Veteran actor and voiceover artist extraordinaire Stacy Keach plays "Pops" Leary on Lights Out, a gritty boxing drama that follows a former heavyweight champion (played by Holt McCallany) who's struggling to make sense of life outside the ring. With Lights Out currently in its first season on FX, UGO's own "Pops," Chris Radtke, caught up with Keach to talk about the new series, his theatre days both past and present and the fine art of boxing.
Chris Radtke: So Lights Out. It is phenomenal. It is a really cool show.
Stacy Keach: Well, thank you.
Chris Radtke: Can you give a little history of how this happened? Was the part written for you?
Stacy Keach: No, it wasn't actually. As a matter of fact, they shot a pilot with another actor, and then they scrapped the pilot and regrouped, and came to me and asked me if I'd like to do it. I read the script and I thought it was a terrific idea for a television series. Given my background with Fat City many years ago, it was a good fit.
Chris Radtke: I was going to ask, you're no stranger to boxing. Does that factor into your decision to join the program and them coming to you?
Stacy Keach: Very much so. And I think it was a moment of synchronicity, because just about the time that they were making a decision as to how they were going to go with Pops, there was a screening of Fat City in downtown New York. They had a week of it. It was perfect timing. It was synchronicity.
Chris Radtke: The character of Pops, is there a certain somebody that you've modeled him after? Where did that character come from, besides yourself?
Stacy Keach: Well I think that it started with my experience with Fat City. During that period, I met a lot of people in the fight game. Even though it's changed somewhat, I was introduced to that world to the first time. I had the privilege of working with Jose Torres, who was my trainer back in the early '70s. Since that time, I've maintained an interest in boxing and followed it, but there's no one specific character that I'm using for a model for Pops. He's sort of a combination of different sensibilities. In fact, in going to the set every day and driving to set, a couple of the guys who work as teams for me, because they're sort of that... blue collar guys.
Chris Radtke: From New Jersey?
Stacy Keach: From New Jersey. Exactly right. I didn't want to lean on an action too heavily, but I thought it was more of a rhythm thing. It's an attitude, you know? It's about an attitude, and that for me is the key to his character. And I think that a lot of what happens to him in the course of the story, and hopefully will have more stories to come. I don't know, but I'm optimistic. I think the fact that he was himself written as an ex-boxer, had a shot at a title, went off to war and it sort of interrupted his boxing career... I think that those things are going to come into play and be more important as time goes on.
Chris Radtke: What I find really interesting about the show is that it's one of those shows where even though the main character has some tough decisions to make, he's an honorable guy. He's not like Tony Soprano or someone who's got a real dark streak to him.
Stacy Keach: That's Johnny's character.
Chris Radtke: I'm a big fan of Pablo Schreiber, who plays Johnny. What's it like working with him? He seems like a really intense kind of actor.
Stacy Keach: Well he's a very serious actor, there's no question about that. When they say "action," the intensity comes in. But he's a wonderful guy and he's also doing a play here in New York at the moment. So he's got stage jobs, and I think that's one of the reasons why he's such a good actor. I feel that most of the time when people have worked in the theater, generally speaking, not always, they have more versatility.
Chris Radtke: You're from the theater.
Stacy Keach: Yeah. I'm doing a play myself right now in New York. In Lincoln Center, we're doing a play called Other Desert Cities, by Jon Robin Baitz -- a new play. And Elizabeth Marvel, who plays my daughter in the series, coincidentally plays my daughter in the play.
Chris Radtke: How about that.
Stacy Keach: Amazing coincidence. Not planned, it just happened.
Chris Radtke: So Lights Out fans need to come to New York so they can see the play. So, tell me about what it's like working with Holt [McCallany].
Stacy Keach: Holt is a natural, he's an absolute natural. He fits that character like a glove.
Chris Radtke: He looks the part, too.
