Maury Sterling Interview

When you think of Maury Sterling you could picture a focused henchman sworn to protect, a crazed flare-wheeling 3^rd part of a family assassin trio with a drawn-on Hitler mustache, or a swoon-worthy bring-home-to-mother-approved stud. The visions are endless (and would we want them any other way?). A Mill Valley, California native with a draw for action roles, at 41 he's one of Hollywood’s most promising talents. I sat down to talk with the actor (in the most claustrophobic while also completely satisfying situation I've ever been in) at Hollywood's trendy Bourgeois Pig to talk about his work on Showtime’s Emmy-winning drama Homeland, his draw for good writing, and being swooned after by older ladies with Chris Pine and Kevin Durand.

After finding the coziest, faux moss and shrubbery surrounded sitting nook for-two in the dark set cafe to conduct our interview, not until Sterling arrived and took his seat did I realize how close together we would be, or just how handsome he is. I probably should've taken some deep breaths to prepare myself.  I receive a steaming hot cup of green tea as Sterling gets more comfortable.

      Just wanted to start out by saying your character in 2006's Smokin’ Aces has to be one of my favorites. Always enjoy the crazy Tremor Brothers. Could barely recognize Chris Pine. You seem to be a very cool and collected guy, what was the experience like of transforming into such a wild character?

      Thank you for saying that I'm cool and collected, it's only on the outside. It was a blast. The audition process was fun because it was the kind of audition that I looked at and read the sides and read the character description and thought, "There is no way in hell I will ever play this part." And I think because of that-- and I remember talking to my manager at the time and saying "Seriously? They want me for this?" and he's like, "Yeah, just go in." and I said, [shrugs] "Alright." So I think that helped because I went in with complete abandon, like I had nothing to lose. Which worked. I just threw myself into it, said "I'm going to go nuts." The actual transformation into the character was your question right?

Sterling, Durand and Pine as The Tremor Brothers in 2006's Aces

Sterling as Lestor Tremor

    Right. What was the experience like of transforming into the character.

    It was awesome. A lot was made easy for me because of the tattoos and the haircut and shaving my eyebrows.

    Oh yeah, I read that you had to do that for the role.

    That physical change is so striking that it helps understand what this character is about.

On set of Aces with director Joe Carnahan

      

     Was your performance inspired by any past wild characters that we’ve seen on screen? Where did you get your inspiration from, besides having your tattoos and things?

      No, and I think that's why it was nice because I think we all felt pretty original in what we were doing. I know [Smokin' Aces director] Joe Carnahan had drawn some inspiration from other movies, which he mentioned. He mentioned Raising Arizona and there's a great character in that. I can't remember his name, but he plays the guy on the bike who's chasing him. The sort of "bounty hunter" type.

      Sterling is referring to the character Leonard Smalls, played by Randall 'Tex' Cobb (right).

      But no, I think we felt pretty original in it. I give Carnahan a lot of credit for his creation of these characters too. 

      To touch on your experiences working on Homeland, an Emmy-winning show with such an intense storyline and talented cast members like Damian Lewis and Claire Danes. Developing your character Max, what was that process like?

      That one was really interesting. I have a huge ego. I have aspirations of who I think I want to be in my life, in my career, the characters I play. I think, "If I play that character then I'll get X, Y, and Z" and "Why can't I?" and blah blah blah. "I'm inspired by that actor" and "I should be like him". Then I realize, "Yeah but you're not. [laughs] He's already him." Which I think a lot of people can relate to. It's a mistake. You've got to find your own truth. So, a long way of saying it: I think my vanity was challenged when I first took on that part, along the lines of "This isn't the part I want to play to get the things I want" and I feel a little embarrassed about saying this but it ended up being an excellent experience of a lot of letting go to find... him. Now that I've found [the character], I really enjoy playing him, because I had to let go of a lot of my own "How do I look? Is this going to get me what I want?" I mean total-- that's not the way to do it. So it was a really good one for me. I try and stay pretty humble but this was a good experience for that, of transformation.

      You’ve done previous television appearances as well, with work on 24, Coldcase, Monk and the list seems to go on forever. What would you say is your most memorable experience

      working on a television show?
      I loved doing Angel. 24 was a blast.

TNT's Angel

     Angel was one of my favorite shows. 

