Connie Wang (PARADE magazine, 03/2015) got the opportunity to chat with McRaney about his role in Focus as well as his new series Agent X on TNT and his return to Longmire, Season 3 of which will premiere on Netflix later this year.
Here are excerpts from the interview:
Source: PARADE magazine, Connie chats
You’re starring in a new series on TNT with Sharon Stone. Can you tell me more about that and the role you play on that show?
It’s called Agent X and I play the Chief Steward of the Vice President and Sharon Stone plays the new Vice President. She discovers after she has gotten the job that there has been, throughout history, a special agent that works totally at the command of the vice president and no one else in the government knows about this agent. This was built in the early in the Constitution. That’s basically the premise of the show – the adventures that are had by the vice president and her secret agent. As I said I am the Chief Steward but in addition to that I am a former Agent X myself and the handler of the guy who is the current Agent X.
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Will you be returning to Longmire?Yes. We’re trying to work out dates right now so that I can go back and do Longmire and this new series at the same time.
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People still talk about Simon & Simon. Adam Scott and Jon Hamm went so far as to recreate the opening credits shot for shot. (McRaney laughs.) Did you see that?Yes I did. I bumped into Jon at the Emmys. I sidled up next to him and whispered in his ear, “Some guys just can’t wear the hat.”
What do you think is the long-term appeal of Simon & Simon?
I think it was two guys having fun with what we did. Jameson and I did – for eight years. We just had a ball making that show. I think the fun that we had translated for fun for the audience. People identified with it – some a little bit too seriously. We used to get mail all the time from people asking us to find lost relatives of theirs. But then someone once said to me people think Star Trek is filmed on location!
[We commiserate about the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy.]
He and I had the same acting teacher. I never worked with him. I saw him in a production of The Man in the Glass Booth down in San Diego. Our paths crossed, but we never got a chance to work together. I would have loved to. He’s a very good actor.
And here an interview where you can not only read but SEE him talking:
Veteran actor Gerald McRaney is best known for the numerous TV shows he’s starred in but when it comes to film he chooses his roles carefully. You can see him next opposite Will Smith in FOCUS a movie about a professional con. Bonnie Laufer (@movi_boni) spoke with Gerald McRaney in Los Angeles about working on the film, kicking Will Smith’s butt, the chance of working with his wife Delta Burke any time soon and working on the hit Netflix series, House of Cards opposite Kevin Spacey.
ENJOY!