spotlight phillip keene Yes, thank you…in all my glory. (Laughs)
I love it. That’s another full circle. Let’s talk about when you started acting, it was something you came to a little later in life, correct? Much later, I started college when I was 32. I was
sort of lost after PanAm in a way—I had a bunch of jobs but nothing that was really satisfying—I just didn’t know what direction my life was going to take. I had always wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little kid, but that was never an option for me. My family would never really support anything like that. But they supported higher education, I was the first one in my family to go to high school, if that tells you anything. During my last year at UCLA studying history and
art history, a friend who was a talent agent at the time said, “Why don’t you take commercial acting classes and I’ll represent you? I know you want to get into this business so let’s get your feet wet.” I booked my first commercial and then another friend, Tony Alda (Alan Alda’s brother) was doing a film and called me one afternoon and said, “I need someone to come in and play a bartender for this. I know you used to tend bar can you come?” I said, “Yeah sure, I’ll show up.” It was a small movie with Scott Bakula, I think I had one line, but that was my first paid gig, so that was kind of fun. Then I got a job onThe DA which was a short-lived series on ABC, then I graduated college andThe Closercame about. You’ve been a part of that andMajor Crimes now for 13 years. What has been your favorite thing about playing Buzz Watson on the show? It’s more about everyone I’ve gotten to work with.
All of the great guest directors came through from Patrick Duffy, Arvin Brown, Luke Perry to Kevin Bacon and then of course, all of the guest stars, and getting to work with such amazing people. To spend 13 years with essentially the same group, I imagine it becomes like a family. It is. Of all the people on the cast, the least likely
person if you were to look at everybody and say “Who’s your best friend?” It turned out to be Raymond Cruz (Detective Julio Sanchez), he’s the guy who plays Tuco Salamanca inBreaking Bad. He was my best man at my wedding if you can imagine. And Michael Chan who plays Lieutenant Tao, we just went out surfing last week. We recently had our annual Christmas party and our friend Kearran Giovanni (Amy Sykes on the show), we celebrated her birthday as well. We’ve gone through births together, deaths of parents, we’ve seen children born as a result of the show and then graduate… It’s been quite a lot.
34 RAGE monthly | JANUARY 2018
I think it opens your eyes and it makes you realize, that as different as we all may seem to be, we basically all want the
same things. We all want decent food to eat, drink
clean water, a place to live, happy life with the family that we’ve created or love we’ve inherited.”
Is there anything in particular that you’re going to take away from doing this series that has surprised you? I think going back to that sense of family was the
key element for me...I’m going to take that with me. Especially because I hear stories about how sets work and how they don’t work. We always made a point of welcoming everyone who passed through, as a visiting member of the family. We opened our arms and our doors for them and just made it as safe and as welcoming as possible. We took it upon ourselves to treat it as our home and treat everybody who came in as a guest. What are you looking to do next? Do you want to stay in the acting world?
I would love to continue, I’d love to do another
series. I just finished doing a film in Buffalo for almost three weeks. It’s going to be on Lifetime. I think Lifetime has two divisions now so it will be on their second tier I guess. It’s a suspense thriller. ThinkRebecca meetsGaslight. (Laughs) Right now, it’s calledShore Cliff, but I don’t know what the final title will be. It’s from the people who brought us Sharknado, so look forward to some campy stuff. We’re all looking forward to it.
Keep in touch with Phillip on Twitter @phillipkeene or on Instagram @phillipkeene.
For more of this interview, go to
ragemonthly.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
