Marc Kudisch Plays Questionable Men

It's just some nuts about here you. Kuddish got one of his three Tony nominations for that one. When we recorded this conversation, he was just a couple of weeks into a starring role in Girl from the North Country. It's one of the most critically acclaimed performances of his career. He plays the washed up big shot Mr Burke, trying to hold on to his pride and his wife during the Great Depression. But of course, with the rest of Broadway, the curtain has come down on Girl from the North Country.

While we wait out the coronavirus. On screen, Kudish has carved out a niche for himself working for the greatest Ohtour directors in TV, including David Fincher in Mine Hunter and Barry Sonnenfeld in The Tick. His current TV role is Dr Gus, the intense love to hate him corporate coach in Billions. And if you don't cut down everyone and everything that gets in your way, then they will return and they will cut you to shreds, and then they will cover those shreds in buk Hockey. Well, it's

a life he had trouble imagining. Back in nine when he was a senior at Florida Atlantic University about to graduate, had launched his acting career. Kudish had one friend who had already headed it to New York City and was working at a casting agency. So she called me down in Florida. They were casting a new role on the soap opera All My Children. I happened to be in the office of the theater department. She got me on the phone and she said, there's a role. I think

you'd be pleased. Don't tell me you did the soap. I didn't get the role. I've done All my Kids. Yeah, but ahead, yeah, listen, man, the great jobs. So I flew to New York on my own dime. I slept on their couch. I was there for twenty four hours. I went to the audition. She had told everyone, if you like him, he's only here for twenty four hours. He's got a job down in South Florida. Um, which actually I did. I was at the Florida Shakespeare Festival

at the time. At the same time time. While I was there, Pat took me this will tell you exactly what it was two times square, because there was a big benefit at the time to raise money from Mike Ducoccus for president, and Bernadette and Mandy we're like hosting the event. And I was standing right next to the stage, and God bless him, there was Mandy and all of his powers, singing, brother, can you spare a dime? He

was just up there. One I had built a railroad, made it run, and it's like there's like there's like ten in your pocket. These well, I mean I've worked with Mandy's so I've spent lots of time. You know. There are a couple of people like Eartha. I I God bless Eartha. I adore her. I miss her, dearly Eartha kid, I do a really mean, earth, kid, We're going to get there. So you're there in the shadows of Mandy, in the shadows of many Burnadette. And it

was like that was it for me. I'm like, I'm moving to New York as fast as I freaking can because I have to be here. I got my equity card from the Caldwell Theater Company in boke ratone because I didn't want to move to New York unless I had my equity card, you know, that was important to me. And then the minute I got my card, I was in a U haul. Twenty four hours later, I moved to New York City, where I moved to seventy one between Broadway and Columbus basement apartment with a buddy of mine,

Cafe Luxembourg. Baby, your right there right across the street. Six hundred bucks a month for that apartment for two guys, back lat Man. Even when I moved to the city, Like, you didn't go above eighties six street right like like it was like, and you didn't go and you didn't go into Times Square. You do not go into Times Square, not even during the day. Did you go in the park. No, you didn't cut through the park at night. All the benches were broken, all the lights were broken. It was

a fascinating place back then. I remember, like you know, and and I remember at night, you would walk with your head down. You would walk with your head down, and you'd walk in the street and you'd watch the shadows behind you. That's why you walk with your head down, so you could see the shadows of anybody. And you just got into that practice of it. I mean, I remember there was a night that I moved to Talent,

my friend Stuart Clark and Rachel by Jones. We we all moved up here together, and um, and I remember like she got here earlier than we did, and like two weeks she got here, she got a Broadway show and we were both like, oh jeez, and like, is that how it works for everybody? Or is that just for a select few? And the minute I got to town, the first thing I did was I walked five blocks north, five blocks south. Okay, that's a ten block radius. Right.

