Since the new season of Justified starts tonight, it's time for An Interview with Nick Searcy- [XBradTC]

Peabody Award Winner and International Film and Television Star, and host of “Acting School with Nick Searcy” Nick Searcy is also a longtime AoS reader.

And it occurred to me the other day, Morons want to know what makes Nick tick. So I asked him if he'd be interested in answering a few questions. In the vain hope it would either make me go away, or provide supporting evidence for a restraining order, he graciously acceded to my request.

And since Justified* starts its season tonight, it seemed the time was ripe.

Q: You were the second hottest state trooper in Days of Thunder. Do you have the other trooper's phone number handy?

A: I do not. But I know she got married and gave up acting. I guess she knew it wouldn’t get better after working with me.

Q: Tell us a little about Cullowhee, NC. Do you ever get back there?

I get back a lot. My parents are still there, and my sister is in Raleigh. Cullowhee was a great place to grow up. I did plays at the college, Western Carolina U., as a child, which is probably why I became an actor. I never left there until I graduated from high school. Wonderful idyllic little town. And I was valedictorian in high school, so obviously there weren’t a lot of annoyingly smart people around to screw everything up.

And how do you feel about the burgeoning film and movie industry in North Carolina. Did that have an impact on your career?

Got my start in films in NC after 7 years in NYC after graduating from UNC. Did a lot of plays in NYC, which helped me hone what little skill I have, and then we moved back to NC when we got pregnant with my daughter. I probably would never gotten a film career started in NY. Did Days of Thunder first, and a few other small roles, and then landed Fried Green Tomatoes while living in NC. FGT did well, and gave me enough of a profile that I could move to LA and get an agent. I owe my career to Jon Avnet, who now directs a couple of episodes of JUSTIFIED a year, and is still a dear friend. I always ask him if people call him “The Man Who Discovered Nick Searcy.” And he always says, “Yes, but they don’t mean it as a compliment.”

Q: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess Paradise Falls still has a special place in your heart. Why can't I find it anywhere?

It just never sold. We spent all the money making it, and then had no money for marketing it, and we were green and stupid. We won 6 Film Festival awards, but that was the year 1995, when there were more independent films made than ever before, so we got buried. And then the usual story: the producers got in a fight over silly things, and now I have no control over it. It’s out of my hands. I do love it, and it holds up pretty well. Maybe someday it will come out.

Q: Good guy or bad guy? All else being equal, which is more fun to portray?

All of them are interesting, really, as long as they are not cliched or stupid. I’ve been lucky in that even the good guys I’ve played weren’t Dudley Do-Right, and had shades of gray and flaws. But honestly, there’s nothing like a good bad guy role. Maybe my favorite role is the serial poisoner/self-mutilator in DEADLY END. But I loved Deke Slayton in From The Earth To The Moon too. And of course Frank Bennett in FGT. I’m thankful that I got a good role while I still had hair.

Q: Anything special we should be on the lookout for in this season of Justified?

Watch for Art getting a hair piece during his midlife crisis, which leads to a season long drinking binge. Not for the character, but for me personally.

And believe it or not, this year a few people get KILLED. Shocking, I know.

Q: What's the worst performance you've given, the one where when someone mentions seeing that show, you slink off or hand them the $10 they blew on a ticket?

What a question. Your insolence is appalling. You need to go immediately to ACTING SCHOOL and watch all episodes, so that in the future you will question me with the proper respect.

But honestly, sometimes i look back at some of my early stuff and think it’s bad. But they didn’t buy the ticket because of me anyway. So no refunds.

Q: Acting School- guess you wanna blog-pimp it here, huh?

http://www.nicksearcy.com/acting-school/ It is a public service i am providing to give my millions of fans a glimpse into my glamorous life. Just my way of giving back.

Q: Have your fairly outspoken conservative views cost you roles? Is that why you weren't picked to play Captain America instead of that skinny kid they settled for?

Maybe. I have no way of knowing. They don’t call you up and tell you why they don’t cast you. But I’ve found that most of the time when I don’t get cast, it’s because the producers have no taste and the movie sucks anyway. SO I don’t worry about it. By the time I figured out that Hollywood hated conservatives, it was too late and I’d already shot my mouth off. It could be a good excuse, though. Maybe I’ll use it when it all dries up for me.

Dave in Texas actually had a pretty good follow on question- “...I’d ask Nick how hard it is to be an open conservative in his chosen profession. If he thinks it costs him work. And if so, what are his general thoughts toward people in other businesses who are unwilling to take that same professional risk. “

I don’t know about other people. I know guys who aren’t open about it, and i know guys that are. It’s a personal choice for everyone, and i try not to judge. But everybody at Justified knows, and it doesn’t seem to bother them. We joke about it. A couple of the writers talked to me approvingly when i did the “Yellow Flowers” ad for Herman Cain. And I always get people coming up to me at the craft service table and whispering, “Hey Buddy. I’m on your side.” So I just try to have fun with it, be myself, and engage if someone engages me. There’s no time to talk politics at work anyway. Everybody knows that with me, “Don’t start none, won’t be none.”

Funny story though: the other day, in the middle of a take, my phone was in my pocket and RUSH LIMBAUGH suddenly started playing on my phone in the middle of the take. One of my great fellow stars in the show (I won’t say who) says “Oh great, now we’ve got Rush Limbaugh in the show!” I said, “Hey wait a minute. HOW DO YOU KNOW HIS VOICE?”

Q: The Moron Horde was pretty blown away to learn you follow AoSHQ. How did you stumble upon the wretched hive of scum and villainy?

Friend of mine recommended it back during the 2004 Bush/Kerry election, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Great to find another profane, smart-assed, obnoxious conservative. How could i not love it?

And if you're so smart, why didn't you ever ask Ace for the keys to the blog so you could link Acting School with Nick Searcy there?

You see, this why ACTING SCHOOL is so necessary. As a Peabody Award-winning international Film and Television Star, I do not ASK for things. I am ASKED for things. I am invited to participate. Ace may approach me with his offer at any time, and i will consider it, as I do the countless other things I am offered.

Q: Dave in Texas wants to know if Adam and Eve had belly buttons. I think he's implying you're old.

Dave’s goddamned disrespectful insolence has already been noted once in this interview. It is appalling and intolerable. I will not stand for it. He needs to go immediately to http://www.nicksearcy.com/acting-school/ and shut his damn fool mouth.

Q: How does your son Omar feel about you being called racist simply because of your conservative views?

Well, nobody really does it to my face or his, because they don’t have the guts. But if it ever comes up, He thinks it’s ridiculous, as all sane people do. He goes around telling everybody he is a black conservative. He’s worried that his sister might be a liberal though. He’s a very sensitive and compassionate young fellow, so he’s worried about all liberals, and doesn’t understand how they can be such. “How can ______ be a LIBERAL?” he asks me a lot. And I always tell him, “Omar, some people aren’t as lucky as you are. They weren’t raised right.”

*Or as I like to call it “Deputy Chief US Marshall Art Mullen gets robbed of way too much screen time by his upstart protege and Boyd Crowder's hair does evil things.”

[Update: Ben] You can follow Nick Searcy on twitter here.

posted by Open Blogger at 08:07 PM

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