Interview: Brad William Henke Talks About His Role On THE STAND, and What He’s Been Doing During Quarantine

To preface this, I spoke to Brad back in November (2020) just before Thanksgiving.

In anticipation for CBS All Access’ upcoming limited series THE STAND (based on the book by Stephen King), I spoke with actor Brad William Henke (Orange Is the New Black, Manhunt, Justifed), who plays Tom Cullen in the series. Admittedly, I was quite excited for the opportunity because I’ve been such a fan since the series October Road which aired on ABC back in 2007 (and was abruptly cancelled despite its popularity and ratings. Of course, Henke has played in a wide variety of television/streaming series and films including Must Love Dogs, Fury, and Arkansas.

INTERVIEW/Conversation With Brad William Henke (BWH) and myself, Judy Manning (JM).

JM: Thank you so much for your time today. I’ve been a fan for a while, since October Road (2007). It was one of my favorites…

BWH: Me too, me too! I was bummed when it got cancelled; it had wonderful ratings too. It was really weird.

JM: Yeah, that was a real bummer. I’ve been a fan since then and I went on a set visit to Justified during your season [season 2] when ‘Mags Bennett’ (played by Margo Martindale) reigned in Harlan County.

BWH: Were you there when I was there?

JM: I don’t know if you were on set that day, I think one of the other ‘Bennett’ brothers was there. Not ‘Dickey Bennett’ but the other brother – I’m drawing a blank on his name.

BWH: The sheriff, the sheriff.

JM: Yes, Yes.

BWH: Yeah

JM: It was a really great set visit, but that season was one of my favorites.

BWH: That was the best season. And the show [Justified], Taylor (Elmore) and Ben (Cavell) were the main writers on Justified and that’s how I got offered this job on THE STAND because Ben (Cavell) offered it to me.

JM: That’s amazing. You know, sometimes working with certain people at a certain time can be serendipitous later.

BWH: Yeah, and I also think that that’s when they became big writing stars when they were writing during that season [of Justified]. Then after doing Sneaky Pete with Ben (Cavell), I did a show Manhunt last year with Michael Dinner who was a producer/writer on Justified. So, Justified has led to a lot of things for me.

JM: That’s really great! As I said, I’ve been a fan of yours for a while. I also love the movie Must Love Dogs, and you’ve been in such a wide variety of roles on film and television. I wanted to ask, since the pandemic has halted so much production, and release dates of so many things, and films have been pushed back, when did you start filming THE STAND?

BWH: THE STAND started [production] in October of 2019 and we ended on March 13th (2020), then they said we had like three days to get out of Canada, we were done.

JM: Wow! You got out right as the pandemic hit.

BWH: Yeah, do a series about a pandemic, we got to finish it before it [the current pandemic] started.

JM: Yeah, talk about serendipity.

BWH: I know right?

JM: So, you guys filmed in Canada; how was the weather during filming?

BWH: It was terrible but it was great for my character because my character is kind of isolated a lot in his head, and I just liked … you know in Canada, in December, the sun came out on Christmas day and New Year’s day, so it’s just dark all day, raining all day, and if you want to feel isolated and moody, it’s a good place to be.

JM: Which part of Canada were you all filming in?

BWH: Vancouver, and twice we went up further north – once into some snow, and once out into some crazy beautiful mountains.

JM: Ok, that sounds cool. You mentioned you got the role in THE STAND because of your connections to Justified; did you have to audition? How did it all come together?

BWH: No, thank God. (laughter) Ben just called me out of the blue. It was so funny because actually my manager, his name was Joe Rice, he passed away recently…he passed away before I shot it, but after I booked it; he had always wanted me to play this type of character; he said ‘I want you to play this “Of Mice and Men” kind of role, and he kept saying that, and that’s kind of what this role is like. And he (Joe) was so happy, and he was heavy on my mind when I was doing it because he had passed away and I’m just sitting there doing it, isolated in the rain, ya know what I mean…

JM: Yeah.

BWH: It was just a lot.