Then the next day I got up and I walked another five blocks north and another five blocks after that south. Eventually I got to the theater district from seventy first Street right and on my third day here. I walked into a restaurant and I applied for a wait job and I got it, and so I started waiting tables immediately, and it was fascinating. And that's how I met people, you know, and I met my buddy Rick Clemens, who

was a bouncer. But I mean, it was such a wild experience to go into a show in New York and off Broadway and off Broadway now you know. I just got into the city a couple of months later. And where which is where I always wanted to be, Like you worked a Circle Rep. Yes, that was my dreaming nine, moving to New York City working for Circle Rep. That's the kind of work that I wanted to do. Because I didn't sing. I didn't sing at all. That wasn't what I did. Didn't I didn't sing? It is that?

Is it really true? I did not have This is such a powerful inspiration. You would say, you don't sing. I want to know, but I'll tell you. I wanted to get into music theater. I remember I had auditioned early for Kiss of the Spider Woman and I was at the final call for that and I was auditioning for one of the roles. And how Prince comes up on the stage. And this is back in the day when you actually audition on the Broadway stage, not in

some small room. Up on the stage. Peter Hall and and and and how comes up on the stage and he's like, Mark, you know, I love you as an actor, but I really need a singer for this. I mean I had people telling me Mark, you don't sing, You just don't sing. I had casting directors say, why do you want to audition for musicals? Mark, You're an actor. People know he was an actor. They like you as an actor, but I like music theater, and I was

an arrogant son of a bitch. I mean, I just thought like, well, damn, these people cannot act and I can act, So all I have to do is learn to sing a little, dance a little please. And you also learn in the industry that, like, even as an actor, you're up against other celebrity people that are up for the same role as you. You better expand your horizons if you want to work. Right, So I get Gaston and as I'm in the show and I'm working, I

have this wonderful dresser. Eric was his name. He's an ex bass operatic singer and one night, he's literally tying me into that damn leather outfit that guest don has to wear because like that's how you get in the costume. They tie you into that sucker. And he's lacing me into that thing. And he says, you have such a beautiful voice, Mark, and I said, thanks, dude, I appreciate that. And he said, it's too bad you only use of it. This is right before show. Now, obviously, I part, did

you say something? No, seriously, Like, I looked at him, and what you want to say is if you you bitch, like literally, dude, But what came out of my mouth was then what do I do? Because I knew he wasn't wrong? And then he just handed me Alan alan Seal's card um and I went and I met with my teacher, Alan Seal, and I walked in and I'm like, I've had lessons with other people. I'm not sure if I'm a tenor or I'm a baritone. And he's like, well, let's not worry about that, let's just hear you. And

I worked with him for an hour. By the end of that lesson, sound was coming out of me that I didn't know I could do, and literally. I was like, so, yeah, Alan still alive, and Alan is teaching and he's in Upper New York, I think. And he got out of teaching voice. Um. Most of his students were doing opera in Europe and he was taking on one or two music theater people. And I mean literally, I'm not kidding you. I I walked out of there going I will be back. Um.

I didn't know I could make sound like that. So then I went to the theater and I started to try to apply what I had been learning with him, and everyone was coming up to me going like, what what are you doing? What is this voice? My friend Beth Fowler was like, when did Alfred Drake show up? Because I did not sound like that, you know I did. You sounded completely completely different at different persons being able to pull out a gun, and you pull out this gun.

You can sing? Now? Are you? Said? There? Going? Man? This feels good. Give me a task. That's the thing. I like, Give me a task and I will do it. Give me a deadline and I will do it. And I just was like learning. And that's the thing. I don't think you ever stopped learning in this industry or in life. And you shouldn't. And I just was like making sound that I had never felt before, and I knew other people who could, and now I was beginning to understand how they did. So it wasn't this thing

that was, you know, out of my grasp. And then I remember stage management sat me down that weekend and said, all right, so let's talk about the new voice. Literally, you were not hired with that voice. And I said, uh huh, and um, are you hurting yourself? Are you okay? I'm I feel good? Do you give some device? Literally they were like, they literally were like freaked out. Keep doing what you're doing if you feel like you're not

hurting yourself. But I need to have people come back and hear you because this is not how you were hired. This is not our show well or this is not who changed a critical element like that exactly because it was a big difference, and everyone came and saw it and they were all like, you sound great, good for you. It was it was so wonderful and you put it

