From Here, With a View - Zahn McClarnon / Video

foreign [Music] my name is hinu Josephine Taran and I'm your host for today's episode of from here with a view of we are the seeds Philadelphia podcast today our guest we have is zon mclarnin welcome we're really really happy to have zon with us today as I'm sure a lot of you who are viewing this today know zon is an award-winning film and television actor who's appeared in over 90 films and Television Productions he's known for his role as hanzi dent in the second installment of Fargo his reoccurring role of akichetta on HBO's award-winning series Westworld and for his portrayal of Officer Mathis on the television series Longmire Zahn is also a series regular on the National Geographic sparkskins starring opposite Marcia Gay Harden and David thulis and on the AMC show the sun McLaren co-starred in the crime Thriller the silencing and in the Stephen King film Dr sleep which is one of my personal favorites and on the award-winning FX series reservation dogs currently McLaren is starring in and is an executive producer for the AMC series dark wins but it was released on June 12th so thank you very much for being with us here today Zahn we're very excited to have you um he's been doing a lot of big interviews he just did one with the Hollywood Reporter which is pretty big for us and right now he has dark wins out which I think is a really big deal for a lot of us and a lot of people have been tuning in so how are you feeling today Zahn good it's good good to be here um I appreciate you guys asking to come on yes yes we're just reminiscing about one time when I met Zan in this little town in Ontario called Sudbury and that was the first and only time I'd ever met Zan and so here we are again so it's a small world out here zon is one of me and my husband's favorite reoccurring characters on reservation dogs and in dark winds we're like super excited whenever we see him in something so let's get right into it so I think let's start with what was kind of your introduction or your inspiration into the industry you know I uh I grew up in uh Montana Wyoming and Nebraska and uh I was in my early 20s and I had done some drama in high school but I kind of did it because it was an extra credit kind of thing and uh there were you know uh it was just it seemed like an easy class to take and I didn't I wasn't really interested in high school I was a little bit too shy I think to uh to try to audition for any of the plays or uh you know it was like theater kids you know back in high school and I was thought I was a little bit too cool for that even though I was really shy and um I still was hanging out with a kind of a different crowd and I was just too cool so I had um in my early 20s I was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I uh saw a audition for a play called Jesus Christ Superstar and that was in across the river from where I lived in Iowa and uh you know I loved to play and I grew up around with the play and um you know I knew all the lyrics to the play and my dad turned me on to it when I was a kid and you know I went and auditioned and I had to sing in front of a bunch of people which I can't sing at all but I was lucky enough to get a part as one of the Apostles in Jesus Christ Superstar and I think they only picked me because I had long hair and I had brown skin I'm serious I think that's the only reason that they really chose me they wanted a dad color to their local community theater uh and then you know in the 70s when Jesus Christ Superstar came out most everybody had long hair and Etc and there was a lot of ethnic groups in the movie and because I can't sing and I couldn't act uh but I auditioned anyway and I took a risk and they hired me to play an apostle and you know I kind of fell in love with the whole process of being up on stage and in the rehearsals and even though I didn't have a a lead role in it and I didn't have any solos or anything like that lucky I didn't have any Souls thing again but uh you know I was in the choir and I had to dance and and I had fun you know it got me out out of my myself a little bit and kind of eased the shyness that I had and I like the people in the play and I had a lot of fun and it just became interesting after that and what I did was uh in in Nebraska they had a little uh place called talent pool and it was a local like agency kind of and I went and met with them and I started auditioning for local non-union commercials in Nebraska and I think because of my ethnicity um you know I I I'm kind of an ambiguous looking character uh you don't know what I am native Filipino Hawaiian uh whatever Mexican whatever it may be uh I started getting jobs doing local commercials and it paid me pretty good money but I was great money to me back in the my early 20s and I was like oh this is fun um and I started researching a little bit um about what was going on in Los Angeles as far as uh the community native community and and actors and you know I thought I found a thing called the American Indian registry of Performing Arts and I did a bunch of pictures and this was an early 90s and I sent them up to them and they took a look at them and they said yeah if you come out here we'll try to set you up with auditions and stuff like that and I packed my bags and you know got on a plane and moved to Los Angeles and that was at the beginning of my career that's awesome all starting with Jesus Christ Superstar right from there that's pretty cool I feel like a lot of people start with musicals it's like the hardest thing to do and then it's like boom you're in it right it could be harder after this um yeah that's really cool to hear and so since then you really kind of become a fixture and regular within I guess the native television and film community so um well I guess this is a little bit of like getting into what your methods are and how you do stuff and for all of us curious performers and actors out there how would you say um well what is your process for breaking down a role when you get a script at first I always love to hear people's processes and you know