JM: It seems very bittersweet.

BWH: Yeah [pause] very bittersweet, but I actually was offered the Manhunt job and The Stand on the same morning; and one started in June-July and went to October (2019) and the other went from October (2019) to March (2020), so it was awesome. But after that, I was ready for like two-three months off but not this [pandemic].

[laughing]

JM: Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. This pandemic has been a doozy, I know that for sure. I wanted to ask, your role in THE STAND, have you read the book, did you see any previous incarnations of this because I know there was a mini-series back in the 90s…?

BWH:  When Ben offered me the role, he sent me four scripts, and I was going to read the books first but then I got the book and it was 900 pages long so I was like, ‘I’m going to read those scripts’ because I had a couple of days to tell him if I would take the job. I read them all that night and I told him the next day because he was my friend and also because it was so good; it was so good.

And so then, after I had read all the scripts, he actually gave us all nine scripts, after I read ALL OF THEM, and worked on them…kind of like worked on my lines (I always hire someone to run lines with because I feel like if I do that over and over before I start to make any assumptions about the scenes, it’s just better if I run it for a couple of hours to see how it kind of shapes itself.

So, I did that a lot and THEN I read the book. I read the book but I also, if I went somewhere, like when I drove to Vancouver, I would listen to the book-on-tape. So I did that, but doing that just told me like, ‘Oh, he [my character] wore that shirt in there or he was playing with this car set, or he was doing this in the book,’ but it’s not all in there in the show, but I can sneak that stuff in because it’s more information about my character.

[pause – lots of barking happening, the new puppies needed to be taken]

JM: Your fur-babies?

BWH: We got a new puppy. She’s 13 weeks old and working on her bark…

(laughter)

JM: For a lot of books, the adaptation from book to screen, many things have to be left out just because it has to translate well onscreen, and sometimes the little details that build the character aren’t always showcased from book to screen. So, I appreciate the fact that you said you’ve read the book to see the little nuances of your character because that will help you build the character on screen.

BWH: Yeah! Yeah, it’s like when I was riding my bike, my character is riding a bike somewhere and it has this basket and I’m like, ‘what do you want in there’ and what I wanted in there is what my character had in his basket in the book, you know what I mean? So, I’d have an answer – I want ‘this, this, and this’ because I read it in the book.

JM: Yeah, exactly. Those little nuances, it’s always great when you can have something to grasp onto, especially with such great source material. I mean, Stephen King…he’s like, he’s Stephen King. So, you have such great source material from him with books as thick as his; I’m sure there’s a lot of things you can pick from.

BWH: Totally, totally, and what I would also do too, like the day of the scene, I would listen to that scene on the book-on-tape just while I was stretching or doing something just to hear the details. If we’re doing a scene that’s three pages long, it’s probably 10 pages long in a book, ya know. So, I thought that was really good because I never had a feeling as if something’s missing; it’s kind of there even it’s in my mind. I know that sounds weird but it’s kind of like you know what your house looks like, what your car looks like when you go somewhere, ya know what I mean…?

JM: Exactly. I think when you try to embody that character in your mind, it helps you with your performances as well because if you have no experience with the character without having read the source material, you’re not really sure which direction you want to go in and, obviously, you want to stay true to who the character is in the book because there are so many people who’ve read the book; millions and millions of copies worldwide have been sold so.

And there have been several incarnations of The Stand from earlier on, I was really excited to see the casting of this new series on CBS All Access and the cast is phenomenal. Can you tell me a little about your experience on-set?

BWH: Yeah, the thing is, I didn’t work with everybody because it’s just such a big cast, and because if they’re shooting a scene that morning and I’m shooting a scene in the afternoon, you know what I mean? We had Thanksgiving together and stuff like that, and from top to bottom, everyone was so into it, but also so cool and collaborative. I feel like they were just very talented confident people, so it made it fun.