out there. You put it out there, listen, and I mean, because here's the thing, man like, And this is why I say it because as actors, as classical actors, we get very self conscious when we're asked to sing because we just don't have the same kind of practice to it. So I had started to work with other teachers, and I just didn't feel like there was I wasn't It didn't feel comfortable or I just felt like I wasn't

matching personalities. What's the first year you're singing? I mean when I was in college, it was once the first year you're singing in New York. In New York, it was Bye Bye Birdie. That's where I like got my break with music. Theater was by Bye Birdie. That Bye Bye Birdie. It was a national tour with Tommy Toon and a ranking directed by Gene Sacks. I mean we were coming to Broadway. That was back in the day when instead of you know, doing workshops and going to

regional theater, you did a major national tour. And the way that producers would be able to enhance a Broadway run is they'd go out on the road for nine months and that they'd make their money there and then they'd use that money to open on Broadway. How does Sacks find you to put you in Birtie? So honestly, um my agents are working for me. But the problem is I can't be seen for any music theater because I have no musical theater credits, so even with an agent,

no one will see me at all. So I'm going to the open calls because I believed in the open calls back then. I figured, screw it, you gotta look at me now, even if it's an assistant. I went into the open call of Birdie and I got called back to the main casting director. I went in again, and then he brought me, uh three months later into a final call. And this is a true story. So

it's Stuart Thompson is the casting director. And as I'm getting ready, and this is at the Broadhurst Theater where everyone can be seen, and the holding pen for all of the actors is in the balcony, so everyone is able to watch everyone else's auditions. If that's not intimidating enough. So I'm getting ready to go in there, and I'm wearing my leather jacket, first thing I ever bought New York City in eight eight, because that's what a New Yorker wears. I got my black boots with the silver

studs and stuff on him. I mean, we're talking very here. And then as I'm about to go in, Stewart stops me and he says, whatever you do, do not sing Sincere. Now that's thus song of the character Conrad and Conrad Bertie. And I just and I was like, wait a minute, do you mean that's And he was like, don't sing it. They've heard it, they've heard it all day long. They don't want to hear it. Sing something else if you. And he says this to me right before my audition,

and he says, okay, go. So now I'm walking down the aisle of the theater and I'm walking by the Weisslers, who are the lead producers, and I'm walking by Tommy and there's an Rankings sitting next to Tommy, and then there's Gene Sachs sitting there. And I walk up onto the stage and then I walk over to the accompanist. His name's Brad Garcide, and I'll never forget his name because Brad looks at me and he says, are you okay? And I said, they told me not to sing Sincere.

And he's like, well, what do you prepare? I said, Sincere that's all I have. That's literally all I have. And he said to me and I mean it, this is He said, whose audition is this, and I said mine. He's like, or sing your damn song? So I did. Who was it that said, don't sing since here? Stewart the casting director, don't sing it. They've been hearing it all afternoon. Don't do it. So I got up on the stage and it's very well known. The first chord

of Sincere is very clear. You know it's Sincere when it starts. So he hits the piano and we hear that first chord, and all the way at the back of the house, I see Stewart throw up his hands and walk right out of my audition before I've even opened my mouth. But I figured, a, this is the first and last time I'm going to be on a Broadway stage. All I got this is the first and last time I'm going to play this role. Or sing Kiss and one Last Kiss. A lot of living to do.

But Sincere is his signature number. So I do it because I'm like, I have nothing to lose here, because clearly this isn't gonna work out. I mean, the casting director just literally walked out on me. So I did it, and I actually had a good time, and I let myself loose with it, and by the time I got to the end of the song, I was getting applause from everybody else auditioning up in the balcony. And then I tried to run away as fast as I could. I was just so happy because I wasn't a singer right.

