Nate Corddry – Perry Mason

By starrymag | June 21, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

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

A) For the last three months, not a whole hell of a lot. I had my first audition appointment that I’ve had in two months. So, there is beginning to be a little bit of optimism about production in some adjusted way returning. Before the shutdown I was recurring on the series “For All Mankind.” I worked on the first season and was in about half of the episodes of the second season. My last day of shooting for the second season was that Friday, March 13^th when everything slowly started to fall apart. I remember getting a call the night before saying, “We’re going to push until Monday.” I thought, “There is just no way we’re going to be shooting on Monday.” [chuckles] Sure enough, I got a call on Sunday saying, “We’re on hold indefinitely.” So, I’m still waiting to shoot that final episode. I think there are eight episodes in. That’s really frustrating for any production that is half way through. They can take a lot of time to do post work and some effects because it is an effects show since we do a lot in space. I’m assuming they’ve been able to catch up on that. We still have about ten days of shooting to go. So, hopefully September I’ll go back to work on that show to work on that final episode. I spent the bulk of the end of last year working on “Perry Mason.” We were really lucky to get the shooting in. We finished in February.

Q) Where do we pick up with Perry Mason in this new series?

A) Well, we start with Perry (Matthew Rhys) as a private investigator. This is before he becomes an attorney. So, there is a hint of an origin story take on Perry Mason. We’re going back a little bit and we’re trying to explain to the audience where this mind came from, what he has been through, what he has seen, what has he experienced that put him on the path to being…I don’t know…the greatest attorney in television history. [laughs] So, we get to see him before he ends up in a suit in tie in a courtroom. How does he get there. Why does he get there. What motivated him to become an attorney. You are sort of backing up the story a bit and seeing where it all came from. Any origin story is really fun as an audience member. You get to see those steps that this character takes that we are already aware of, which is an incredible defense attorney. So, the “how’s” get answered in the re-imagining.

Q) What made you want to be a part of this series?

A) Well, for me it always starts with the text. It always starts with the writing. Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones co-wrote the series – I had known of their work before. They’re stuff on “Friday Night Lights” and “Weeds.” They are playwrights as well and I started in the theater. Any time you hear playwrights transitioning into television my ears always sort of…I always lean forward a little bit closer when a playwright is writing television. I read the script and immediately leapt at the chance to be a part of that. Add on to that Tim Van Patten who is maybe the most significant television director in the last twenty years. His fingerprints are all over my favorite television shows. I don’t think “The Sopranos” is “The Sopranos” without Tim Van Patten. So, add Tim Van Patten on top of a like air tight script. Then, season that with some HBO…[chuckles] It was a competitive job to get, for sure. So, I over prepared. The casting directors I had gone in for a bunch of times, but I’d never booked anything – Sherry Thomas and Sharon Bialy, who are really, really good at finding the right face and the right tone for the right project. There is some alchemy in casting, I think. You have to be a bit of a wizard and they have wizard blood. So, I had gone in for them a bunch, but never booked anything. This one fit. I was able to sort of…I think my background and my recipe of talent that I have that is different from other people. Everyone has their own thing and my temperature and flavor fit into this world. So, I was ecstatic when I got this job. I was just so thrilled. I’ve never been more excited to be a part of something.

Q) Were you a fan of the original “Perry Mason” series?

A) No. I was too young. I was born in ’77, so I saw the second iteration. As a kid, to me, that was a show for old people. That was a show for my parents or my grandparents. It wasn’t my ten-year-old demographic. So, I had never seen an episode of the original hour-long series. I had seen moments of the 80’s version. But I was way too young. So, I knew very little except he always won. [laughs] That is sort of a joke. He always nails the dude or gal sitting in the witness box. He’s always able to tear them apart and end up with a victory. So, I knew very little besides having seen commercials between episodes of “Family Times.”

Q) How does this iteration of “Perry Mason” differ from the original?

A) Well, the storytelling is really smart because it’s HBO. Every episode is not one case. We’re spending hours getting into the real dirt and nuts and bolts of this horrific case. And you get to spend a lot of time with all of these characters. So, in a network hour long courtroom drama you’re sort of limited. You only have like forty-one or forty-two minutes and because it is network television there are so many other constraints. With HBO, the constraints sort of come off and then the creators get to bench press as much weight as they want. They are really able to expand their powers. So, you get to go way more in depth into Perry’s life, his relationships with his family and you think get invested in a more intense and granular level when you are allowed to let the story grow and stretch it out. Let’s give him obstacle after obstacle after obstacle not when it’s in forty-one minutes. Several hour-long episodes. And it may jump from one case to the next case. One case may not be enough. So, to spend an entire season on one case just allows the writers instead of going two levels deep they can go fifty levels deep. Then, the audience gets to benefit from that. There is just so much more power stretched out.

