Film actor Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard, Training Day & Airbender) joined the cast of the NBC medical drama, Trauma and we had a chance to talk to him about that and his new film with M. Night Shyamalan,The Last Airbender.
 

Cliff Curtis: Are you the George Clooney of Trauma? 

CraveOnline: Unfortunately, I don’t watch a lot of television. I actually missed ER. When I got this show, the last episode of ER was on and I watched that just to see what I was getting myself into. But sure, yeah, I think I’m just like George Clooney. Me and George Clooney, we’re like that. 

Cliff Curtis: Were you looking for a TV show? 

CraveOnline: My agent was constantly sending me TV shows. So I wasn’t per se looking for a TV show but I was waiting for the right show to make it worth my while because I do films so I wasn’t actively looking, but I started to open to the possibility of it. 

Cliff Curtis: How have you found the work of television? 

CraveOnline: Well, this is my first round and it’s just fantastic. I can tell you we’re like shooting a movie a week. 

Cliff Curtis: Even the schedule, as far as the preparation you’re used to for a movie, is it an adjustment? 

CraveOnline: Well, we make up for the prep because firstly, because we’re going to do another show next week, so every episode is kind of like research for the following episode. We’re kind of like learning and evolving the characters and stuff on camera. 

Cliff Curtis: Are you doing the voiceover about knowing people think you’re a jerk? 

CraveOnline: Yeah, because he’s a very confident, cocky character, very raw and rebellious so he brushes people up the wrong way but at the end of the day, he’s the kind of guy, you’re in a tough spot, he’s good to have around. 

Cliff Curtis: How much of the appeal was doing TV and how much was the appeal of playing a heroic character instead of a villain? 

CraveOnline: It was really attractive to have a guy that was flawed but heroic and that had internal conflicts so he’s an interesting character and heroic. It’s a great dichotomy. I’ve explored lots of characters that are the other way around, that have done bad things but are not all bad. So I’ve explored that through my film work in different characters. Pablo Escobar in Blow, I think. In Training Day I played Smiley. These characters that are tragic sort of characters but I try to inject humanity in them, whereas this character I’m doing the flip to that. He’s an obviously heroic guy and I wanted to sort of keep him interesting by adding the other side of that humanity to that. 

Cliff Curtis: Have you had any harrowing experiences doing research in the field? 

CraveOnline: Well, we’ve gone out on ride alongs which was fun and interesting but on the field, no. We didn’t have any directly harrowing experiences. I picked up a one eyed Puerto Rican transvestite who owned a hair salon. That was pretty interesting. 

Cliff Curtis: On the ride along? 

CraveOnline: In the Tenderloin in San Francisco. We’re in an ambulance and so really interesting situations every day. That was just random, and then the next guy was an older guy who was trying to get free drugs, stuff like that. 

Cliff Curtis: Have you ever been the beneficiary of paramedic services? 

CraveOnline: Me personally, no. I haven’t. 

Cliff Curtis: Does this show make you feel better about them? 

CraveOnline: Yeah, it does. I admire nurses and these guys. When you think of doctors, when we think of health care we tend to think of doctors, but I think there’s a whole support team around them that form of medicine which is really about human service, the ideal of serving others selflessly. They’re not getting paid a lot, these people, so they’ve got a real passion for what they do. 

Cliff Curtis: Is your character a cowboy? 

CraveOnline: Yeah, totally. He’s iconically a cowboy. He’s definitely. That’s where we start with the character and we sort of dig in from there. 

Cliff Curtis: Is he really fearless? 

CraveOnline: He’s completely fearless actually. He’s got a missing gland. He doesn’t have the fear gland. If there’s a situation that should have the capital F fear, he changes that F from fear to fun. He’s like, “Okay, that sounds like fun. I’m going to jump in.” 

Cliff Curtis: Are you like that? 

CraveOnline: I think there’s an aspect of my character which I invest in any character that I do, but I think I’m much more responsible than he is. 

Cliff Curtis: How do his coworkers feel about Rabbit? 

CraveOnline: I think there’s a whole mix. He has kind of like a love-hate relationship I think. I hope so anyway, to keep that tension alive amongst the other characters. You love him and you hate him and you hate him, but you love him. Aimee’s character says, “I hate you for doing such and such.” My response is, “Yeah, but it’s a special kind of hate, isn’t it?” He’s also a very smart guy in that he knows how to work that fine line between love and hate. It’s kind of manipulative which is annoying.