And then I heard Jeane yell at me, Mark, come on back, so I can't use you want to read? Yes, I do, because I'm an actor and that's what I know how to do. Then I read the scenes and that went well, and then I tried to get the hell out there, and then he wanted to talk to me for a while. So then I'm standing there amongst them, these demigods, and he's like, where are you from? Fort Lauderdale? Where is your father from? Brooklyn, Ah? Where Avenue M

I grew up on k okay Um. And it was this wonderful audition, and he said thank you so much for coming in. That was great. And then I was walking up and I was on cloud nine. And then right before I leave, Stuart Thompson stops me, looks me in the eye and says, thank you for not listening to me. I always remember that movie. My dad got from the school. Uh what year did the movie come out? I can't remember. I want to say sixties, the six or something some some of you. So so I'm a kid,

I'm a little child. We're in the background of our house, and I think we watched it every night. My mother would make popcorn and cupcakes and cool aid. I mean, I'm sitting there, you know, scizzling steaks just ready for taste in. You know. I mean I knew every word. Yeah, We're all running around the house and driving my mother and saying, I got a lot of living to do, you know, Dad, we knew every note. We watched the fucking movie eight times in a row before my father said, okay, enough,

we're gonna turn that off. And that's a bad movie. Man, let's be honest. And I love that movie. I know everybody loves the movie and it's horrible. Watch it again. What's with the turtle? The turtle that's running on the being. I know they're brilliant actors, all of them. I love them, But you know, what's the matter with kids? All those I remember every word. Look, the music is genius, and when it came out, no one had ever done anything like that. Oh my god, Bobby right out who I

met when I was on tour. No, oh, yeah, Bobby was great. But then Bobby wanted to sing along, like like we went to uh we went to a bar afterwards, and yeah, pretty much. It was it was funny. It was fun Listen. You get to work with these people because it was with Lee Adams and it was with Charles you know that wrote the score. I mean, when you get the opportunity to work with these people that built this thing. When I did Bells are ringing on Broadway with Faith Prince and you get to work with

aid Off and you get to work you know. I mean like when when Betty camped in an Adolf Green and these were like you know, you know that Oklahoma was forty three, they were forty four. They were there at the beginning. And you're actually working with these people and you're making changes with these people. You say, is this like like this doesn't make sense to me? Will No one's ever asked us that in fifty six years.

There's something to be said for the fact that those of us that are in the theater never want to stop. That's why I love it, because it's something that is always alive. It's not frozen in any kind of time. The minute you take a piece, bells are ringing or Shakespeare or Arthur Miller, and you put it on the stage again, it is alive again, and there are questions to be had, and we never stop asking questions. That's why I like the theater. Film and television is great,

don't get me wrong. But you can throw down a line and ten years later someone can tell you the line that you did in in in that film. You don't you don't remember that you're Those lines are fillers

in my life. When I was in college and I still had enough of I want to want to sound vain here, but I had enough of a beauty quotation back then when I was young, I'd be with my girlfriend if i'd be leaving Anko one less kiss maybe where those those songs are in your head, they never get out of your head because it's every night, and it's alive every night. Actor Marc Kudish, another Broadway grade who got started doing edgy small house fair is Julie Tamore.

Her show The Lion King, with its masks and spectacular head dresses, is the highest grossing show in Broadway history, but the masked choreography had its roots and one of Taymore's earliest experiences in the arts. I graduated high school early and went to Paris at sixteen, and I lived with this twenty one year old Deborah Tate, who was a photographer and who was wild. We're living in Paris and I mean old sixteen and I went to mind school. I went to call to mean Jacques Lecoq. Yes, let

Jacques Lecoq. This is where I started really understanding the power of mask, the mask and even poppetry. She would this this crazy lady named Madame Citroen, who looked like a lemon. She was like a lemon. She was very brutal, but she would take We would take objects, bru rooms and candles and all kinds of objects and make them come alive. You can get a link to my full interview with Julie Taymore by texting t A Y m

O R two seven zero one zero one. Coming up, Mark Kudish on his most recent Broadway role, Sondheim and Dungeons and Dragons. That's next. I'm Alec Baldwin and this is here's the thing. I'm back with actor Marc Kudish Girl from the North Country, his most recent performance on Broadway, is a show that's hard to pin down to one genre. It's categorized as a musical because there's music in it, and that's music Bye and music by Bob Dylans. So it's Bob Dylan's music, but it is Connor mcphers and

the Irish play right. It's his construct, it's his idea. He was inspired by Dylan's music. But it's an original story. It's not an easy thing to take pre existing music and create a play using it. And I think a lot of the pitfall, you know, because there are people that want to call it jukebox musical. Okay, I get it, I got it. You know you don't. You can't take a pre existing piece and try to shove it into

a storyline that it was never intended for. That's always going to feel like it's being bent and trying to be torqud in a way that it was never intended for. There's nothing organic about it, McPherson wrote, who directed McPherson. No, Yeah, it's so deeply Connor all the way around, even the way that he's taken the music and embedded it within and around the play. No one else could have directed it. You know, he's not precious about his writing at all.

