John Hensley – Nip/Tuck

Q.  What are some of the recent projects that you’ve been working on?

A.  Well, other than the fourth season of “Nip/Tuck,” to be honest with you I write quite a bit.  So, I’ve just been taking time when I’m not working on “Nip/Tuck” to do that.  That and just trying to get things squared away for when the show wraps this November. 

Q.  That’s interesting, I didn’t know you were a writer. 

A.  Yeah, it’s something that the truth of the matter is from very young I’ve always been drawn to the idea of story and telling stories.  I had always known since I was younger that I definitely wanted to be a part of.  I didn’t know in what capacity.  Truth be told, I still have that desire but I’m still willing to explore all capacities that I can potentially still be a part of. 

Q.  Are these parts you’re writing for yourself or for someone else to play?

A.  No, not necessarily.  They are just stories that I want to tell, I can honestly say that one script I’ve written that people seem to have responded well to, I certainly did not write the story for myself.  However, as an actor, if that script ever found its way to my doorstep would I love to have the opportunity?  Yeah, of course.  But, I think when you sit down and tell a story as a writer you shouldn’t necessarily do it clouded by envisioning yourself in that role.  I think you have to write a character so I think that’s where it is for me.  No, they are not necessarily anything I wrote for myself. 

Q.  With the new season of “Nip/Tuck” airing, what can you tell us about some of the changes?

A.  Quite a bit actually!  I think the third season of the show, while it was certainly a lot of fun for me as an actor because I got a lot of interesting stuff to do, I think the show as a whole took a real dark turn tonally speaking.  Even for a show that’s already dark like “Nip/Tuck,” I think that this season it seems to be getting back to the core group of characters that the story started with.  That’s actually been a nice thing to return to.  It’s almost as though the third season was such a departure, it always feels a bit like coming home.  You’re coming back to sort of relationships that over the past couple seasons most of the characters you at one time were familiar with.  That you perhaps lost touch with them for one season and now you’re back to it.  So, I think that would be the biggest change. 

Q.  How about changes for your character?

A.  For Matt, specifically, he’s more or less reeling from the fallout of everything that happened in the third season.  He’s doing his best to take proactive measures to bettering himself.  I think he’s still in a lot of ways very lost and I think that he has yet to have that realization that at some point, he’s going to have to start walking his own path.  I think he’s looking to others for answers and quite frankly, the places he looks in, don’t necessarily provide him with the best options.  This season it is religion and we’ll see where that takes him, I honestly have no idea.  I am sort of waiting for it to fall apart for him, but we’ll see, maybe it will work out, who knows.

Q.  What is it about the show that you think continues to draw viewers in?

A.  That’s actually a great question.  I don’t know is the honest answer.  Just because I wouldn’t presume to know.  I think when you do something, at the end of the day the audience responds to what you do be it good or bad or somewhere in between is really none of your business.  If you sign on to be a part of telling a story, that’s your job, and I think if you get preoccupied with how it might be received I think that can be inhibiting ultimately.  With that being said; I don’t know.  If I had to guess, I think one element that at least attracted me to the show at the beginning was the fact that there is no definable good or bad guy in the story.  Everybody, every character is fully capable of doing something that is severely dysfunctional and potentially damaging.  As well every character is capable of displaying very human, compassionate qualities.  I think that in a weird way, though the story in itself is extreme and heightened, I think elements of that are maybe what keep people engaged.  I don’t know, the idea that you really never know what you’re going to get with each episode that comes out.  Maybe that has something to do with it, I don’t know though.  Maybe it has to do with the fact, that I do have to say, the writers (Ryan Murphy and his group) are committed to telling the story they’ve chosen to tell without apologies.  I think in a weird way, those stories maybe land a little better with an audience.  I don’t know, there is very little pandering in the show.  There is no attempt to really please anybody in the show and maybe that is it.  I honestly don’t know though.

Q.  “Nip/Tuck” deals with a lot of serious issues. Do you think the show handles these issues in a way that is true to them and people who go through them?

A.  I think it handles those issues in a heightened way.  What I mean by that, the issues that it deals with (the issues themselves) are potentially real issues for anyone.  However, the ramifications of those issues on the show are often times heightened.  So, it’s an interesting one, I think it’s kind of both to be honest.  I think it sort of takes basic reactions and emotions and sort of multiplies them by ten. 

Q.  What is it about your role on “Nip/Tuck” that continues to challenge you?

A.  Again, that’s a good question.  I can say what it is about the role that keeps me somewhat engaged.  What that is, is the fact that Matt (I do really love saying this from as objective a point view as I possibly can) Matt is the one character in the story that every year has something traumatically different occur in his life.  That’s always been, it’s like he’s the one character that doesn’t have a set course.  In a weird way, even though different things happen to different characters, they’re established adults that are made the way they are made.  So, regardless of what happens to them, in a weird way you can almost anticipate the way that they will respond to certain situations.  Whereas Matt, he’s still forming basically as a human being.  He’s a young guy and so every single thing that happens to him is new and different.  You never know what the ramifications of these things are going to be.  For me as an actor to work on a television series, let’s face it, any time you work on a series you run the risk of becoming mundane and repetitive.  But, for him, and me playing him, that hasn’t been the case.  Every year there has been something dramatically different which lends itself to a little more fun on the set.  So, I don’t know to be honest with you.  I guess truth be told, the most challenging thing about playing Matt, is I’m a twenty-nine year old man.  He’s roughly an eighteen year old kid and as an actor, it’s tough at moments to come to set and bring what you want to bring to a particular role and then find that you have to modify and potentially constrain yourself so you can shave at least ten years off of the guy.  So, that in a weird way is almost the challenging bit.  You realize that you’re not playing a character that’s representative of a guy in his late twenties, early thirties.  You’re playing a character that is supposed to be representative of a guy who is crossing into his twenties.  That’s something that is kind of continually, or at least I continue to be reminded of the writers and directors.  It’s only now that I’m getting to put a little bit more of myself into the role.  It’s a nice thing but it’s little bits at a time and so it’s one of those things where there is progress on that front but it’s always present.

Q.  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A.  Honestly, riding motorcycles is a big thing in my life.  Improving my lap times at the track on my bike, that’s what I enjoy doing in my spare time.  I have to be honest with you, motorcycles have really been in a lot of ways a real saving grace in my life.  To have something that is purely yours that exists outside of anything you do for a living.  Yet, have that thing be something you get so much satisfaction and enjoyment from, something for as long as you choose to do it you will always be wanting more has really been an important thing for me.

Q.  What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

A.  Honestly, I mean this sincerely, thank you.  Because it truly is a gift that I actually happen to love my job.  I do feel, and I don’t believe I’ve even come remotely close to doing this, I feel that arguably it is through story perhaps it’s possible that one can make a potential contribution to the world around them on a fairly large scale.  I know that good stories certainly had that impact on me as a kid growing up.  Arguably it planted that seed as to why I started to believe whatever I do.  So, that being said, I would just say thank you.