An Interview with Actor
Ato Essandoh of Django: Unchained, Hitch & BBC’s Copper By Nick Durcholz
A native of Schenectady, N.Y., 41-year-old Ato Essandoh’s acting resume is full of powerful cinema, television and theatre.
F
rom a maniacal warlord in Blood Diamond to an underprivileged, adopted college student in Garden State, Essandoh has shown a wealth of talent and to this day he’s still in a state of pleasant shock and major appreciation of his success.
Essandoh, who plays Dr. Matthew Freeman in BBC’s Copper, took a
moment out of his busy schedule to speak with News4U.
N4U: What was the most fun you had shooting a film? AE: I had a lot of fun doing Django. What was fun was executing the trick of being eaten by dogs… So, the way it works is that the dogs are taught to attack a kneepad. You take those kneepads and you put them on your arms, you put them over thick, leather padding and then you put your clothes over that. And so, the trainers were like, ‘Okay, you look good with the stunt, it’s working out. We need a safe word.’ And I said, ‘Okay, the safe word is pickle.’ Quentin called action and the dogs start to go. I’m getting torn apart by the dogs, screaming bloody murder and then, I see the dog on my right leg - because his head got twisted around he had to release. And I’m looking at this, so I start to yell, ‘PICKLE! PICKLE! PICKLE!’ But then, the dog reattaches and I started acting again and the whole scene went off. Then Quentin calls cut and the trainers run up to me, they’re like, ‘Did you call pickle?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but the dog reattached and then I thought the scene was okay so I just kept acting.’ And so, suddenly, all these seasoned stuntmen, look at me like I’m the man, they’re like, ‘Wow, you kept your cool.’ That one moment was like a small amount of pride for me. N4U: Of all your roles, which character was the most dynamic or the most satisfying for you to play and why? AE: I would say the first thing that popped into my mind, I did a few years ago at the Roundabout,
Streamers: David Rabe’s way. It hadn’t been seen in New York as a David Rabe production in – I don’t know – 25 years, and I played the character Carlyle who’s this complete psychopath and really lonely guy. I worked with Scott Ellis, who is now the Executive Producer on Weeds and he directs a whole bunch of TV. I’m working directly with David Rabe who’s just a legend and Scott Ellis and it was my first off-Broadway production. N4U: Do you have a preference for television or movies? AE: To me they’re both the same. The nice thing about television, or the nice thing about being a series regular like I am on Copper, is that suddenly I have to build a character over multiple, multiple episodes - in our case 13 episodes - and so, that’s a really fun challenge. That’s what I prefer now, because movies go too quickly. You don’t really get to live in the character like you do on TV. So, if – knock on wood – Copper runs for like five seasons, I will have that experience of what it’s like to really live and start to understand the character. N4U: How did it feel to be called ‘Commander Rambo?’ AE: (Laughs) That was awesome! Again, I’ve got to look at the luck that I’ve had, but suddenly I’m doing some theatre off, off, off-Broadway and then I’m in Mozambique doing a movie with Leo Dicaprio directed by Ed Zwick and my character’s name is Commander Rambo. I mean…it doesn’t get any better than that. I was like, ‘Do I have to show up? Commander Rambo… okay, that’s all, right?’ (Laughs) And that’s fun because when I saw Leo for Django, I was like, ‘Yeah, I got you the last time kind of, in Blood Diamond, but now, you own me.’ So, that’s Leo’s revenge on me.
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