Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don\u2019t know beforehand what roles we\u2019ll ask them to talk about.<\/p>\n
The actor: By his own admission, Ray McKinnon took a while to start acting. The Georgia native has more than made up for lost time, using his honey-dipped Southern accent to memorable effect in roles ranging from bona fide beau (O Brother, Where Art Thou?<\/a>) to tortured preacher (Deadwood<\/a>) to self-important high school football coach (The Blind Side) for nearly 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Behind the camera, McKinnon is best known as the creator of the Peabody-winning drama, Rectify<\/a>. But that\u2019s not where he started. On Tuesday, Lightyear Entertainment will release restored versions<\/a> of McKinnon\u2019s earlier directorial efforts\u2014the brooding Oscar-winning short film The Accountant and the quirky family comedy Randy And The Mob\u2014on Blu-ray. McKinnon stars in both alongside his longtime friend and collaborator, Walton Goggins, and in the latter alongside his late wife, actress and producer Lisa Blount. Speaking to The A.V. Club, McKinnon recounted his circuitous route from acting to directing and back again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ray McKinnon: Unlike a lot of people that you\u2019ve interviewed, I\u2019ve had really small parts in movies. I once played \u201cMan With Basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n AVC: I did. Let\u2019s start with that. How did you get to be \u201cMan With Basketball\u201d?<\/p>\n RM: I was lucky, I guess. I was in Atlanta trying to make my way in the movie business. You go for these auditions as a local actor. And they had this character called \u201cMan With Basketball\u201d and sure enough, it was a man with a basketball. He\u2019s walking past one of the leads, Swoosie Kurtz or somebody like that [Ed.: It was Katherine Helmond], and I did my little lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCut,\u201d said the director\u2014I believe he was a British gentleman. He said, \u201cRay, Ray, Ray, Ray, come over here. Okay, we\u2019re all friends here.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat in the hell is he talking about? He\u2019s saying something to me, and I\u2019m not sure what.\u201d So I finally went, \u201cWas that too big?\u201d He said, \u201cJust a bit. Back to one!\u201d That was my day as \u201cMan With Basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: How do you prepare for \u201cMan With Basketball\u201d?<\/p>\n RM: Fortunately, I prepared early. During my entire childhood, including high school, I played basketball. I was used to having a basketball in my arms. That\u2019s about the extent of it. I think the preparation is you\u2019re in a hurry. You\u2019re in your own movie that nobody\u2019s filming. You\u2019re going somewhere else and you stop through Swoosie Kurtz\u2019s movie and you say your lines and you say why you\u2019re there and all those actor things.<\/p>\n Driving Miss Daisy (1989)\u2014\u201dTrooper #1\u2033<\/p>\n AVC: IMDb has Driving Miss Daisy listed as your first onscreen credit.\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: That was my first role.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: You\u2019re acting against Jessica Tandy, who was already a legend, and Morgan Freeman, who after Street Smart is really becoming a name, and you\u2019re the new guy on set. What was that like?<\/p>\n RM: When I got the job, I was, of course, excited. I show up on location and somebody comes up to me and hands me a wad of money. And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat is this?\u201d They say, \u201cIt\u2019s per diem.\u201d I said, \u201cFor what?\u201d They said, \u201cIt\u2019s your money per day, you buy food, dinner, all that.\u201d So, then I go to makeup. I sit in this little honey wagon until lunch. Nothing has happened. And I go to lunch, and I try to pay the chef. I swear. And he\u2019s like, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d I said, \u201cAren\u2019t I supposed to pay for this? \u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cNo, this is free.\u201d I put the money back in my pocket and said, \u201cI gotta get more of this work.\u201d And then I didn\u2019t work the first day and they kept me over that night. They put me up, they paid me per diem. I was cleaning carpets to make money and I made another $300.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, toward the end of the second day, they called me out to work with Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, who I had seen in the theater in Atlanta before he was Morgan Freeman\u2014such a great actor. The way I won the audition, I watched other people doing it, and they did it pretty broad, and I just played it real quiet and still as opposed to, \u201cHey, Mister. I\u2019ll tell you what!