SSP STAFF WRITER: ENTERTAINMENT ZONE: August 14, 2020
Our good friend, Mr. Don Harvey, finally got a break in his very busy schedule and took a moment to talk with us. Although you might not know him by name, his work (Taken 3, The Untouchables, Eight Men Out, Die Hard 2, the list goes on and on) should definitely ring a bell. He is a true journeyman actor. We love his devotion to his craft and the beauty of his art. We hope you will too.
Don, tell our followers a little about yourself.
I grew up in Michigan in the sixties and seventies. I’m from a family of eight children. We lived in a big old farmhouse on Lake St. Clair, just north of downtown Detroit. There was always a lot of activity in our house. My mother was an elementary school teacher, so we always had big parties with kids and parents and teachers.
There was a lot of music in our childhood. All of the girls took piano lessons and the boys took guitar. My dad played the trumpet and the drums. We had an old Ludwig drum set from the thirties set up in our dining room. I started playing those when I was four.
What attracted you to begin a career as an actor?
I started acting in high school. Some friends of mine did a school play in ninth grade and when I saw them up there, with all the school kids laughing and applauding, I knew I had to be in the next one. My first play was the Woody Allen comedy “Don’t Drink The Water.” I did a lot of musicals in high school. I never had a good voice, but that didn’t stop me. I always sang my heart out. I took lessons later and learned how to croak a little better. Now I sing in a rock band, so I guess I found my niche.
I never imagined I would act after high school. Nobody from St. Clair Shores, Michigan grows up to be an actor. It’s all just fun and games until you figure out what you’re actually going to do for a living.
I was in my third year at the University of Michigan, playing the guitar in the orchestra pit for the musical “Sweet Charity.” Greg Jbara, an actor who has had a great career and won a Tony Award for his role in “Billy Elliot” on Broadway, was one of my classmates at the time, and he was in the play. I told him I had done some musicals in high school and he encouraged me to get back on stage.
I started taking acting classes and hanging out in the Theatre Department at U of M. That summer I attended American Conservatory Theatre’s Summer Training Congress in San Francisco, and when I returned to Michigan for my senior year, I got serious about acting. I auditioned for the Yale School of Drama and somehow got accepted to their MFA program in acting. After that, I never looked back.
Was it harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that you had to conquer to do either?
Once I got into Yale, there was never any doubt that I could succeed as an actor. My mother was really into credentials. I don’t think I could have just gone to New York or LA and started pounding the pavement. I would have felt very intimidated about that. But once I had a Masters Degree, I felt that I had proven to my parents that I was capable of holding my own.
In my senior year at Michigan, I had auditioned for the play The Time Of Your Life, by William Saroyan. The director was my acting teacher. He put me on the list for callbacks. They were held on the same day, at the same time, as my scheduled LSAT test. At that time, I was determined to go to law school, and the LSATs were required for admission. I had been studying for the test for months. I paid $250 to take a course on how to pass it.
I asked the director of the play if I could skip the callbacks to go to my LSAT test. He said, “Don, it’s not fair of me to offer you a role in the play if you don’t attend the callbacks.” I said, “Can’t you at least tell me if you think you’re going to cast me? If you think you want me in the play, I’ll come to the callbacks. If you don’t think you’re going to cast me, tell me now and I’ll take my LSAT test.” He said, “Now Don, I can’t tell you if you’re going to be cast in the play until I see your callback. You have to make a choice. Do you want to take the LSAT? Or do you want to be in the play? Life is about choices.”
I skipped the LSAT test and went to the callback. I did not get cast in the play. Wow. Talk about a kick in the butt. My mother was not happy about that. But when I got my acceptance letter from Yale, it was all water under the bridge.
When was your first major role as an actor? And how did you get it?
In my final year at Yale, I had a walk-on role in Wole Soyinka’s play A Play Of Giants at the Yale Repertory Theatre. One night an agent from New York named Michael Braun came backstage and told me he wanted to represent me. I said, “You’ve got to be kidding. I didn’t have any lines in the play. How can you tell, from that, that you want to represent me?” He said, “I just know.” I ended up signing with his agency, Abrams Artists, while I was still at Yale, and skipping classes to go into New York for auditions. I got a role on the soap “Ryan’s Hope,” and worked on it all summer after Yale. I had an agent, all of my union cards and an apartment in New York, before I graduated.