JM: That’s so cool! For the role, did you do any other preparations aside from reading? Did you have to do any workouts; did you have to lose or gain weight? I know a lot of roles call for a character to lose or gain weight…

BWH: It’s funny because I had gained 30-40lbs for the Manhunt job, and trust me, that ain’t hard for me to do (laughter); it’s the other direction that’s hard. So, for this one [The Stand], I wanted to…oh, I don’t want to give anything away, but my character, I go on a trip, like a journey, and I wanted to lose weight during that time as my character so I kind of started to lose a little bit of weight before that. And then during [filming], I had two weeks before I shot, but they moved up the schedule so I didn’t quite lose as much as I wanted, but I’ve lost, from the beginning to the end, probably like 25lbs.

JM: That’s wonderful. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

BWH: Yeah, but on me, it probably looks like throwing a lawn chair off the Titanic or something (laughter) but I know I’d lost it, ya know.

JM: Yeah; as long as you know, and you feel better, that’s really the most important thing.

BWH: Yeah, you know, Henry Zaga [who play’s Nick Andros on The Stand], he lost weight beforehand and he told me that he went to this dietician; they said just drink a glass of water and eat a tomato before every meal, and if you do that, you just won’t be hungry. And if you think, ‘Oh my God, I have to eat a tomato,’ then you’re really not hungry. So, that’s how I lost weight. (laughter)

JM: Well, it’s a bad thing for me because I really love tomatoes. (laughing)

BWH: Well, there’s lycopene or something in the skin that helps you lose weight if you wanted to do that.

JM: Well that’s definitely a neat trick.

BWH: Yeah, a neat trick, and he (Zaga) went to a Hollywood dietician and I stole it from him.

(laughing)

JM: Ok. Well, now I got it! Now, is there anything about your character that you’re really hoping that the audience will grasp immediately, or you hope that they will get by end of it? I know sometimes when you’re doing a performance, you want the audience to gain a certain aspect from your character when you’re playing specific roles and stuff. So, is there anything, in particular, that you’re hoping that will resonate with the audience?

BWH: Well, there’s this kid who went to my high school, he’s a couple years older than me, his name is Ed Reinhardt, Jr., and he went to college to play football, which I later did too. He had a blood clot in his brain or something and collapsed on the sidelines, so he never was the same, kind of like what happens to my character. And I saw him a few years later and he said, “In here still me.” You know what I mean? It’s heartbreaking…

JM: Oh my goodness, that just broke my heart.

BWH: I know, I know. And so, if people can feel that from… like there’s more in me (my character) than what a lot of people see, then I feel like they will have got it.

JM: Yes, I know what you mean, There’s more inside than what you can present on the outside.

BWH: Or that I present with words.

JM: Exactly. Wow, that’s really powerful.

BWH: Yeah, so I hope that’s what happens.

JM: Yeah. [pause] During the filming process, you mentioned you received all the scripts ahead of time, so they didn’t piece them out to you?

BWH: No. We got the first four…I think we got all of them except number eight like way before.

JM: Oh ok…

BWH: And then they (the scripts) would change a little bit, ya know, but you still got that much.

JM: I know sometimes when you’re on a movie set or TV (show) set, they kind of piece meal the scripts to you because it’s top secret or however they want to do it, so I didn’t know if they wanted to try to …

BWH: When I was on Lost, they wouldn’t even tell me like who my character was, (laughing), like I didn’t know what I was doing. So, I know it has your name written all over the script but no, they sent them all out [for THE STAND] because, like I said, like from top to bottom, they were very creative, artistic, and created a great environment.

JM: That’s really great! I’ve heard so many stories about being on set where people have been divas, and this-that and the other, so it’s very nice to hear that there’s been a collaborative, genuine camaraderie on the set especially when you’re working on a series like this. It’s a nine- or ten-episode series, correct?

BWH: Yeah, but because it was such a big undertaking, I mean, I think they [crew] started in September (2019) and go all the way to March (2020); that’s a long time for nine episodes. And some people tried to go back and forth [travel] but I had no reason to be in LA so I would just stay there [Vancouver].