\u201d I didn\u2019t want that.\u00a0<\/p>\n But when I got there, I could tell they\u2019d already shot a lot of stuff, and they felt really good about their work, about the movie. A lot of the crew were like, \u201cLet\u2019s hope this guy is good.\u201d And the first take, I pushed a little bit. I was nervous. [Director] Bruce Beresford and Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy were just delightful. They know that for the show to be good, all actors need to be good, and they were present and all of that. And Bruce Beresford said, \u201cDo it the way you did it in the audition.\u201d<\/p>\n Paris Trout (1991)\u2014\u201dCarl Bonner\u201d<\/p>\n AVC: Correct me if I misheard you, but you were also cleaning carpets while you were acting?<\/p>\n RM: Oh, yes. It was a great job because you could schedule your carpet cleaning around your auditions. If you had an audition that day you\u2019d run to the parking deck and change your clothes, go do your audition, and then come back and get in your little truck and go clean carpet. I think a lot of people, especially character actors, had to support themselves until they found their way\u2014if they were fortunate enough to find their way.<\/p>\n AVC: When did you stop working part-time jobs and fully commit to acting?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: [Laughs.] When I could afford to. I decided to move out to Los Angeles after I\u2019d done a role in a movie called Paris Trout starring Ed Harris, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey. Stephen Gyllenhaal directed. They were gonna cast it in L.A., but they cast me, and that was a big break. I\u2019d saved my money, and that\u2019s when I took off. I wasn\u2019t going to bring my carpet machine, but the guy I was going to room with, whose last name was the same as mine, ironically, he said, \u201cPlease bring it and teach me how.\u201d So, I brought my carpet-cleaning machine across the United States in my Ford Ranger truck, and then I taught Bruce how to clean carpet, which he did for the next number of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: Were you still cleaning carpets in L.A.?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: I didn\u2019t have to. I did a couple of times for Bruce. This one time he asked me to do it, and I went and it was a clothing-optional apartment, swear to God. Swear to God. And I\u2019m going to tell you, there were the stereotypical dudes that you think would be at that place. And there was one really pretty young woman. All those guys were at the pool with the young woman. It took me a long time to clean that apartment, I\u2019ll tell you that. [Laughs.] Only in L.A.<\/p>\n AVC: What was it about that movie that made you think this was the time to go to L.A. and commit?<\/p>\n RM: Because they were planning to cast this out of L.A. They didn\u2019t think anybody in Atlanta could do the role. But the casting agent said, \u201cJust look at a couple of people.\u201d And so Stephen Gyllenhaal literally made me come back, like, five times. But then he said, \u201cYou\u2019re the guy.\u201d It was a really good role for me. And I thought, \u201cWell, now that shows me that I can compete with people in L.A. and now is the time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Heat Of The Night (1989-91)\u2014various roles AVC: So, you were in Atlanta\u2014<\/p>\n RM: With my carpet cleaner.<\/p>\n AVC: You\u2019re doing TV movies and In The Heat Of The Night, right?<\/p>\n RM: Brother, if you did not do Heat Of The Night as an Atlanta actor\u2014you should seriously question your career choice! And I got on twice! First time with Walton Goggins, my buddy. I played the head crack dealer and he played the kid on the bike who would take around the dope. And then I died in that one and came back as the town editor another year.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: Which is appropriate because I know you love writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: It was great. I thought I would be a journalist at one time. Thank God I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n AVC: I know that you caught the acting bug relatively late in college, but when did you give up the dream of becoming a journalist?<\/p>\n RM: Well, I was pretty much a F-up between 15 and 30, really. It\u2019s not that I caught the acting bug late, I just never had the courage. I was too self-conscious. I couldn\u2019t get up. I couldn\u2019t audition. Finally, this girlfriend of mine at the time set me up with an audition and I was going to back out of that, but the guy made me go up there and I got a role. From then on, it was over. My mom\u2019s like, \u201cCan\u2019t you at least get a teaching degree just to back that up?