Recently, we had the chance to talk with Brad William Henke, who discussed leaving sports behind for acting and landing the role of Tom Cullen on the CBS mini-series The Stand.
Horror Geek Life: Your football career was unfortunately cut short due to injuries. How did you make that transition from playing football into acting?
Brad William Henke: Well first I tried to be a football coach and honestly, it was a tough couple of years. I didn’t know what to do with my life. Luckily, I needed money (laughs) so I jumped at being an extra football player in a commercial; they needed football extras in the back of the commercial. After that, someone invited me to an acting class, saw what they were doing there, started going to class, and I just loved it.
HGL: Did you find acting difficult or is it something you are still learning how to do?
BWH: Well, I’ve been doing it for 25 years so I hope I know what I’m doing by now. (Laughs) Football helped me learn how to be disciplined, how to take criticism, to always try your best, so you can definitely use some of the same things and that was a big help for me when I started acting.
HGL: You worked a lot in both television and film. Do you have a preferred medium between the two or do they both have their own individual charms?
BWH: Honestly, for me, they both have their own individual charms. At this point in my career, I can get better roles, more complicated roles, and make more money in TV.
HGL: Speaking of TV, throughout your career you’ve been able to play characters that were more than a simple guest spot, being in multiple episodes, like Orange is the New Black, for instance. As an actor, how much fun is it to be able to expand a character over a period of time?
BWH: Playing the same character for more than one episode? It’s so awesome, it really is. Yeah, Orange is the New Black was great, I love my character, loved every scene I shot, loved doing that show. Any time you get to do something like that, you learn a little more patience because let’s say I only had one episode, I might try to do too much, whereas if you have a whole season you can just let it happen through the writing, you know? You’re going to see the highs and lows, the ins and outs, but you can see it sometimes when you’re on a show and someone comes in and tries to put too much into one scene. You really have to just do the scene, and that may sound simple but that’s really it, just be the person you are supposed to play.
HGL: Can you tell me about how you landed the role as Tom Cullen in The Stand?
BWH: I wish I had some big story. (laughs) I just got a call from Ben Cavell offering me the job. I worked for Ben on Justified and I was happy to get the call. He offered me the job and sent me the first five scripts. I read them immediately, finished them in a day, and told him I’ll take the job.
HGL: Was it intimidating at all, taking on a character from such a popular book and author, or did you simply look at it as a challenge?
BWH: I really just looked at it as a challenge. I looked at it as you could either be really terrible as that character or really good. I looked at it as simply a chance for me to rise up to the material.
HGL: The Stand was obviously a huge production. What was it like working with both a large ensemble cast and also having some great one-on-one moments as well?
BWH: Yeah, most of my scenes were with Henry Zaga (who played Nick Andros) which was awesome. He was great, but a lot of my scenes were kind of alone. I did one scene with Whoopi Goldberg (Mother Abagail) but I was with the cast the whole time. They were really nice, really fun to be around.
HGL: Was it a hard shoot, filming The Stand?
BWH: It was super hard, actually. I mean, it wasn’t that bad for me because I wasn’t in it every day. You’re out in the snow a lot, you’re out in the rain,. The shooting schedule was also crazy because there were so many nights so it made it hard, but it was still fun.
HGL: The character of Tom Cullen sees the world in an interesting way and he expresses himself in a unique way. As an actor, how did you approach playing that character?
BWH: I know from my own past when you get a head injury like he got back in college, you’re never quite the same. He said, in my head, in here, it’s still me, and he was very frustrated with that. I taught myself my voice by listening to this Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many Colors” because a lot of time when you have a head injury, you learn to talk again by singing. I used this song because I wanted to talk in a higher register, and they ended up giving me a Dolly Parton shirt, so that was kind of cool. (Laughs)
HGL: What projects do you have coming up next?
BWH: Honestly, I haven’t done anything since The Stand. The show ended in March and then they said we had like two days to get out of Canada or we were going to have to stay there. As it happens, I just had a movie offered and maybe a TV show,so it looks like I’m going to start working again, but I haven’t worked since then. It’s really crazy, that is the longest time I have ever gone not working.
HGL: How have you kept yourself busy during that stretch of not working?
BWH: Well, I bought two kittens, bought a puppy, rode my bike a lot, but that’s about it. They have kept me busy, though, that’s for sure. (Laughs)
I want to thank Brad for taking the time to talk with us.
Check out all of our coverage for ‘The Stand’ here!
