Hey, It's That Guy From That Thing
An Appreciation of Character Actors
Hey Folks!….There are a lot of new subscribers here! So I just want to say Hi and Thank you! I am a stand up comedian and actor. And this week I just got pretty enthusiastic about the acting part of my life. So I wrote a long piece about acting. I hope you like it! AND….if anyone has a character actor they like or a performance PUT IT IN THE COMMENTS!!!!!!! Also…you can LISTEN or READ as always. Thanks you! Bye!
For as long as I can remember my mom would drop by Half Price Books in Columbus, Ohio to pop in and see if anything caught her eye. In high school I had just began acting in my school plays and my interest in the craft of acting was sparked and on a trip to Half Price Books my mom picked up a small pocket sized encyclopedia of character actors.
Hey It’s That Guy! The Fametracker.com Guide to Character Actors
Hey! It’s That Guy has traveled with me from my move to my dorm in Pittsburgh to pursue my Bachelor in Theater. It made its way to New York City with me and to 5 different apartments and it still sits on my bookshelf. It is a perfect little book that demystified a very important part of film. Who are those actors that are in everything. The cops. The DA’s. The Gangsters. The Villain. The Stapler Guy.
Everyone knows who Robert De Niro is when he is on screen, he is Robert Fucking De Niro! Meryl Streep does a an exceptional job acting in various wigs. Christian Bale can gain 50 pounds or lose 50 pounds, fat Bale, skinny Bale, always a great Bale! But what about those people that just show up in everything. They are like The Gideon’s Bible, you almost forgot they existed but they are always there with you in a hotel room, the bible in the drawer next to the bed and the character actor on the television as you click past the premium cable channels and see the familiar faces of the films of the 80’s through today.
The rise of the internet helped put That Guy into context, a website like IMDB was a place to discover all the films the different That Guys were in and if you were like me, obsess over and appreciate what they bring to a movie or television show. Take Stephen Root for example. The Stapler Guy from Office Space. My sister Jayme got it on DVD and we watched it and thought, like many other people, who is THAT GUY. For many years, it was so unique, a seemingly over the top performance that actually was absolutely a person we have all met in real life. How did they find that actor? Or was that an actor, maybe it was a real person. He was featured in the book my Mom purchased me. His name was Stephen Root and according to IMDB since 1988 he has been in 273 different films or TV shows (for comparison, since 1990 Leonard DiCaprio has 43 films film/tv credits).
My favourite actor of all time is Philip Seymour Hoffman and my favourite review of my stand up special The 30 Year Old Virgin is this…
Doyle offers….his numerous run-ins with the recently-deceased Philip Seymour Hoffman (really, for the proportionate amount he spends on each topic, the show really should be called The 30 Year Old Fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman).
And later in the review…
For the lion’s share of the special, you’ll perhaps chuckle here and there but mostly be bored by the B-Tier humour Doyle puts out (we get it, you like Philip Seymour Hoffman).
This reviewer is welcome to critique my comedy in whatever way he sees fit. I take no umbrage with that. What infuriates me, even typing it is making my blood boil, is that he was not enthralled by the fact that I randomly bumped into Philip Seymour Hoffman twice and got to talk to potentially the greatest actor in the history of film (and I humiliated myself both times). That is worth 7 minutes of comedy and I am not above writing another show 60 minute show in 3 years called The 40 Year Old Fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was in that book, before Capote, before any major award nominations. He was just another Hey, It’s That Guy.
One of the great regrets of my life is that at age 15 I didn’t steal my parents car and drive to New York City to see the Sam Shepard play True West starring John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman alternating roles every other night. It opened on Broadway on March 9th, 2000 and that morning Hoffman and Reilly went on The Rosie O’Donnell Show to flip a coin to see what role they would play that night. I turned to my mom and said,
‘Mom…can we go to New York to see that?’
I don’t know her precise answer but I know it was some version of ‘no’ because we didn’t go and then John C. Reilly hasn’t performed on stage since then and then 9/11 happened and then Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a heroin overdose and I should have just stolen the fucking car.
My mom knew I would like that book is because already at age 17 or 18 I was losing my hair and she was always letting me know she would pay for any prescription I needed, she would pay for a hair transplant. She just didn’t want me to feel bad that I was losing my hair. I remember telling her I was never taking Propecia or Rogaine or getting a hair transplant because one day I would be older and being bald would be great for a character actor. That was 20 years ago now and I will tell you a 37 year old bald man looks a lot more normal than a 17 year old with strawberry blond thinning hair. But it was worth…I am about to hit my That Guy Prime
One of the most iconic scenes in film the past 25 years was the coin flip scene in No Country For Old Men. Javier Bardem walks into a gas station and the attendant is just a regular old guy you could imagine seeing if you were fuelling out in the middle of no where in west Texas. Then Bardem’s character flips a coin and asks him to ‘Call it’ and you know that this common everyman is on the precipice of life and death, he sweats as they dance around the topic of fate and free will. You aren't thinking about that as you watch the scene the first time, you are thinking ‘Holy shit! This poor dude is about to get his head blown off! He didn't even do anything wrong! What the hell is going on!’
My dad is so obsessed with the coin flip scene from No Country For Old Men I think my mom knows the entire scene from my dad quoting it at random.
Dad: What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
Mom: Jim, please stop.
Dad: Call it.
