Zach McGowan
Acting is equal parts talent and perseverance.
When I moved to Los Angeles, I was cooking with two guys who became celebrity chefs, if you will. I became their sous chef for awhile. We'd go to all the big names in Hollywood.
My father is a Marine. My brother is a Marine. I almost became a Marine. I'm no stranger to fight training. I used to do jujitsu and boxing as a kid. I was a running back in football for my high school and my college. I played ice hockey as well as did theater. So, there's always been a physical nature to me.
As you do on any cable series, if they introduce you as the villain, then you better start working towards making him a really good guy, or if they introduce you as a really good guy, then you better start working towards being the villain. Your character has to go somewhere, or else they become very uninteresting.
Fight scenes are hard, no matter what you do. You're trying to make it look like you're hurting someone without hurting them. It doesn't matter how big and strong the guy is that you're fighting or how small and feeble someone is that you're fighting. You don't want to hurt them. You're working with them.
I think with every part you do, you become a better actor. I've learned from my experiences on that.
When you play a character, there are choices you have to make about the past, the present, the future, etc. You have to make those choices on your own a lot.
Every time you do a big sword fight surrounded by a couple of hundred extras, it's a fun day at work.
In reality, I've always been an actor - since I was a kid. I did theater growing up in New York. I was always in the plays in school. I was either going to be an actor or an athlete or a soldier. Those were kind of the three paths that I always kind of embarked on.
'Cold Case' was fun. It was a fun experience. That was right when I was cutting my teeth as a TV actor. It was a great learning experience to work on really fast-paced television shows that are very high quality. It was a place where I learned that I had to keep up and I could keep up.
My father and his brothers and sisters were childhood Irish jig champions in the Bronx. At our family celebrations, they all get out and do the jig. And of course, the younger generation, me and my cousins and my brothers, we have our own Americanized renditions of the Irish jig, which is a bit more like 'Lord of the Dance.'
I pack on mass quickly when I lift.
Some people think that the people they lead are too stupid to be told the truth, and thus they must be lied to, in order for a greater good to be accomplished. Some people believe in the system that has been set up, where the strongest among us is going to lead us in a fight, otherwise everyone is the same. That's the doctrine of pirates.Collection: Stupid
Fight scenes are hard, no matter what you do. You're trying to make it look like you're hurting someone without hurting them. It doesn't matter how big and strong the guy is that you're fighting, or how small and feeble someone is that you're fighting. You don't want to hurt them. You're working with them.Collection: Strong
I don't think it's ever hard to punch someone in the face who's just punched you in the face. I would say that anyone who thinks they can walk up to someone and punch them in the face without getting punched back is an idiot. At the end of the day, if someone came up here and punched you, trust me, you would fight back. That is just basic survival.Collection: Fighting
I always love some sci-fi and any type of post-apocalyptic world idea.Collection: Ideas
The Ice Nation is a pretty brutal place. They breed war heroes. The relationship between mother and child, in that world, is a little bit different than it is in our own society. But, no one really likes being a disappointment to their parents and their family.Collection: Mother
I had been at Comic-Con, and I have the same manager as Bob Morley, so we ended up at a Warner Bros. party. I met Jason Rothenberg for the first time, and he's a fan of Black Sails and Shameless and some of my work, and was like, "Hey, we've been having trouble casting this part. I think you'd be perfect for it, if you'd be willing to come up and have some fun for some episodes."Collection: Fun
In reality, in the history of it, the captains are only really in charge during an engagement. The rest of the time, everyone had got the same vote. It's been very interesting finding that.Collection: Reality