Christopher McDonald is surely a name and face you recognize. From his memorable part as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore (EPIC) to his roles in Thelma and Louise, House Arrest, Requiem for a Dream, The Skulls and more -- Chris is nothing less than a veteran. Not to mention, he just had an awesome guest stint on Boardwalk Empire.
Currently, the seasoned actor stars alongside Kathy Bates on the popular NBC legal comedy-drama, Harry's Law. I had the chance to chat with Chris about his character Tommy Jefferson, upcoming storylines, as well as his favorite charities and TV shows. And I'll just preface this by saying: he was probably the nicest man EVER. We bonded over our mutual love for fall NYC weather and gushed over stupid reality shows for a while. Check out our interview below!
Ology: Hi Chris! So the show is in its second season. What particularly drew you to your character, Tommy?
Christopher: What drew me to it is that he is, on the surface, one thing, but when you get to know him a little bit, he’s got all these faults and needs and he’s very human. He’s got all those human foibles that we actors love to play because he can come off one-dimensional at first and then you see this poor guy has all that blustery self-confidence and he’s kind of a mess inside. Harry recognizes that and she asks him all these probing questions like, “Why would you do that? Why would you come off like that? Why don’t you just tone it down?” and he’s like, “Well, I have to be like that. I’m Tommy Jefferson” and tells his whole story about how this girl forget his name in high school. These kind of things stick with you. David Kelley has written a really fully dimensional character now and he brings more and more to it with each script. It’s a blast actually to open them up and see what he’s got in store for Tommy J.
Definitely! You’ve worked with a ton of people, but what’s it like working with Kathy Bates?
Well, I gotta tell ya, Kathy Bates is truly one of the great actors. She is funny, dry, quick, an extremely powerful actress in that she has that great depth and great range and great force. So she’s someone to be reckoned with even if she wasn’t an actor. I swear, she’s just an all-around great girl and a great person, a great spirit. She really is. I just love working with her. I think we have great chemistry, it’s not sexual, we just kind of do it. However, if they turn it to sexual, I wouldn’t be opposed to that. It’s just that she is an actor’s actor. She really is.
What’s the atmosphere on set like?
Well I’ll tell you this, we have a lot of clowns on set. So you know, Nate Corddry starts it and then with a very dry humor Mark Valley pops in and then you can always count on me for keeping it going. So we have a very good laugh. We were just working last week together and we’re getting close to getting picked up for a back nine so we’re anxious, to be honest. A little frustrated it hasn’t happened yet but they made a gesture of picking up six new scripts, but I think the frustration is in the air. There was a scene where all four of them were together and in comes the guy that shares office space with them, yours truly, saying, “OK, we’re going to the conference room and we need to get our heads together around this problem ASAP” and then she goes, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.” I say, “I've got a crisis, Harry” and we all have a good laugh about it because we can see that there’s a real comfort. I mean, there’s not a bad egg among us. Everybody’s got a good attitude. We come prepared. We get the job done. We pack, you know, we get up early, we work hard. But we enjoy the work, so it’s really a joy.
Definitely. Now, can you tell us anything about what’s coming up?
Well, let’s see. I can probably get fired, so let’s see if I can avoid that by telling you that we have great guest stars. You always see Tommy in the background throwing his two cents in. But I’ve got great episodes coming up, I have, you know, dealing with Alzheimers, I’m dealing with green burials, I’m dealing with the Wall Street thing that’s happening right now. It’s topical. It’s taken from the headlines. It’s something we all think about. It’s skewing a little older, which makes the networks a little crazy, but I’m telling you, that’s where all the eyes are and that’s where the money is too.
Right. You've done tons of stuff over the years. Which role do you get most recognized for?
Well depends on where I am. If I’m in New York City walking down the street, then girls yell out, “Oh my God, that guy from Thelma and Louise.” (laughs). Cause it actually happened. The movie had just come out and these girls go, “Oh my God, that’s the guy from Thelma and Louise” and they looked over and the other one said, “Shoot him” because they hated me so much. It was terrible.
But you just take it in stride.
Yeah. You know I’m so unlike the characters I play. I guess there’s a little me in everything, of course, but mostly I get Shooter McGavin. And now, I’m happy to say I get a lot of Tommy Jefferson, which is great. "Oh my God, you’re Tommy Jefferson." It’s great. They really love the show, they love Kathy. They love our chemistry. They love the material. So hopefully we’ll be around for a while.
Is there anyone you’re dying to get on set as a guest star?
