Andre Braugher took some time Thursday afternoon to talk with Hypable about Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 2, what drew him to the role of Captain Holt, and who he is looking forward to having on the show this season.
We know Captain Holt, leader of the precinct on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, can be stoic and at-times unemotional, but that characterization can’t be further from the actor who plays him, Andre Braugher. While the man himself is admittedly “a serious guy,” he is having a lot of fun working on the ‘goofball’ comedy and looks forward to his future on the show.
We were able to talk with him about the upcoming season and what it’s like working with so many comedians.
What are you most excited about in this upcoming season of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’? Any particular story line?
Story lines, I don’t have a lot of information about because they pretty much keep that under wraps in order to give themselves the freedom to develop the story lines as they see fit, but I am excited about Kyra Sedgwick guest starring on the show. We had a really great time. She plays Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch, an archrival and a nemesis of Captain Holt. We did three or four episodes earlier this season and had a really great time.
What is the bone of contention between Holt and Kyra Sedgwick’s character [Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch]?
Well, it’s a longstanding feud. It seems like they’re alter egos for each other. They’re both a little committed to excellence to a high degree. They’re both sort of intuitive detective types. They’re both a little strange in their own way, a little robotic and quirky in that way. There was an event way back in the past, back in 1989, you may not have been born back then, back in 1989, and that’s the genesis for their dispute, the bone of contention between the two of them.
What is your favorite part of filming the show?
Well, I enjoyed the episodes a lot outside the precinct where we go on our adventures and such. I’ve enjoyed our Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes. I’ve enjoyed “The Party” in particular. “The Party” was really an opportunity to see everyone in a really drastically different atmosphere than the bullpen, and I just found it to be a lot of fun. It was a great script and a lot of fun to film. In retrospect, “The Party,” maybe it was episode 16, I can’t remember, but toward the end of the season, I thought that was my favorite episode.
What is it like to play Holt, the stoic man, opposite Jake, Andy Samberg, who just cracks everyone else up in the precinct?
I think it’s difficult to say the least. He’s a very funny guy and a lot of great off-the-cuff humor. I’ve sort of committed myself to perfecting the art of the straight man, so I’m trying very hard to not crack up.
We’ve done eight episodes this year. I’ve cracked up twice. I’m off my pace from last year, which was three crack-ups in 22 episodes. Obviously, Andy’s getting funnier and I’m relaxing a little bit on the show, but I’ve decided to commit myself to really perfecting the art of the straight man. I’m getting better at it and I have a great cast of comedians. Between Chelsea and Andy and Joe and Terry, it’s really a funny cast and we have a great time doing it.
When we get a chance to improv, we go at it wholeheartedly. I pretty much stick to the script because that’s my job, but they really take off, and I consider them all to be my kites and I am their string, and so I just give them a great opportunity to fly, and I guess I hold them to the earth to help tell the story, but we’re having a really great time this season.
As you guys enter now season 2 with a successful season behind you, has the atmosphere or approach changed at all on the set?
We, as a cast, as we get to know each other better, we’re working faster and more efficiently, which actually gives us more time, really, to play around. In any given scene, we’re going to do five or six takes of the material that’s scripted and really cover that thoroughly, and then we have enough time to do what we call “fun runs,” and fun runs is where everyone pulls the craziest stuff they know out of a bag and throws it into the scene. Fun runs are unpredictable, but they really breathe a lot of life into the process of creating the comedy and it keeps it loose.
I’m having a great time. I’m studying these guys like a hawk. There are a lot of great young comedians on the show, and it’s giving me a real thorough education on another aspect of my art form and I’m having a great time. I’m learning a lot and I feel reinvigorated by being on the show.
You play a serious guy on the show. Do you draw on the drama work you’ve done before? Does it influence your comedic work on the show?
I’m a serious guy. I guess I make my serious faces, my serious stares and such. Acting is the same in a certain way on comedies as well on dramas. It just has a different sort of lift, kind of a different spiritual dimension. The same sort of hard work and dedication and concentration goes into acting in comedies, for me, in comedy, as well as drama. I find myself working in a similar way, but the effect is just much lighter. It’s a real crazy comedy. It’s a goofball comedy. The effect is much, much lighter, but I find myself drawing on the same techniques that I would use if I were doing a drama.
With Peralta presumably joining the Nine-Nine again, is there anything that you can tease about how that dynamic might shift between Holt and Peralta as he rejoins the precinct?
I think it shifts slightly. I will say that Holt is a man who embraces change. As stoic as he seems, as conservative as he seems, he is a man who is interested in embracing change. With a new police commissioner and the return of my ace detective, Peralta, I feel as though the entire precinct is poised to get better, to leave the world of the sleepy, underperforming Brooklyn precinct and really become something special.
That’s what I see in the scripts to date and that’s what has been pitched to me in terms of what’s going to happen with Holt and the precinct in the future. I don’t have any information about any episodes past the eight that we have done, but I will say that Holt is embracing the change that’s overcoming the entire department.
Do you feel [Captain Holt] is groundbreaking in any way?
Groundbreaking? Groundbreaking is different things for different people. I don’t think he’s groundbreaking. I just think he happens to be a fully fleshed out character. But because fully fleshed out characters aren’t as common as we’d like them to be on television, he seems groundbreaking, but in fact, I think he’s simply a fully dimensional character.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 2 premieres Sunday, September 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.