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m going all out.\u201d And, what, 10 years later, I did my first movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: But your mom acted, right?<\/p>\n RM: That\u2019s probably why she wanted me to get a backup. No, she just wanted me to be happy, and she got to see that I did fairly well. And that\u2019s a great thing.<\/p>\n AVC: You mentioned Walton Goggins and working with him on In The Heat Of The Night in that one episode. Was that the first time you worked with him?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: No, I worked with him on this TV movie before that. And he was, like, 15. He was playing a character called Lyle. And I was playing a character called Lyle\u2019s Father, so you can imagine who had the bigger role. But he wanted to sit beside me when we were doing a read-through. And I looked at him, like, \u201cOh my God, he doesn\u2019t look anything like me. They\u2019re gonna fire me if they see us together.\u201d So I asked him to sit across the table and he\u2019s like, \u201cOkay\u2026What a rude guy.\u201d So that was our introduction. But he was a really good actor even then.<\/p>\n The Accountant (2002)\u2014\u201dThe Accountant\u201d AVC: How did you guys end up hitting it off?<\/p>\n RM: We did those shows together and I was a bit older than him. We both came out to L.A. at the same time and we\u2019d see each other once in a while, but I didn\u2019t wanna redo my early 20s again. They were painful enough the first time. So, we didn\u2019t lose touch, but we didn\u2019t see each other that often. I think he reached out to me, I don\u2019t remember, but he came to the house with his new wife and Lisa and I were there. I read him The Accountant just for fun. And I didn\u2019t think he would do it. I wasn\u2019t even thinking about him doing it, and he said he wanted to be a part of it. That was really the beginning. He was obviously a good actor, but also a good person to have on your team. He could be a really good producer, he could be a really good director. He\u2019s got a great eye. He\u2019s a very talented dude. And so that was how we all got together and went on that crazy journey for a decade or so.<\/p>\n AVC: Did you write The Accountant to get yourself a lead role or was there something else involved?<\/p>\n RM: I wish I were more thoughtful like that. For 15 years, I\u2019d been trying to make a film and I couldn\u2019t get a feature film made. You know, it\u2019s hard to raise all that money. I was heading toward 40 and I\u2019m like, \u201cYou know what? If I don\u2019t make a movie now, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever make a movie.\u201d So I said, \u201cI\u2019m gonna at least make a short.\u201d My mantra was, \u201cI\u2019m gonna die anyway. Might as well make a movie.\u201d And then I felt like, if it sucks, you know, my mother was one of the investors and an uncle and a family friend\u2014I\u2019ll show it to them and then I\u2019ll bury it.<\/p>\n But the genesis of the story came from so many things that I\u2019m interested in as a person. I grew up in an agricultural community. I saw farmers lose their farms. I was a night auditor in a hotel and I liked the idea of someone using numbers to figure out all these things. And this character just kind of manifested in my imagination.<\/p>\n We had no ambitions. I had no ambitions for anything. We didn\u2019t get the dailies until two weeks after we shot. We didn\u2019t know what we had. We were using short ends, which is pieces of reels, that Ridley Scott\u2019s company had donated to us. It was a really hand-done thing. Once we started putting it together, we thought, it\u2019s going to be all right. It\u2019s going to be a decent story, but we had no idea that it was going to keep going up the ladder.\u00a0<\/p>\n The movie is 38 minutes and 36 seconds long. I never thought about trying to put it up for the Oscars. If it had been a minute and a half longer, it wouldn\u2019t have qualified. We didn\u2019t think about that. We didn\u2019t care about that. We just wanted to make it the length it was, and that\u2019s how it all came together. It was so much fun and so gratifying. I remember at the end of it all, I told Walt and Lisa, \u201cMan, all I know is I hope we get to do this again, because it was so much fun.\u201d It was hard, but it was also exhilarating.<\/p>\n AVC: What\u2019s it like to win an Academy Award?<\/p>\n The worst part was it was down to 10 films that they were going to take down to five, and those five would be nominated. And I thought, \u201cNumber six through 10, nobody knows who they are.\u201d When we found out this could be a possibility, we were like, \u201cLet\u2019s just get nominated.\u201d But another little caveat was we hadn\u2019t cleared our music. And the Academy said, \u201cHey, if you don\u2019t have your music cleared, you won\u2019t be eligible.