Tom Pelphrey, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is an outstanding actor who has been doing impressive work on the stage and screens big and small for more than 20 years, picking up along the way two Daytime Emmys for his portrayal of Jonathan Randall on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light and Critics Choice and Primetime Emmy nominations for his turn as Ben Davis, the bipolar brother of Laura Linney’s Wendy, on the Netflix drama series Ozark.
But Pelphrey is currently experiencing unprecedented levels of acclaim — and Emmy buzz — for his extraordinary performance on the HBO drama series Task as Robbie Prendergrast, a single father and sanitation worker in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, who is mourning the murder of his brother and robbing the biker gang responsible for his brother’s death, which puts him in the crosshairs of both that gang and an FBI task force.
Over the course of a conversation at the L.A. offices of THR, the 43-year-old reflected on his path to acting, and how his career only really began to take off after he got sober on Oct. 1, 2013; how he landed on seasons three and four of Ozark, and how his work on that show led to other high-profile opportunities; why he was so drawn to — and personally effected by — playing Robbie on Task, which Esquire has described as “the role of a lifetime”; plus more.
You can listen to the full conversation via the audio player above or read excerpts of it — lightly edited for clarity and/or brevity — below.
On training with Mark Rylance while in college…
“We got to go for an entire semester and study Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre. And at that time, Mark Rylance was the artistic director of the Globe. It was everything you could hope for as an actor. Here we are in New Brunswick doing Meisner, kitchen sink drama, crying, screaming, punching holes in walls, just getting your rage out, getting it natural, getting in touch with their feet, all these things, but it’s really internal and intense. And then to get to go to the Globe stage? I mean, it’s incredible… suddenly they’re talking about our posture and how to use your voice and teaching us how to breathe… It was like seeing the other end of the spectrum… I fell in love with Mark Rylance. I was like, ‘Who is this guy?!’ Because at the time, real theater people knew that he was an alien, but most people had never heard his name. I certainly hadn’t. And he would come in and talk to our class and teach us. And my whole class, our jaws were on the floor.”
On getting sober…
“I got sober at the end of 2013 and then everything changed. Yes, 100 percent. I could tell you everything from that moment on in an easy way of explaining this led to this, led to this, led to this. So I say that just to say, by the grace of God, I got sober in 2013, and I wouldn’t be here without that.”
On making Ozark with Jason Bateman, who was both his scene partner and director…
“That was my first experience of being on a set where an actor was directing, and I couldn’t believe it. It was like the first two episodes, and I was nervous to be there — it was this show I loved, and this role, and all these people I look up to — and Jason’s going around giving notes to the camera and to the actors, and he’s also kind of driving that particular scene, and then he’s joking with me, and as they’re counting down to role his heartbeat never raised. I was like, ‘What is happening?!’ I’m getting ready to do one of my first scenes, my heart’s beating out of my chest, and this guy’s literally orchestrating the entire set while he’s responsible for being the main actor in the scene, and he’s just completely loose, completely easy! It was incredible.”
Getting cast on Task…
“It was like Ozark in the sense that as soon as I read it, I knew there was work to be done, but there was just something about the character that I felt like I understood completely, and then I wanted it; it just made sense to me. So we put a few scenes on tape real quick and sent them off, and kind of just like Ozark, heard back a couple days later and they were like, ‘Great, you’re going to do this.’”
On the heartbreaking scene in the fourth episode of Task, when Robbie’s daughter admits to him that she never bought the ticket for the father-daughter dance and then they dance together…
“I’d had the greatest privilege in the world of getting to become a father a while before we started filming Task, and my daughter means the universe to me, so then to have to go play this scene? He’s a man whose daughter means the universe to him, and he let her down, and he knew that it would be the last time he’d see her… For me, Tom, I was literally just trying to distract myself. It was so much.”
On this moment in his career…
“It’s an incredible time. I remember having a conversation with my agent years and years ago, and he was like, ‘What is success?’ And for me, success is just a greater ability to have access to good scripts. When you get access to really good scripts, there’s usually really good people working on them, and you get these incredible opportunities to showcase what you can do and whatever talent you have. Hopefully I’m getting better and better — I think I am — but you do need the opportunity to show it. There’s so much that’s out of your control, is really what I’m trying to say, and I’m so incredibly grateful for how this is all rolling out, and that I’ll get more chances to have great opportunities.”
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