Mark Gagliardi – Blood & Treasure

By: Kelly Kearney

Q) Congrats on your role as Father Chuck in the CBS action/drama “Blood & Treasure.” How did the role come to you and what was your audition process like?

Mark: It was great! I went in with the amazing casting director, Liz Barnes, who I knew and loved because I was a fan of “GLOW” and I knew that she cast “GLOW.” I got called in and sent the script and read it for my first episode, which was actually episode two, and it was great! It was fun and the script was really, really good. I thought it was a show that I would watch so I got really excited about the audition and I busted my butt on it. I worked really hard on it. I had a friend of mine, who is an acting teacher at NYU, coach me on it and then I went into Liz’s office, did it, got called back and then got called back again and then went in for a work session with her assistant, who just drilled me and drilled me for a really long time and it was great! Then, I got word from my agent that they had never seen me do drama before. I had only ever done comedy stuff like “Drunk History,” so they wanted to see me do a drama. Knowing the style of the show, I told her I would put myself on tape with a dramatic monologue. I recorded two monologues from the National Treasure movies where Nicholas Cage is being…well…super Nicholas Cagey, where he’s going to steal the Declaration of independence and kidnap the president. I guess they liked what I sent and thought I got the vibe of the show and cast me for it. It was amazing.

Q) For TV watchers who might not be familiar with this new show, can you talk a little bit on what “Blood & Treasure” is about and how your character fits in?

Mark: Sure!  “Blood & Treasure” is a big, summer, blockbuster, action, adventure show.  It’s standing on the shoulders of Indiana Jones, National Treasure and The Davinci Code and all these other great treasure hunt films that came before it. Basically, the premise of the show is if Indiana Jones and Carmen Santiago were exes and they were forced back together to thwart a terrorist who uses blood antiquities to fund his crimes. So, that is the short version of what the show is. I play Father Chuck. I’m a priest in the Vatican. I work in the Vatican Foreign Ministry and I’m also Danny’s (Matt Barr) best friend from childhood, who is the main Indiana Jones of the duo. So, I get to have a lot of fun scenes where I sort of get to play the Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder. I like that I get to be part of this show, paying homage to the things that the creators of the show and I loved as a kid.

Q) You mentioned Indiana Jones and compared it to this show and just like action films of that caliber. The scale of this show is huge! It definitely has this big budget/action/drama feel to it. What’s it been like working on a show like this?

Mark: I am used to shooting thing with my buddies or shooting “Drunk History” in a living room or at times shooting Disney Channel kid’s shows, playing villains on a soundstage and set up like a traditional sitcom set. To walk on to, first of all, a giant soundstage in Montreal where they built a six-million-dollar Egyptian tomb set, it felt like I had arrived. To quote one of our directors, “some big movie stuff!” That, along with shutting down entire streets in Montreal, and after four months we went to Rome and shot there for a month and then Marrakesh Morocco and it was just an amazing lifetime opportunity that I am forever grateful for. It’s been an absolute blast and I made a ton of friends, which is really, really, important when working on a show like this where everyone likes each other.

Q) You mentioned Rome and Morocco and you even filmed in Vatican City. Location shoots are usually full of long hours with an often hectic schedules. How did these locations play a role in the series?

Mark: The way it worked out, through movie magic, we actually shot in the Vatican library, which was amazing and the books are ancient. We also were not able to go through the actual gates of the Vatican because of scheduling stuff with the Pope. It’s weird because I got called early to Rome and they’re like, “We need you in Rome right now because the Pope’s schedule has changed,” and I was like, “Wow, that is not something I hear every day. My schedule is affected by the Pope’s schedule!” You mentioned long shooting days, we did have crazy long days, but the thing we got to double as the interior of the Vatican was actually the Papal Palace, an hour north of Rome. It is out in the country side. It is this beautiful palace that they used for the Vatican in also Hudson Hawk and The Godfather Part Three. So, if you want to do a double feature after you watch “Blood & Treasure,” you will see my personal office in both of those movies. But, because it was such a beautiful location, we didn’t mind having long days. Every time they yelled, “CUT,” there was some new 17th century masterpiece fresco on a wall that we could just go look at. So, there was always incredible stimulus in Rome, even on the longest of days.

Q) Father Chuck is sort of the comic relief of this show and that really taps into your comedic flair. How much of Mark goes into Father Chuck?

Mark: I stuck to the script, but yeah, Father Chuck and I are kind of the same guy. We’re both mouthy blowhards who love movies and love to quote them. I like to think in the more intimate scenes I hope to be as good a friend to my close friends as Chuck is to the treasure squad on this show.

Q) We talked a bit about how Father Chuck is the best friend of the main character, Danny McNamara, and is often the sounding board for which Danny bounces ideas off of. What’s it been like working alongside Matt Barr, and likewise, his tough as nails co-star Sofia Pernas?

Mark: Sofia was my first sit down, nighttime on the couch and we’re having a heart to heart. That was one of the first scenes I shot. Sofia is such an amazing actor and we were both just so at ease playing off of each other and it was the same way with Matt. Matt and I were fast friends in the show, but it was a couple of episodes before we really got to have a real heart to heart. He is so much fun and a really great person. I’ve seen him do amazing action sequences and then got to do some really tough scenes with him. They come later in the season and to watch Matt go through what Danny is going though, it is inspiring to watch. So, it was cool to see that not only that I made this new friend, but that this new friend is really good at his job. It made it a lot easier and so much fun.

Q) Fans also now you from your work on Comedy Central’s “Drunk History.” Do you have a favorite episode that you’ve worked on?

Mark: [pause] You know what? Ugh, don’t make me choose between my babies! I have favorite episodes of the show that I’m not in. There’s one where Rich Fulcher tells a ghost story for the entirety of the episode and it is bonkers and maybe the best episode of the show we ever did. As for the stories I got to tell, I was most fascinated by the story of Stetson Kennedy, who was a white man in Georgia who infiltrated the KKK. Then, he gave the KKK secret handshakes and door knocks and all that Freemason crap the Klan likes to do and would send those to the Superman show and Superman would put the KKK on blast. All thanks to this unassuming guy from Georgia, played amazingly by Jason Ritter on the show. I also love it anytime I get to tell stories on the show that people might not know; about important people and they might not know them because they’re from marginalized groups or people of color or women or stories from the past that just didn’t get the time they deserved. Like Bass Reeves who was the inspiration for The Lone Ranger and who was also the most prolific law man in the American west, but nobody really knew who he was because he was black. The story of Robert Smalls was a slave who stole a Confederate ship during the Civil War and traded it to the Union Army for the freedom of himself and his family and friends. These are just amazing stories and I’m just happy I got to tell them to the world.

Q) What’s next for you, Mark? Are you working on any other projects the fans can look out for?

Mark: I am actually on my way into an audition right now, so hopefully I will have some news on that front. I’ve got an audio series coming out later that’s going to be a lot of fun called “Grandma for President” where I play Donald Trump opposite Mel Brooks playing Bernie Sanders. So, that should be a lot of fun. It’s gonna be nuts. So, that’s coming up and hopefully I’ll be able to say we’re getting ready to start season two of “Blood & Treasure” soon.