Actor Harold Perrineau On His New Roles on Broadway and Amazon

Steve Adubato sits down at NJPAC with actor Harold Perrineau, known for his extraordinary work on "Lost" and "Oz." Harold also discusses his return to Broadway in "The Cherry Orchard" as well as his role in the Amazon original series, "Goliath."

#1925 11/21/2016

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"The only thing noteworthy about the orchard is that it's very large. There's a crop of cherries that come what? Once every two years? There's nowhere to put them. No one buys them. But the historical society mentions this orchard in their brochure. We have to come up with something. And arrive at some sort of solution, or on August 22nd, the cherry orchard and your entire estate will be sold at auction. You were just watching a scene from The Cherry Orchard and the young man you're looking at right now is Harold Perrineau, who is a talented actor. What range you have! Thank you my friend. Thank you, thank you. Talk a little bit about The Cherry Orchard. What is it? Why it's so special, right? Well, The Cherry Orchard is one of the Anton Chekhov classics. You know the... I'm sorry. Who is that again? Anton Chekhov, you know. [laughter] A little guy from Russia. [laughter] And what has he done? [laughter] So yeah, so it's one of the Chekhov classics. You know. Three Sisters, she goes... Anyway, so Cherry Orchard takes place in Russia originally. But we've made it a version that's more suited toward an American audience. And the cast? Had to get... The cast is Diane Lane? Right? Diane Lane. That's what you were look for. Yes I'm sorry! [laughter] [laughter] You don't care about anybody else, right? [laughter] No I just wanted to say Diane Lane. That's right. Diane Lane. So it's Diane Lane, John Glover, Joel Grey, myself, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Tavi Gevinson, it's an amazing cast. Playing? At the American Airlines Theatre. Why does it matter today? All these years later? I'll tell you, it's an interesting question. The Cherry Orchard takes place when in Russia they were trying to decide who they were going to be. It was right before the revolution. And there was the aristocracy, and they were sort of coming out of power, and all these other people were starting to come into power. And they really were a nation trying to figure out who they were going to be, and it's really prescient, right now, what we're doing right now. Yeah. The election season. Everything that's happening, we're trying to discover who we are, or what we're trying to say to the world, and that's why it makes sense to do the Cherry Orchard. By the way, we should make it clear, we are taping this with a few days left in the 2016 presidential campaign. When this airs, we will know who the president is. Are you a political person? Oh. A little. Not crazy but a little. I have to be, I have children, I gotta know what's going on..."