My first big role came about a year later. They were casting replacements for the Sam Shepard play “A Lie Of The Mind,” on Broadway. I auditioned for the role that Aiden Quinn originated. The audition was actually in the theatre, on the set. I had seen the play the night before and I was imagining myself up there the whole time. The audition scene contained a long monologue that I had to deliver while lying on a couch.
I was holding my script, lying on the couch, doing the scene and I started the monologue. The character has an emotional outburst in the scene, and on a whim, I hurled my script down to the floor. It broke apart and the pages flew everywhere. I knew at that point I was going to have to do the whole monologue by heart. I ploughed through it and when I finished the scene, the director came running down the aisle of the theatre along with the stage manager and the producers. They were ecstatic about my audition. They were asking me questions like, “Are you available to start rehearsal immediately?” and “Can you do a quick fitting before you leave?” Those are the kinds of questions you like to hear in an audition.
I left there and went to a bar to celebrate. I got drunk and decided to take a train up to New Haven, Connecticut for the weekend, to hang out with some of my old Yale friends. Just before getting on the train, I decided to check my messages. My agent had called to tell me that “I HAD A CALLBACK THE NEXT DAY.” OMG. I was three-sheets-to-the- wind.
I went home and took a bath to sober up. I immediately went to bed and tried to sleep it off. I spent the next day sweating over the lines and wondering how on earth I was going to top that audition.
I showed up at the theatre an hour before they were set to do a performance. The stage manager told me to wait in the greenroom and she’d let me know when they were ready for me. Finally I went up on the stage and started getting the juices flowing for the scene. Just then, the director called me down to the floor of the theatre and handed me the script. He said, “Congratulations, you got the part.” I nearly pooped. Apparently, Michael O’Keefe was considering the role and he had an audition scheduled. When he didn’t show, they offered me the job.
That play was an amazing experience for me. I went on to do a string of great films in the next four years.
A star of both TV and film, which do you enjoy more? And why?
I love films because they are finite. You have the whole script before you start shooting. You have the opportunity to imagine the whole performance and do it all and walk away. It’s a total artistic journey with a beginning, middle and end.
With TV, you never know what’s going to happen in the story. I was cast to do the pilot episode for “The Deuce.” At that point, I had no idea if they would ask me to do any additional episodes. The pilot got picked up and they offered me a recurring role. I got the first script and had no idea where the story or character were going. After shooting each episode I would ask the producer, George Pelecanos, if I was going to be in the next episode. He would always say, “It looks like you’re in the next one, Flannagan.” That was the name of my character.
I ended up doing all eight episodes in the first season and five out of nine in the second season. I never knew what was going to happen in the story, or whether I would be included.
If you get a regular or recurring role in a series, you have to be very flexible as an actor. You have to be able to take the character wherever the writers want him to go. You can’t be too caught up in your idea of who the person is, because you may find out in the fifth episode that he has a secret life you were completely unaware of.
How was it working on Casualties of War with so many young talented actors? What was the best part of that experience?
I had just come off major roles in The Beast and Eight Men Out, when I ventured to Thailand to do Casualties Of War. I was feeling very confident as an actor. But that role really kicked my butt. Brian De Palma wanted my character to be very dark, almost over-the-top evil. I was very naïve about the “Method.” Trying to “live” the part of a crazy warrior, hell-bent on murder and rape. I lived with that specter for months. I was nasty to the sweet Thai people I encountered every day. Just because I felt I needed to develop that part of my nature.
It was a very intense atmosphere. A bunch of young, wild-at-heart actors running around Phuket, Thailand. Staying up all night playing cards. Smoking, drinking, partying at the clubs in town. We were exhausted after a week and all running on adrenaline for the next three months. Totally isolated in a secluded hotel on a distant beach. Then going onto the set every day to play army with Brian De Palma and Sean Penn. A couple of brilliant lunatics.
Michael J. Fox is the kindest and most centered person I’ve ever worked with. If it wasn’t for him, I think I would have gone off the deep end.
After that movie, I decided I that the “Method” doesn’t really work for me. It’s too exhausting to carry the energy of the character with you into your real life. I try to stay relaxed and open to the work, but when they say “cut,” I shake it off. I need to relax and let “Don” have some down time.
When digging into a role, what is the biggest challenge to becoming the character?
After all these years of searching for the answer to that question, my conclusion is this: you don’t actually become the character. You ARE the character.