Q) How does your character Matthew Dodson play a role in the show?

A) So, I’m a bit hamstrung in spoiler stuff. He’s wrapped up in the crime – in this murder. It’s up to Perry Mason, first – as a private detective…It’s a who-dun-it. There are a lot of guilty faces and I have a relationship with the murder victim. [laughs] That’s all I can probably say. There is a lot behind…You know very little at the beginning and then by the end of the series you know an awful lot. I’ll keep it at that. [chuckles]

Q) Was there anything you added to this role that wasn’t in the initial breakdown?

A) My ears. No, I try to really follow…As an actor, whenever I approach a script, I see it as like a map (a treasure map, if you like) for the best possible performance. If a writer/creator/director/producer wants to, once I have the job and am acting the part, guide me in different ways because of what I bring to the character and the moment then great. But I just don’t think it’s my role. I want to be a good soldier to the script and when we’re there if things go, “What about this? Turn this way,” I’m always open to collaborate. Probably because my first acting job was with Aaron Sorkin, my honoring the script is holy to me. If creators are open to collaboration – great. If not, I’m there to say the words.

Q) Were you familiar with any of your costars before working with them?

A) Personally, the woman who plays my wife Gail Rankin (who is going to blow people away) people know her from “GLOW.” This is very different from her performance in “GLOW.” Since day one I thought, “I cannot wait for the world to see Gail because she’s so good.” She’s the only person that I knew before the job started. We work at the same summer theater in Massachusetts called Williamstown where we both sort of started and came up. She’s a Julliard graduate as well. If you can succeed at Williamstown as an apprentice or a member of the non-equity company you get opportunities in New York where you can succeed there. So, we met there ten years ago. But beyond like saying “hi,” I did not know her. So, when they said that she was playing my wife I was thrilled because I know her work and am a fan of hers. We had a coffee before we started shooting because the first episode, we shot required a lot for the two of us actor-wise. So, we wanted to just hang out and check out each other’s energy. I knew very quickly that this was a friend for life. She is the only person that I had met. Everyone else I was aware of, of course, but only as a fan – only as a viewer. So, to meet John Lithgow for the first time in hair and make-up trailer…[laughs] My heart just soared. He’s been on my television and in movie theaters for as long as I can remember. To think he and I were peers for a couple weeks makes my head spin.

Q) Were you hoping or looking forward to sharing a scene with someone(s) in particular?

A) Definitely John. He’s one of those actors that is able to thrive in any body of water. He’s flawless. It doesn’t matter if he’s doing a Broadway musical eight times a week or playing a serial killer on “Dexter” or a half-hour multi-cam like “Third Rock from the Sun.” Or like The World According to Garp. John Lithgow is one of those special character actors that can do everything. Also, by the way, he happens to be one of the sweetest and kindest gentlemen I’ve ever been around. So, I was thrilled to chat with him and spend time with him and ask him questions and joke with him. He loves doing bits on set. So, that was really fun. I was thrilled to get to collaborate. Matthew, of course, who I’ve loved ever since I started watching “The Americans.” I have such an enormous respect or him and his abilities to sort of float in a lot of different worlds, sort of similar to John. He’s super funny, but he has a real sort of heaviness and darkness to him and it’s so real. There wasn’t a dishonest moment in “The Americans.” [chuckles] That’s hard to do when you’re doing a show like that for years. Every moment in that show is so fucking real and so genuine. I’m just still a huge fan of Matthew. We had a few scenes – not as many as I would like. He, of course, I was thrilled to get to watch work.

Q) What were some of your favorite moments from filming or episodes we should keep an eye out for?

A) Again, I want to avoid spoilers. The series begins with this crime and it’s just Gail and I negotiating this crime – this kidnapping gone wrong. Those are really, really, really challenging to work on. But I am so thrilled to see the finished product. I think with Tim Van Patten’s guidance, Gail and I were sort of able to bring the words to life, I think, in a real and hour way – even though neither of us had either experienced that (Thank God). I’m excited to see the spark that sort of set the show ablaze, which is this crime and Gail and I having to negotiate it. Those were really intense to shoot, so I’m excited to see how they all sort of come together.

Q) What do you think it is about this “Perry Mason” that will make it a fast fan favorite show?

