Letting Them Talk with Will Harris

willharrisinva
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Weekly

Longtime pop culture journalist Will Harris, perhaps best known for his work at the A.V. Club (or, more specifically, for his Random Roles interviews), finally embarks on a straightforward interview podcast, chatting with actors, writers, musicians, political pundits, comic book artists... The world is his oyster, and he's planning to make the most of it!

  1. 3d ago

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 46 - Josh Joplin (The Josh Joplin Group / Camera One / Among the Oak and Ash)

    This time I’m letting Josh Joplin talk. I’ve been enjoying Josh’s music for 25 years now. He’s actually been making music longer than that, but I don’t mind admitting that it wasn’t until the release of his single “Camera One” that I first found myself listening to Josh Joplin and his Group. Josh actually released his first single in 1989, and while it isn’t available for streaming on Spotify or anything like that, you can find it online, and you can hear just how much of an unabashed folk singer he was at the time. That was released under his own name, as was his debut album, 1990’s Facts of Fortune, but in short order he formed the Josh Joplin Band, which eventually evolved into the Josh Joplin Group. The release of 2001’s Useful Music was a major turning point for Josh, thanks to the aforementioned “Camera One” becoming the first independently-released single to hit #1 at Triple-A radio. The Josh Joplin Group promptly toured the world and elsewhere, and if the band’s next album, The Future That Was, didn’t necessarily hit the same commercial heights as its predecessor – and as we discuss, it did not – it hasn’t stopped Josh from continuing to write, record, and tour in earnest. During the course of our conversation, Josh and I talk about the various periods of his career, getting the opportunity to be produced by Shawn Mullins and Jerry Harrison, making a memorable appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, having close encounters with Pete Seeger, P!nk, and Jay-Z, being influenced by Dan Zanes, and doing a bit of musical reinvention with Among the Oak and Ash. At the moment, Josh is proudly revisiting Useful Music for its 25th anniversary, having issued it on vinyl and also releasing what would be best be described as a companion piece: Useful Music: The Silver Anniversary Sessions, which includes a variety of demos as well as a gorgeous piano version of “Camera One” which really does serve to reinvent the song. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Josh Joplin talk.

  2. 6d ago

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 45 - Spencer Garrett (Dog Day Afternoon / Air Force One / Winning Time / 21 Jump Street / Star Trek: The Next Generation)

    This time I’m letting Spencer Garrett talk. I’ve been watching this guy’s work since he made an appearance in a season four episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “The Drumhead.” No, I didn’t know who he was at the time, nor should I have, since he’d really only just gotten started at that point, but in short order he began to appear in everything. No, but for real: Spencer Garrett truly is “that guy who was in that thing.” His list of credits is well into the 200s – and rapidly heading toward 300 – and if he hasn’t been in everything, it often seems as though he has, particularly when you start scrolling through his filmography and see how many one-off episodes he’s done over the years. As of when we recorded this episode, it had been just over a week since Spencer had wrapped a very successful run on Broadway in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ adaptation of the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, and I literally managed to catch him the day before he headed off for a well-deserved three-week vacation. In fact, even though we’d been talking about doing an interview for awhile, in the end it came together so quickly that I had less than 24 hours to get ready for the conversation. Fortunately, I was able to reach out to a few of our mutual acquaintances to get some suggestions for topics to discuss…so thank you to Jim Beaver, Xander Berkeley, and the ubiquitous Richard Kind for chiming in. Between their ideas and my research, we ended up having a wealth of material to cover during the course of the conversation. Among the topics tackled: Spencer’s mother, who – in addition to having been a cast member on The Real McCoys – is a former president of the Screen Actors guild, which put him in some pretty impressive company well before he ever became an actor himself; getting some significant screen time in  Air Force One; working with David Milch and Michael Mann on Luck; being part of the Sorkin-verse by appearing in Sports Night, The West Wing, and the Aaron Sorkin-penned Charlie Wilson’s War; how his episode of 21 Jump Street has a notable connection to his work on the HBO series Winning Time; and, yes, we talked about playing a part-human, part-Romulan character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. And given my history with Random Roles, I particularly enjoyed getting to hear about the formation and membership of the CADs, a.k.a. the Character Actors Dining Society. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Spencer Garrett talk.