The challenge is to know the writer’s intention so intimately that you are able to let YOURSELF into the story. Just be yourself “AS IF” you were living in those circumstance. Trust that you know enough about life to understand what that person is going through. Then let yourself walk in those shoes.
So many actors have the misconception that you need to experience the life of your character in order to understand it. If you’re a killer, you have to have killed. If you’re a champion, you have to have won the big game. Obviously, we as actors, can’t have experienced all of the events that our characters have experienced. Actors who are trying to live life on the edge because they think that it will make them better actors are missing the point. I try to keep my real life simple. I get a lot of rest. I spend time with my family. I read. I exercise. I eat well. And when it’s time to act, I trust that my imagination is enough for me to understand the mind of a killer or a king. Either way, it’s up to me to create it. I AM THE CHARACTER.
Many of your movie roles were part of a large ensemble cast. Do you prefer working with a big cast? Why or why not?
I’m not sure why I’ve always been cast in ensemble projects. Maybe my training has equipped me to understand collaboration, and the people casting can spot that. I tend to blend in. I don’t really like having to make big acting choices. I like to just be there, and work off of what the director and other actors are coming up with. I guess I’m more of a reactor that an actor.
Have you progressed in your acting career as you have expected?
I always thought I was going to live in a mansion and be a star. Being a working actor was not really my plan. But the fact is, I was never equipped for stardom at a young age. I had a lot of rough edges and a lot of sincere questions about life.
I think people who come into the business and become stars are wired for that before they ever arrive. Someone like Tom Hanks is not just a talented actor, he is a person who knows how to make the most out of the situations of his life. He is always looking for an opportunity to create another opportunity. He’s always getting to know people and making friends.
I was more like an angry young man looking for answers. I was talented, no doubt, but I never had an eye on the future and my next role. I was always in the moment. Enjoying the work. Keeping my head down.
When I think back on all of the massively talented and powerful people I’ve worked with in the last thirty-five years, my head spins. I loved them all. I enjoyed being with them. But I never really worked on building relationships with them that would outlast the projects. I always assumed that I would make it as an actor on my own merits and people would want to work with me because of that.
At this point, I’m not questioning my abilities. I’m very happy with myself as an actor. I work very hard and I give respect to all of my colleagues. I just want to keep working and wake up one day in a big, successful project that gives me the chance to get over the hill.
I really want to direct, produce and write. I’m at the point where I can see that happening.
What was the most important lesson you had to learn that has had a positive effect on your career? How did that lesson happen?
When you’re hanging out with successful people, don’t talk too much.
They like to talk. They don’t want to be around people who spout off. It’s great to be able to say something clever, at the right time, that makes them laugh or think. But too much of it puts people off. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn that until recently. Better late than never.
On the set of Taken 3, what was the greatest challenge for you as an actor? And what did you learn from this experience?
Liam Neeson is a big man, but very quiet. I wanted so badly to get to know him. I had to keep distance. There were a lot of cast and crew around him constantly. I had a couple of nice talks with him, but overall I didn’t really get to spend much time with him.
During that movie I started to learn that the old relationships I had with actors when I was coming up, the nights at the bar after shooting, the parties, the heart-to-heart talks, they don’t always happen in today’s world. As I get older, it seems that the people I work with are not as social as they used to be.
This business takes its toll.
How do you seek out roles?
Whatever my agent sends me, I’m interested in. I always go into an audition thinking that I already have the job. I totally imagine myself doing it. I audition for a lot of really good projects.
Good writing is what gets me going. I can spot it on the first page. If I get the offer, I usually do it. I almost never turn anything down. I think there is always something good to get out of a job.
What are personal attributes that make for a good actor, and what do you do to foster them?
The best actors are considerate and supportive to the people they work with. Everyone. On set and in rehearsal. I don’t see the point in being a jerk. I used to experiment with that when I was young. Looking for “respect.” Respect comes from people that you’ve given respect to. I give it to everyone.
The best actors are willing to be vulnerable. Willing to do it badly. Not judgemental. We are all flawed. Forget about getting it right. Just be honest and give it your all.
I’m very methodical. I type all of my scenes, including everyone else’s lines, into my computer. I put them in big fonts so I can see them when I’m driving around town. I make a recording of everyone else’s lines and I run my lines with it. Over and over until it’s a conversation. I really want to know the lines backwards and forwards. It just gives me the confidence to throw them away on the day.
Who are your biggest influences?
Marlon Brando was always my favorite.
