1-on-1 With Michael Cudlitz
By Bob Parker, SouthlandTvFans.com
December 17, 2007

So, on a slightly chilly Monday afternoon I found myself checking Tweets from fellow Southland fans on my Blackberry, in a coffee shop near the studios in Burbank, when a very familiar voice called my name. I didn’t have time to be nervous at my first celebrity interview any more – Michael didn’t really give me a chance. He was too friendly and personable for that.

We ordered our coffees and made some small talk while we waited, noting our shared love of good, strong espresso. I have to admit, I’d never even heard of the drink that he ordered, but I have to admire anyone that orders a drink with 4 shots in it, especially that late in the day. Drinks in hand, we headed outside to escape the overly loud Christmas music playing inside the store to start our interview.

SouthlandTvFans.com (STF): The question asked by the most people was: You’ve described yourself as an analog man in a very public digital world on Twitter.

Michael Cudlitz (MC): (laughter) Yes.

STF: What has it been like for you to go from an almost no online presence at all to such an active one, especially – and this was a big part of it – with the formation of the “@Cudlitz Army”?

MC: Which I love, actually. It’s been humbling, I’ve said this before. You know, I’m a fan of TV. I watch shows, I have shows that I love and I never go online to write about a show that I care about or to comment on a show. I just don’t do it. I had no idea there was such a large, sort of, uh, culture you know of it, of people who do follow these shows and tweeted about them, and went on the show boards, and commented on articles, and all kinds of things that were going on online, I had no idea that that world even existed. So to be a part of a show that’s, you know, a lot the success of its being moved to a new network, or at least of letting the new network know that there’s a strong fanbase that awareness has come through the online presence. So to be part of that has been very, very humbling. And it’s been fun. I mean I really, really enjoy dealing with, you know, the fans. There’s people who are obviously moved enough by what we do on the show to not only just enjoy and watch it every week, but take time out and comment on it and get involved and interact with each other. I mean it’s just, the whole thing has just been a phenomenal experience.

STF: Do you find that fans can be a little bit to demanding, especially with the access on Twitter?

MC: I don’t think so. I haven’t had that yet. I had some people I had to block, because they didn’t get what we were doing. What I try to do, what I said from the beginning and I’ll probably repost this again, I Tweet mostly Southland stuff. It’s really about Southland. Then I comment on the stupidity and retardedness that’s going on in the world at the moment. Sometimes things are just so ridiculous you just have to comment. Or just like, you know, the old Facebook status comment thing. I try to stay away from personal, I don’t mind the little playful flirts now and then, I think everyone has a good time.

But sometimes, we had one time where somebody crossed the line and were trying to get access to Ben through me, which we shut down pretty quickly. And then I had some people who came on and were very offended because I didn’t follow anyone else and were saying I thought I was some sort of guru, and when the truth of the matter is that for me, it’s not an active sort of tweet situation where I’m tweeting all day long to my friends. You know I have a very, potentially very public life and I try to keep it as private as I can, so far as the specifics of my public life. When people are following me, they are following me for fun, obviously, and for things about the show. So, I can’t follow 1800 people and keep track of actually the fans who are asking me the questions. I understand there’s other things like Tweetdeck and other things that can separate, but just saying it is already more time than I have in my day to figure it out, because I’m having enough issues as it is when I’m transferring over to my iPhone. (laughing). People have been fantastic. There’s been 1700 people, almost 1800 people.

STF: You’re up to almost 1900 people now.

MC: Really? OK, almost 1900, so I guess roughly 2000 people are following me, and most of them specifically in regards to Southland, so they understand why they are following me. And I’m sure I’m gonna have some people who will get a little over zealous or take something a little too far, but I’ll deal with that when it happens. But it’s all in fun, it’s all just very positive. As it should be.

STF: I had not heard any complaints from the fans, and I think most of them understand that you have to keep your private life private.

MC: Yeah, and I try to not even clutter other peoples Twitter with my personal, so if someone does ask a personal thing, sometimes I’ll direct message them, so Bob sitting at home doesn’t need to know I’m giving someone a hard time about a picture they posted or something, it’s just between me and them and it’s just an extra bonus. There are some people who Tweet me regularly who have been very instrumental in really keeping the fan chatter and the excitement of the show going in this downtime, and you know they’ve earned it. And you know when I get busy again I will be able to connect with people individually probably less, but that’s a good and bad thing. But that’s going to be a consequence of the show being picked up, so it’s a good and a bad thing. The show will be picked up but it will get less one on one time once we get back to work, but they’ll get more pictures. So it’s a trade off.

STF: So, do you feel confident that it will be …

MC: I do

STF: picked up for more episodes?

MC: I do, I do. You can even write in there that he cut you off before you even finished asking the question (both of us laughing here).