     Yeah, Angel was a fun experience. 24 was great, ER was a great experience, Six Feet Under was a great experience, they've all got something. I'm just listing them off but-

    There's something that you remember from each that you take with you. That's great.

    Yeah, exactly.

Sterling as henchman Kozelek Hacker on 24

Being that developing a film character for an actor can be different than the development of a television character, where there can be spaced out recurring focuses on your character, where you could be focusing on another character at the same time, what advice would you give an up-and-coming actor on developing and maintaining a recurring TV character?

Doing two things at the same time? I haven't really thought about that but, just commit. Commit.

Because I know some actors have to be so "in the zone" when they're focusing on one character. 

Yeah, I think the hard part as an actor is that you want everything. And we think we should. My take on it the more I've done it is that no, we're not supposed to work on everything. And physically it's impossible. I mean, you can't get every job that you audition for. You don't have that much time. You're only going to get five, or however many. Um, and what I feel that I haven't done as much as I would like to is give myself completely to what I'm doing. Don't hedge my bets. That's just me, and I'm hard on myself, and I think that's an ongoing, always developing thing. "How much more can I give?"

Do you have other things that you're focusing on?

Life wise... martial arts. Horseback riding. My dogs. My relationship, and you know just, "How much more can I show up?" so other people will deal. So I think it would be commit and don't over-book, and don't think you have to do everything. Don't be in a panic. 

Would you say television acting or film acting is more to your liking?

I think it totally depends on the writing-- 

It depends on the project.

and the project. People say, 'What kind of stuff do I want to do?', and I think I want to follow the writing, because good writing is so liberating. It doesn't matter the genre. Working with good people, and checking out who you're working with, and 'How's the cinematographers going to shoot you?', and 'Do you trust these other influences?' and all that stuff. There's so much amazing stuff going on on TV right now, and the internet, and following the writing is sort of my thing I think.

So I want to ask you a little bit about Chris Pine and Kevin Durand. What was your most memorable experience working alongside them? There must have been a ton of funny moments on set because Chris Pine is hilarious.

      Both of those guys are dear to my heart. And I'm just so happy for all their success. We had so many moments, but we hit it off pretty early on. The three of us went to dinner in South Lake Tahoe right before shooting, approximating our wardrobe, with our tattoos and our haircuts and the whole deal. And we went to the fanciest restaurant that we could find. That was a blast. We went in expecting to scare people and by the end of the night we had a table of older women just-- "Oh, you're so cute. Who are you? Are you in a band?"

     Haha! Because you guys were in all of your--

     Oh yeah, we were terrifying. Swastika tattoos, we were just a mess. And yet the response was completely backwards. We just had a really good time in general. 

You’re originally from California, was there anything in particular that made you want to pursue acting?

The story I used to tell is that it was baseball season and I didn't like baseball, but I think that's a lie.

(So blunt...) *tries not to fall in love*

So you just thought you'd start, you know, start acting. Baseball sucks.

Yeah, I think I remember walking by the theater when I was a kid. I was seven, and looking in and going, "That looks fun." Family was going through a hard time maybe, and I wanted to escape, and that was the way to do it. It was a way sort of out and it was a world of imagination and creativity that was exciting. And then I just took to it and luckily had a little bit of talent and kind of did one thing to the next. 

Sterling as defense attorney Earl Rogers in the Buffalo Nights Co. stage production of Crazy Drunk

So you started out in theater then, which is how most people start out.

Yeah, I was seven and I was really young. 

By this point I don't feel as claustrophobic in our cozy Twilight-esque chatting space as I had originally. The loss-for-words effect of being so close to such a captivating face has, for the most part, faded away. I pick up my green tea and check to see if it's cooled down enough to take a sip, but something tells me I'd better not, unless I'd like to be finishing up with a burnt tongue.

Finishing up I'd like to ask what you'll be working on next? Anything you can talk about at this point? 

      I wish I could, there's always hope to go back on Homeland but we have no idea what that's going to be like. Looking to develop some stuff on the web, produced a little web pilot called Bedlam. I knew you were going to ask that question and I was like "Oh no, WHAT'S NEXT?" The life of an actor. 

     If you don't have anything to talk about you don't have to!

     We'll see. The good news of [acting] for so long is that you get more used to that, "Eh that's alright, I'll see what comes."

   Debbie Threet

View count: 681