Chris Browning – Bosch

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects you have been busy working on?

A) I’ve got a little movie The Unhealer with Natasha Henstridge and Adam Beach. It’s kind of a supernatural thriller and I’ve got a pretty big role in that. I don’t know when it is coming out though, but we did it last summer. I’m in Gerard Butler’s movie for a little bit called Angel Has Fallen. I’m in the new season of “The 100” again, which I haven’t been on in five years. I’m back on that and so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve done a couple of short films I’m actually looking forward to seeing that were really cool projects. I got to work with some newer filmmakers and I was very impressed with both of them as to how prepared they were as directors, writers and cinematographers. They really knew their day. They knew every beat they were going after. They were way more prepared than a lot of sets I’ve been on! There is one movie called The Tutor that I play a father who hasn’t gotten over losing his daughter and keeps on hiring tutors for her. Then, I just finished a couple weeks ago called Clarity where I play a 65-year-old man with Alzheimer’s. The son comes back from ten years in the marine corps and is ready to lay into his dad for all the drunk and abuse he gave him as a kid and his dad is not around anymore. He’s got Alzheimer’s and thinks the son is the dad’s long-lost brother who died in Vietnam. It’s really a cool story.

Q) You started out in industry wanting to be a screenwriter. Did this give you any motivation?

A) Yeah! I liked looking at that Alzheimer’s premise. First of all, playing that was a big thing for me because I never get to play older. I’m always playing younger. So, all that stuff where you’re looking at yourself in a certain life and going, “Oh, that’s not as flattering for me,” all of that was gone. It was freeing. They age you up and add wrinkles. If the light hits you just right then you look really wrinkly. It was just an improvisational dream and so much fun. I’d like to write more on that. I’m still writing a lot. I have had a TV pilot with Jason Momoa attached to it. It was going around town and everybody loved it, but they weren’t looking for Westerns at the time. Then, The Revenant came out and everybody wanted Westerns, but Jason was Aquaman and unavailable for several years. [laughs] That’s just timing. At least I know I’m doing something right if people like Jason like it.

Q) Were you a fan of the series “Bosch” before joining this season of the show?

A) I was! It was kind of the same thing like when I was on “Sons of Anarchy.” I was excited to be on the show because I was actually a fan of the show. I’ve been fortunate that way a few times. Some shows I’ve done I wasn’t necessarily a watcher, especially DC World stuff or Marvel. I did “Agent Carter” and “Supergirl,” but I’m not really into the comic world so I didn’t know much about what I was doing. I had to look up who this person as Reactron and looked up his history. Or “The 100” – because it’s geared towards the younger crowd. Those weren’t shows that I normally watched, but when I got to be on “Ray Donovan” and “Sons of Anarchy” and “Westworld” and now “Bosch,” it’s really exciting because I watch their shows. So, I was all caught up for Season 4. Then, “Bosch” came along and it was just another audition for me. I wish it was a connection-based thing where the producers thought I was right for the role. But it was just another audition. When I got it, Michael Connelly (the author) was telling me how much I was exactly what he had in mind when he wrote the book. He’s been very helpful. He’s a big fan of mine and has been trying to figure out how we can maybe work me into Season 6. The rule on that show is that if you don’t die you can stick around.

Q) How was your character Preston Borders originally described to you?

A) My character is based on one of the books Two Kinds of Truth. They pick out one of the books and make a season out of it. So, the Two Kinds of Truth book was about this guy Preston Borders who Bosch (Titus Welliver) put away twenty-five years ago for murdering a girl and back then he was a rock ‘n’ roll guy with long hair, leather pants and all of the jewelry and the flowing shirts. He was just an arrogant asshole guys and Bosch put him away. He’s been in prison for twenty-five years on death row, but now new evidence has surfaced (DNA evidence) and someone else is confessing to the crime on their death bed. They are trying to get a new trial for Preston Borders and the plan is to get released from prison and sue the city and make millions of dollars. People are kind of looking at Bosch wondering if he railroaded this guy. Did he do this or not? That’s the main thorn in Bosch’s side is this Preston Borders. They also have this thing about busting this illegal pill killer ring. I get to be in it quite a bit.

Q) What did you find challenging about the role?

A) It was different. I’ve done a couple of convict roles in the past. I’m mostly in prison gear when you see me. Most of my scenes are in prison. I have played those guys in the past. I was in Shot Caller – a prison movie with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lake Bell and Benjamin Bratt that came out last year. That director did another movie like ten years earlier with Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff called Felon. In Felon I played this guy Danny Sampson who was the head of the Aryan brotherhood. That’s how I ended up in Shot Caller because he put me in to play the same character basically that I had played in Felon. So, I can play those guys, but this guy is different because he’s not the Aryan Brotherhood guy who is just a stone-cold killer. He was a rock n’ roll guy. So, I didn’t play him like I did those other guys. He was a guy who was good looking and charming and intelligent. He’s not a stone-cold killer. He’s just an arrogant asshole who killed a girl because she didn’t want him. He’s not like the guy who just kills people and it doesn’t even increase his heartrate. He is definitely a narcissist, but he knows the difference between right and wrong. He’s just a different person than those other convict guys. So, I played it that he’s become a little bit like he’s a convict because he’s been in prison for twenty-five years. He’s got a little bit of the way they walk and talk, but he’s not posting up acting like an Aryan Brotherhood gangster. The coolest part was that I got to play the 1995 version of Preston Borders, too. That was the most fun because I got to put on a wig and wear leather pants. I was worried about the team of special effects artists that it was going to take to make me thirty. [laughs] They said it wouldn’t matter because they are showing him in old interview tapes with the camera up in the corner of the room and the old black and white grainy footage and you’re far away sitting at a table. So, it will look fine, I hope.