He's about the moment. He's not so much about the dialogue. I remember when rehearsals, he's like, if you can't remember a line, don't worry about the line. The line makes something up. Just keep moving forward. It's about the moment. It's about the moment. I met him before I never met him. I was asked to do a presentation of it, gosh, almost two years ago now at the Public Theater, and I just was so taken by it. It's very O'Neil esque.

Jack London asked Arthur Miller esked like it took an Irishman to write the most American piece of theater that I've done in a long time. This was workshop in the Public. Well, it was originally done in the UK, and it was Dylan, of all people, who had said, if you're going to bring it to the States after because Dylan's people had gone to McPherson and said, hey, Bob is a fan of Connor's work. He would love for him to take his music and incorporated in a

new piece. Connor had never done a musical piece before. So he's like, I'm not sure this is for me. They gave him carte blanche. They let him do whatever the hell he wanted to do. They sent him everything Bob had ever done, and I mean analog, the stuff that you can't get digitally. They shipped it all over.

There was Dylan around, not at all, not a bad thing, you know, it was you know, the first time he ever saw it was at the public He came and he saw it at the Public theater um, and you know, I mean, he had people all around him, and they brought him in a little late so that everyone wouldn't be looking over their shoulder to look at Bob Dylan watching a show. And and he was in tears at the end of the night. He was just in tears

at the end of the night. But let me ask you this, then, that life of the whole day goes by, and then at six o'clock you got to go to work. Is there a routine? Because I'm fascinated by this, Is there a routine for me? I got there early, I got there at six, and I had to let the day ooze out of me and stop thinking about what everyone's on my mind. So I could really focus because I couldn't wing it. I wasn't Peter Firth who could go out there and just dazzle people with his British

technique and so forth. For you, what's it like for you? Is there a routine? Is it the same thing all the time? I mean what I mean in my life, Um, you've just learned through practice how to just carry things with you and have them. It's easy for you to access what you need to access. The emotions are there all the time. I'm a complicated person, so plain complicated people is not terribly difficult, because if you're being honest with yourself, it's available to you whenever you want it.

It should be controlled, and it should be in trust with the other actors that you're on the stage with. I still don't know how it's happened or why it keeps happening the way it does. What I do know is why I walk out on a stage. It's about connection, and it's about communication and it's about dialogue. I am an introvert by nature. I am not fueled by applause. I am not fueled by people telling me I'm good. I'm not good with compliments. I prefer not to get them.

It's about the audience. What are we trying to say? Why are people spending this much money to come and hear me? You can sit at home and watch Netflix. The less that I put the focus on myself, the more I find there's no problem giving it to them. One of the things I saw you do because I'm a huge Sun Time fan. Of course, I'm talking about Assassins, and I love Victor Garber and uh they had that original production. I just love that show. And then you

guys come along and do this revival. Was a great show. It was a great show, Jim and Nannie Servius and I thought you were phenomenal. You're phenomenal. And was he around much when you were doing it? Stevia, He was around, And I'm told that's you know, it's a little bit intimidating to be doing revivals of his beloved material, I think, especially when they had a complicated history like Assassins. Yeah, but I mean, like, I think that that's a show that he held really dear to his heart and it

never really got the shot that he had hoping. I think of all of his shows, that maybe the show he's most proud of I don't want to speak for him, but I know the gun Song is something that is

really special to him for what it stands for. So doing I've never experienced what I experienced on our first preview of Assassins on the theater before or after, I can with all of us, all of them, but mean to do that show which was not political and incredibly political at the same time, and it speaks to who we are, and it speaks to our dissonance, and it speaks to the disenfranchise, but it speaks to identity. And that character, the proprietor that I played, did not exist

like that originally. So I went to lunch with Joe Mantello, the director, and he pitched me the idea of what he was thinking he wanted to do with the role. And I was like, how did John Wideman and Steve Sondheim feel about that? And He's like, we'll find out.