Mom: (Rolls eyes)
Dad: You need to call it. I can’t call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It would’t even be right.
Mom: (Sighs deeply)
Dad: You been putting it up your whole life. You just didn’t know it.
Action: Mom pulls out a bolt gun used to kill cattle. She put’s it to Dad’s forehead.
Mom: Stop. Quoting. That. Scene.
Dad stops the scene and successfully salvages their marriage.
The entire scene is 4 minutes and I won’t tell you what happens in case you haven’t seen the scene but ultimately Javier Bardem leaves the gas station and the Gas Station Attendant is never seen again in the film. And when the credits roll you will want to see who That Guy is. It is an actor named Gene Jones. He was in The Hateful Eight, an episode of The Chappelle Show, he does voice over for Ken Burns documentaries and he’s in Martin Scorsese’s next film The Killers of the Flower Moon.
A few years ago when the film Uncut Gems came out there was this gravely voiced menace in the film named Phil. The second he shows up on screen you know he is not someone you want to be on the bad side of. And I won’t ruin Uncut Gems for you either but he proves to be a person you should not get on the wrong side of. The movie’s protagonist is Adam Sandler, unquestionably the most famous comedic actor in the world, and you are in awe of how Adam Sandler can play Happy Gilmore and also this guy! And then you see the Phil Character and you are like ‘ Who the hell is That Guy.’
Last year I got cast in a short film called Night Cafe and I had a scene with Gene Jones. I texted my dad and told him but it would’ve been worthless to tell him I was in a film with Gene Jones. No…I texted him,
‘Dad…Just got cast in a film and guess who my scene partner is…COIN FLIP GUY!!!!’
Dad knew exactly who I was referring to and I think he was more excited than if I had been in a film with Javier Bardem. I know I was, listen, Javier Bardem may have an Oscar and is married to Penelope Cruz but Gene is That Guy!!! And That Guy’s get to work with all the greats. Comedians like Dave Chappelle, Documentarians like Ken Burns and Directors like Martin Scorcese.
When we were filming my Dad came down to the set to meet Gene. He played it cool. He played it way cooler than I did when I met Philip Seymour Hoffman. I told him ‘Excuse me Mr. Hoffman. I am a huge fan and I think you are the greatest actor of this generation and you are my wifi password.’ That is not a lie. I actually said that to him. My dad and Gene had a coffee and chatted about life. He talked about acting the same way my Dad talks about his work, selling industrial products. It’s a good job and they work hard at it and are pretty good at it.
The actor who played the Cafe Manager of the eponymous Night Cafe was Keith Michael Richards. He was spotted on the streets of Manhattan by a casting director who said ‘Who is That Guy?’ She got his information and ultimately he was cast in Uncut Gems, up until that point had never acted before.
I wrote all this out because I was going through my camera roll in my iPhone and I came across this picture of Gene, Keith and I having a cigarette on the set of Night Cafe and I thought about that book my mom got for me 20 years ago. I always had this quiet suspicion that character actors got to have it all. They may not have the biggest roles but they got the best roles (and the most). They may not get nominated for awards but they didn’t get recognised out in public either (although some actors like Hoffman or JK Simmons rise above their That Guy station and go on to win Oscars). But most of all, I had this suspicion that many of these actors are just hardworking regular guys who can portray people well because they haven’t lost touch with the fact that though they are in The Movies, they are just working a job and that job is to portray a person. This may not be true for every character actor in the history of film but it was true of Keith and Gene. They are just hardworking regular guys who are very good at acting and also…they have great stories.
I am sure my Mom and Dad will text me to scold me for smoking if they see this picture but if you are going to smoke a cigarette you should do it with That Guys, they have the best stories.
I was standing there and just couldn’t hold it in. I wanted to just shoot the shit and talk about the weather and how the shoot was going but I just couldn’t hold it in.
‘Gene…cmon man…what was filming the coin flip scene like?’ I blurted out.
He laughed, the other actors and crew in the smoking circle laughed. Everyone knows its way cooler to pretend like you are on a film set with great actors and didn’t even notice anything, ‘Oh, you were in that scene from No Country for Old Men, it never even crossed my mind. I totally forgot’
Gene smiled humbly and said ‘Well, Kevin, I loved working with Javier and the Coens and it’s great working with Marty Scorsese but the best was working with Tarantino.’
One of the other younger actors chimed in ‘That is the coolest fucking thing I have ever heard.’
Then Keith said “Yeah, Martin Scorsese produced Uncut Gems and he kept on begging me to do the movie and I just wasn’t sure about doing it cause I never acted or nothin’. And then Marty said ‘C’mon…your name is Keith Richards, what is the worst that could happen and so I did it.”
Then the younger actor said ‘Actually THAT is the coolest thing I have ever heard.’
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Shots from Night Cafe written and directed by Josh Nowak
Night Cafe premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. It will be showing in Columbus Ohio at Wexner Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 22 @ 7pm and April 28th at Gateway Film Center at 4pm
This was great, Kevin! I actually did a spit take when you described meeting Philip Seymour Hoffman. A literal, unintentional spit take. How cool is that? Thank you for that laugh! And thank you for putting a spotlight on That Guy. As for that reviewer, they're just wrong about the Philip Seymour Hoffman material. My feeling is that every minute of an awkward celeb encounter is worth at least ten minutes of comedic material.