Interview: Corey Reynolds From ‘The Closer’

I recently had the chance to meet with Corey Reynolds from TNT’s The Closer. We met up at the W in Midtown Atlanta, and I chatted with the star as he sipped on a Starbucks coffee. When you’re chatting with Reynolds, you can tell he genuinely cares about his work. He’s not interested in the short haul, he cares about the long haul. He wants to create a legacy. He doesn’t want to just be an actor; he wants to leave an imprint. So if you didn’t admire him for his great work on The Closer prior to meeting him, after 5 minutes of talking with him – you’ll be impressed.

Let’s start off talking about your character on The Closer. Are there aspects of your character that you still feel challenged by? Or do you feel like you’ve got him pretty figured out?

I feel like I’ve got him pretty figured out. Sometimes the challenges when you’re doing a show like this for… we’ve filmed like 88 episodes now… You can’t always play things from your character’s past, because the way the episodes are set up, you want to be able to watch one and not have seen the week before. Sometimes, with the cases in the past, there are things that Gabriel has seen and experienced that would probably influence his decision making on future cases, but we’re not allowed to reference that. So that’s a challenge sometimes to play against something that you think your character would have a better understanding of.

Who would you love to see guest star?

There are all sorts of people that I would love to see on the show. I’d like to see them do some cross-episodes with some characters from some other original dramas. Might be interesting to do something with Rizzoli & Isles or do something with Memphis Beat or have some sort of cross-collaboration with another show if there can be a believable and viable way to make it happen. Maybe we could pursue our suspect to Boston and then meet up with Rizzoli and Isles. I think that’d be kinda of good for the network too.

What has been your favorite episode?

Corey Reynolds: You know I really liked the season finale ‘Executive Decision’ with the bomber that we had to take down. I thought it was really well directed and well shot. In fact we did some camera work in that episode that we had never done before. It was directed by Mike Robin one of our executive producers. In my opinion, that was one of the strongest episodes of the season.

I know you have said before that you liked The Closer because it was a show that you would watch. When you watch other shows similar in genre to The Closer, do you find yourself sitting there thinking ‘my character wouldn’t do that’…

[Laughs] Yeah I think actors, very similar to athletes… You know you watch game tape, and you think ‘oh wow. That play should have ran this way.’ So yeah, I think actors do that. You look at different shows and think, ‘we would probably have done it like this’ and ‘my character probably would have done this.’ It’s all about the storytelling though. The interesting thing about a lot of other characters on other procedurals is that you don’t have such a personal insight into their life. You don’t go home with the police offers on Law and Order. You don’t go home with the folks on CSI. So I think it creates a higher level of investment for our viewers to be able to go home with these characters. I think that’s where we have the edge.

Do you see yourself ever going back to do more Broadway?

Yeah, I think if the right project came along. My schedule is a little bit more challenging now, because we shoot the show six months out of the year. When it comes to Broadway shows, you need to be able to give at least a one year commitment, which I’m not able to do at this moment. But if the right role comes along, I’d love to do a role that would actually win me that Tony instead of just a nomination.

Do you have a dream Broadway role?

I’d love to be in The Wiz. I’d love to do the Tin Man or the Lion. I’d also love to do the music of either Marvin Gay or Donnie Hathaway on Broadway. I’d love to find some way to tie a show together. I had a sit down with the executive producers of Hairspray, and I was telling them about my idea for some sort of show. And she was like ‘Oh we have to sit down and talk,’ but we haven’t yet.

What do you do in your downtime?

I write screenplays. That’s what I do in my downtime. I write shows. I pitch shows. I have a script that I’m shopping right now that’s actually generating some heat. It’s called The Triple Nickels which is about the first African American division of the United States paratroopers. They are the only military unit in US history to fight a foreign attack on US mainland. Ever. And it’s a story that no one knows. So I’m trying to bring that to the forefront and give those guys some credit for what they did in World War 2. There are a couple of them left alive, and I’d love to see them get a pat on their backs for their contribution.

Interview/Article By: Emma Loggins