The Point Radio: Burn Gorman Is THAT Guy

Here’s a voice to go with a face we’re sure you are familiar with. You’ve seen actor Burn Gorman in DARK KNIGHT RISES, GAME OF THRONES and now in AMC’s TURN:WASHINGTON’S SPIES. He talks about his varied acting jobs and even how much fun it was on the set of TORCHWOOD plus what his dream acting job would be.

Christian Kane (THE LIBRARIANS, ANGEL) joins us in a few days to talk about his new movie and why we thunk he should be the next Wolverine.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. Let me put a voice with a face that I know is familiar to you. He's actor, Bernd Gorman, who's good at things like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dark Knight Rises, and of course, Game of Thrones.

Right now he's doing Turn Washington Spies, and we'll talk about that. Plus, how much fun was it to be a part of Torchwood? Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

The Point Radio. When you see him, you recognize actor Bernd Gorman from a number of different places. Maybe it's from Dark Knight Rises or Pacific Rim. Maybe it's from the Spies of Warsaw in BBC America. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX, or even Game of Thrones as well.

Now he's in Turn Washington Spies, the second season of which is on AMC. And when I talk to him about all this, the resume really impresses. I mean, how does he do it? How does he find the right script that really does make him one of the most prolific character actors working right now in TV and movies? Well, thanks.

First of all, I really appreciate every job that comes my way. And so I think a lot of it is luck, as you know. My dad always told me to present a moving target. Keep still. You know, sorry, keep moving.

Don't keep still. So perhaps that's part of how I've been very lucky in the last couple of years, anyway, working on shows that I've really been proud to be involved in. Yeah, I feel very lucky. So how far back did acting get into his blood? It was pretty late on.

You know, I used to work in the hotel trade and I knew that I had to get some grades. So I went up to a college in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare's from. And there I met with somebody who was involved in Royal Shakespeare Company and I got the bug straight away. So it wasn't something that was ever in my family or I have a background of it. It was just something that I thought, oh, I'd love to be able to do that.

And thankfully, I've been able to make a living out of doing what I feel very, very lucky to be doing it. AMC's turn is already into its second season and I asked Burn to fill us in. Sure. I mean, turn is on AMC, Washington's spies. And it's essentially about a spy ring, a true story about a spy ring that Washington, the spy master set up. And that wasn't discovered until the 1930s.

These true American heroes from Long Island and Sotoket who put together this successful spy ring that essentially turned the tide of the war. So that the best men won, as it were. Burns' character here is an adversary, but like so many other of the roles he's had, he manages to turn it around with a certain layer of sympathy as well. Yeah, I mean, I sort of see it as my job as an actor to try and present the character I'm playing as a human being. You know, we're not all black, we're not all white.

You know, we're a bit too gray, aren't we? And I see my character Major Hewlett as a guy who is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard plate. He's in a warfare situation, but actually he probably is a bit of a middle manager as he's trying to do the best he can in the circumstances. You know, so I love playing him. He's a lot more complex than just being, you know, a bad guy, as it were.

So does he like doing a period piece? Well, you know what, I've always been cast in period pieces mainly because of my face, and I kind of like dressing up and wearing wigs and stuff like that. It's actually a bit like playing, so it's not something which I, you know, I love doing it. I really do. It's great. So of all the roles he's done, is there ever one he'd like to have a chance at again? Maybe a free do-over? Well, I suppose it's a bit like sculpting in snow acting, isn't it?

It's like you do what you can at the time, and then it's kind of gone, you know, that the opportunity to change it is gone, you know. But I suppose nothing comes to mind immediately, but I'm loving playing this character Major Hewlett because there are lots of surprises this season. And the writers have kind of given me a lot to do, which, you know, he kind of very much goes outside his comfort zone. So I'm kind of interested to see what their response will be to that, you know. It's great playing a complex character. One of my favorite Burn Gorman roles was on Torchwood.

