ANDY DRACHENBERG:How do you feel about your return to Broadway? Does it feel different with Glengarry Glen Ross?
JOHN C. McGINLEY:It is profoundly different because last time I was in a show, it tuned up for a month in three different cities before it came to Broadway. We ran for two weeks of previews. We opened on Friday and closed on Sunday. It was completely and utterly devastating. It’s been different doing this run since it is pretty much sold out and will run until January 20th.!
AD: Before returning, you have been keeping plenty busy in the worlds of television, film, voice-over work, etc… Do you have a favorite medium you’ve had the chance to work in?
JCM: Doing Glengarry is the single most exciting thing I’ve done as an actor. If you’re lucky enough to make a living as an actor, your family still has bills to pay. If you can get into the fraternity that is voice-over acting, it’s grand! If you can get on a TV show that runs for 9 years, that’s what dreams are made of. If you can do 6 movies with Oliver Stone, you’re lucky because the only other director who hires actors again that many times is Preston Sturgess. I feel I’m the single luckiest guy on the planet.
AD: Recently, you’ve been working on multiple projects simultaneously. How do you balance your time while juggling all of them?
JCM: I just love doing it so it fuels me. The chaos fuels me.
AD: Do you ever need any escapes from the chaos?
JCM: We live in Malibu, so I have to commute to every gig I get. It gives me time to go over stuff as I drive. I grew up in New York and Malibu reminds me of the Jersey Shore. Malibu is equidistant to Los Angeles as Bayhead is to the Village. I get the best of both worlds this way!
AD: Going back to Glengarry, how to you start your process of getting to know your character Dave Moss?
JCM: I needed to start with the music of the language before I did anything else. I set up a theater boot camp in my rehearsal space in Malibu back in August. I hired a young kid to come out and just do the music of the words for four weeks. I used a metronome and many tricks to really get the rhythm and language in my bones.
AD: In “Scrubs,” you were known for bringing some improvisation into your character. Has that opportunity been present working in a Mamet play?
JCM: No -the first thing I did was committing to a pragmatic regime of getting the words into my core. Most of the personal flavor I brought to “Scrubs” was in the language and massaging transitions in and out of the scenes. In Glengarry, I did the opposite. I wanted to be a religious zealot of the words of David Mamet. That mitigates the impulse to add too much personal flavor. If you’re John McGinley, you’re Dave Moss. If you’re Dave Moss, you’re John McGinley. Those two have to meld so there’s going to be some intrinsic eccentricity that will show up.
AD: Was there a different backstage dynamic on this show compared to your other experiences?
JCM: Well, when actors are not needed in a scene during rehearsals, it’s common for them to sprint away to go check their email or whatever. At Glengarry, when we were done with a scene, everyone pretty much just stayed to watch Al Pacino and the other actors. I just thought it spoke volumes.
AD: Do you have a favorite moment so far in the run?
JCM: When the curtain goes up in the second act, its game on. We all have to bring it, every night.
JOHN C. McGINLEY (Dave Moss) Broadway: Requiem for a Heavyweight. Off-Broadway: Talk Radio. Film: Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, Nixon, Any Given Sunday, Alex Cross, 42, Wild Hogs, Identity, The Animal, The Rock, Nothing to Lose, Set It Off, Seven, Office Space, Mother, Point Break, A Midnight Clear, Fat Man and Little Boy, Are We Done Yet? TV: “Burn Notice,” “Scrubs,” “Intensity,” “The Jack Bull.” As the father of Max, his teenaged son with Down syndrome, John C. is committed to building awareness and acceptance of people with Down syndrome.