Q) Talk about working with Titus Welliver.

A) That was cool because we were both actually on “Sons.” I always thought that he was British. I didn’t even know he was American until I met him. I was sure he was from London and does a really good Irish accent. But, no. He’s from the United States and does a really good Irish accent. He was great to work with. He was super supportive with me and let me kind of do my thing. The fun thing about working with these guys who have a character with a quiet-inner resolve you can just kind of do your thing and if you play with it a little bit it doesn’t really affect what they do. So, you don’t have to worry about improvising something that is not going to work for Harry Bosch because Harry will just look at you and he’s not like a back and forth banter kind of guy. I did a movie like that called Book of Eli with Denzel Washington where I got to improvise a lot. Denzel’s character Eli in the movie rarely says anything and you find out later that he’s blind. It’s one of those things where you are free to bounce all over the place because they are just going to stay in their stoic place and it’s kind of nice. But Titus was super supportive during takes. There was one time where they wanted me to do something a certain way when I was passing by him in shackles and the idea was to have me do something in a certain way where I just kind of flinch at him. I was like, “That kind of doesn’t feel right to me.” He was like, “Yeah, yeah. I don’t think so either.” He went and talked to producers about it. He said to just make it a glance and not lunge at him. I was like if I threaten you like that then you’re going to have to take me down and put a knee on the back of my head. You’re not going to let me do that. So, it was cool to be able to talk about that with him and get it where we wanted it. If they don’t get it where everybody is happy then they don’t stop. Some shows you’re on you get a lukewarm performance and they say “moving on.” That’s not this show. Until the actors, producers, writers and everybody are happy they stay on it. It’s a very freeing feeling and a safe feeling because you know you can try stuff and you’re not racing the clock.

Q) How did you shake off a long day of filming?

A) I don’t know. There wasn’t really anything that was so emotionally exhausting that I needed to take a knee for a while. There wasn’t anything in there that I had to do that was exhausting or I couldn’t get out of an emotional state I’d been in all day. I’ve never really been like that anyway, but if there is a scene where you are doing like in that short film I talked about earlier) … My character is just breaking down, crying and confused. Those kinds of days take a lot out of you and I just kind of want to go home and veg in front of Netflix or Amazon and pass out. It was anything I really had to so much shake off. It was just a lot of fun. I usually come off of work and if I do good work and I’m kind of riding that wave and feeling good and have a lot of energy because I know I turned in some stuff that I’m actually looking forward to watching.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the fans’ reaction to your work on the show?

A) I would love that! I haven’t really had fans react to much in a long time. It’s weird because when I did “Sons” they said, “You should probably get on social media. That was before Instagram. So, I got on twitter and then “Sons” came out and I got like five thousand followers in a week! Here it is like seven or eight years later and I think I have like seven thousand followers. It hasn’t changed at all from all the other stuff like “Westworld,” “Bright,” “Ray Donovan” or “The 100.” “The 100” or “Supergirl” have probably given me more attention than anything. It seems like the “Bosch” fans are pretty dedicated so maybe this will be another spike. I have to start posting some stuff to “Bosch.” When it comes out, I can start posting pictures from set, but before then I can’t really do that.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about Season 5 of “Bosch?”

A) John Lindstrom, who plays my lawyer, got to be really good buddies. He’s on one of the soaps. He was a really, really fantastic guy to work with. He’s my lawyer who is not really the most ethical guy in the world. [laughs] He played it really well. He didn’t play it like this walking sleazebag. He’s this guy who looks good and is presentable and professional. At first glance you don’t think there is anything shady about this guy. I was really impressed with him. I had a lot of scenes with him. Most of my stuff is with him or Titus. I don’t know. We had a really good time together. Michael Connelly is just a sweetheart of a guy and we spent the whole evening at the wrap party hanging out. He’s actually trying to help me career wise and put me in touch with people to further my career. He’s like, “You should be working all the time. You’re fantastic.” I’m like, “Hey! I agree.” [laughs]

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who are fans and supporters of your work?

A) Thanks for hanging in there everybody! It’s going to pay off one day! [laughs] Some day you’re going to be able to say, “I’ve been a fan of his since nobody knew who he was.” [laughs] Right now, we’re still kind of there.