Cullen Douglas: Alright – first things first, let the record show I’ ve always been a huge fan. Then we actually got to work together on CBS’ Pure Genius and now, well�not so much.( laughter) Seriously, it was a pleasure. Jason Katims created such layered characters; it was a blast discovering it all from week to week. At any rate, I, of course, knew you from your work in films like Young Guns, My Best Friend’ s Wedding and August: Osage County. But what I didn’ t know, is you’ re also a classically trained cellist. Mind Blown! You even played on the film scores for Rogue One, Star Trek Into Darkness and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – to name just a few. And on top of all of that you and your brother, Kieran Mulroney along with, James Fearnley of The Pogues formed an indie / folk rock band called, Cranky George. So, when do you sleep? More importantly, how and when did music enter your life? Dermot Mulroney: I still don ' t know what the actual original catalytic chemistry was, but I consistently credit the Alexandria( Virginia) City Public School System. Because those instruments, those teachers, and that system were available, each of the kids in my family( four boys and a girl) started the summer after third grade. My oldest brother began first at summer music camp, three hours in the morning at the public school, provided by the school system.( They) hand you an instrument,( say)" Pick out what you want to play, we ' ll teach you this summer," and that ' s how we all learned. I did that in the third, fourth, and fifth grade.( I) played during school in the orchestra, that would probably be twice a week or something while other kids were either at recess or art. They had some sort of elective system, and I just carried that all the way through high school. I was a very, very, very busy kid- as I am as an adult, I thrive that way. It was chamber orchestra, quartet, city orchestra, regional orchestra, you know, I was one of those kids. My family functioned around that, so it wasn ' t a pressure cooker. I had two brothers doing it in front of me, so I never questioned... should I play an instrument? It was just a matter of which one? I obviously picked the right one.
Cullen: You totally picked right!! And that was a conscious decision? You picked the cello? Dermot: Yes, I ' m so pro-cello.( laughter) I did, I remember making that decision. The school takes you on a field trip in third grade to see the city orchestra; they were doing Peter and the Wolf and Benjamin Britten ' s Young People’ s Guide to the Orchestra where each instrument plays one at a time�I picked out the cello. Besides, the bass and the viola were already taken because of my older brothers, and I couldn ' t be a copycat.
Cullen: That ' s funny. You know, that was one of my first gigs, I was the Kid Narrator for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. They would bus in kids from all over the city to listen to Peter and the Wolf. Dermot: The Kid Narrator? Very nice early starter! We were destined to work together. My first gig was, well, a paper boy. But after that, I had a quartet in high school, and we were hired out for friends of my parents’ parties. And we ' d play in DC at these Latin American Embassy functions. Gosh, I haven ' t thought about this in forever! They ' d probably give the four of us $ 1 00 for the night to sit in a corner and play, you know, " Eine Kleine Nachtmusik " three or four times in a row and we were good-to-go.
Cullen: Okay, maybe this has been said before, but it feels like music was at the forefront, then this little thing called acting came along and all of a sudden that exploded for you. Did your music take a back seat? Because now it seems that you’ ve come to a place where they coexist. Dermot: That ' s exactly what happened. There ' s a long period in my life, where lurking in the shadows was a cello case. It always came with me, I moved it from apartment to apartment, always, and I went years without playing it in my twenties even into my thirties. It was just in the corner, going " play me, play me."
Cullen: It missed you... It didn’ t care you were busy trying to build a fantastic career as an actor.
Dermot: Right, exactly, an incredible relationship. I have the same cello I played, to this day, that my parents bought for me when I was fourteen.
Cullen: Is that the same one you played on our show,( Pure Genius) as well as on Mozart in the Jungle? Dermot: Yeah. It ' s a beautiful instrument, very unique and more or less holds its own with the great instruments I sit with in the orchestra.
Cullen: So you were definitely on this track to become a full-time musician, but then, as I said, acting came along� Dermot: I ' ll tell you, the truth is I started acting that same summer. I think it was the summer of 1 971. Very big year for me because I did my first play that year too, " The Blue Bird of Happiness." It was all like a fairy tale that wouldn ' t happen today. There was a woman in the neighborhood, Lois Hunt, who for the lack of a better word, was a hippie; but she had gone to theater school somewhere, and she singlehandedly recruited kids from all around in a very Pied Piper-ish kind of way. She was incredibly artistic- the way she moved was so wonderful, exotic and weird. We did excerpts from Shakespeare and Thornton Wilder. So that ' s really where I got my start. Both things that same summer. I did that for three or four years, by then I ' m into eighth, ninth, tenth grade. I was doing school plays into my senior year. I played Jem Finch in " To Kill a Mockingbird." So, how about you? How did you get your start in acting?
Cullen: It was always there. I asked my parents for a tux when I was 4, so I could go to the Emmys.( laughter) We moved around a lot when I was growing up. Five different schools by the time I was in fifth grade. For a period of time, my father was an undercover investigative reporter. Wherever he was undercover is where we lived. I guess to help me fight the anxiety of always being the new kid and all the undercover stuff; my Mom enrolled me in a local children ' s community theater. I made friends. Girls liked me. Had my first kiss. I was home.( laughter) Dermot: Amazing! Watching your Dad undercover means acting was in your blood. So I got to ask, what kind of things did your Dad investigate while undercover on assignment?
Cullen: He worked for Gannett( USA TODAY). He mostly took down Senators that were embezzling and getting kickbacks from employees, stuff like that. We got a couple of death threats, spent six weeks in a run-down motel. Crazy times. Dermot: This sounds like a really good idea for a movie.
Cullen: Actually, one of my first spec scripts... and how I landed my lit agent, was a pilot about that time in my life. My POV as a kid watching this happening with my father�like I said, it was crazy.------- Okay, lets switch gears. After high school you went to college; why Northwestern? Dermot: Northwestern... I didn ' t know a single thing about it when I went there, even when I got in. I ' d seen a pamphlet and the application form, filled it in with a pen and sent it off. Low and behold I got in. My brother had applied there but went to Michigan instead. I got into three schools but picked Northwestern. So glad I did. I think because of the lake.( laughter) How about you?
Cullen: You know, I don ' t live with regret. Sometimes, I guess... Dermot: Well you have to if you ' re an actor! You might not like to but... I wish I had gone to Northwestern, I really do, because of the... I mean, that Theater Department is everything. It was on my radar because I desperately wanted to work with Steppenwolf( Theatre), Jeff Perry, Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney, those guys were / are my heroes. Ultimately I went to AMDA in New York and then this incredible conservatory, Florida School of the Arts. Dermot: You really were after it! When I entered college, I was an undecided liberal arts major. I wasn ' t in the music school; I wasn ' t in the theater school. I was still playing the field with strong interests. I was just as I am today, just as interested in history.