STF: That’s one we all feel pretty strongly about, for sure.

MC: I think TNT’s put a lot of effort into it, into the launch. They’ve announced, it’s something we talked about in the news we talked about today (referring to the big news conference from Burbank earlier in the Day) it’s going to run commercial free, which everybody already knew, but there’s 6 extra minutes that are being put back into the pilot.

STF: Yeah, we got that news today.

MC: It’s really cool. It’s really cool material. I think it’s going to help the flow show and help smooth out some of the things that maybe weren’t as clear as they weren’t before. Most of the cuts were made because of time, you know, from the pilot. They cut maybe 26 minutes out of the pilot or something.

STF: Wow!

MC: Yeah, it was really long. Really good and really long.

STF: Do you know if the uncensored DVD will have the entire uncut pilot?

MC: No, because a lot of that content was moved around because it was cut out of the pilot but it was integral to the characters, so that was actually, interestingly enough, the six minutes was all that was really that was left that needed to be added back.

STF: How did you get the part of John Cooper originally? Did they actually come to you and say “We want you to play this?” or did you audition for it?

MC: I auditioned for it. Everyone on the show auditioned. I came in, I read. I read for a different role first, and then they asked me my interest in the John Cooper role and I was like “The main guy, John Cooper?” “Yeah.” I’m talking about the pilot now. In the pilot, it really is Regina, mine and Ben’s story and it’s very much an ensemble show and will remain that. In the pilot it’s very much the lead of the show. It’s basically the lead of the show from the way the story’s told. I say that because for me it was like “well, there’s no way I’m gonna get that. I mean, why would you want me to audition for that? I’m not gonna get it. You’re gonna get some star, or some name.” and they said, no no – would you mind coming back tomorrow and reading for that. I said no, that’d be fine. So they gave me the 15 or 20 pages of material that included the last speech in the pilot that I give to Ben after kills the gang banger, and I came back the next day and auditioned for Chris Chulack and Ann Biderman. That went fantastic. They said OK, we’re going to have you meet John Wells, but it’s not going to be for two weeks, since it was so early on in the process. So it turned into just about a week, and they said we want to see you tomorrow, John can see you. OK, you’re definitely testing but we don’t have anyone to test you with, so we have to cast some more people first.

STF: So they hadn’t cast Ben at that point yet?

MC: No. No. I think they were in the works, they were really working things around. So I then tested, and they called back with some interesting news. Basically, you are cast, but we can’t hire you yet. We’re looking at Ben McKenzie for the rookie, and somebody just looked you up at IMDB, and looked him up, and the first picture that shows up on the page you two look like you could be brothers. And I went “Oh, no”. Don’t worry, don’t worry, but we have to do a chemistry test with you two and see you next to each other side by side. So we went in, we actually rehearsed some material together 2 days later and came back in on Friday. He was going on for the first time, but he was testing alone. They knew they wanted him at that point, they weren’t testing against anyone I don’t believe, if they had looked at other people they weren’t there, it was just Ben & I and the studio execs. We went through the material and had a great time and just clicked. They realized that yeah, even though there may be similarities in our coloring and we could be probably distant relatives, that we are in very different places in our lives and with age and the way we carry ourselves and everything, they decided that the chemistry, which was so great, was more important than trying to make one of them completely different. And they wound up telling us in the room that we were both hired, which they never do. That’s usually they send you away, you go home, and you get a call from an agent or a manager, and they never get to experience that. That was kind of fun for everyone in the room for them to sort of tell us that “you’re hired” face-to-face.

STF: Very cool!

MC: So good luck transcribing that!

STF: (laughing) How has your relationship with Ben grown since you started working on the show?

MC: Our relationship has definitely grown. I think we have, like I said we are at two different places in our lives and I think our relationship sort of resembles a good neighbor relationship. You know they say good fences make good neighbors. We do things together, outside of the show, but we’re not so intrusive lives that we’re each others new best friend. I do consider him a friend. I think he considers me a friend. We talk about pretty much everything in regards to the show and the marketing of the show and elements of the show and story lines, this and that. We’re in agreement on just about everything. I don’t want to say everything, because maybe we’re not, but I can’t think of anything that we’re not. I think our sort of, our chemistry in the car and out of the car, in the show is just phenomenal. it’s really fun to watch the two of us play off each other, and I really enjoy it emmensely. I love coming to work when my scenes are with him.

STF: It definitely comes across that way to us.

MC: It’s just, he’s the same way. I said this before on the TVDoneWright thing. It’s fun to come to work. And no, I didn’t know him before, I hadn’t seen him on the OC. Had heard of it, had seen him in the advertising, but didn’t know who he was at all.

STF: What’s it like for you guys when you’re not filming on set? Is it serious, do you guys joke around?