We got Jason Alexander. It’s like stunt casting in a way. I know so many great actors, great actors, that can’t get a gig right now and I would love to see them on. You know, I don’t want to mention their names but there’s so many brilliantly talented actors out there that never get breaks, They never get the shot. Either it’s somewhat self-imposed or it’s just the way it is and what gets an actor to be resilient is to take it personally each time. Sometimes they get a little bitter by the whole thing and say, “You know what, I can’t believe they didn’t hire me” and they get really angry and your skin can absorb a lot of that negativity that’s in that town as well. So I live in the mountains. I feel that helps me clear my head.
You still have to go through the audition process and everything?
Yeah. Well the audition process for this, it was an offer, it’s different. But the audition process for, like, I did Boardwalk Empire, and that was the first time I did an audition that I had to tape myself and send it.
Oh wow.
That was new to me. I had never done that before. You know, I’m pretty good at the computer but I got my little flip camera out, set it up on top of this little tripod and I did the lines, by myself, in my head, listening to Nucky Thompson and answering him. I did it for a bit, but I worked on it. I made sure I liked it a lot. They looked at it and you know, Timothy Van Patten was directing the episode, and he goes, “Oh yeah we know who you are. We loved you. Do the episode.” So yeah, they’re doing that now. But all that work was like, “Yeah, of course, he’s great.” But I’m so glad I’m doing it. I’m having a blast doing that show. I don’t do a lot of them but what I do is true. So that’s good.
That's a great show. What other shows do you enjoy? Do you watch a lot of TV?
I do. I’m pretty good about filling up my DVR with everything that’s on the fall schedule. You want to see what they picked up, how they promoted it, who was in it and what kind of work was going on. I see a lot of everything. The shows that really stick with me are... I love The Good Wife. She’s terrific. The show is terrific. Everybody on that show is really good. I love Modern Family. We happen to be in the worst time slot because we’re opposite them. Really, really funny show and I love it. And they put us with The X Factor, like come on, you think we’re gonna survive in that slot? Hopefully we’ll change it, but there’s a lot of interesting things I’m looking forward to. Of course, I watch Boardwalk Empire, I watch The Game of Thrones, it’s brilliant. I really liked that Hank Azaria show that was just cancelled but, what do you know?
Any guilty pleasure shows that you catch yourself watching?
Yeah, you want me to say I like Jersey Housewives? (laughs). No, I don’t watch any of that stuff. I must say, the people on my show, when I come here to do make-up at like 6 o’clock in the morning, “Did you hear what she said on Jersey Shore last night?” You know? It’s kind of like, “Why are you guys watching that? You’re stealing hours from our television.” It is a very guilty pleasure though and people seem to really get into it. I did one, one guest thing on Gene Simmons cause he’s an old pal. The producer pal said, “You want to go to Turks and Caicos and act opposite Gene?” and I said, “Well, what do I have to do?” “Just be yourself. Be you know? International movie star.” So I went and they gave me all kinds of girls to be around. I got flak for it. “What were you doing messing around with all those girls?”
Haha! Hilarious. So I hear you're involved with several charities. Tell me about your latest!
Well I started out with my friend Jim Kelly who unfortunately lost his son to this thing called Krabbe’s Disease, which is basically a muscular disease and you can’t use the muscles in your body. His son, who was born on his birthday, got this and the only reason he got it is because that disease wasn’t checked for. So, in the states, when you have a baby, they do the heel prick and they check the blood and they test it for an average 16 to 20 diseases. Well, there are some states that check for 54. So you can have your baby born in Pennsylvania and drive like 12 minutes and be over in New York and your baby would’ve been born in the wrong state because they don’t check for these diseases and your baby could get diseased. If you catch the thing early, they give you a blood transfusion and the kid has a normal life. [If] you don’t, the kid dies within four years.
Wow. That's awful!
What he’s trying to do is get it up to 54, like, I think, Minnesota does it. That should be the standard. It’s not money. It’s time and diligence really. If I’m having a baby born, I want to make sure that he doesn’t have any diseases or she doesn’t have any diseases. I want to check for everything. If we do it for our pets, why can’t we do it for our kids? So that’s one of them I do. We raise a lot of money and he’s got Kelly for Kids going and I started thinking, “What really gets me?” Cause what I have a lot of in my family, unfortunately, is cancer. My father got prostate cancer, my little sister ovarian cancer and my little brother a brain tumor. It’s horrible. It’s only going to get worse as we eat these over-processed foods. So that’s what going to kill us baby boomers more than heart attacks even -- is cancer. So anytime there’s anything for cancer, I lend my time and my energy and whatever celebrity status they think I have to help that. To help give people awareness about it because it’s a horrible horrible disease and they’re making great strides in it right now.
Definitely. Wow. Thanks so much for talking with me today, Chris.
Thank you!
--
Follow Sharon Tharp on Twitter: @sharontharp
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!