\u201d We spent more on clearing the music rights than we did on the film!<\/p>\n Anyway, we got all that worked out and then by the time we went to that event, I thought I was gonna throw up on the third row, I was so nervous. [Laughs.] And then it just went away. The nerves went away and for some reason, because our category was toward the end of the whole thing, I just felt really calm and grateful. But then thinking about winning an Academy Award, I was like, \u201cOh, shit.\u201d It\u2019s never simple for me. It\u2019s always some complicated thing, which is, now do I have to be a citizen or something? What exactly do citizens do? I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll like it. You\u2019d think it would be more like, \u201cYeah, great!\u201d But it\u2019s more like, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d But now I\u2019m grateful for it, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: One reason why Burt Reynolds joined Randy And The Mob was he was a big fan of The Accountant. What were some of the other benefits that came because of The Accountant?<\/p>\n RM: With Burt, I did an X-Files. He was playing this symbolic character called God and I was playing this character called Mad Wayne, who was like a serial killer, the Devil side of it. And that\u2019s where I met him, even though, of course, I\u2019ve known him all my life. He was born 60 miles from where I was born. Once we did that role together, I slipped him [The Accountant], because I\u2019d already written that story but I wanted him to see what I did first.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then Kurt Sutter, who wrote on The Shield and then he created Sons Of Anarchy\u2014well, Walt worked on The Shield and he\u2019d make Kurt and all those guys come to all of our movies. Kurt had seen a lot of our movies and that we went down a different path. One of the reasons that he gave me this wonderful role on Mayans M.C. was because he said, \u201cI knew you\u2019d bring something different to it.\u201d Deadwood\u2014David Milch had seen [The Accountant]. I\u2019d also worked with David on NYPD Blue. I think, over time, people think of you a little differently than just an actor, and that has a tiny bit of cachet.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: So The Accountant was kind of like a business card or an elevated audition tape?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: I mean, in hindsight, but the reasons I made it were not those reasons. I did write this role for me, and it was a fucking great role. And I thought if I\u2019m going go to all this trouble, I\u2019m gonna play that character. It could have sucked. The fact that it turned out well, and people responded to it, that was icing on the cake. I should\u2019ve acted like I really intended all that, but I didn\u2019t. You know what it is, man? If you have stories to tell, I don\u2019t mean this [to be] elitist, because it\u2019s not that, just be an artist. Be a storyteller. Do your thing. Go do it. Don\u2019t get business cards and start handing them out. Be an artist. That\u2019s my advice.<\/p>\n AVC: It seems like all that work led to Rectify.\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: No doubt. And you\u2019re older and you\u2019re more mature. And your writing\u2019s gotten more mature. To be able to do that for four seasons was the artistic gift of my life.<\/p>\n Randy And The Mob (2007)\u2014\u201dCecil Pearson\u201d\/\u201dRandy Pearson\u201d AVC: How difficult was it to direct yourself in a feature, especially since you\u2019re playing two different characters?<\/p>\n RM: [Laughs.] What a megalomaniac! Just physically, I could not have done that one year after I did it. It was grueling. But we\u2014Lisa, Walton, and I\u2014really did our homework. We rehearsed. They had my back too if I went off a path. And just having fun as opposed to being afraid. I say that gratitude and fear can\u2019t exist in the same place. So, we were just having a ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: There wasn\u2019t a lot of time to be scared. You had, what, a 22-day shoot?<\/p>\n RM: [Laughs.] That is a fact. And that\u2019s what happened in The Accountant and Randy And The Mob and Chrystal and all the Rectifys. You\u2019re focused on what\u2019s right in front of you. You have to be. And if you\u2019re focused on something, then all the other stuff goes out of the way. You\u2019re making a million decisions and you hope most of them are good ones.<\/p>\n AVC: I\u2019m sure you can\u2019t willingly tumble down a pile of garbage if you\u2019re not having fun.<\/p>\n RM: [Laughs.] Well, we had a stunt guy. He did a take and he was wonderful. But I looked at the video. I\u2019m like, \u201cI don\u2019t care how far back you are, you\u2019re going know that\u2019s a stunt guy.