411mania Interviews: Southland star Michael Cudlitz
Posted by Al Norton on 01.04.2011
411's Al Norton sits down for an exclusive interview with Southland star Michael Cudlitz.
While Michael Cudlitz has Beverly Hills 90210, CSI, Lost, 24, Stand Off, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story on his resume, his best known role was as Bull Randleman in HBO's Award winning mini-series Band of Brothers, although his part in Grosse Point Blank runs a close second. Tonight he begins his third season starring as John Cooper in the critically acclaimed TNT police drama Southland.
Al Norton: How nice is it to be on a network that appreciates you?
Michael Cudlitz: Oh, you have no idea (laughing). Everybody loves to be loved!
Al Norton: With what happened this fall, with one show getting cancelled after two episodes and another after four, did that put what NBC did to Southland in a different perspective?
Michael Cudlitz: I don't think what happened with us and NBC can be compared to anything else. There whole thing was a business decision more than anything to do with the actual show we were making and they're still going through their growing pains and changes now. I wish them well but they have some stuff to work through and we're excited to be back on the air, that we didn't die when we were killed (laughing).
Al Norton: What drew you to Officer John Cooper?
Michael Cudlitz: John Wells (the show's executive producer). It's a John Wells show, which means it's going to be character driven, it's going to be exciting, and that you should expect the unexpected. He's a phenomenal storyteller.
With John Cooper specifically, I don't think I've ever played a character who is more layered than John. His journey has been so interesting and continues to be interesting. He's a mess. For someone who needs to be the one in charge, to have it all together, underneath it all is probably one of the least together people I am aware of on the show. He's got a lot going on. There's the social stuff he's dealing with, the physical stuff he's dealing with, the history of his family, what happened to him as a child. People are going to learn about him, to be exposed to a lot more of him and his past as the season goes on. To be able to play those layers every day was something I just couldn't turn down.
Al Norton: He's obviously not an emotions-on-his-sleeve kind of guy but there is clearly a lot going on there.
Michael Cudlitz: Well, it's all there and he's just burying it. You'll see later in the season that some of the stuff cracks out, and it's not a pretty sight. He process information and emotion different than anyone else on the show and at this point he's able to conceal it but he's still affected by the things that he sees on a day-to-day basis, he's just better at compartmentalizing it.
Al Norton: I interviewed Regina (King) and Shawn (Hatosy) over the first two seasons and they both said they hoped to one day do a scene with all the characters together.
Michael Cudlitz: We did it. And it's not a contrived television moment. It's a gang shooting that involves a lot of interdepartmental stuff. One of the things that we've done that is a change is that we're sort of acknowledging that the two different divisions share a border –we're not in the same division but we're very close to each other – so the characters can cross over, interact with each other, which I think is very satisfying for the audience. You want to have these worlds collide sometimes so you can see how your favorite characters interact with each other.
Al Norton: Do people still come up to you and talk about your part in Grosse Point Blank?
Michael Cudlitz: Absolutely, and I love that. I've been very fortunate over the years to work quite a bit and while I'm proud of all my work, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm proud of all my projects, so when people come up to me and say, "hey, are you that guy…" your mind goes, "please pick something good." When they talk about Bob Destepello it just makes me laugh because I had such a good time shooting that project. John Cusack was so great to work with and I had so much fun. People come up all the time and go, "dude, dude, you wanna do some blow?" and I say, "no, no I do not."
Al Norton: I am curious if you watched The Pacific and if you did, having gone through everything you did to make Band of Brothers, do you watch it through a different set of eyes than an regular TV viewer?
Michael Cudlitz: Probably, because we know what went it to making it. I have a barbeque at my house every year for the Band of Brothers guys and this year it coincided with all the press going on for The Pacific so a lot of those guys came over and they were all great. They had a hard task; they were going to be compared to us no matter what. I think the producers did a great job in choosing to tell the story in a different way, following those specific guys. For me, where it lost traction was the storytelling when they went on leave and when they came home. It's really hard to have an audience stay with you when you're talking about somebody losing their girlfriend and we're supposed to care about that and in the next scene we're seeing somebody getting their head blown off; after that, I didn't really care about the girlfriend.
Al Norton: It's literally not life or death.
Michael Cudlitz: Yes, and it's hard to tell those stories because a lot of those stories happened in both places. I think it was phenomenally done and they did a fantastic job but I think they had a bit of an insurmountable task because of the way the public embraced Brothers.
Al Norton: Can you give me a preview of the new season of Southland?
Michael Cudlitz: It's really fantastic; watch it (laughing). That's all I got. It's some of the best TV you have ever seen.
Don't the season premier of Southland, tonight at 10 pm on TNT.