So it was this grand experiment in the middle of this revival, and every time someone had wanted to do a production of Assassins that had always got postponed because of this or a war or nine eleven because it's a very touchy subject, right, And I'm the one that opens my mouth at the beginning of the show. And to walk out on that first preview and we're on Broadway and the shoe hasn't fallen. We're actually gifted for at fifty four, it's two thousand or we're into the

reelection of George W. Bush. People are agitated and angry, and you know, you walk out on that heypal feinland Blue, don't know what to do. I mean, you come here and kill a president. Those are the first lines out of the gate Man. And to do that on Broadway, not apologizing for it, and to feel other people's agitation, I've never experienced anything like that again. I mean, you could cut the tension like with a knife. It was

so amazing. And when we did talk back to the audience wouldn't leave, you know how you usually do like talk backs and you'll have like maybe no one left. They were all sitting out there and they were agitated and angry, and literally it was like the talk back wouldn't even be about us talking to the audience. It would be them yelling at each other because of what they had just experienced. You, Lincoln, you write is Wrea

political science? I went for political science when I switched listen, I know you have a political mind, you know, and and I've always had a political mind. And the reason that I chose theater over political science ultimately was I remember when my first day in political theory, it was my favorite class. I walked into the room and written up on the board was all politics are based in failure. How long will this program last until it breaks down or shuts down? How long until we have to amend

that program? How long until we have to develop another one to pick up after? And I just thought, I don't know that I want to base my life on the idea of failure. And I took theater courses just to lighten the load, right, And I thought, oh, well that'll be good. If I want to go into politics, then getting out in front of people and having practice in that would be good. But I just also felt like I could focus on telling the truth more than

I could focus on the idea of failure. Like you know, that was also the period of time when um lobbying was becoming a thing, like my father was a lot obvious now when you know when you moved you went from Hackensack to Plantation, Florida, that's you moved and your dad to do that because of work, and so you grew up your whole life down there. Yeah, I'm from I mean, I'm a Florida boy, you know. I mean,

to this day, I still use the word dude constantly. Um. You know, it was still pretty rustic, and I loved it. I loved growing up there. You know, we grew up across the street from cow pastors. It was mellow. How many kids in your older brother, two younger sisters and anybody in the business. No, my brother he's the associate dean now at Villanova's School of Business, and my sister's ones in wellness, and the other manages the histology lab.

Now I'm saying this with all due uh regard for you, and I just find this not funny, but it's find interesting. I mean, you're a big, powerful guy. When I think of Mark Kudish, I think of a guy who's like a big, tough guy. You'll play tough guy roles. But you didn't play football in high school. What did you do in high school? Um? I was president of the Spanish club and I was a male cheerleader. No, no,

I'm not kidding. No, I know we are this because you literally, I mean I only have stupid things there. You did because you want to get laid You wanted to guy, Are you kidding? No, no, no, no, shame in that. No, no, no no, no, young guy. I was in the Gift of program. My brother was popular. I was not, man, I was the black sheep in my family. And don't tell you were a nerd. I was huge. I was a dungeon master back in the days of analog dungeons and dragons. Can you even believe that it's

like cool now to do that? There are literal like stores and cafes dedicated to dungeons and dragons, and like, when I was growing up, that was like the most shameful thing you could do. Um. I know, I was a huge nerd, man, I mean I wanted to be Carl Sagan and I was in a class with everyone else that loved those things, and um, yeah, I was not popular. But I can't believe you, because you're so fucking talented you get on State when you did Assassin. I looked at my friend and I go, you see that.