\u201d So, I was like, \u201cOh, shit. Let\u2019s go, man! Here we go!\u201d We made Lisa stay at home that day because she would have tried to circumvent bad judgment.<\/p>\n AVC: How many showers did you need after that?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: Oh, Lord. I think three did it. Three was good. It\u2019s not that easy to get peanut butter with food coloring in it off you.<\/p>\n AVC: One thing I noticed while I watched the movie was just how many folks in it have passed away: Bill Nunn, Lisa, of course, Burt Reynolds, Brent Briscoe. How is it watching the movie now?<\/p>\n RM: You go through life and life is going to eventually take us all. These losses, they start coming up. And I\u2019m very aware of that with Randy And The Mob. What\u2019s sad about loss and about somebody losing their own life is if you don\u2019t feel like they had their full time. I feel so lucky. I\u2019ve had cancer. I\u2019ve had really bad decisions in my twenties and teens. I\u2019m still here and I\u2019m really grateful. Honestly, I was not looking forward to doing this, because of all the sadness that is attached to it. But what I\u2019ve found is in doing these interviews is the joy that we had is more powerful than the sadness of the loss. And I\u2019m grateful for that. I say this about writing and about storytelling. Mortality colors everything. If you didn\u2019t have mortality in a story, you wouldn\u2019t have very many great stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: You and Lisa met doing Needful Things?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: That\u2019s true.\u00a0<\/p>\n AVC: If memory serves, she had greens and you had hot sauce.<\/p>\n RM: [Laughs.] That\u2019s true. Oh my God! Yes, she was from Arkansas, and I was from Georgia and we were outside of Vancouver in Gibsons. Her mom sent her greens and other stuff and my mom sent me pepper sauce. We had a Canadian teamster who would take the pepper sauce and put it on his deer meat. I said, \u201cOh, that\u2019s another way to do it.\u201d Getting to know Lisa then, she loved indie films. She was a big indie film person. So, when I told her I wanted to make an indie, she was like, \u201cSo do I. I want to do it. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n That was the beginning. The other truth is, Lisa saw something in me as a writer and said, \u201cYou have to write.\u201d I grew up in a place where you heard, \u201cWho do you think you are sometimes?\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t be too big.\u201d It was scary to hand your own writing to somebody because this came from you. I don\u2019t think I would have been a writer without her, for sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n She thought I was talented as a writer. She wasn\u2019t one that would just say something if she didn\u2019t believe it. She did this for a lot of people that she believed in, but for me, it\u2019s the difference between me becoming a writer and not becoming a writer. With losing faith and quitting. She shored me up, for sure. Anything that I\u2019ve ever done since, a lot of the credit goes to Lisa.<\/p>\n O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)\u2014\u201dVernon T. Waldrip\u201d AVC: How many times have you been called \u201cbona fide\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: Oh my gosh. A lot. There\u2019s a whole segment of the population that has seen very little else of what I\u2019ve done. But also, that\u2019s probably the only Coen Brothers movie they\u2019ve watched, and they watch it over and over and over. And they love it. It\u2019s primarily Southerners who love someone making fun of their culture. I think they love it because it\u2019s done in a loving way.<\/p>\n AVC: What was it like being in that movie?<\/p>\n RM: This is how long I\u2019ve been around the block. Years ago, before George did E.R., he was doing a recurring role on a show called Sisters. I was playing that week\u2019s serial killer. And we went and did the proverbial go play basketball at lunch. I didn\u2019t know George Clooney at all. He\u2019s just an actor. Nice guy. And he said, \u201cYeah, yeah. These are my last few episodes because I\u2019m getting ready to go do this pilot that Michael Crichton had written as a book and I think it\u2019s gonna really take off.\u201d And that was E.R. And then he did E.R. and blew up. And then he did Batman [& Robin] and blew up further. So, by the time that I saw him in O Brother, Where Art Thou? I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, brother, you can\u2019t even leave your house anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Deadwood (2004)\u2014\u201dRev. H.W. Smith\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, buddy. What a gift that was. That was the first time anybody outside of me had given me such a great role. David Milch, who I had worked with on NYPD Blue, he just kept expanding the role. The character was supposed to die after the third episode. And he got this idea. He\u2019s like, \u201cWhat do you think about the character having this tumor?