MC: No, it’s stupid, it’s funny. There’s no practical jokes because there isn’t that kind of time. We move very, very fast the way we film, the style of the show is lends to that. You know, very rarely, specifically with Ben and I, we have these chairs that are setup for the actors while they’re waiting. You know, we don’t wait and our chairs are in the car. They go, you got a minute, go sit in the car. There are chairs setup on set when we are in locations where we’re going to be for a long period of time, but it’s silly. And you know it’s a hectic schedule so you’re taking up time doing, trying to get daily things done, you’re on Twitter (laughing) trying to get that perfect picture for that perfect Tweet, following up on Tweets, following up on phone calls, following up on emails, there’s always press to do. There’s always something else going on, there’s always a new script coming up so you’re studying in between. There are episodes back to back where Ben & I will be working almost every day, so you try to do some of your work during the day, so you’re not consumed by your job where you’re working all day long then learning new scenes in the evening so your life is complete sucked away from you. So it’s an interesting mix. I think there’s definitely a light energy to balance the sort of horrific stuff we are dealing with. You know there’s a lot of gallows humor. But it’s fun, it’s a lot of fun.

STF: Who is your favorite character on the show?

MC: I think one of my favorite characters is becoming Sammy. I love his like, twisted relationship with his wife, and that’s some of the stuff that’s been put back into the pilot. There’s a scene that’s with here that’s just one of the most genius scenes I’ve ever seen, and you’ll see it, I don’t want to give anything way, but you’ll realize how he could love this woman. There’s that other side that we haven’t seen yet, and you think why is he taking all this. She’s just awful. And you know, she’s not. There’s this history that they have, and she’s fun and twisted. And I think Shawn is just a phenomenal actor and he’s got a lot of wonderful stuff coming up this season. Everyone does. You know we premiere on January 12th, and the new episodes start on March 2nd, it’s really amazing. He’s got some really amazing stuff.

STF: Yeah, we’ve got those dates plotted out on the site’s calendar already. We can’t wait!

MC: (laughing)

STF: What was your favorite Season1 episode?

MC: My favorite season 1 episode would have to be the Tom Sizemore episode. Episode 3, “See the Woman” with all the transvestites and Dewey tied up to the bed. I love any episode where Regina’s carrying a shotgun. (laughing) Because she just looks Bad Ass.

STF: You’ve worked in a lot of different genres over the years. IMDB has 92 listings for you now, including the 2 new ones that are coming out some time in the future.

MC: Satin, we don’t know when that’s coming out. Oh, that’s fun. We had such a good time singing Karaoke.

STF: What haven’t you done yet that you’d like to do?

MC: You know, somebody just asked me that just about a week ago. I was supposed to do a western with C. Thomas Howell, just this past, around Thanksgiving time, and hopefully that’s going to happen in January of the new year. I want to do a Western and I want to something in space.

STF: Oooh, Sci-Fi!

MC: Yeah. Like heavy makeup. You know. I say that now, but I’ll regret it later. That kind of thing. Any of those two, because you always have your good and even type scenarios. That would be fun just genre wise. I’ve been very, very fortunate – knock on wood – to work pretty steadily, so I feel pretty blessed.

STF: Who would you say has been the biggest influence on you as an actor?

MC: I don’t know if anyone’s been an influence on me, but I always aspired to have a career like a J.T. Walsh. A career like “that guy”, wonderful memorable projects, but not have like one role define my career. When my career is over I want to be known for some really solid, solid acting, and within that there’ll be hopefully some sparks of things that people considered amazing. I don’t know, it’s hard to talk about yourself like that without sounding like some sort of egotistical asshole.

STF: Well, you’re an actor.

MC: Yeah, but it’s like I’m not your typical actor, I’d say.

STF: Actors have to have some ego, though.

MC: That’s not an intentional slam on anyone. It is, it’s an ego drive thing, to a degree. There are elements I don’t necessarily agree with that come with the house, as it were.

STF: If you weren’t an actor, what do you think you would be doing?

MC: If I weren’t an actor, I almost joined the Navy with my buddy right out of high school. I took the ASVAB’s and I was ready to sign, and something told me no. It seemed to work out all right. But I don’t know. I might be a fireman, or something. I don’t know if I could be a cop. I might be in construction. I like working with my hands.

STF: What character that you’ve portrayed has been most like you personality wise and which one was least like you?