  3. Jul 22 ·  Bonus

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Stopgap Edition #1 - Alex Rocco (The Friends of Eddie Coyle / The Godfather / Party Down)

    This one's a bit of an experiment, folks: since I knew I wasn't going to have two episodes available for download this week, I decided that I'd venture into the archives and find the audio from an interview that you've hopefully read but certainly have never heard. In this case, it's what I'm guessing is probably the last third of the Random Roles that I did with Alex Rocco for the A.V. Club when he was part of the cast of Starz' Magic City. Not that we talk about that series in this portion of the interview. In fact, my advice to you is that you don't go into this episode with any particular plans to hear about specific projects. Instead, just go in expecting to hear the voice of Alex Rocco, because you get that in spades for about 20 minutes. He seemed legitimately fascinated to talk to me, and you'll be able to hear that, just as you'll hear that that fascination required me to keep him on track, lest the conversation become more about me than him. He wanted to let ME talk! That's the complete antithesis of this podcast, for God's sake! Still, it's worth it just to hear him say that I'm ostensibly "pretty hip." I don't buy it, but it sure sounded good when he said it... Anyway, I just wanted you to have a little something to keep you happy until the next proper episode is live, which should be by the end of the week. But if you enjoy this, let me know, and I'll see what else I can find. The quality of these pre-Zoom interviews vary wildly, but they're still pretty fascinating...

  4. Jul 17

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 44 - John Ross Bowie (The Big Bang Theory / Stuart Fails to Save the Universe / Speechless / The Brink of War / Death in Paradise))

    Today I’m letting John Ross Bowie talk. John has a true gift for comedy, but he’s also a gifted actor. Case and point: when he’s playing Barry Kripke, you often want to punch him in the face, but by the end of this podcast, you’ll want to buy him a drink just so that you can keep hanging out with him and having him tell you stories. John got his start in the theater, but you almost certainly know him best for his work on the small screen…and occasionally on the big screen as well, mind you, but it’s his TV credits that you know the best, and your list probably starts with The Big Bang Theory, where – as was just mentioned – he plays Barry Kripe. John is reprising that role in the new HBO Max series Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and I for one freaking love it and can’t recommend enough. That said, one of the first things that’s said in our conversation is that, as of that point, I hadn’t actually seen the show yet. Now I have – predictably, the screeners showed up later that day – and I can rave about it. And we’ll have a follow-up bonus episode where John and I talk about it, just as soon as we can figure out when to record it. But make no mistake, it’s coming. But don’t let that stop you from watching it, because it’s an absolute blast. Fortunately, we had other things to talk about during our time together, including how he made it onto Big Bang in the first place. I also casually suggested a Speechless revival that he’s all in on. We talked about his memoir, NO JOB FOR A MAN, which I also highly recommend, and that led us into some fun music talk connected to his band Egghead. Other topics included the very odd film What The Bleep Do We Know?, some of his one-off episodes over the years, including Girlfriends and The League, and a great definitive Hollywood story to wrap things up. Oh, and when the conversation starts, I should clarify that you’ll hear him reference his invitation to the Zoom call, where it suggests that he should politely tolerate my questions, something which he adamantly refuses to do. Okay, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let John Ross Bowie talk.

