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Interview: Eddie McClintock Was Hanging By a Thread (and Then He Got Cast on WAREHOUSE 13!)

Posted on 11 August 2009

Tags: Eddie McClintock, Interviews, Joanne Kelly, television, Warehouse 13

In the new SyFy Channel show Warehouse 13, Eddie McClintock plays Pete, the looser, laid-back half of the show’s Secret Service agent duo assigned to protect the magical artifacts stored in South Dakota’s mysterious Warehouse 13.

But in reality, right before being cast in the show, the enormously appealing actor was coming to a cross-roads. The 42 year-old Ohio native had been kicking around Hollywood for more than a decade, consistently working in guest spots on shows such as Friends and Felicity, and even starring in four short-lived shows of his own.

But he’d never “broken out,” and with two young kids, he had mouths to feed.

To hear Eddie tell it, things were getting pretty dire toward the end — so much so that, in a nice bit of synchronicity, it took future Warehouse 13 co-star Joanne Kelly to talk him down enough that he could even finish the audition for the show.

And like the plot out of an actual TV show, it may have been that moment they shared in the audition waiting room that led to their both being cast on the show in the end.

But hey, it’s better to let Eddie tell it:

TheTorchOnline: Congratulations on the fact that the show’s a hit. Are you surprised?

Eddie McClintock: I’m not so surprised, but relieved. This is my fifth series in twelve years, and I’ve never had a hit. I’ve been going and going. I like to think of myself as one of the more successful anonymous guys in Hollywood. I’ve continued to work, but nothing has ever hit. So when people use that word “hit” with me, I’m, like, I don’t know, because I’m gun-shy.

TTO: The actors all have great chemistry. Was there right from the beginning?

EM: It was from the beginning. I was coming off my seventh test refusal. I’d gone through six or seven [rejections] in a row.

TTO: Ouch.

EM: But you can’t let that show [on your next audition], or they’ll read it right away. I had gone in a few times [for Warehouse 13], and there was a mix and match — there were six Petes and six Mykas. Which was depressing, because you expect maybe two. You see that and you say to yourself, “Wow, they still don’t know what they’re looking for.”

So I had gone in and came out, and I came down to me and this other guy. And the other guy was standing there, and the director came out and put his arm around him and they walked down the hall together.

And I said, “That’s it! I can’t take it!” I took off my tie, I took off my jacket. And Joanne [Kelly, my future co-star] was sitting there, Indian style in the chair, relaxed, which is interesting, because her character is so different. And she’s, like, “Dude!”

And I said, “No! You don’t get it! I have these two little boys, they’re like baby chicks, and I’m supposed to fly in and spit up the worm, and I got no worm, you know? And I can’t deal with that anymore.”

And then the producers come back and say, “Eddie, you’re coming back in.” And I’d already taken off my tie and jacket, and Joanne and I had been talking, and she’d basically talked me down, off the clock-tower.

And we were standing there reading, and she blew a line. She was supposed to call me a “showboat,” and she called me a “shoi-boit.” And then I made it into a robot thing, started acting like a robot.

You know, actors are terrified of screwing up in those rooms. We ended up making a thing out of this gaffe. And apparently when we walked out of the room, they said, “There it is.”

TTO: So the chemistry really was there right from the very beginning!

EM: [laughs] Yeah.

TTO: So why do you think this was the show that finally connected?

EM: I think there’s a certain amount of luck and timing. A large portion goes to the fact that the writers have created something that is right for right now. I think people want to escape — the economy is terrible, people are losing their jobs. Who wants to turn on the TV and watch people shoot other people, dead bodies? That’s what life is, man.

Our show, you get to escape into this world where there are these unexplained artifacts. It’s funny, it has a heart, it’s about family, it’s suspenseful.

TTO: I think a big part of it is the humor. There’s been a lot of serious sci-fi fantasy, and there still is. I’m curious if you get self-conscious about the comedy on the set, if you were confident that everyone else was going to think it was funny?

EM: No! I had no idea. I usually do something, and if people laugh, that’s funny. They’ll say, “Keep doing that. Whatever it is, keep doing that.”

At the beginning, I don’t think we were sure, because you’re just finding the show. In the writing of the show, there’s not a whole lot of comedy that’s on the page. They don’t write the comedy, they just sort of let it come as we find it.

Jack Kenny, our executive producer, one of the producers on one my first show, [is] brilliant and really funny. David Simkins is the other side of it, he’s the sci-fi guy, he’s the gadget guy. So together they’ve been able to create this great blend of both.

