Lenny Platt – Quantico

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects you are working on?

A) It would just be “Quantico” at the moment since I was just in Montreal since November filming the eleven episodes of Season One. We just wrapped production so I’m just now back in New York City. I’m excited for the last three episodes to air and for the audience to see what we have been working on.

Q) What can you tease is in store for the remainder of the “Quantico” season?

A) Having watched the first eleven episodes as an audience member…Once I got the role, I binge watched and rewatched all the episodes so I was up to speed. Having the privilege of being a part of the second half of the story, I can tell you that the way they wrap it up with the reveal who the terrorist or terrorists are will satisfy the audience in a pretty big way. The clues are there, I think, the whole way through. If you go back and watch the episodes and the new ones you see shades being painted throughout the episodes. So, I think that is a testament to the work of the writing staff. It’s going to be a wild ride for the last three episodes, for sure! One thing that is interesting for my character (and I think the fans have picked up on it) is you never see what Drew is doing in the future. He’s only played a part in the present timeline. I think it will be interesting to see what he has been up to and where his life has taken him in the months since being at Quantico.

Q) We know he quit Quantico.

A) This was it for him. He had some near exits, but this one stuck. The audience can be sure that Drew has severed ties with the FBI, which was disappointing for me as an actor to find out only because I felt like I was along for the ride with Drew. He didn’t get his badge. It’s kind of unfortunate. Who’s to say he doesn’t get it eventually? I don’t know. We’ll see. It will be interesting to see where his future lies.

Q) Was there anything about Drew that changed from your audition to what we see now?

A) Absolutely! His name even changed. When I originally got the audition his name as Drew Walker and he was an ex-pro boxer. The audition scenes I had were to showcase his resilience and positive spirit. He was visiting a doctor who says, “We have noticed some irregularities with your brain scan and if you continue to box it might be the end of you. You’ll die or have serious brain damage.” So, the scene was Drew coming to terms with that and saying, “Let’s not talk about what I can’t do. Let’s talk about what I can do from now on.” Drew has never been one to take “no” for an answer and I really respect that. He is like, “Let’s talk about what I can do and not what I can’t.” That element to him was always there, but this name changed and his profession changed. They went from boxer to pro football player so they could also use that as a topical controversy surrounding the NFL’s concussion studies and potentially withholding information. So, I think that controversy with the NFL was relevant and the writers chose to use my characters to include that commentary.

Q) What did you think when you first read that storyline?

A) I thought it was great and topical. It gave my character this really great background. It showed that he was a guy that will stick up for others and standup for what he believes in in the face of adversity and in the face of the giant corporation like the NFL. He has a hero complex. So, I liked learning that about him and knowing that he was such a star athlete that threw his career away to stand up for what he believed in and what he thought was right. I thought that was a really great color to the character and was fascinating part of history that informed where I would take him.

Q) The show has a lot of incredible badass women as well. I’d love to hear about the ladies that make up “Quantico.”

A) It’s so wonderful to be on a show with so many strong female characters. Priyanka [Chopra] is a queen! She is number one on the call sheet. She brings such professionalism to work. Yasmine [Al Massri] is so incredibly talented the way she portrays two very strong characters that are so different. Nimah and Raina are really polar opposites in a lot of way. If you even watch the physicality of how she portrays each character a different way it is really amazing to see. It’s great to be on a show where women have a strong voice both in front of the camera and behind. There are a lot of females in the crew. One of our camera operators who made us all look so great is a female. A lot of the writing staff is female and Beth [Schacter] is a producer on the show. So, it’s great! It feels modern and current. It feels like we are really giving a diverse voice to the show.

Q) What was one of your favorite episodes of “Quantico?”

A) An episode aired recently that Cherien Debis wrote and there was a scene where Yasmine as Nimah (I think) were in a classroom when we were learning about whether we got security clearance. There was a scene that had commentary on being Muslim-American in this country. It was how we need to separate extremism from Islam. These are two separate schools of thought and institutions. There is a lot of brilliant political commentary included on the show. I don’t know many shows that are doing that either. I don’t know how many shows are featuring a strong Muslim character. It’s just wonderful to be a part of that.

Q) How did you spend your down time when you weren’t on set?