  5. Jul 13

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 43 - Jane Seymour (Harry Wild / Dr. Quinn / Live and Let Die / Somewhere in Time / Battlestar Galactica / Radiohead )

    This time I’m letting Jane Seymour talk. Jane has been a staple of TV and film since the start of the 1970s. Having gotten her start as an uncredited extra in the 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War. By the following year, she was actually being credited, and by 1973, she was a Bond girl, so it’s fair to say that she moved up the ranks pretty quickly as an actress…and she’s yet to stop moving or acting. At the moment, she’s starring in the fifth series of the Irish detective dramedy Harry Wild, which you can check out on Acorn TV, and although it’s been a fun watch from the very beginning, this season is particularly eyebrow-raising for those who’ve been fans of Seymour’s since her Dr. Quinn days, as she’s reteamed with Joe Lando, a.k.a. the good doctor’s old beau Sully. Suffice it to say that the twosome still have the same chemistry that they used to, so if you’re a fan, you’ll definitely want to see how they’re playing together as this new pair of characters. Given that that’s Jane’s current project, that’s of course where we start our conversation, but we made our way through as much of her career as we could during the time that we had allotted for our conversation. Mind you, as you’ll hear pretty quickly into the conversation, Jane has a memoir on the horizon, and once I heard her say, “There’ll be more in my upcoming book,” I knew that I might yield better results if I tended to ask about a few things that aren’t necessarily asked about on the regular, like working with Elizabeth Montgomery on The Awakening Land, or playing Jensen Ackles’ mother on Smallville, being friends with Johnny and June Carter Cash, or playing against Ian McKellen in The Scarlet Pimpernel. I also asked how she ended up having her home turned into a recording studio for Radiohead and the Cure, which resulted in a fun answer. But, yes, of course, we did still spend a few moments here and there on things like Live and Let Die, Battlestar Galactica, Somewhere in Time, Oh Heavenly Dog, and even the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders movie. Oh, yes, and she’d do a sequel to Dr. Quinn: Morphine Woman in a heartbeat. Okay, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Jane Seymour talk.

  6. Jul 10

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 42 - Bruce McGill (Lioness / Scooby-Doo: Origins / Animal House / Miami Vice / Rizzoli and Isles)

    This time, I’m letting Bruce McGill talk. I’ve talked to Bruce many times in the past, and it’s because he’s always got stories to tell. In fact, he’s got so many stories that I continue to try to talk him into letting me help him write his memoir. To date, it has not happened, but he says that if he does it, the only person he’d collaborate with is me, and by God, Bruce McGill is a man of his word. Bruce and I first talked when he was part of the cast of TNT’s Rizzoli and Isles, and he was so pleased with the end result of that interview that we’ve stayed in touch ever since. As such, I always knew that I wanted to have him as a guest on this podcast, but I wanted to wait until he had something to promote. And now he does: in addition to being part of the cast of the Paramount+ series Lioness – season three premieres on August 2 – he’s also part of the cast of Netflix’s upcoming Scooby-Doo: Origins. And while he obviously couldn’t tell me much more about the actual plot of the series beyond the fact that, yes, it’s an origin story, he did go into detail about the experience of filming it. I won’t claim that this is a fully comprehensive interview with Bruce, mostly because I’ve talked to him so many times over the years that we’ve tackled a lot of subjects, some of them more than once. But having said that, this is the first time you’ve actually been able to hear me talk to him, so I did touch on a few of the greatest hits, so to speak. So we talked a bit about Animal House, we talked about his iconic episode of Miami Vice, working with Michael Caine and Oliver Stone on The Hand, befriending Wilfred Brimley, doing one of his first films with an up-and-comer named Jonathan Demme, and much more. So, no, we didn’t hit on everything that folks asked me if I’d ask him about, mostly because you asked me to ask him about a LOT. But Bruce is always game for another conversation, so when Scooby-Doo: Origins is actually on the cusp of coming out, don’t be surprised if you hear from him again. And that’s “hear from him,” not “see him,” by the way. He’s old-school. He doesn’t love Zoom. He once said that he doesn’t turn on the camera unless he’s getting paid. Mostly I think he just doesn’t love screwing around with the computer. But, hey, he’s been in enough things that you already know what he looks like anyway. And that’s plenty enough of an intro. It’s time to let Bruce McGill talk.