But when Jack is on the set, and I’m working, he’ll come up to me and say, “Hey, try this.” Or I’ll come up to him and say, “Can I try this?” Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I’ve think we’ve found a pretty nice balance.

TTO: So when do you go back to work?

EM: They haven’t picked us up yet.

TTO: But they will.

EM: I think so. But again, don’t get my hopes up!

TTO: Is there a particular moment you’re most proud of in these first thirteen episodes?

EM: The episode “Burnout” was probably the most challenging for me as an actor. I was faced with having to make a huge decision as a character, and then in doing so, having to make a huge decision as an actor. I would either fall on my face, or people would go, “Wow, that was really good.”

TTO: What was scene exactly?

EM: The artifact affects Pete in such a way that he makes a decision to take his own life. The scene leading up to that decision was very emotional and powerful for me as the actor and the character, and I’m pretty proud of just being able to trust [the moment]. It was real milestone for me as an actor.

Warehouse 13 airs Tuesdays at 9 PM/8 C on the SyFy Channel.

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Review: WAREHOUSE 13 Goes for Broad, Campy Fun (And it Sorta Works)

Posted on 05 July 2009

Tags: CCH Pounder, Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Reviews, Saul Rubinek, television, The SyFy Channel, three-torch reviews, Warehouse 13

Three Torches (Out of Five)

There are two kinds of programs on the Sci Fi Channel: those like Battlestar Galactica that are better and more sophisticated than almost anything you’re going to see on the traditional networks, and those like Sanctuary that, while they may have a certain campy charm, simply don’t hold a candle to the more established network shows in terms of acting, production values, and, especially, writing.

Now that I think about it, Battlestar Galactica might be the only Sci Fi Channel show to fall into the former category. But definitely put Warehouse 13 in the latter.

The show isn’t a disaster. But given that it’s Sci Fi’s Big New Show — the one they’re rolling out with much fanfare on the day they’re changing their name to “The SyFy Channel” — it’s also a bit of a disappointment.

Pete and Myka, two seemingly down-on-their-luck Secret Service agents, are assigned to work a secretive facility in South Dakota, a warehouse where mysterious magical items and inventions are stored by the government. Artie, an eccentric caretaker (veteran character actor Saul Rubinek), tries to make sense of them all.

“It’s an invitation to endless wonder,” says Mrs. Frederick (CCH Pounder), the enigmatic woman who oversees the project.

Awkward hyperbole aside, it’s a great premise — part X-Files, part Indiana Jones.

What works in the show?

The producers have definitely gone the “Ken and Barbie” route in casting oh-so-pretty Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly as Secret Service Agents Pete and Myka, but the two have a nice, easy-going chemistry together.

Rubinek steals almost every scene as Artie, and Pounder is terrific (as usual) in a small, but effective part.

Likewise, the show really embraces its humor, which is a nice change after decades of earnestness and angst in similarly paranormal-themed shows like The X-Files, Fringe, and Supernatural.

What works less well?

Well, too much of the humor falls flat. A “wishing pot” creates a ferret whenever the holder wishes for something impossible? And compared to shows like The X-Files and Supernatural, Warehouse 13 has very little subtly and doesn’t miss a chance to dumb things it down.

Many of the items in the warehouse combine lousy science and with outright hokiness. A car built by Thomas Edison runs on body electricity (to the show’s credit, it’s the slowest-moving car ever created — but, weirdly, this isn’t played for laughs).

Artie keeps in contact with the agents with something called a “Farnsworth” — an awkward, bulky video communicator built in 1929 by the inventor of the television. But wouldn’t a cell phone adapted for use in Warehouse 13 be a whole lot easier?

It’s not just the humor that’s broad; the plots and characterizations are too. The central mystery in the two-hour premiere episode involves an ancient Italian comb that turns the wearer in a power-hungry despot and … well, let’s just say the episode won’t be winning any Peabody Awards.

(And can I just say? It seems bizarre to me that the show pairs an ultra-competent, “by the books” woman with an easy-going, rakish guy — a dynamic that already a cliche way back when The X-Files did it. Why make The X-Files comparisons even more inevitable?)

But this isn’t a show that was made to be seriously pondered. It was made to be fun.

And for the most part, it is.

Warehouse 13’s two-hour premiere movie airs Tuesday, July 7th at 9 PM. Future installments will air on Wednesdays at 9 PM. Check out their genuinely clever website here.