A) Jay and I would go out eating a lot in Montreal. Anthony Bourdain has said on his show that it is one of his favorite cities in the world for cuisine so we ate a lot. It was pretty wonderful! Montreal is a great city to work in and we took advantage of it. It was cold and sometimes got down to negative twenty degrees. So, we’d hunker down at a restaurant and eat a lot of food that was flavored with maple syrup (including the cocktails we had). That was something we really bonded over, especially since three of us are New Yorkers and we really bonded over the food scene. We would go up there and explore these different restaurants and it was a lot of fun. It made the workouts that we would have to do in order to counteract that even harder. That was really special. I really value the time we had in Montreal. There were a lot of museums and festivals that we attended because the French-Canadian culture really embraces the winter time. It was great to be around there for that, as well.

Q) You mentioned to me that you also did some karaoke. What are some of your go-to karaoke songs?

A) I just did karaoke the other day with my BB! Films family and I think my go-to was INXS’ song “I Need You Tonight.” You don’t have to sing that one too hard. I’m also always a fan of R. Kelly’s song “Ignition Remix.” Those are my go-to’s, especially on a Friday night. It’s the freakin’ weekend. I gotta have me some fun.

Q) What was one of your most challenging scenes to film?

A) That’s a great question. The scene where I’m in the classroom and I just discovered that Liam (Josh Hopkins) may have been responsible for Alicia (Drew’s fiancée) death indirectly. That was a really tough scene and I was so fortunate to have a director like Jennifer Lynch direct me in that scene. She is incredibly prolific. She is David Lynch’s daughter so she has been around prestigious entertainment her whole life and she in her own right has become this amazing, talented, broad range as a director. She has this movie I was a fan of years ago called Surveillance that stars Bill Pullman. It is actually about FBI agents so it was funny, but I’ve just been a fan of her for so long that when I showed up to set this was such an important scene for my character progression, but also there was a lot of feeling there. There was a lot of weight in that scene. First, he’s finding the person who is responsible for killing his fiancée, but also he is learning that he kind of feels like he is betraying himself by being there. The FBI is the reason he is there. It was bad police work and the FBI is being led by Liam sold these weapons to the militia group that led to her death and the death of others’. It was just a heavy scene and there was a lot to it. Luckily, I have a generous and supportive cast that they were encouraging and knew there was a lot for me to do with this scene and really supported me – especially Aujanue [Ellis]. I’ll never forget Aujanue telling me “just breath and keep doing what you are doing.” I could tell in her face that she was just there with me and there was a connection. That has been great to be on a show and working on a show where people are willing to work together and collaborate to make the scene work. It was a tough day, but I got through because I had the support of such an amazing cast and Jennifer Lynch as the director. It helped me avoid the traps that you could get into with that kind of scene.

Q) Who would you have liked to have worked with on the show?

A) I would have liked to work with Rick Cosnett who played Elias. I thought he was really a strong actor. Not only is he a talent in front of the camera, but the crew and cast told me what a great guy he was. I wish I would have been able to work with him, but we are on a show where anyone can go at any moment. So, it is the nature of the beast.

Q) Is there a scene you are most looking forward to fans seeing?

A) I am excited to see how these next three episodes air. At the end of last week’s episode and entering into the next two episodes has the future timeline continuous. I really am excited to see the final results because I know how much work went in to this behind the camera to make this exciting and entertaining. I’m looking forward to it!

Q) What have you taken away from your time working on “Quantico?”

A) What a great question! First, I’ve made incredible friends out of this experience. The three of us (me, Li [Jun Li] and Jay [Armstrong Johnson]) coming out of New York, we already had this bond coming from this same city. Getting there, they were just really positive people and were there to work really hard and were appreciative of the opportunity to come into a show halfway through like that and be with a team of people who were there and ready to work and excited to be there was something I really value. Jay and I are buddies now. It was really special. I am glad I got to meet them and work with them. Look, I got to live out my childhood action hero dreams. I got to run, drive cars really fast and repel off the side of skyscrapers. I took down airplane hijackers. It was a blast! I would spend the weekends training with a weapons expert and law enforcement expert to learn how to uses these weapons and do it correctly. I did fight training with the stunt coordinator of “Quantico.” It was all this stuff I wanted to do, I finally got to pull it off. It was a big moment for me and I really appreciate the opportunity from ABC and Ackerman team.