I go, That's what I want to do, That's what I wish I could do. I go look at this guy. He's like fucking Paul Bunyan and he sings like Pavati. He's like this giant figure of masculinity. My god, he's singing. I go, that's the funk what I want to do. But anyway, now that you've done that, did you ever live in l A. Didn't you ever want to say, Okay, now I want to go do movies and TV and

that means going out there. No. I mean I had my moment when I really could have gone out there, and I didn't because I because I wanted to do the theater. And the industry has changed in a really positive way because the kind of things that are being done on television now gives freedom to creative artists to really commit to whatever story they actually want to tell. And because of that, I find that film and television has gotten more theatrical over the years, and because of that,

there's more of it here. So as a younger actor, it was really important to me to be a part of the theater. And then as I got older and I realized that I was getting tired for me shows a week, and television and film was changing in a way that I actually felt like I could be a part of it that there was something there for me. I mean, you know, I wasn't around when Scorsese was

filming in New York. Those are the things that I related to in terms of being an actor, and now there's a plethora of stuff where I feel I connect to it. In New York City. Can you go shoot Billions? Scream at all those knuckle heads out? But I get to be here, man. Yeah, And when you do a show like that, how does that come to be? Billions has become kind of like uh, Law and Order, where

eventually everyone in Manhattan's gonna be on Billions. It has the best recurring cast, I think, on the history of television, because like every actor that you know, particularly in New York City, at some point walks across the screen. But I think another part of it, particularly with that show, is you know you have Brian and you have David, and you have incredible writing. Brian and David are the creators.

They are the name is Brian Coppman David Levine, and they are amazing at what they do, and they create an incredible atmosphere on a set, which, as you know, is something I think that holds enormous value. Described that the atmosphere is what. It's really familial, it's really welcoming. Everybody's jazz to be there. When you meet the crew and the crew is excited about coming to work, then you know you're on something that has energy to it.

It's exciting, it's fun. You know. The writing is good, it's crisp, it's smart, it's fast. There's no apology for the characters behaving badly. Every storyline, every individual show is so smart and fast, like it's really unexpected. Every time I would read a script, which is rare on other shows, you'd have what kind of experience? Oh crap, absolute crap, and you know, but described the situation honestly. I there

was a show. It was, It was, it was quite a few years ago now, and I literally walked on set. Nobody knew the lines. None of the regulars knew their lines, no one knew what both completely unprofessional and I had a heart out. And I finally had to go to the director and say, I have a heart out. In fifteen minutes and there are three scenes left to shoot, and he looked at me and he said, what are you talking about? And he drew me over to one of the you know a d s and he just

was like, why didn't you guys tell me this sooner? Well, we didn't want to, you know, and then he just don't want to upset you with the facts. So then he pulled me into a corner and he said, give me a second. And then he said, okay, if we set up the camera shots and I do the dialogue and we'll just get your p o V. Are you willing to do that? And I said, yeah, whatever it takes. So they set up three four different cameras, four different angles. He read the lines with me, and I knocked out

three scenes in fifteen minutes. I ship you note with the entire cast watching as we did it, finished it and they all applauded, Oh my god, that was amazing. And I'm thinking, you should not be saying that to me right now. You shouldn't be happy while I'm doing

this exactly. I just was like, so, you know, there's a wide variety, and Billions is on the upper echelon of what I think a quality piece of television is, or or or any filming is smart people writing really smart stories and dialogue with incredible actors that you want to be in it with. So it's always fun, you know, And any time I walk on there, the writing is through the roof and it's absolutely ridiculous. And the character is I mean, he's insane. It's fun to be that

out there. Who is your character on Billions? Dr Guess he's a he's a performance coach. He's just insane. Who who are you coaching? Any of the traders, like anyone who's behind, who's not picking up their limit. I'm just there too, literally scream at them. I mean so intense, which I love because it's just the id running wild. You know. I did Glen Gary Glenn Ross, and we shot the scene for three days and it was so tough, like, oh, let me wipe my feet on your chim I hated it.

But that's the thing, isn't it. You're there to do it and you can't apologize for it. You know. I've made a career of playing questionablement making questionable decisions. What makes it interesting is you see a guy like that and you want to hate a guy like that, but you can't help but hearing the truth, even through the hardness of it. It's sticking to the intention of the character. That is exciting about doing it. While you wait to see Marc Kudish on Broadway, you can watch him on

Showtime in Billions. I'm Alec Baldwin and this is here's the thing