What’s it like working with Katey Sagal? She scares me. You know why? She commits. In one of our scenes, she has to yell at Grady, but I couldn’t tell if she was yelling at Grady or at me. That’s why she scares me. She’s so good at what she does. Tell us about Grady. He’s Rebel’s third husband. They’ve been married for 10 years and have a kid. He’s a custom car maker, a builder, but he might not be the most reliable guy in the world. Mostly, I’ve played guys you can count on in my career, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this show. What can you say about the kinds of stories you’ll be telling on Rebel? Because of COVID, we just started shooting our first episode a couple weeks ago, so I don’t know what’s going to happen. As far as I can tell, we are going to maybe follow a singular case throughout our series, as opposed to, say, a medical show that discovers a patient at 9:00 and by 10:00 that patient either makes it or doesn’t and then next week there’s a new patient. We’re going to follow one particular case, I think, throughout the series. Have you had a chance to meet Erin Brockovich? I haven’t met Erin yet. With these new protocols, you can’t just show up anymore and hang out on your day off to watch everybody else film like you might when this isn’t happening, and you can’t bring visitors. It’s a big planning thing just getting on set these days. Erin hasn’t come by when I’ve been shooting. But I’ve only shot two or three days so far since we’ve been going and only had scenes with Katey Sagal. You mentioned that for the women in your previous projects, like My Big FatGreek Wedding and Sex and the City, you were a guy that they could depend on. What attracts you to these roles? It goes like this. So when you first decide to try to be a professional actor—for me that was in 1984—you hope for one job where you get a line. And that job either comes or it doesn’t. If it does, you hope for another job. So when you get lucky enough to get a couple jobs—because that doesn’t happen for most people—you start fantasizing about having a life as an actor where that’s all you do, and you get to pay your rent and your electricity bills from the money you’ve made acting. All these years later, believe it or not, that’s still my goal. My main goal is to make a living doing this thing that I like. I’d love to say that I pick and choose my roles, but that’s not how it works. They call and say, “There’s this project and they want you to be in it. What do you think?” I say, “Sounds good, send it. Let me read it.” I read it and I think, “Here’s another way that I’m going to be able to do what I like to do and pay my bills, and I like this person and I’m going to say yes.” Because if I say no, and I’ve said no to enough things in the past, somebody else is going to play it, and somebody else is going to cash that paycheck. So I try to find something in there—even if I maybe have played that type of role a lot, I find something in there that’s going to motivate me to say, “You know what? I can go do a good job at this role and I can create a chemistry with this person if I don’t have it in real life.” It’s great that you’re so realistic about it. Yeah, it’s got very little to do with the art of it and more to do with I’m so thankful that I still get to buy a new car every few years and Hollywood pays for it. None of the people that I know from the acting class that I went to for years and years make a living doing this. The odds are nonexistent almost. What was it like to be part of a series that won’t die? They’re making a 10-episode continuation of Sex and the City called And Just Like That… You want to know the truth? The truth goes like this. The first time I did the show, I had never heard of the show because I didn’t have HBO. I think I read a script and I didn’t really like it. I passed on it and they said, “Just come and meet Sarah Jessica Parker.” I knew who she was. I wanted a free trip to New York because they always fly you first-class and put you up. So I knew I could bail out and go see some friends in New York, so I did it. But then I met Sarah Jessica and I liked her. She talked me into doing it. We hung out for about a half hour at [director-producer] Michael Patrick King’s house, and he was there and I liked him. He was charming. So I did the show. With most things I do, when they say, “Thanks, man, that’s a wrap, this has been fun,” that’s it for me. I forget about it by the next week. I don’t linger. But you returned for a second season. Here’s why I said do you want to know the truth. I said, “I’m going to do this experiment when I come back for my second season.” I knew I was going to New York for four months. I woke up that morning and I said, “I’m going to go to the airport wearing whatever clothes I put on, with my wallet in my pocket, and I’m going to get on that airplane, and when I get to New York I’m going to get in a taxi and go, and whatever I need in New York, I’m just going to get it. When I need some more clothes, I’m going to go to the Gap, and I’ll go to the Rite Aid for my toothpaste and all that. So I’m going to use this as an experiment to just make myself laugh.” They had a little efficiency apartment with dishes and all that in it, so I didn’t have to worry about that stuff. “Here’s the other thing I’m going to do. I’m not going to read one script. And when I show up to work, I’m just going to go in that day and say hi to everybody, and whatever they give me to do, I’m just going to do it. Like an exercise.” That’s how I did my whole second season. I would study my lines while Sarah Jessica was getting her hair done, and I’d know it because I’d have a really super-fast memory. That’s the last thing I ever worry about when I’m acting. I could look at a monologue five minutes before and know the whole thing. That’s how I did it. It was so much fun. You’re the only one I’ve ever told that story to. I don’t even think I’ve told many of my friends that story. But that was the most fun I had just not knowing what I was doing. And you know what? Not one person ever called me on it. No one ever suspected that I was doing this little thing, that it was making me laugh. Your partner of 19 years, actress Bo Derek, recently said it’s the laughter that keeps you together. We were walking our three German shepherds yesterday and holding hands and I said, “Look at this, we still hold hands when we walk.” Not that we were teenagers when we met, but sometimes we act like teenagers when it’s just the two of us. Have you ever looked for a project to do together? I did a TV movie that I can’t remember up in Canada, and Bo was visiting me and they threw her in a scene. We played a couple cops or something together. Then I did a TV show, where I was the lead of it in the early 2000s, called Lucky on FX. It was the same thing; she was there and they said, “Hey, let’s write a scene with Bo.” I think Bo played a Las Vegas prostitute. It was like a two-page scene. But that’s the only times we’ve ever done anything like that. We’ve never tried to find something to do together. Although if something came along, it’d be fun. I love Bo. It would be so much fun to do anything with her. You have released two country music albums. Are you doing anything musically these days? The only music I’m doing these days is sitting around the house by myself. I play the guitar. I’ll pick it up and mess around for 45 minutes or an hour a day just to keep my fingers moving and my singing. I’ve got a little music room here. I’ll sing some songs, some of mine, some Eagles songs and things like that. I just learned [Elton John’s] “Crocodile Rock” yesterday. The last time I played in public was one year ago at this club in Hollywood called the Three Clubs. There were maybe 200 or 300 people there. That’s the last time we played as a band. Then right after that is when COVID hit. I’m going to make another record, but what happens is it takes a long time. I make my records in Nashville, and so when I’m going to make this record, I’m there for about two or three months just trying to get the record right. Then I can come home. You can make one at home on the computer if you want with stuff today, but I use this studio in Nashville and I use these great Nashville players. I try to put the artwork together on my records in a super-professional way. Not that I’m selling tons of them, but I’m only going to make one record. I made the last one in, I think, ’13 or ’14. So, I want them to be super nice, even if I just give them to my friends or whatever. It takes a big commitment. The hardest part is carving out that time to say, “Hey, Bo, I’m going to Nashville, see you in three months.” Is there an achievement that makes you the most proud? I didn’t get a whole lot of education after high school. I worked in a steel factory and I thought I was going to be a blue-collar guy who made a nice wage but wouldn’t have the great life that I saw in my head. So I’m most proud that I created that life, through acting, with a lot of people’s help. Next, The 12 Best Wedding Movies of All Time Remind Us Why We Love Rom-Coms