MC: Probably the least was the psycho on Life, Mark Rawls. Well, he wasn’t a psycho, just a little misunderstood. (laughing) That’s the least like me. The most like me. Hmmm. I don’t know, they all have elements of me in them. I don’t know, actually, because a lot of the stuff I do, and have done over the years, has been guest star television stuff. The stuff in guest star work tends to be emotionally charged. You come in and you have a job to do as those characters, so you are almost a caricature. Even when you are a good person, they’re usually very 1 dimensional the way they’re written, but I mean you fill it out as an actor, but they only give you one part. So they aren’t really writing a 1 dimensional character, they are only giving you 1 dimension of that character. Now I did this role, I’m glad I started talking about it because now it opened my memory, I played a role in Family Law, where I played a father, who had gone to prison and had to give up his kid for adoption, and had come out of prison and it was very important for him to connect and get back with his son. Tony Danza was playing the attorney and the big brother to the kid and was wanting to adopt him, so he was fighting to not have me. Not the criminal element, but the basically the idea that you would do anything you had to do to get your children back, I can identify with that. I don’t know if that’s the character I identify with most, so far as that, but that’s definitely one that was very close to me, having children, I’m very aware of that. I can’t imagine not doing anything you had to do to get your kids back from a situation, whatever it was, so to see kids who don’t want their kids or abuse their kids, I just can’t wrap my head around that. So maybe that, maybe not. I don’t know. I’m sure are little bits and pieces of me in all of them.

STF: What got you interested in acting originally?

MC: I have been interested in acting my entire life that I’m aware of remembering. I did all the elementary plays, the high school plays. I have always wanted to act.

STF: So your family supported you through all of that?

MC: Absolutely, yeah. They were fantastic.

STF: You always hear stories about the actors that had to fight their families.

MC: Well, I always say that as a parent you should say “No” to that, because if they really, really want to do it, they’ll do it anyway. SO if you can talk them out of it, then they didn’t really want to do it. But they never tried to talk about it.

STF: That was the last prepared question I had, but I had number of ladies that had one OTHER question…..

MC: Boxers! (laughing)

STF: (laughing) You knew that one was coming

MC: I always laugh, I say that on morning shows. She goes “Now this is one that people just don’t ever ask” and I say “Boxers” and they all start laughing. Actually, Boxer Briefs ladies.

STF: Well, I very much appreciate you taking the time. I know your schedule was very hectic today.

MC: No, it was good. This was a nice way to glide out of all that, because it was away from all that corporate noise, so, it was nice.

On a side note, I just want to thank everyone for all of their support. They will definitely get to see at least the next six that we shot. I think for that alone it was a victory for the fans.

STF: Oh, definitely. And if we have anything to say about it, TNT will definitely get the ratings!

MC: Well, that’s the thing now. That’s where everyone needs to watch, and that’s where I sound like the horrible salesman hawking my wares out the side of the truck. You need to get people to watch early and they need to watch them when they are or DVR them and watch them in the 3 day window. But the shows need to be watched so that TNT knows that people are watching.

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If you think you have seen Michael Cudlitz before, it’s because you probably have. A versatile actor with numerous roles on television, film, stage and the Call of Duty video game series, Michael Cudlitz is a ubiquitous presence in all forms of media. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Cudlitz has been steadily appearing in television roles since 1990 including iconic programs such as ER, The Practice, Six Feet Under, 24 and the critically acclaimed HBO production of Band of Brothers where he portrayed Sgt. Denver “Bull” Randleman. He is no stranger to the police procedural having appeared in NYPD Blue, Criminal Minds, Walker Texas Ranger, JAG, CSI, CSI: Miami, Standoff, Without a Trace, Bones, Prison Break and Life with Band of Brothers alum Damien Lewis. Not to be characterized, Cudlitz has also appeared in Beverly Hills 90210, Party of Five, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Dead Zone, Nip/Tuck and Saving Grace.

Cudlitz made his first film appearance in the Robert Redford directed feature “A River Runs Through It” in 1992 and followed with memorable roles in Grosse Pointe Blank, D3: The Mighty Ducks, The Negotiator, Running Scared, Forces of Nature, Surrogates and the upcoming Crossing Over with Harrison Ford. Despite labeling himself as an analog man, he has an extensive digital presence with his website and a now notorious Twitter page where his frank comments about the cancellation of Southland inflamed the fury of Southland fans and led to the Twitter explosion that garnered significant media attention and assisted in the resurrection of SouthLAnd on TNT.

Michael can be found online at his official website at http://www.michaelcudlitz.net and on Twitter @Cudlitz.

SouthLAnd Premiers on TNT January 12, 2010 at 10/9c Commercial Free.

SouthLAnd Official Website: http://www.tnt.tv/southland
SouthLAnd on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/southland

SouthLAnd is from John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Created by Emmy winner Ann Biderman (NYPD Blue, Public Enemies), the series is executive-produced by Biderman, Emmy winner Chris Chulack (ER, Third Watch) and Wells. Chulack is also a primary director of the series.

Michael Cudlitz photo credit: Mitch Haaseth

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No Reproduction or Retransmission without prior approval.