A) Well, the writers collaborated with the estate of Erle Stanley Gardner. They have the blessing of the source material of his estate, so they are able to reinvent for 2020 a character that is loved in American television culture. They were given a lot of room to push the boundaries of this character. So, a modern audience is going to fall in love with this character and root for this character sort of all over again because the writers and HBO working with the estate had the okay to push the boundaries of who this guy is – how did he get here? What happens to him? What makes him different from other attorneys? Why should we care? We spent a lot of time early on in the series setting up the why’s. So, I think that fans who love the show and who watch (I think some of it is streaming) the old black and white episodes or watch the TV movies are going to be able to reinvest in a part of the story that they were never told before. No one knows why, unless you’re like a hardcore reader of the novels. Those folks are out there. There are a lot of those Easter eggs out there for those hardcore Erle Stanley Gardner fans as well. So, the writers really leaned into that as well. They know that this audience is passionate about this character. Let’s challenge them a little bit, but also let’s remind them why this character is iconic in the first place. It’s a rarity that you get to tell a story like this. It’s exciting.

Q) You’ve been a part of a number of incredible comedies and dramas. Do you have a preference for the genre that you work in?

A) That’s a good question. I don’t. My preference is good material. So, it doesn’t really matter what genre it is as long as the material as the creators are working at the top of their game. I think it equal parts limits me and gives me more opportunity as an actor. There are a lot of actors where you look at their face and you go, “Oh, that guy is that!” So, when that actor goes into an audition room a casting director, producer and writer – if it’s an actor that has been working a while and one from a certain genre – they’ll go, “Oh, I know what this face says. I know what this guy or gal can do.” It’s less of a challenge for them to imagine that actor in that role of stuffy boss or overwhelmed single dad or whatever. Sometimes I think when I show up at an audition because I keep my toe in both worlds that they are a little confused and they can’t see me because they have seen me in different things it’s a little more difficult to say, “Oh, this guy is half-hour multi-cam sitcom.” Because of stuff like “Perry Mason” or “Mindhunter” or “Fosse/Verdon” – things that have a little more weight to them – I wonder if when I go out for broad comedy if they think, “I don’t know if this guy can fit in this world.” So, I have a really good manager and really good agents who spend a lot of time selling me and convincing casting directors and producers to see me for stuff that on its face they may think, “Does this guy fit in this super dark drama because he’s on ‘Mom’ and “The Daily Show?’” So, I have an exceptional manager and agents who are really good at marketing me. That gets me in doors that I think I wouldn’t otherwise get in on my own. To follow good work and good writing is really the alter that I pray to.

Q) We loved seeing you on “The Daily Show.” What did you personally take away from being a part of this series?

A) Oh man! I think because it was my first break in television, I learned that I could hang. I learned that I could do it. You don’t know until you get up there whether you can…I remember my first day at “Studio 60,” I was like, “Holy shit!” It’s like overnight I’m on the best team on baseball. Am I good enough? Can I play at this level? And you don’t really know until you’re challenged in that way. So, “The Daily Show” was the first time that…Even though my critical voice usually has the run of the shop within my head…[laughs] I was able also to realize, “You can do this.” The first few weeks I was so terrified. Going into a joke meeting with “The Daily Show” writers is so intimidating. It’s a very intimidating experience. To go in that world and be okay and actually have success, I was able to push back against that critical voice that is always saying, “You don’t belong. You’re going to be found out,” etc. etc. “The Daily Show” is the first time that I was like, “I think I can. I think I can do this.” It’s an invaluable lesson that you cannot learn in any classroom at any graduate school. You just have to learn by doing. So, “The Daily Show” gave me that gift. And the first day at every job is like the first day of school and that will probably never go away. I kind of hope it never goes away. So, “The Daily Show” was able for the first time to teach me that I could hang and that was really important and I was really young so it was important to learn that lesson.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about “Perry Mason?”

A) That’s a good question. I think expect the HBO drama at its best. Tim Van Patten, HBO and Matthew Rhys. Have high expectations and you won’t be disappointed. It’s an incredible collaboration and I’m really thrilled for people to see it.

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

A) Oh man! Oh boy! That’s a wonderful question that I’ve never been given. Every actor needs an audience. Without the audience we are nothing. The audience is the oxygen that lets us breathe, thrive and survive. Without people going, “Hey, that’s good! I like that,” we don’t grow. I appreciative of having fans and supporters that allow me to work on “Mom” and don’t get mad when I work on “Perry Mason.” And don’t say, “Hey! You don’t fit there! Stay where I know you from! Stay in that world where I’m comfortable!” I’ve been lucky to sort of been able to challenge people who watch me and I’m so lucky to be able to do that. I think a lot of actors with true fame get hamstrung in their success. I’ve never reached any kind of level where people are saying, “Oh! That’s the guy from that,” and that just becomes who I am. But that’s always a risk. With success comes that burden of an audience being unwilling to see you try different things. I think I’m in a bit of a sweet spot now that I’m able to keep my toes in both worlds and for that I’m really I hope that continues as long as I do this.