Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 42 - Bruce McGill (Lioness / Scooby-Doo: Origins / Animal House / Miami Vice / Rizzoli and Isles)

This time, I’m letting Bruce McGill talk. I’ve talked to Bruce many times in the past, and it’s because he’s always got stories to tell. In fact, he’s got so many stories that I continue to try to talk him into letting me help him write his memoir. To date, it has not happened, but he says that if he does it, the only person he’d collaborate with is me, and by God, Bruce McGill is a man of his word. Bruce and I first talked when he was part of the cast of TNT’s Rizzoli and Isles, and he was so pleased with the end result of that interview that we’ve stayed in touch ever since. As such, I always knew that I wanted to have him as a guest on this podcast, but I wanted to wait until he had something to promote. And now he does: in addition to being part of the cast of the Paramount+ series Lioness – season three premieres on August 2 – he’s also part of the cast of Netflix’s upcoming Scooby-Doo: Origins. And while he obviously couldn’t tell me much more about the actual plot of the series beyond the fact that, yes, it’s an origin story, he did go into detail about the experience of filming it. I won’t claim that this is a fully comprehensive interview with Bruce, mostly because I’ve talked to him so many times over the years that we’ve tackled a lot of subjects, some of them more than once. But having said that, this is the first time you’ve actually been able to hear me talk to him, so I did touch on a few of the greatest hits, so to speak. So we talked a bit about Animal House, we talked about his iconic episode of Miami Vice, working with Michael Caine and Oliver Stone on The Hand, befriending Wilfred Brimley, doing one of his first films with an up-and-comer named Jonathan Demme, and much more. So, no, we didn’t hit on everything that folks asked me if I’d ask him about, mostly because you asked me to ask him about a LOT. But Bruce is always game for another conversation, so when Scooby-Doo: Origins is actually on the cusp of coming out, don’t be surprised if you hear from him again. And that’s “hear from him,” not “see him,” by the way. He’s old-school. He doesn’t love Zoom. He once said that he doesn’t turn on the camera unless he’s getting paid. Mostly I think he just doesn’t love screwing around with the computer. But, hey, he’s been in enough things that you already know what he looks like anyway. And that’s plenty enough of an intro. It’s time to let Bruce McGill talk.