like if you're handing a script this is your role what does that breakdown look like for you so as far as my process goes um I don't have much of a process to be honest with you I memorized my lines a lot of uh how I work is instinctual um uh memorize the lines I put the work in get off book uh show up and try to tell the truth try to be honest as possible with that dialogue I do some backstory stuff if it's a big part if it's a full script breakdown of character um the intentions the uh uh you know what I'm doing in the scene my objective the relationships with the the other characters but most of it is really instinctual you know it's usually on the page if it's good writing it's right there in front of you all you have to do is show up and try to uh to tell the truth I guess that's the only way I could put it so um you know if it's um I'll use I mean every character that I do is me so I'm bringing my own life experiences my own pain my own tragedies uh happiness uh I've done since memory work before as well I mean it just depends on the character in in the scene I mean if it's if I'm playing a I played a drunk [Music] film um and I use the smell of the alcohol I don't drink personally so I just use the smell of the alcohol to get I know what drinking is like believe me I used to drink a lot but I use those uh the scents memory kind of stuff as well I've done that just all depends on what the character is and and what what scenes are and the story is but you hope that it's right there on the page for you so you don't have all the heavy lifting is right there in the dialogue and and the writers how he wrote the character yeah I love to hear that because so often that's kind of what you know I mean as far as my background that a lot of the answers to your questions are in there right and you just are searching and searching and sometimes you find that within the memorizing right the repetitiveness of that and I also think I like that you said that it's always you because I think you know I for a long time when I was a younger actor in the beginning I would feel like that this is in me but it's you know it's that's a really hard balance I feel to find when you realize that it's always you so now you know what I mean it's never real how could it be something that you aren't at all right so I really love that you said that and yeah thank you for it sounds it's not a secret process but it's definitely a process sounds like it is something yeah it is something I think everybody has their own process but um a lot of it is just kind of instinctual for me if that makes sense no that makes a lot of sense I really yeah I really appreciate you saying that that's like acting like gold right there so I think you know when we're breaking down these characters and we're breaking down Rules and Breaking Down scripts right it's like that's the process for the character for the project that you're actually working on and then there's a whole another entity within the industry which is casting and how you approach casting and how you approach auditions right which can sometimes be very different right so what does that process look like for you and I guess what would your advice be to it's aspiring actors who are working to really figure it out so say that in quotations like figuring it out within casting and auditions my process again is just memorizing the lines being off book don't walk into an audition unless you're off book for me personally it's it's all I do it um nowadays it's more we don't go on auditions so much anymore it's um self tapes um and I love self taste because I spend a lot of time on them I shoot little mini movies when I do a self tape I'll depends on where the scene is if I'm in a car I'll shoot it in the car some casting directors don't like that and I understand why they don't like it now more than being an AP on a show and watching different tapes watching all the casting tapes that come in you kind of want stationary good lighting you want to see what's going on in the eyes of the character but I've had a lot of success at you know kind of making many movies and and doing them the way I want to do them instead of the standard kind of cliche in front of the camera process but it you know to each his own I don't recommend that to everybody I would start off with just sitting in front of the camera good lighting and saying the dialogue but definitely be enough book you know I think that's really important it gives the opportunity for the casting person The Producers to be able to see what you might bring to that scene without getting pulled out of that scene with you looking at your dialogue you're going back up and a lot some actors do that and I'll be honest with you post me out as a producer pulls me out of the scene and uh I like to see somebody that comes into those auditions prepared and and know what they're going to kind of bring to the set a version of it at least you know it shows their chops and what they could bring to the character as well yeah thank you preparation here first yep be prepared Prep Prep Prep yeah and that's a big part of it right and so going into some of the projects that you've been working on lately um kind of in a time right now where well you are I would consider you one of the leading actors right now in this time and presence that we're in um you're kind of at the helm of native representation and television right now and so I yeah I would say so I would say so so what kind of um what do you believe is kind of grasp the interest of the public in native stories right and then also what kind of native stories and future projects are you hoping to see um out of this um so I I do take that uh that weight on my shoulders pretty seriously I mean it's there I know it's there uh just because for the fact that um I continue to work as a native actor and I'm getting quite a few jobs I take the responsibility seriously as far as the work goes and putting in the work so I hope my hopes are you know we have uh a few shows on American TV right now uh Rutherford Falls reservation dogs are now dark winds and what I