Incredibly, the super-talented Murray Bartlett is still on a roll. The Aussie native spent years working in television and film on both sides of the Pacific but outside of a prominent role in HBO’s “Looking,” Bartlett was a bit under the radar even in Hollywood. That all changed when Mike White cast him in the first season of “The White Lotus.” Today, not only does Bartlett have an Emmy Award on his mantle somewhere, but he’s in the running for more awards hardware with acclaimed performances in “The Last of Us” and “Welcome to Chippendales” over the past 12 months alone.
READ MORE: “The Last Of Us”: Craig Mazin talks about his Hollywood origins, adapting video games for TV and subverting expectations [Bingeworthy Podcast]
In “Chippendales,” Bartlett portrays Nick De Noia, the creative maestro of the original incarnation of the male stripper revue. The Hulu limited series chronicles the real-life tragedy that found De Noia and the founder of Chippendales, Steve Banerjee, literally at each other’s throats.
During an interview last month, Bartlett told The Playlist he was “blown away” by De Noia’s story, but also how “these two guys who were just incredibly ambitious, and in many ways got what they wanted. Steve became very rich. Nick became famous for what he did with Chippendales and it was very successful in many ways, but was never satisfied. I just feel like that’s sort of a story for our times, that we’re these insatiable creatures, that it’s never enough.”
Bartlett was also the centerpiece of one of the more unexpected episodes of television this year. An almost stand-alone episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us.” Set in a dystopian timeline where a virus has brought civilization to its knees, Bartlett plays Frank, a man on the run from the infection who encounters an apocalypse prepared Bill, played by Nick Offerman, who emerges from his bunker to save him. Over the course of twenty years, they pair experience an unexpected romantic relationpship as they weather the threat of the infected zombies scouring the globe.
The audition featured three scenes from the episode and was impressive enough for Bartlett to react with an “Oh my God” regarding the chance to play Frank.
“The progression and the depth of the emotional nature, particularly in the last scene that I had, was just gob-smacking,” Bartlett says. “It really just all came from Craig’s writing. It was so clear on the page what this relationship was. I mean, Nick and I, fortunately, are in long-term, very loving relationships, and are fortunate to have had that experience and have a relationship that feels in some ways like the depth of the relationship that Bill and Frank have. So, I’m sure that that plays into it, and that it has all this resonance in us of like, ‘Oh my God, what if inthis good fortune to be in this incredible loving relationship, that he and I both have with our partners, what if we were in this situation?’”
Over the course of our interview, Bartlett reflects more on both roles and teases his next project, Geremy Jasper‘s movie musical “Odessa,” which is currently in production in Europe.
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The Playlist: Let’s talk about “Welcome to Chippendales.” When this role came your way, did you know anything about this story at all? Was it all new to you?
Murray Bartlett: Yeah, it was all new. I mean, I knew about the Chippendales. Growing up in Australia they were this sort of phenomenon from afar, and then they came to our shores until we birthed the Thunder From Down Under.
I was going to say, yeah, can’t forget that Thunder.
But yeah, I had no idea about this fascinating story that was going on behind the scenes, no idea whatsoever. And so I was incredibly intrigued. And I didn’t know anything about Nick De Noia, the character that I play. And he’s such a fascinating, or was, such a fascinating man. Such a, I think, a creative genius. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to watch his children’s show, “Unicorn Tales,” which you can watch on YouTube, but it’s amazing. He’s this guy who has an incredibly grand, creative vision and he created this children’s TV show, which won two Emmys, with two bucks and was doing big dance numbers on the streets of New York City. So, I was blown away by him and also this incredible story about mostly Steve Banerjee, but these two guys who were just incredibly ambitious, and in many ways got what they wanted. Steve became very rich. Nick became famous for what he did with Chippendales and it was very successful in many ways, but was never satisfied. I just feel like that’s sort of a story for our times, that we’re these insatiable creatures, that it’s never enough.
I know the series was based off a book, but did you find a lot of information on Nick or was it harder than you thought? Or is that not important to you?
There’s a lot that we don’t know personally about these characters so the writers had some dramatic license to imagine who these characters were in the many spaces, really. What was great for me is there’s video footage of Nick de Noia, so I had some great reference points and could try and get the essence of him. However, the writers were not writing that guy, they were writing based on the book about this guy. So getting the spirit of that guy so I had the freedom to create a hybrid.
And I did lean on the pictures and the video footage of Nick, which is mostly interviews and stuff. And the people who knew him really didn’t give much away about who he was personally, [just] little snippets, so there was a lot to be imagined. But I found it really helpful to have those reference points, but then it was great to be able to then fill out the character with the writers in a way that served the story that we were telling but was based very strongly on the real story obviously. All the plot points are there, but there were a lot of spaces that we had to fill.
He had a tough relationship with Kumail’s character, Steve Banerjee. Do you feel like it came from a place of anger or did you feel like it came from, he was just a super competitive guy and just liked to be in control?
