Millburn-Short Hills Magazine Spring 2020

COME ON IRENE As Irene Sheeran in The Irishman, Kurtzuba keeps a watchful eye on events both outside and in. YOU’VE BEEN DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE TWICE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT HIS APPROACH TO FILM- MAKING THAT WORKS WELL WITH YOUR ACTING? What I ﬁnd so remarkable about Marty as a director is that he creates a world in which you can completely immerse yourself. He’s very involved in setting up that world so you can understand your character’s choices, but he really trusts you to do your work, too. The script, the way the camera works and what it sees, how it moves, the attention to detail of the design of the set, the costumes… Nothing is left to chance. DO ACTORS GET TO IMPROVISE DIA- LOGUE? Marty is a huge proponent of improvisation. It has to do with cast- ing. He’s so wise about who he puts in his ﬁlms and he knows what they bring to it, which is why he brings the same people back. He knows he can give them the freedom to say the words in their own parlance because they’re the kind of actors who under- stand the story the same way he does. He’s such a stickler for authenticity. He uses tremendous actors, but real people also join the cast in small- er parts. You can feel the difference between an actor trying to give you Gangster No. 1 and a real gangster who’s saying a couple of lines. In one of my scenes, Irene meets Frank for the ﬁrst time, and there’s a fella playing the bartender. I said to him, “You really know your way around a bar,” and he said, “This is what I do.” In The Wolf of Wall Street, the big marching band coming through in their underwear is an actual march- ing band that they hired. The ﬁnger- ing on that alto sax is correct. WHAT IS IT LIKE TO HOLD YOUR OWN WITH ACTORS LIKE DE NIRO AND PACINO? It’s crazy, isn’t it, to be invited to that party? But the most remarkable thing is that it’s so unremarkable. At the end of the day, these guys are just actors, doing what I do. There’s a lack of pretension around their process that’s shockingly refreshing, and they welcome you in if you do your work. It was the same with Marty. I felt intimidated until he ﬁrst started talk- ing to me, and then I saw that he’s just really lovely and accessible, kind and good-natured. I’ve found that the further up the food chain you go in my industry, the less pretense there seems to be. YOU’VE ALSO DONE A LOT OF TV WORK. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TV WORK COMPARED TO STAGE AND FILM? There’s so much production happen- ing in and around the city, it allows me to stay in the New York City area. I get to show up and do something different every time, which can be really fun, and because I have a body of work, I can say “Hey, we worked together” to members of the cast and crew. I did an episode of Bull and was on The Good Wife a few times. I do a lot of procedurals. I’m play- ing Sergeant McNichols on the show Blue Bloods right now, and I’m really enjoying it. The ﬁrst assistant director on the show lives in Maplewood, and our kids go to the same grade school. WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU IN 2020? HBO is airing Bad Education, an awesome ﬁlm I was in starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. I produce as well, and am working on a couple of ongoing projects. YOU CO-OWN WEST LANES BOWLING CENTER IN OMAHA, WHICH WAS BUILT BY YOUR GRAND- PARENTS IN 1955. IS THIS HOW YOU KEEP YOUR ROOTS IN YOUR HOMETOWN? I basically grew up at that alley, and spent a majority of my childhood doing cartwheels up the concourse. The family sold it in the ’80s, then got it back around the ﬁnancial collapse [in ’08]. I’m proud of my brother and father who headed up the charge and made it a success- ful bowling center again. My kids can’t get enough of it, being able to get their own sodas from the snack bars without permission! ■ MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE SPRING 2020 25

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