SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E7televisionBY STUART MILLERC
hristopher Walken is re-
nowned for his unique
take on characters who
are charismatic but also
menacing, haunted yet
off-kilter, or sometimes, all of the
above.
Which is why watching “The
Deer Hunter” actor as an indus-
trious and dedicated worker
named Burt who shyly reveals a
sweet side as he falls for his
co-worker Irving (John Turturro)
in the new show “Severance”
feels like a new side to Walken.
The Apple TV Plus series stars
Adam Scott as Mark, a man who
voluntarily splits his conscious-
ness between his work and home
life. Patricia Arquette also stars,
while Ben Stiller serves as execu-
tive producer and directed six of
the nine episodes.
But the show is also notable
for Walken because, despite more
than 120 film credits, the Oscar-
winning actor has rarely ven-
tured into the television scene
outside of a few TV movies and
“Saturday Night Live” (more
cowbell, anyone?).
It will be his second time being
a regular on the small screen, as
he was the biggest name in
Stephen Merchant’s British
dramedy, “The Outlaws,” which
premiered across the pond in
October and will premiere on
Amazon Prime stateside at a
future date.
There, Walken plays a more
familiar type: a smooth talking
ex-con, oozing charm to cover his
lies and manipulate friends and
family until circumstances force
him to mend his ways — at least a
little.
Walken, 78, recently spoke by
phone with The Washington Post
about both roles, the importance
of dancing both in life and on-
screen, and what it’s like to
constantly be impersonated.
(This interview has been edit-
ed and condensed for clarity.)Q: What drew you to finally sign
on for a TV series?
A: There’s so much of what they
now call “content,” so it’s much
more present as an opportunity
for me. I was friends with Ben
Stiller’s mother and father
[Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller]
and worked with Ben in a play
and the movie “Envy.”
In show business, very often
your career has to do with
playing a certain type of part.
“Severance” was something
different and that was appealing
— to do something people don’t
usually ask you to do.
And a big part of “Severance”
was going to work with John
[Turturro] every day. We’re old
friends — I’ve been in three or
four of the movies he wrote and
directed — and I find when you
work with someone you’re close
to, it shows. You don’t have to
talk about anything. I guess it’s
what they call chemistry.Q: On “The Outlaws,” you play a
scheming rogue — much more
of a Christopher Walken-type,
especially since you also dance
in two scenes. Did being a
dancer inform you as an actor?
A: Absolutely it does. With
dancers, rehearsal is called
repetition — you just do it over
and over until the moves
become a part of your muscle
memory. The whole discipline
and the physical aspect is not
unlike being an athlete: It hurts
and you have to do it and you
get sore.
I’ve always approached being
an actor the same way. I find my
rhythm in what the character is
saying and just do it till it
sounds convincing. It’s not a
conventional way of doing it.Q: Does dancing now make you
feel your age or does it evoke
some of that freedom of youth?
A: I don’t go out dancing. I only
dance if it’s part of a role.
Sometimes I think maybe I’ve
done it one too many times on-
screen and maybe I should cool
it for a while. But when it’s in a
scene, I think to myself that at
my age it’s pretty nice that I can
still do it at all.
And even though I don’t
dance much anymore, you carry
being a dancer with you for your
whole life. I exercise every day.
Not a big deal. But I do it every
day for about an hour. I’m sureit’s because I was a dancer. If I
don’t do it for some reason, I
feel lousy. That’s part of being a
dancer, you get into that groove
and your body tells you what to
do. There’s a physical mind at
work.Q: What else have you been
doing during the pandemic?
A: I always have little projects: I
like to read all sorts of stuff and
I’ve tried a little bit of writing. I
have yellow pads full of notes.
I like to cook. When you get to
be my age you just try and stay
healthy, and take care of myself.
I live in a nice, quiet place. It’s
just me and my wife and our cat.
I don’t like to travel. I don’t
like to get on airplanes. I don’t
play golf or tennis. I don’t even
like to drive. Mostly I just stay
home.
I’ve gotten all the travel I
need from my roles. A lot of my
favorite memories about the
movies have to do with where
we went. Making “The Deer
Hunter” in Bangkok and
Thailand was absolutely
fascinating. But it doesn’t have
to be that far away. I made
“Homeboy” with Mickey Rourke
in Asbury Park in New Jersey,
where Bruce Springsteen is
from, and that’s just down the
road from Connecticut. It was
winter and there was nobody
there, and it was just the ocean
and clean, cold winds, and thatwas beautiful.
Going to Bristol for “The
Outlaws” was a fun change of
pace during the pandemic.
When I was young, I worked at
university repertory theaters at
places like Yale and Harvard
quite a lot, and I always enjoyed
the campus atmosphere. Bristol
is a university town and they
have theater there so I really
enjoyed that.Q: Your distinctive speaking
style is irresistible to
impressionists. Where does it
come from?
A: It’s nothing I ever did
intentionally, but I obviously
have a way of speaking that’s
easy to imitate. I thought a lot
about it and the only answer I’ve
come up with is that I grew up
in Queens, where at the time the
whole neighborhood was full of
people who had come from
somewhere else and English was
not their first language.
In my father’s bakery,
everybody spoke German, and
usually a few other languages.
The guy next door, the butcher,
he was Polish. And the grocery
guy was Italian. In the street
and at friends’ houses, you
heard other languages spoken
all the time.
When people spoke in English
there was kind of a searching for
words. I grew up hearing people
who spoke broken English withthose rhythms and it affected
the way I speak English.Q: That style is very evident in
“The Outlaws” but mostly muted
in “Severance.” There’s one
moment, though, the brief final
line of Episode 5, where you dial
it up. Was that conscious?
A: No. With that scene there
were probably six different ways
I said that in different takes.
If I wasn’t a performer, I
think I might like to be an
editor. You take all the stuff and
rearrange and put it together
and the choices can make an
enormous difference. Whenever
I see something I’ve done, even
if I think I knew what was going
on, I’m always surprised because
of the way they’ve put it
together.Q: You’ve embraced your
persona, even doing an SNL skit,
“Meet the Family,” where
everyone — Bill Hader, Amy
Poehler, Andy Samberg — played
a Walken and did their
impression. Were you wary of
people becoming distracted by
this in your movies?
A: There are certain things in
life you can’t do anything about.
If that’s what it is for me, well,
actors realize pretty quickly that
they’re lucky to be working.
Most actors are not working. So,
if I was welcome in the business,
then that’s all that mattered.Q&AWalken on‘Severance,’dance andhis distinctspeaking styleSTEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESAPPLE TV PLUSA BOVE: Christopher
Walken in 2019. In the
Apple TV Plus series
“Severance,” his
character, Burt, is shy
and sweet — a departure
from Walken’s earlier
roles — as he falls for a
co-worker, Irving,
played by John Turturro.BELOW: Turturro, left,
and Walken in a scene
from “Severance.” The
series also features
Patricia Arquette and
was executive produced
by Ben Stiller, who also
directed six of the
episodes.