Stacy Keach: Absolutely. He's a wonderful guy too, so easy to work with. He also has an intensity and a commitment and a dedication to the character and also to the world that he's inhabiting. As you say, he's an honorable character. He wants to do the right thing and the big question, I think, in everybody's mind is, "What is pugilistic dementia? How serious is it? Is it going to prevent him from going further or is it going to be cured?" You know, I'm optimistic that if we get picked up and when we get picked up, that that goes away. Of course, as Pops I don't know anything about that right at the moment in the series, and don't learn about that. None of the family knows except for the daughter. And it's a big question as to how serious it will become. You know, I'm hoping that we don't go down the road of Jerry Quarry in this respect.
Chris Radtke: You know, it's interesting with The Fighter being out in theaters now. Boxing has taken a back seat to the mixed martial arts fighting that have taken over the past five years or so. There's that amazing scene, I think it's in Episode 4, where Lights fights the MMA fighter. In your eyes, as someone who's been involved in boxing, are you trying to shine light on the ancient sport of boxing?
Stacy Keach: I'm very much in league with the character that I'm playing because I'm very traditional. To me, boxing in the traditional sense is the sweet science, the A.J. Leibling... I mean that, to me, is the real art of fighting. And it is an art, a craft, a science. I don't think, and I know how popular the new martial arts, I mean it's very popular, for me there's more brutality in that then there is finesse. I think boxing is more about finesse and has more grace and more strategy, in a way, instead of just brute force, which can get you through a lot of the UFC.
Chris Radtke: One of the things I thought was really great with Pops character in terms of taking on Omar and his big fight, a real heartbreaker. I think you all did a really great job of conveying the disappointment. For you, did you know going into that that was how it was going to happen? Did you prepare for that?
Stacy Keach: Well, I knew the script. But I felt that Pops really believed in this boy, and for him it was also an opportunity to reconcile the past, you know, the sins of the past in terms of his advice to Lights not to, during the [Richard] Reynolds fight, when he said, "You're ahead on points. Stay away from him." That is going to daunt him all the way through the series, that moment. Well, until the end of course, the last couple of episodes. And I thought that the actor that played Omar was just sensational. I thought that was a wonderful, wonderful choice. And yes, it was a terrible disappointment when he just reverted back to his old grandstanding, you know.
I would also like to shine some light on the choreography of the fights themselves. Because I think Teddy Atlas has done a great job.
Chris Radtke: So tell me a little bit about how that process is done.
Stacy Keach: Well, you know, it's choreography. It's worked out and a lot of time is spent on it. The one thing about The Fighter that I was disappointed in was the fight scenes themselves. I didn't think they were very good -- I thought they were sort of boring.
I think these fights are beautifully staged. And a lot of time and a lot of effort is spent on them -- not just with the choreography but with the lighting. And the actors really... I mean Holt, he's amazing. He'll go down and he'll work all night long on a scene that has to be shot the next day, just on his own time just to make sure that everything is coordinated properly. Everybody's working much more than is expected of them, just to make sure that it's great.
Chris Radtke: One of the things I also love about Pops is that he's got all of these grandkids. I love when Lights brings over his daughter and it's like, here you go. And you get all of these kids you get to work with.
Stacy Keach: I love those kids. They're sensational. This little girl who plays Lily, the youngest daughter, she's heaven. I have two young kids of my own, but I don't have grandkids yet, so it was just giving me a glimpse into the future I think.
Chris Radtke: I know you guys have the season, and you kind of play it by ear, but do you have any kind of ideas where you would want to take the character?
Stacy Keach: Not really. I leave that to the writers, because they're so good at what they do and I wouldn't want to presume. I'm more of a sounding board in terms of a representation of events other than the actual events themselves. And I don't know what they have in store for Pops, but whatever it is, I'm optimistic that we'll get a chance to put it on the screen. You've seen five episodes, right? I don't want to give too much away, in terms of what goes on down the road. But his relationship with his wife is reawakened, played by Valerie Perrine, who does a wonderful job. She left him years ago, went off with a drummer, and I don't think he ever really got over that. That personal side of his life, I think, I would like to see that perhaps amplify a little bit more in terms of his personal relationships.