You know what, we had the best time of our lives on Torchwood. It was a wonderful experience from start to finish. I mean, never say never, you know. The funny thing is that next year, believe it or not, will be ten years since we first started filming that first series in the wilds of Wales, you know. It was a show which I'm not sure would get commissioned now on the BBC. You know, it came up with a lot of interesting ideas, and some of the episodes were, you know, were a bit ridiculous, and some of them were great. But I still really enjoy meeting, it's a very specific character person that likes Torchwood, and I always love meeting them and talking to them about it. So, yeah. The other thing is we stay in touch with the cast. You know, we don't speak to each other very often, but when we do, we have a real screen. So, never say never, you know.

As far as his most memorable role? Well, I don't know if he's memorable to anyone else, but I had the most memorable time on Chris Nolan's Dark Knight Rises. It was a, you know, it was a supporting character, a bad guy. But to be honest, if you can say on your CV and then to yourself that you played a bad guy in Batman, that for me as a comic book fan was a huge honor. And I sort of pinched myself every day on set to work with, you know, Chris and all the other actors. It was just great. It really was. And as far as the ultimate dream role?

Do you know what it is? I've got three kids now, and I would absolutely love to do some animated voices, to do some voices in an animation. It's something which I've always, you know, I obviously I'm a big fan and I watch a lot of, you know, animated stuff. And I suppose that if there was a bucket list, you know, perhaps one day if I could do something like that, then my kids could watch. You know, that would be great fun. But, you know, fingers crossed.

The cast of Ketchup on here, it's the latest in pop culture. After three decades, Frank Miller is returning again to the Dark Knight with a new series called Dark Knight 3, The Master Race. It marked the 30th anniversary of the original Dark Knight series. Frank will co-write to this one with Brian Ezarello. No artists have been announced for the series as yet.

There'll be eight issues in all, published twice a month by DC, beginning late in the fall of this year. While we're days away from the premiere of Avengers Age of Ultron here in the U.S., it's already made a lot of box office noise overseas. Over the weekend, the film opened in about 55% of the world's overseas market and took in some $200 million plus in ticket sales as well. Like its predecessor, the film is expected to do big box office overseas. And of course, not so small here as well when it opens up coming up in a few days.

The Emmy-nominated series Park Bench with Steve Buscemi is coming back for a second season on AOL. It was created and of course stars Steve, where he'll sit down on a New York park bench and talk about whatever comes up with some pretty important people. Those people of this second season include John Oliver, Elvis Costello, Amber Tamblin, Robert Smigel and David Blaine among others. Look for AOL to make an announcement soon about the start date of the second season. We're off to a good start for season 3 of Orphan Blag, the debut episode, which premiered not only on BBC America but also on AMC, IFC, Sundance TV and WeTV drew some 1.9 million viewers.

And it was up 51% over the last year's premiere, which was only on BBC America. Next up for a stars original series will be Ash vs Evil Dead featuring of course all the right players from the original horror film franchise including Sam Raimi, Robert Tappert and Bruce Campbell. Campbell will star along with Lucy Lawless among others in the series, which is slated to hit stars for a premiere in the fall. Me TV will be airing the series finale of MASH coming up on the weekend as part of a three hour special that will include the uncut two and a half hour show plus interviews with cast and creators as well. It's all part of a big celebration over the next couple of weeks for the series on Me TV.

Former WWE superstar and future UFC superstar CM Punk has now got his first regular comic book writing assignment. It comes from Marvel in the form of a new Drax The Destroyer series that set to debut sometime early next year. So far for Marvel, Punk has written a backup story to Thor Annual this year. Also for DC, he turned in a story for Strange Sports Stories, but Drax will be his first full length continuing comic book series. Again, one of the debuts early next year.

That does it for the podcast. We're back in a few more days and Christian Kane is here. You know him, of course, from the librarians and from Angel, and I think he's the guy who should be the next Wolverine. We'll find out how he feels about that on great websites like ComicMix dot com, Michael Davis World dot com, Get The Point Radio dot com, and in the iTunes 5 guest director where you can subscribe and make us real happy. Follow us too. We like that as well on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook under The Point Radio. See you back here in a few days.

Thanks for watching!