Before we dive into the Michael Lombardi interview, thanks for all the entries in the Lisa Lutz Spellman books drawing! We had a record number of entries. The winner will be posted in Wednesday’s blog. Good luck!!!
The guys of Rescue Me continue to surprise with their moonlighting work from the popular FX show. Last week, I talked with Steven Pasquale about his latest Broadway show and new CD, Daniel Sunjata is appearing in the new Matthew McConaughey movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and now Michael Lombardi, who plays Mike Siletti, or “The Probie” as he’s often called, is bringing music to the new season of the show.
Jim Halterman: I’m so glad the show is back after 18 months. There was definitely a void.
Michael Lombardi: Oh, man! It has been a long time, right?
JH: Before we talk about the show, I wanted to ask about your background. Where you grew up and what brought you into this crazy business?
ML: I grew up in Danbury, Connecticut area, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes north of Manhattan. I was actually in music school and grew up playing the drums and I was coming into Manhattan to this place called the Drummers’ Collective, where I studied drums and music and I started taking acting classes as well. I was pursuing both but went down the acting path when I started getting work. Even though I am a musician, the acting thing really took over. I ended up going to full time acting school and producing plays here in the city.
JH: What’s in store for Mike this season on Rescue Me? Whether Mike has a liaison with a gay roommate or his mother passes away there’s always something going on with him.
ML: Without giving too much away, you know his mother passed away and so Mike inherited some money and he buys a bar. It makes for a great place for all the guys and it’s like another kitchen and those are my favorite scenes. Now we have this bar together. Siletti, Franco and Garrity’s characters try to run the bar together and it’s so much fun. My character is dealing with that and some other things like the conspiracy theory that Daniel Sunjata’s character (Franco) has about 9/11. My character joined the fire department because of 9/11 so all the reasons he joined and became a fireman are questioned by Daniel’s character, who believes that 9/11 was an inside job. There’s some really amazing friction and good stuff that goes down with that. What’s so amazing about Rescue Me is they always cover these heated topics but they cover both sides of it so it’s kind of cool that they have the Franco character say one thing and my character standing for another point. And then the rest of the season, my character this year isn’t so much of the rookie anymore. He is more accepted by the guys and more like one of the firemen and knows his way around a little bit more and actually there’s a new rookie that he ends up training.
JH: One of the things I like about Mike is that he’s always maintained his innocence and is like this wide-eyed boy. Would you like to see him get a little more edgy or do you like him the way he is?
ML: That’s an interesting question because I actually sort of fight with that. I think like this season he has gotten a little more edgy. It’s been five years in this house so you have to get some sort of edge from this job. You do this job day in, day out…I think some of his innocence was from unawareness and now he’s much more aware so those are the things that I’ve brought to him this season; he has evolved, he has grown, he has matured. However, the qualities that I think remains intact is that he sees the good in people, sees the good in situations and he wears his heart on his sleeve and I think that’s part of the reason why he became a firefighter so he could help people. After 9/11, he felt like he had to do something about it. He’d gotten into a lot of trouble in the past but I think he’s still able to maintain those qualities.
JH: Are you tired of being asked if Mike is gay, bi or whatever after the storyline with Mike’s gay roommate a few seasons back?
ML: Yeah, definitely.
JH: It’s never going to go away.
ML: It’s never going to go away and it’s fine. I think that, again, the character came from such a place of wanting to be accepted, wanting to be loved. I don’t think that he ever looked at his sexuality as being gay or bi and, of course, from the outside that’s what it’s titled. He did do that but he’s definitely not gay. He was in a circumstance where he found love from this guy when he wasn’t getting any from his peers. The guys on the show were not giving him a feeling of acceptance so he was manipulated in a way.
JH: I liked that that story wasn’t so cut and dry or black and white.
ML: Thanks so much.
JH: I asked Steven Pasquale last week about why Denis Leary is the one who always gets the girls on the show. What are your thoughts?
ML: I think Denis is not the only writer. There’s Peter Tolan and Evan Reilly and these guys wanted to create this persona with Tommy Gavin that that is what he is. Girls like firemen. Tommy Gavin is like this bad-ass guy. Steve Pasquale plays the dumb guy. I’m the naïve/dumb guy and insecure guy. Daniel Sunjata plays a womanizer to a certain degree but Tommy Gavin is definitely the one who pulls all the babes.
JH: You mentioned the scenes where Mike’s mother died. Was that kind of drama a different acting challenge for you?
ML: Yeah, that’s one of the things about the show, you’re always jumping off the cliff. You’re never bored and you’re always getting something going down the pipeline. Like when I got the gay storyline and it’s always like WHOA…you always have to check yourself and you have to bring your chops, do your homework and it’s always fun. On a lot of TV shows, you might get bored and not able use your chops and flex your muscles as an actor but on this show you always have these things coming down the pipeline.
JH: You also mentioned that the 9/11 storyline comes back this season. It’s been a big part of the show before so why is it coming back again when it seems like it’s been covered?
ML: There’s no way you can talk about the FDNY or any fire department and ignore 9/11 and that’s obviously true in real life. I’m not saying there’s a need to write it into the show but that it’s affected these individuals so much and affected the choices they made in their lives that you can’t ignore. The fact that it’s a storyline on this show, Denis writes a lot of stuff that really happens in real life and, obviously, it’s Hollywood-ized and made for TV and done the way it needs to be for the TV show but, however, these stories are true stories to a certain degree.
JH: Steven is on Broadway right now and Daniel Sunjata has been in several shows. Any interest in doing Broadway?
ML: I certainly would love the opportunity. Right now, I’m taking some time and touring with my band over the next month or so but if a Broadway opportunity came my way I would love to take it. I haven’t gone in to read for anything and we just wrapped on our season a little while ago. I love the theater and am a huge fan of it and would love to be a part of it this summer. In the meantime, I’m reading for different films and looking forward to working and staying busy during these tough times.
JH: Tell me about your band, Apache Stone? How did it get started?
ML: I told you I grew up playing drums and came from a very musical family and I always wanted my own band. I always played in other bands and I wanted to sing and be the front man but I wanted to put together the right group of guys. About a year and a half ago I started playing with different musicians and I started playing with this guy, Hank Woods, who is a great guitar player and he brought in someone he knew as a drummer and I put this band together with a perfect group of guys. I’m the lead singer of the band and I’m writing all the songs and we’ve really had some great things happen. Denis found out and he wrote my band into the show so my character now has a band, which is really funny. Of course, my character gets ragged on and a lot of funny things happen but the cool thing is that it’s my original music in the show; stuff that I wrote. That was really important to me and it was such a great thing that Denis and Peter Tolan allowed me to have the band in. It’s been so much fun. The guys had lines in the show and we’re touring. If you go to the FX website and go to Rescue Me Music, there’s a whole thing about our band. You can hear 30-second snips of our songs and we’ve just recorded an album, which will be done the first week of May. It’s basically just solid rock and roll influenced by Pearl Jam, Audioslave, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, that kind of stuff. There also interviews with the band. We’re playing all over. We have a MySpace page called Apache Stone and we’re going to tour around a bit.
You can catch Rescue Me every Tuesday at 10/9c on FX.
Photos courtesy of FX networks.
Tags: Daniel Sunjata, FX, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Lombardi, Rescue Me