hope to see come from these shows being on is obviously uh the representation of Native Americans in media and I think it's a pretty unique time for us um and I hope that these shows just keep opening the door more and more for future generations for not just people in front of the camera but behind the camera producers Riders and crew as well and I hope that these shows as well as this shows up in Canada because you guys have quite a few shows up there that just keep opening the door for us all and giving all of us more opportunity again it's it's quite a unique time and I'm glad that um that I stuck around this business for so long um to see it happening it's very exciting to watch all my friends get development deals and and are writing on different shows and the new actors are are coming up and and directors and producers and I think we need a little bit more as far as getting more Executives into the networks there's a few but not enough and we have we're it's a unique time but I think there is quite a lot more work to be done and I hope that uh that we keep pushing and we all jump on this vehicle together be a family and and kind of support each other and uh continue continue on down this road what I would like to see I guess that kind of answered it was is just seeing more opportunities for more native people so I think we have to obviously tell our own stories that's what it comes down to telling our own stories and you know dark winds will is written by Tony hillerman who was a white author who wrote mystery series of books about two Navajo cops about one at first Jim Chi and then he adapted it to Joe Lee porn and a female cop named Bernadette and what we're doing with dark woods is we're just trying to recontextualize it a little bit differently by hiring all Native writers not all Native writers but in Native writing room last year we had five native writers in one showrunner and so we tried to recontextualize what Tony had done and just kind of put it in our own perspective and I think that's really important that we just tell our own stories and we've got such a deep you know well of stories within our communities and it's interesting that people are I think people have been hungry for it they've just never had a chance to see it you know um you know it starts off with some shows up in Canada and down here that have been um have native characters in it and we've always had a really good response I think the appetite was there we just finally are getting a larger platform to do these things now we're getting good ratings I mean I think the streaming service on Hulu in Indian Country Midwest here in the United States Nebraska South Dakota Oklahoma um you know North Dakota Montana while extremely services for hula the subscriptions went up quite a bit just when reservation dogs come up so there's a market out there and people are watching these things we're getting 1.2 million viewers you know we're getting good numbers and I think that people have been hungry for this for a long time and they want to see different stories they want to see um and we we have such unique stories and and I think people are really opening up to it well I think it long-winded sometimes no it's no problem that's what we want please please I love it no definitely I totally agree with everything that you're saying and I love that yeah we are gonna continue to try to push these boundaries and not just stay and settle into what we have and continue and continue to try to push for more Executives and more producers and it's a really wonderful time right now and it's exciting I think it's going to be an exciting next couple of years right so you're also you're basically or what I would consider I'll say it on the record is that your Indian country's beloved resident Indian cop slash uncle right uh you have reservation dogs as well as dark winds um and so what I was wondering is where was where you think that Uncle energy comes from right when you get cast for these types of things what are those male authoritative figures that you kind of think of that you're portraying so often well my uncles you know um my grandparents lived in Browning Montana which is the black food reservation and um I lived about 20 miles off out of Browning inside the National Park so my grandparents are LA clintus from Standing Rock and they moved up to Browning back in the 50s and pretty much raised her my mom was born in 48 so I missed any Rock res but uh they moved up to blackfeet Country back in the 50s their grandfather got a job on the blackfeet tribe is a mechanic so he transferred up there and I worked for the GSA and uh uh so I was around my uncles growing up and there was one particular Uncle you'll probably never see this because he doesn't yeah I don't think he knows how to operate a computer or uh his name was moose Uncle moose and uh I get a lot of my uncle vibes from my uncle moose it just teased the out of me he called me ass all the time my grandma used to call me out so that's kind of where that term came from what she had asked was uh we're on rest dogs and uh I was improving a scene and I walked away from those kids and called them asses and everybody just laughed and you know ass became a a big term that we use now on on the show but um a lot of my those Uncle Vibes come from moose Uncle moose but he used to uh he used to wash my mouth out with soap because that cuss at him all the time uh I remember one time he he'd come over for lunch time uh because he he started working for the National Park Service and he's a mechanic and you come over for lunch on lunch break and even my you know his older sister my mom and the kids and I wouldn't eat my hot dog one day or something and he washed my mouth that was soaked because I called him started cussing at him or something like that but you know you know how Within communities you know uncles always teasing the kids and I tease the out of my nephew uh and my niece as well and it just kind of how the way I grew up the humor within the community and the humor about around being being around Indian people and I just drew from