived.
The nature of my skill is just that I can play the part that you write.
I see myself basically as an advocate for fictional people.
Heres some breaking news: I want to be thought of as a big deal.
But I think I have that in common with just about everybody.
Your character onThe Wirelooks like what we collectively imagine a Baltimore dock worker to look like.
Your character onTrue Bloodlooks like a small-town southern cop.
The writer writes the character and then you come and play it.
So youre molding yourself into something that preexisted.
I think that theres probably some latitude theres ways to resist rushing into the stereotype.
Im mostly just trying to not get fired.
