Brian Letscher – Scandal

Interview By: Laurie Allred

Q) I read about your background and saw that you played football and transitioned into acting and theater. Can you elaborate more on that story?

A) I grew up playing sports. I was in one play in the fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher told me to play a character named Freddie because apparently I like to talk a lot. I just remember wearing a yellow suit and a yellow derby cap. And I had so much fun doing that play. I played football and baseball in high school and excelled in those and went into the University of Michigan to play football where I got a degree in economics. My Senior year, I got in a sketch comedy show kind of on a whim. It was a terrifying process of having to do the show and the thought of playing in front of 500 people scared me to death, but it was a great experience. Pretty much right at the end of school, I started coaching college football and worked my way up. I was very young, 24 years old maybe, flying all over the country and managing budgets and managing people and players. I was very focused on being a head coach in the NFL, that was absolutely my goal. I was driving around Michigan wearing khakis and a football polo and dress shoes trying to woo high school kids to play for us and I wasn’t happy. Quite honestly, I just wasn’t happy. I pulled off the road and I knew the theater director vaguely because my brother worked there. I just walked in and asked to speak to Guy Sanville and he was nice and gracious. He wanted to talk about football and I kept saying, “I don’t want to talk about football. I just wanted to talk about acting.” I’ll never forget the look on his face and he looked at me like I was crazy. He told me, “You’re a division one coach and you’re going to have a great career,” but he told me what to do. He told me to read as many plays as I could and read the newspaper out loud every day. I began to do those things. I enrolled in a program and went to class and this was while I was still coaching football. I took class at night and I didn’t tell anybody because I certainly couldn’t tell my football buddies or they would look at me like I was nuts. One day, I very vividly remember sitting in my living room and it was snowing. I was sitting outside staring at the snow and thinking, “I have to do this and I have something I have to change.” I realized I had to do this. My entire life led to being a head football coach,and I was on track to be able to do that. And I went in and I quit coaching. They tried to keep me and offered me an incredible contract and I said no. And everyone looked at me like I was nuts. I moved to to New York and I took a job selling Internet advertising, which at the time was going to make everyone a millionaire, right? At the same time, I was taking acting classes and I got an agent very quickly and booked a job. My very first scene was with a horse and my very first line was on “All My Children.” So, at this time, I was slowly building up a resume and did theater at the same time. I did stand-up and did 50 open mics in a year, anything I could do to get comfortable on stage and be comfortable performing and finding my voice outside the world of football. And then the day comes when you have to make a choice. I booked a play and it was a good play. I had to quit my day job. When I got the play, I had to make a choice. And it was hard. There’s been many times when I told myself I want to do nothing else, but act. But three months later, you’re trying to find another job to get by. It’s been a long road. My brother Matt is also an actor. He told me this is a really hard life and you have to make sure you want to do it. This is not something to take lightly. It’s not easy. It’s something your heart has to be in and very deeply or you won’t last. That made me pay attention to the craft and my job.

Q) It does seem like a long and bumpy rode and now you’re starring in two shows. Let’s talk more about your character on “Scandal.” On “Scandal,” you were ordered to kill the president’s son and he did die. What challenges are there to playing such a complex character?

A) It’s always a little bit of a challenge. You can’t judge that character and it’s very easy to judge. The person stepping outside and looking in, it is very easy to judge his actions. You really have to understand how someone can do that and how they feel about doing that. In a lot of television shows, you don’t get a lot of information because the writers don’t give everything they know down the road. It forces the actor to play the moment honestly without knowing what’s coming. And you have to come up with clear reasons why and that’s the biggest challenge. Playing the role of Tom, I got to grow over the years. I’ve gotten more mature and have more things to do. So, it’s been a long way up to this sort of thing to doing what I did at the end of Season 3. I think one of the biggest challenges was that thinking things were going one way for me and then getting the curveball (that I wasn’t told about), which is fine. I like it that way. I am actually a B613 agent who is undercover as a secret service agent. And I’m clearly developing some type of loyalty to the President and then to have me do this by my boss. How could I do that? It’s definitely a challenge but a welcomed one.

Q) This method of keeping plot secrets from the cast, do the writers do this for all actors on the show?

A) As far as I know, everyone find outs what’s happening at the table read. So, when you sit down to read that’s the first time anyone has seen it. There are a lot of ooh’s and ah’s and gasps. It’s crazy. There’s so much information so fast. There’s a genuine emotional reaction, which is really beautiful to see. And the writers get a certain thrill out of that because that’s how the audience would react, where some people are caught off guard and affect people. I love it. I heard of that happening before… It is a really fun way to do things.

Q) How is it like working with the cast?

A) It’s phenomenal. It’s been a different road to me. Everybody is so generous and kind. It’s really made it a breeze because I’m not there every week. So when I come in, it’s phenomenal to sit down and see who I’m working with. Like Scott Foley or Kerry [Washington], they’re all extraordinarily talented individuals. I think that what you get on screen, you really see people who are constant professionals and have fun doing it. Everyone knows we have a laugh. It’s a late night and someone cracks a joke and it’s usually Kerry. They choose the people very carefully and I think that’s a smart way to go about things because everyone is grateful for the work and everyone is really talented. They’re just good, nice and generous people and at the end of the day, isn’t that who we all want to work with?

Q) Segueing into this new character that you will be playing on the show “Grimm.” How would you compare your character on Scandal to this new character on “Grimm”?

A) That is a great question. Both characters are required to be difficult emotionally at times and they can’t afford to dwell. There is a stillness and solitude and loneliness in what they do. I think that is something I found that crossed over from Tom onto the character on “Grimm.” Both are operating in a very high stakes world where life and death is a very real possibility and you have more than one loss to answer to and those losses have conflicting missions for you. So, that carried over nicely. I think the difference about the character on “Grimm” is I can transform and morph into this creature. He has a little more outward power over his circumstances and he is fighting for that. That was fun to essentially recognize you got that power and can say something about it. The character on “Grimm” has really checked into his power fully and I think that was extremely fun to play with and a little bit scary, too.

Q) Going back, you said in college, you pursued theater and did some stand-up. I know you’re shooting for “Scandal” right now, but do you still do theater on the side?

A) Great question. I’ve done a play a year. I’m doing Penelope in Los Angeles. It’s at a terrific award-winning theatre. It’s phenomenal work and I got to work with some terrific actors. I would do a play whenever I possibly can. I do as many readings as I can. I jump at the chance because I love it. There is something that is immediate with a play with the audience right there and it can change any night. That is really exciting to me. In terms of standup, I write quite a bit. I’ve written plays and had plays produced. I shot my own web pilot. I try to keep busy writing. Recently, I began to jot down standup again. Once I get enough stuff down, I want to visit some open mics, visit some nice dark rooms, play and have good time and have a voice.

Q) Speaking of recharging, what do you do when you’re not acting and going to table reads? What types of hobbies do you have?

A) I love to hike. We live in a great place to be outdoors. In the middle of the week when I need a breather, I go hiking. I exercise, for sure, and I like to box. I can’t be reading a script; I have to be focused. I also have kids and a family. That’s really precious time, and my kids ground me in a wonderful way.

Q) Any other projects you are working on?

A) I’m also acting in a show my brother Matt wrote, called “One & Done,” an original web series. There is a Kickstarter campaign for it. The story is about brothers coming back together for their high school basketball team. It’s very heartfelt. We shot the pilot and put it up online.

Q) What’s it like working with your brother?

A) It was a blast. The role was written for me and he knows me well enough. I gave him a bunch of stories of being an athlete and things like that he could maybe use. My brother and I get along very well.