Courtesy of Antoine Verglas
He’s been a character actor for more than three decades and worked with some of the best directors in Hollywood, but until the fall of 2017, you probably didn’t know his name. An ironic twist for the person who first uttered those five iconic words — “His name is Robert Paulson” — in 1999’s Fight Club.
Now, all these years later, Hollywood is finally taking notice. His name...is Holt McCallany. You probably know him best as Bill Tench, the gruff, chain-smoking, booze-loving FBI agent on Netflix’s hit serial killer drama, Mindhunter. The show (McCallany’s third team-up with celebrated filmmaker David Fincher after Alien 3 and Fight Club) marked a major turning point in the actor’s career.
“I was a struggling actor for many, many years and now, because of the success of Mindhunter, I don’t audition anymore. Everything I get is a straight offer,” he tells Forbes Entertainment. “It took me 35 years to get to that point, but that’s ok. There was a very famous boxing patriarch named Cus D'Amato, and he used to say that, ‘The most important thing is not how long it takes a man to get to his destination. The most important thing is that he got there.’”
Executive-produced and partially-directed by Fincher, Mindhunter follows a pair of federal agents, Bill Tench and Holden Ford (Frozen’s Jonathan Groff), as they profile notorious murderers (the Co-ed Killer, Son of Sam, etc.) throughout the late 1970s in an effort to catch future killers. Infused to the core with Fincher’s meticulous attention to detail, performance, and atmosphere, the show’s first two seasons were critically acclaimed and both currently hold near-perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mindhunter
“I feel that what David did for me, by putting me in Mindhunter, changed my life,” McCallany continues. Looking back, he can trace his fascination with acting to a childhood obsession with Bullit star, Steve McQueen. That idolization came with a serious family connection when his mother, actress and Broadway star Julie Wilson, befriended McQueen’s first wife, Neile Adams.
“Neile, when I was a boy, would occasionally come to the house and I remember on one occasion, Steve was with her,” he recalls. “I was a child and its impact on me was profound. I don’t have to try to define it because volumes have been written on this subject. There’s a reason that Steve McQueen remains one of the most iconic movie stars decades later.”
As such, it’s only fitting that McCallany would play a character nicknamed “Bullet” in Guy Ritchie’s latest crime thriller, Wrath of Man, which dominated the North American box office this past weekend.
“He’s got great confidence in himself and in his creative decisions,” he says of Ritchie. “He works in a very kind of fast-paced, energetic way. He’s willing to allow his instincts to guide him through the creative process ... Guy is much more willing to shoot from the hip. And that might mean rewriting a scene right before you shoot it.”
The real question is this: did Ritchie and his co-screenwriters on Wrath of Man, Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, name McCallany’s character after the 1968 McQueen film? “I don’t know!” the actor admits. “But if there was any inkling of that, I would take that as the highest possible compliment.”
The actor’s rising star within the entertainment world has landed him several high-profile gigs in projects like Jonathan Hensleigh’s The Ice Road (the survival thriller with Liam Neeson arrives June 25) and Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded adaptation of Nightmare Alley (out Dec. 3).
“Guillermo del Toro is a very special filmmaker. He really is,” McCallany says. “It wouldn’t be overstating things to say that I really think that Nightmare Alley may turn out to be one of the best films of the year and nominated for Academy Awards in multiple categories.”
Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, the film co-stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, and Richard Jenkins. Gresham’s book, which follows a persuasive con man working at a carnival, was previously adapted into a 1947 film noir starring Tyrone Power.
McCallany, who plays a character named Anderson, describes del Toro’s version as “brilliant” with “absolutely beautiful” cinematography. “I don’t wanna oversell it in this conversation — I have not yet seen a cut of it — but I was there when we shot a bunch of it and I’m super optimistic for that film.”
In the last few weeks, rumors began to circulate that Mindhunter would return for a third season after its future was left up in the air. Sadly, fans have to take those reports with a grain of salt the size of Ed Kemper.
“I don’t know if those rumors have any validity. I really don’t,” McCallany says. “Obviously, it’s all up to David. If David wants to come back and continue to make the show, then we’ll come back and continue to make the show. But look, even though the show was tremendously successful with audiences — that’s all because of his artistry.”
Holt McCallany
The actor reveals that series creator Joe Penhall created a show bible that laid the groundwork for a total of five seasons. “Now, what portion of that bible David had any interest in using or following, I can’t say for sure,” McCallany continues, revealing that Penhall planned for Tench and Ford to leave the FBI for greener pastures.
“[They] come to understand that they can make more money and achieve greater notoriety by writing books about the cases that they’ve worked on and being consultants for films like The Silence of the Lambs. In a sense, they kind of ‘Go Hollywood.’ Which I always thought was a very interesting and unexpected way to go.”
Of course, there’s no telling where a third season would go, should Fincher decide to return. With Bill’s family gone and plenty of murderers (including Dennis Rader’s BTK Killer) still at large, the show wouldn’t be wanting for new material.
“We didn’t get to everybody,” McCallany adds, name-dropping the likes of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. “But I don’t know whether or not David would have chosen to stay with that format of Bill and Holden. One thing I think is pretty clear is that Holden and Bill were headed for conflict ... The attention that their work begins to get — both within the Bureau and outside of it — causes them to bicker about who deserves credit for what and there’s a clash of ego over that.”
It all comes down to Fincher’s interest, but McCallany is ready to come back if het gets the call. “Would I like to come back and do more? You bet,” he says. “But if I don’t get to come back and do more, it’s already been completely transformational for me in terms of my career.”
Holt McCallany & Jonathan Groff in 'Mindhunter'
As of this interview, McCallany is in the middle of shooting 61st Street, a police corruption drama from Your Honor writer, Peter Moffat. “It kind of chronicles a little bit of Black Lives Matter meets corruption of Chicago P.D.,” the actor teases. “It’s a very hard-hitting, very realistic and timely and contemporary look at the questions surrounding all of that. For that reason, I think the project will get a lot of attention. I’m the antagonist in the piece, so I play a dirty cop. I think it’s gonna be one of my best performances. I really do.”
Amid all his newfound success, McCallany still talks with the enthusiasm of that six-year-old boy who was bowled over when Steve McQueen showed up to the house.
“You just never know how it’s all gonna play out. It’s a very tough business, it’s a very competitive business,” the actor concludes. “But what’s clear is that I have now become established and I’m gonna get to do this for many years to come. That wasn’t always clear in the past. So, I have a lot of gratitude for that and a lot of excitement about what the future holds.”