  7. Jul 6

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 41 - Bill Lawrence (Scrubs / Ted Lasso / Shrinking / Bad Monkey / Rooster)

    Today I’m letting Bill Lawrence talk. I first interviewed Bill because of his ties to my area: he’s an alumnus of the College of William & Mary, which provided me with a local angle and an excuse to talk to him for The Virginian-Pilot. Or was the first time for PortFolio Weekly? Either way, I’ve known Bill Lawrence for quite some time at this point, and yet despite that, it somehow always surprises me that he still remembers me. But he does, in fact, remember me, and when I shot him a line on Facebook a few months back and suggested that he should do this podcast, he promptly wrote back and said, “Will, I’d be a bad guy if I didn’t.” The thing is, Bill Lawrence is a very busy man. But if you watch much TV, then you probably already knew that. You know him from SCRUBS, of course, but lately you might also know him for TED LASSO. Or perhaps SHRINKING. Or most recently for HBO’s ROOSTER. He’s also executive producer of BAD MONKEY. So as you might imagine, just because Bill’s willing to do your podcast doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily available to do your podcast. And when one of the reasons why he’s not available is because he’s busy directing the first episode of the next season of SHRINKING, then by God, you can accept that. And when you find yourself waiting for him to pop on the line for the interview and you discover that he’s still in the writers room and that he’s got a call scheduled for as soon as your interview is over, you start wondering if maybe this interview isn’t actually going to happen today after all. And that’s when Bill pops onto the Zoom call, and he’s ready and willing to talk up everything he’s got in the pipeline at the moment, things he’s done in the past that you might remember fondly, and he even offers up a George Clooney story that a) he realizes he’s never actually told before, and b) tells you that it makes him happy that he was able to tell it to you. So, yeah, long story short, Bill Lawrence is a pretty swell guy. And when you listen to this conversation, you’d never guess that it’d been years since the last time we actually talked, because he’s one of the best talkers in the business. Okay, that’s enough of an intro. It’s time to let Bill Lawrence talk.

  8. Jul 3

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 40 - Jamie Hector (The Wire / Bosch / Heroes / The Strain / Cape Fear / Wu-Tang Clan))

    This time I’m letting Jamie Hector talk. Funny thing is, I actually interviewed Jamie for the AV Club, even if I didn’t entirely remember it at first. In my defense, I’ve done so freaking many Random Roles interviews over the years that the relatively few non-Random Roles interviews I’ve done with actors often slip past me, although I really should’ve remembered the fact that I interviewed Marlo from the freakin’ WIRE! Yes, that’s right: Jamie played Marlo on HBO’s THE WIRE, and he so quickly became a defining figure of the series that you may not even remember that he wasn’t even an original cast member. These days his character is so closely associated with the show that Marlo came in at #2 on Rolling Stone’s Greatest TV Villains of All Time in 2016. That’s a pretty bad guy right there. Currently, however, Jamie back on the side of the good, playing Ray Rawlins on the Apple TV+ adaptation of CAPE FEAR, which continues to unfold until its 10th and final episode airs on July 31. And it’s not as if he wasn’t keeping busy between these projects, y’know. After THE WIRE, he stepped straight into an arc on HEROES, and he also did a stint on FX’s THE STRAIN. More recently, he’s been busy playing Jerry Edgar on BOSCH as well as reprising his role on the various spinoffs of the series. And we also talked about how exciting it was for him to appear in WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA, how he enjoyed the rare opportunity to do comedy in an episode of ARE WE THERE YET? (where he played a character named Arlo, which, y’know, probably just a coincidence), and oh, yes, we talked a lot about THE WIRE, too. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Jamie Hector talk.

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About

Longtime pop culture journalist Will Harris, perhaps best known for his work at the A.V. Club (or, more specifically, for his Random Roles interviews), finally embarks on a straightforward interview podcast, chatting with actors, writers, musicians, political pundits, comic book artists... The world is his oyster, and he's planning to make the most of it!

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