When I was a kid, Dustin Hoffman was the guy. The Graduate gives me goose bumps. Little Big Man is beyond words.
I used to love the matinee idols of the early seventies. Ryan O’Neil. Warren Beatty. Robert Redford. Paul Newman. OMG – Burt Reynolds.
I think the actor that makes me cry more than anyone else is James Stewart. I can’t look at him without crying. He is so genuine. So full of character.
When I was little, Dick Van Dyke was my idea of what a total man should be. So funny. Great dad. Great husband. Always getting into trouble. What a sweet character. We watched The Dick Van Dyke Show as a family. The original run. I’ll never forget being mesmerized by Rob and Laura Petrie, as my thighs stuck to our vinyl couch.
When you suffer a setback, how does that emotionally affect you and your work?
I assume by “setback” you mean, “not getting the part.” I never care anymore. I go in there with everything I’ve got, and I leave it behind when I walk out the door. I just focus on the next audition.
The setbacks that affect me now are personal. I hate not having enough money. Nothing paralyzes my creativity like being broke. There were years when I struggled to pay bills, even when I was working a lot. Fortunately I’ve gotten to a place where I’m financially stable. Sort of.
There’s an old adage in acting, “whatever is going on in your life, use it!” If I’m going through something, I bring it in. I guess I wear my emotions on my sleeve.
You received an Emmy nomination for your work on General Hospital. What ran through your mind when you got the news? And how did that make you feel?
That whole thing was a big surprise. I never thought I would do a soap again. But it was a very interesting role and I knew one of the writers from Yale, so I jumped at it. I had really intense scenes with so many of the characters on the show. I was honored to be nominated.
I thought Nichelle Nichols would win. She was also nominated in my category. Best guest actor. She was phenomenal in her scenes. And she is a TV icon. I didn’t even prepare a speech. That’s how sure I was that she would win.
Jim O’Heir won.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as an actor?
Continuing to work for this long. It would have been easy to give up. I can’t really do anything else, so I guess I never had a choice.
Given that you have had a long and successful career, is there still any area in which you would like to improve as an actor?
I’ve made 95% of my improvement as an actor in the past year. I work with Jack Stehlin, Artistic Director at the New American Theatre. He’s all about bringing your true self to the material. “Never let them catch you acting.”
I spent so many years trying to find all of these crazy characters I played. “How does this guy walk? What is the first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning? How does he chew his food?” It’s like you’re asking yourself, “What is the difference between me and this character?”
Now I just play them all as me. I can’t possibly be anyone else. But I can be myself in these amazing roles. It really is the secret to great acting. Not acting at all. Just letting the material tell you where it wants you to go.
Of all the movies you have done, which role did you love the most and why?
I suppose it was Swede Risberg in Eight Men Out. Getting up in the morning and playing baseball all day with a bunch of cooks. What’s not to love?
I also loved the two films I did with John Hawkes. He’s about as real as real can get. I love the guy.
What sort of acting roles will you be seeking in the future?
Hopefully ones that pay a lot of money.
I love to play good people with good intentions. But I also love villains. Whatever clothes they put on me, I’ll wear them well.
When not on a set, what do you do in your spare time?
I watch a lot of animated movies. Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled. Bambi. It doesn’t get any better. I play with my two-year-old daughter and wife all day. When I have time, I play the guitar.
Are you on social media and do you use it in your work? Why or why not?
I’m working on that. It doesn’t really appeal to me. I like to live my life. I don’t really want to post about it.
I would love to find someone who I could hire to manage it, and keep me in the loop. I’m definitely working on getting my website out there in the near future. I have a lot of great videos from movie and TV work.
I have a You Tube Channel. Don Harvey The Actor.
I’ve been directing short films. Really fun stuff. I’m putting it all up on there.
What would be a good theme song for your life?
Do You Think I’m Sexy?
What celebrity would you rate as a perfect 10?
Arnold Palmer.
If someone was going to make your life into a movie, who would play you?
Justin Bieber.
Thanks for your time today Don! Always a pleasure to chat with you. We look forward to your writing and directing debut!
If you’d like to spend this weekend with a good movie or two, check out The Untouchables or Eight Men Out available on Amazon or Amazon Prime. To keep up with Don, check out his YouTube Channel Don Harvey The Actor or his Public Figure Facebook page. His website – DonHarveyTheActor.com will be coming soon.
You can also see Don in our short film Riddle Me This.
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Until next time, live your passion and chase your dreams!
SSP
