P.J. Byrne – Vinyl

By: Jamie Steinberg

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

A) In addition to HBO’s show “Vinyl,” I’m also shooting a miniseries for HBO called “Big Little Lies.” It is being produced by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. They star in it as well as Laura Dern, Alexander Skarsgard. I play Principal Nippall. It’s about the craziness about with parents and their first graders. It’s based on an Australian book called Big Little Lies.

Q) How do you plan to celebrate the premiere of “Vinyl?”

A) Friends said they are coming over. I’m Italian and Irish and my whole life Sunday supper was a big deal. So, I’ll be making meatballs and gravy (you guys call it “sauce”). I’ll get some really good wine and we’ll enjoy each other’s company. Hopefully, they will like the show because I’m going to be in the room with them.

Q) How was your character Scott Levitt originally described to you?

A) The greatest day in your life is when you get a call from your agent and he says, “Martin Scorsese wants you to be in his movie.” And then it’s like, “You get to be a unicorn!” That’s how crazy it sounded to me. I never thought it could be topped! During the Wolf of Wall Street premiere, my agent walked up to me and said, “Marty wants you to be in this new TV show.” It was literally the term “speechless.” It was the greatest day of my life, next to marrying my wife and having a baby. That was a special moment. They wanted me to play a character who was a lawyer and it didn’t hurt that Terrence Winter, who wrote The Wolf of Wall Street, is the showrunner and Emma Tillinger is a producer, as she also was on The Wolf of Wall Street. They are like my family now.

Q) What drew you to be a part of the show?

A) It doesn’t matter. If Marty calls you, you sprint to him. If there is no car you are like, “I guess I am going to hike across America to meet with Martin Scorsese and Terry Winter.” I guess what was kind of exciting about this was that in the show I’m a lawyer and at the end of the day the lawyers end up running the world. They write these contracts and they really sort of put the knife in with what they do to these artists with these deals they put them in.

Q) What kind of research did you do to prepare for your role?

A) I met with friends who are lawyers. You learn about payola and “recoupable assets.” Some artists you think are platinum or gold, selling a billion records, but a lot of times record labels would make these crazy deals where they would give the artists a percentage that would make them feel really good about what they were getting, but it is the recoupable expenses that get your. They would say, “We made a lot of money, but we have to get our expenses back. We spent a lot of money to make the record, the cost for the band and the room. That water bottle costs thirty-seven dollars. So, we have to get our money back before we can actually pay you.” That’s how they put it on them. It’s crazy what they do to these artists. God bless these artists who are getting their music out there in this world. It’s a crazy business because the managers want to work with the labels again and so they aren’t telling the artists everything. And the lawyers are doing these deals. The full picture is not being presented most of the time to the artists, who are pinning their hopes and dreams on these labels. The bottom line of a musicians bank account kind of gets lost in the euphoric moment of signing the deal.

Q) How hands on was Mick Jagger as Executive Producer?

A) He is pretty good. He and Marty have been throwing this idea around for twenty years and it was supposed to originally be a movie. Then, getting Terry involved to write it…with television and cable where they are today, it seemed like a perfect fit. You could tell a bigger story as a cable show. Mick’s knowledge of the time period is critical. His influence with what songs to put in the show and watching the dailies. Victoria Pearlman is his producing partner and they are totally involved with this. It’s Marty’s baby. It’s Mick’s baby. They want to make it great. Then Terry, our Captain, has made it his own as well. It’s crazy to have three icons on the show. It’s mind boggling.

Q) What was it like for you working with leads Bobby Cannavale and Olivia Wilde?

A) There was one day where we were shooting, it’s an intense scene and we were kind of tackling each other. Bobby is doing this gigantic monologue about music and rock n’ roll. It’s so special and we’re doing it all day. Everyone is bringing it every time. You can see when they yell “cut” everyone is a little tired and Bobby is losing his voice. Later in the day, I’ll never forget Alan Coulter – the great Alan Coulter – was directing the episode and he came over to Bobby and said, “Maybe for this take when the camera is not on you that you dial it back to 75%.” I’ll never forget because he looked at me, J.C. [MacKenzie] and Ray [Romano] and he says, “Umm. We don’t know how to do 75%.” I was like, “Oh! That’s my guy! That’s our leader!” So, that’s for everyone. When we all come to work each day we’ve all done our homework and we’ve all overly prepared. We let it all out there and on every take…we bang! We go hard. It’s a special environment to work on. I think we all intimately understand that. The great line when they talk about “the good old days” I think we all understand that these are our “the good old days.” That goes all the way down from Marty to like the PA’s. Everyone is bringing it. Our set directors are amazing. Our grips are amazing. Our DP’s are amazing. It’s a special gift that we get to be a part of the show.

Q) What do you hope viewers take away from watching the show?

A) Always as an actor you hope they are entertained. If you are having a good day, we’ll make your day better. If you’re having a hard day, at least you can escape for a little bit. That’s why I love doing this. The 70’s is an incredible time. In my mind, everything is turned up. The volume is turned up from the music to the drugs to the fashion. If I threw up on my shirt it would be disgusting, but in the 70’s it would work because all the clothes were like that. [laughs] The 70’s (in particular the music in that time period) the volume was up on everything especially ideas. You are finding punk rock, hip-hop and you are introduced to disco. People who lived through it, the songs will harken back to songs they forgot. If we can reintroduce a whole new generation to the music of that time period – what a special thing!

Q) As a part of social media, are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will be receiving?

A) Yeah! I’ll look for it. Hopefully, they’ll like it!

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) The fact that people are fans of mine it always blows my mind, from the cartoons I’ve done, other TV shows and movies. It’s a treat that when I’m walking down the street or someone comes up to me at a game and says they are a big fan and want to take a picture of me. It is still a surreal moment. I’ll never take it for granted. It’s always special. It’s my honor to take a picture or shake your hand. I get it and it means a lot. I was supposed to be on Wall Street not be an actor. So, I feel very lucky to be doing this