that and of course the the ceremonies that I grew up in and being around my uh ricasha will come my medicine man and you know being at ceremony and the the teasing that's constantly going on and the humor and the laughing and you know I I just drew from that especially for that character big from from reservation dogs so that's too funny so you actually are the person who coined the term should ask your uncle did and then yeah yeah growing up they called me ass all the time and it just came out uh in an improv scene and we stuck with it so oh I love that everybody that's like everyone's favorite term that's how everyone was saying to each other for like weeks after reservation dogs yeah I I can't uh I went up to uh South Dakota last Christmas took my mom up to Rapid City and uh they had the the Lakota uh Invitational up there the big basketball tournament and they brought me up there and you know I couldn't walk down the street or the hallway without somebody yelling ass at me you know oh my goodness yeah it is it is it's so it's like uh we get it and sometimes I don't everybody loves those parts though right because we uh in our communities we tease we really really teach and people aren't always prepared for that they're like what I thought you were such nice people why aren't you praying and we're just calling each other ass and yelling at each other and that's the wonderful that's a wonderful thing about different shows that we got on uh in in America and in Canada is that you know people are seeing those that humor within our cultures you know um they've never seen it before and and you know I mean Jesus it's 500 years man I mean they've only seen us as you know in a certain trophy stereotypical way through throughout media and and they still think we're like that and we're finally telling our own stories and these writers these wonderful writers are writing these multi-faceted three-dimensional characters and uh and they're finally seeing this ask that you know instead of being on a horse yipping and yelling and you know dying in front of teepees or whatever it may be no exactly right we can get so stuck in that so hey that's pretty cool to hear I did not know that now we know so all right I think to kind of close us out here because I we had a really good conversation and interview with zon here everyone I mean we went from the beginning starting with Jesus Christ Superstar all into how he created the term ass right so it's like it's we've we've gone on a journey here and so thank you so much and so many nuggets of information in there I think for people who are aspiring actors and performers and want to get into the entertainment industry right I feel this is really a good place to listen to that and take that advice and listen to that you know this is someone who's been in the industry right for probably over past 20 years right starting back in the early 90s until now and I think this is something definitely to tune into if that's something you're interested in so I think what we'll kind of do is we'll kind of close this out and ask um our friend zon here if you have any advice or any wisdom you'd like to share with indigenous youth who is interested in following your footsteps I guess the advice I would give are the suggestions that I would give I pretty much touch touched on in the beginning you know if you are serious about being uh an actor if that means theater or or TV or film or whatever it may be is um the focus um putting the work in not expecting anything um and just buckling down and and studying study study study I mean uh you know I when I have the time I still go to class I think the best place to learn is on the set personally but I try to stay in class when I'm not working I've been pretty pretty busy for the last few years and I haven't had much time to to study but um I I am in on on the set and I have acting coaches that I go to etc for auditions and and um on set as well I bring a coach along with me to kind of watch the monitor um you know give me little nudges here and there and go this way that way but it's just study study study and focus on it go to school you know go to college and study theater uh act anywhere you possibly can if it's a student film if it's uh if it's getting together with friends and doing scenes uh the only way you're going to get better and more comfortable in your skin and that's what it takes it's just years of becoming comfortable in your skin I know the maturation in age I think has a lot to do with it as well taking care of yourself loving yourself loving other people being kind to other people I think that all adds to your your skills as an actor being a better human being um and do it for the right reasons I mean if you're trying to get into it because you want to be famous and stuff like that that I get that I mean I think everybody goes through that but at some point you're going to have to put the work in and it's not something you it's a daily for me it's a Daily Grind it was for for many many years and it still is it's just in a different different way I'm grinding um but putting the work in I don't know how else to put it except work your ass off yeah there you go thank you I feel like that's a great closing note you know definitely really appreciate that and thank you so much for tuning in with us here today we really appreciate you making the time for us this has been he knew Josephine Taran and zon mclarnin from here with the view with the we are seeds Philadelphia podcast thank you for tuning in and you can find us on Apple podcasts thank you guys from here with a view or we are the seeds Philadelphia podcast is produced by Michelle St John with music by Zechariah Julian an original logo art by Jason wiesau this podcast is funded in part by Independence Public Media Foundation

Channel: We Are the Seeds

Views: 4,862

Keywords: podbean, #zahnmclarnon, #indigenousactor, #darkwinds, #longmire, #reservationdogs, #rezdogs, #westworld, #fargo, #riversidefm, #wearetheseeds

Id: fw2J5DkFBSA

Length: 29min 7sec (1747 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 15 2022