JM: Yeah. So, during this pandemic, we’ll switch off a little bit, how have you been keeping yourself busy with obviously the production delays, you know film sets, a lot of closures; how have you been keeping yourself busy?

BWH: [Pause] Adding cats and dogs to my family. (laughter) Riding my bike, learning juijitsu.

JM: Hey, that’s awesome.

BWH: Yeah, I this one guy I know, and he’s a blackbelt in juijitsu, he and his wife are very serious about the quarantining stuff, and I’m good about it too, ya know; so, he just comes to me.

JM: That’s amazing.

BWH: Yeah, so that’s what I’ve been doing. And at first, it [quarantine] was relaxing, then it was like, “what is there to learn from this,” (laughing) ya know what I mean. And now it’s like, “let’s get back work.”

JM: (laughing) Yes, I know what you mean. Have you gotten any offers [for roles] during the pandemic?

BWH: I have some things, like one thing was going to start now but it’s not going to start until March (2021), and there’s another thing that won’t start until May (2021) now. So, it [job offers] started to heat up maybe in October a little bit but then when we started getting all those [COVID] cases, then it just froze up again.

JM: Yes, I know. It’s spiking here, because I’m in LA as well; it’s just so crazy.

BWH: Even before I went to Vancouver, I’m not a recluse, but I don’t need to go a lot of places, do you know what I mean? So, this [quarantine] hasn’t affected me that much; it’s not like I’m going to dinner all the time, but I would love to go to a trainer, a grocery store, go to a normal dinner. You know, it’d also be nice to go to a movie, right?

JM: YES! I miss the movies so much.

Editor’s note: We veered off a bit and talked a bit more about the pandemic, cases rising in Los Angeles, and missing the movies. We also talked about the fact some people were renting theaters out for a couple hundred dollars. I’m still not sure if I want to do something like that, but I sure do miss going to a movie theater – getting big bucket of buttery popcorn, a large diet coke (yes, diet), and lounging back in front of that giant screen to watch a flick. Sigh.

As the conversation headed back to THE STAND… If you don’t know what the show is about, please read the synopsis/watch the trailer here. It has similarities to what’s happening in our world today with a global pandemic and the in-fighting causing a divide among our own citizens.

JM: Now, The Stand will be airing in December on CBS All Access. Is there anything that you would like to say about the show to the audience? Why they should watch?

BWH: They should watch the show because “if there for not the grace of God, go us.” Look how our country has separated into two factions and all these things. When catastrophes happen, people could either band together or attack each other, and we’ve chosen to attack each other and hopefully we can learn to stop.

JM: I really do think that many of the series’ that have been coming out are so, in the most odd way, timely, like for instance, The Stand is about a pandemic that destroyed most of the population on earth and here we are in the middle of a global pandemic and the series is about to come out.

BWH: I know. What’s crazy is that it [The Stand, the book] was written like 40 years ago. [Fact: The Stand was published in 1978]

JM: Yes. Stephen King wrote this so long ago, and now it’s just so funny how, in an odd way, this series is coming out at the end of our first year of this pandemic.

BWH: And he’s so smart because he actually predicted a lot of the reactions, so I think when people go to watch it, they’re going to be like ‘Oh shit.’

JM: Brad, thank you so much for taking time to speak with me. As I said, I’ve been a huge fan since October Road …

BWH: Thanks, that’s loyalty right there.

JM: Yes, and I’m very excited to see The Stand and your character. Again, thank you so much for your time, I greatly appreciate it.

BWH: I just want to tell you; the show starts on December 17th (2020) but I don’t appear until the third episode.

JM: Oh ok, good to know. Again, thank you so much.

BWH: Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye.

—END—

Our 26+ minute conversation came to an end and I am so excited to see Brad William Henke in THE STAND. I’m excited to see the series all around, but with the cryptic clues about Henke’s character Tom Cullen’s journey, I’m even more intrigued. And what’s better than watching a series about a pandemic situation while living in a global pandemic? How often does that happen? Let’s hope not often!

Tune in to THE STAND, December 17, 2020 on CBS All Access.