\u201d I said, \u201cOh, I\u2019d love it, man. Whatever you say, brother.\u201d<\/p>\n I watched him continue to evolve Reverend Smith and he was a lovely character. It was hard for me to totally embody him because he was such a good person. I had to dig deep every time I\u2019d play him. It took a couple of takes before I finally found him and would go on the journey with him. I loved him as a person. He was just so innocent and good.<\/p>\n Take Shelter (2011)\u2014\u201dKyle\u201d RM: I moved to Little Rock with Lisa. Somebody emailed me and said this young filmmaker was trying to raise more money for this first film he made called Shotgun Stories. That\u2019s where I met Jeff and already you could see his talent. And for some reason, he loved Chrystal. He made the guys from Shotgun Stories, before they shot, watch Chrystal and watch the realism of the characters. We maintained a friendship and then he offered me this role in Take Shelter and then he offered me this unbelievable role in Mud. I\u2019m about to go do another little role for him at the end of April.<\/p>\n Take Shelter I was only there for a day playing the brother, which was a wonderful little role. But I got to spend more time on Mud and on that character. I loved his paradoxical nature that Jeff had created on paper and to have that relationship with a son\u2026I don\u2019t have a son, but I just thought what a great opportunity to pretend like I have this kid. And I still keep up with [Tye Sheridan], too. He\u2019s a wonderful young man. He\u2019s so sweet. He still takes my calls.<\/p>\n AVC: With Jeff Nichols, what do you think has contributed to that long-term relationship?<\/p>\n RM: Because I\u2019m so cheap, and he can afford me. These other guys are too big. No, I think he wants an authenticity for those stories that he makes and I can\u2019t figure out why he keeps calling me, but I\u2019m grateful for it. One of the benefits, now that I\u2019m in my hundreds, is quite a few people this past year that either I\u2019ve worked for before or they\u2019ve worked for me give me roles to play. You get older and then stuff like that can happen.<\/p>\n The Blind Side (2009)\u2014\u201dCoach Cotton\u201d<\/p>\n RM: I have this schizophrenic set of characters. The character in Mayans is an on-the-spectrum sociopath. And then there\u2019s Reverend Smith, and then there\u2019s Coach Cotton. Honestly, it was John Lee Hancock, who adapted the book. I\u2019d done some screenplay readings for him in the past. We met on this Clint Eastwood movie set in Texas (1993\u2019s A Perfect World). He called me and said, \u201cI want you to look at the coach in this new movie I\u2019m doing.\u201d And so he sent the script and I started looking for the other coach, the one with a smaller role. [Laughs.] \u201cNo, that\u2019s the coach.\u201d Two things: I was like, \u201cOh, good. I get my insurance for the year,\u201d which is important. And, secondly, holy shit, what a great role.<\/p>\n It was working with Sandra Bullock and I love football. I went to my friend, who\u2019s a high school football coach, and hung out with him at his practices. It was really fun. And I didn\u2019t realize, of course, that it was going to be such a movie that people like to come back to over and over and over. I used to be, I guess, self-conscious about it. Now, I\u2019m just grateful about it, because when somebody comes up to you, it\u2019s not really about you. It\u2019s about them and their experience. And the least I can do is be gracious.<\/p>\n AVC: The first practice, where Sandra Bullock butts in, was her slapping your ass in the script or was that impromptu?\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: That was an ad-lib whack. Perfectly ad-libbed by a very smart, sharp, funny actress.<\/p>\n AVC: It looked like she made a good connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n RM: She did get a good connection\u2014on my bum!<\/p>\n This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-385577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMurder In Mississippi (1990)\u2014\u201dLyle\u2019s Father\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe X-Files (2002)\u2014\u201dMad Wayne\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNeedful Things (1993)\u2014\u201dDeputy Norris Ridgewick\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSisters (1994)\u2014\u201dBilly\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMud (2012)\u2014\u201dSenior\u201d<\/p>\n