I think he was an incredibly driven, creative person, who didn’t have time for people who couldn’t keep up with him. When you see interviews with the dancers, some of them really hated Nick and they thought he was a bully, and some of them were like, “He got my best work out of me.” I think he was one of those characters, he was that old-school kind of director, who to some is a dictator, to others is a cult leader of like, “Oh, he inspires me,” and everything. And Steve was not a great communicator. Great businessman, but not very savvy in terms of the entertainment world, and not a very creative person. I think Nick probably felt superior to him in all of those ways. It’s not a great quality but that’s the impression I had of Nick was like, “This person’s like, just can’t keep up with me or is really untalented. I’m just going to be blunt about it, these people are untalented. Get out of my way,” kind of thing. You know what I mean? I think he was a bully. I don’t think it came from necessarily him being a super angry person. I think he was super driven and super impatient and just didn’t have time to wait. He wanted to be a big star yesterday, and he wanted to make this show the best it could be. If you’re not going to rehearse or if you’re not going to come on board, then leave the room sort of thing. And not only did I think that Nick didn’t feel Steve Banerjee was his equal in that way, but Steve also pushed back. And so that didn’t go down well with Nick. They were kind of two bullies really with very different sort of styles and very different strengths and weaknesses, sort of opposites really. The ironic thing is that they were kind of an amazing pair: a creative vision and a great business person. And at some point, they were doing really well, but they were too ambitious. They both wanted to be the top dog, and so they were never satisfied.
One of the other things that I found so fascinating about the series, and clearly, was a context of the time, is Nick balancing a friendship that’s more than friendship with Juliettte Lewis’ character, Denise, and his romantic relationship with Andrew Rannell’s character, Bradford. Was there any truth in that?
Nick had a great friend, confidant. He had a Denise in his life, in his real life. An amazing woman who ended up working with the Chippendales. Took them out on tour, was his right-hand person. So it was inspired by that relationship. They were basically married. They were an incredible power couple. They were like each other’s equals. They loved the same things. And I mean, in our story, and I’m not sure about the real story, you can only imagine, it seems like the real woman deeply loved Nick. In our story, we’re imagining she was in love with him. And it’s not hard to imagine that that may have been the case in the real story, but we don’t know. But I think that that’s not an unusual relationship. In a professional relationship, where one person is in love with the other, It’s sort of, from their perspective, “Why wouldn’t we just be the whole thing?” But if there’s a difference in sexuality or one’s just not attracted to the other or whatever, you have this super dynamic relationship because it’s very intimate. They share everything with each other.
And I think also for Nick, well, initially said he was bisexual, probably was gay, but bisexual or gay, it wasn’t easy to be out at that time and be successful. And so there’s also a lot of things about that relationship with Denise in our story anyway where we’re like, “Yeah, we are a power couple and people see it …” It’s like this is the perfect sort of public persona.
You’ve had a busy year. You were also incredible in a seminal episode of “The Last of Us” that touched so many people, “Long, Long Time.” Did you think it would have the impact that it did, that people would react to it so strongly?
I mean, you hope for that. You never know. It’s one of the most beautiful TV scripts I’ve ever written read and we all cried when we read it. And it was a very emotional thing to make. I mean, it was a beautiful love story on the page, and in the context of the chaotic, crazy world of this show, it’s even more beautiful because this love arises in these very unlikely circumstances. We knew that it was incredibly beautiful and it had the potential to have a real emotional impact. That’s what we hoped for. And then when we shot it was an amazing experience and was very emotional, and everybody in every department of the production felt that and had a lot of love for this episode.
So, it felt very special but yeah, you never know. It wasn’t fully a surprise because we knew how beautiful it could be, but I’ve never felt the impact of an episode on TV in this way. It was quite extraordinary and it’s what you want as an actor, performer, artist of any kind I think. That people who you’re making it for, have some kind of deep response or an emotional response, or. So, it was amazing to feel that really.
Was there any personal inspiration in your portrayal of Frank?
I mean, it was just an amazing script really. One of the things, when I got the audition I had three scenes and they were from different parts of the story. And already, without even reading the whole script, I was like, “Oh my God.” The progression and the depth of the emotional nature, particularly in the last scene that I had, was just gob-smacking. It really just all came from Craig’s writing. It was so clear on the page what this relationship was. I mean, Nick and I, fortunately, are in long-term, very loving relationships, and are fortunate to have had that experience and have a relationship that feels in some ways like the depth of the relationship that Bill and Frank have. So, I’m sure that that plays into it, and that it has all this resonance in us of like, “Oh my God, what if in this good fortune to be in this incredible loving relationship, that he and I both have with our partners, what if we were in this situation?’ And so it was definitely deeply personal, I think.
But the characters themselves, you come from just beautiful writing and the circumstances that they’re in. All the facets of those characters being expressed. In the beginning Frank is hungry, he’s going to starve so it’s this sort of desperation, but also he’s very charming and he knows how to manipulate with his charm. But then coming across this character of Bill, who is obviously really shut down, so having to be a lot more tentative. And the trajectory of these characters together is so beautifully written on the page so it sort of gives you this great map to follow. And there was just great character things on the page in terms of the way that Frank plays that beautiful piece of music and butchers it and then the way that Bill plays it. And so there are so many clues in the script of who these characters are and how to play it.
Speaking of music, you are supposed to star in the new Searchlight Pictures musical, “O’Dessa.” Which I think is supposed to start shooting next month?
Yeah, I think they’re starting this month, but I start next month. Yeah, yeah.
Are you singing in it?
Yeah, we’ve recorded already. I’m not sure if we’re doing it all prerecorded. But they want to have that option at least. So, we’ve been working on the music and we recorded that stuff and then we go and shoot. I imagine some of the music is going to be live, but I’m not really sure what the balance of that is. But I’m incredibly excited. I mean, Geremy Jasper directing, who, his film “Patty Cake$” I just absolutely love, and he’s such a wonderful man and got such a great vision for this film. It’s very different from “Patty Cake$” in a lot of ways, but a lot of great music that he and his musical team have put together. I’m sure I can’t tell you anything about it, but only that it’s an amazing cast and it’s extraordinary. It’s a very singular style and I’m very excited about it.
“Welcome to Chippendales” is available on Hulu. “The Last of Us” is available on Max.