S3:E1 Frank Harts | Prodigal Son, Filming in a Pandemic

Hi, I'm Caroline Amos.

And I'm Raymond McAnally.

And we are Fatigued (Laughter) all right, this is always the hardest part in figuring out how to start the damn thing. Frank, how are you today?

I'm excellent. How are you?

I'm good. I've got a fever because I got my second vaccine yesterday, so I'm cranky, but I'm happy to be here.

I thought I heard something in your voice. gratulations By the way, thank you so much, Ray. How you doing?

I'm good man. I'm vaxed and wax like we said before (laughter) We're on a cross country road trip right now. I guess by the time this airs will have been done with it by a couple of weeks. But yeah, we're on a 18 day road trip across the country. And back.

Are you in Texas right now? Or?

We're in Texas, and then we head on to Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, and then back across Rocky Mountains and all of that.

New York?

No, not this time. New York would take like three weeks to see everybody we will get there. Yeah,

just three weeks, yeah. Frank, can you give us a brief introduction of who you are and what you do?

Well, yeah, I mean, brief, brief, brief. I like that (laughter). Frank Harts. I'm from Illinois. And originally, but now I'm officially unofficial New Yorker because maybe about a decade ago, they took my Illinois license and chopped it up. Born in Illinois, two hours west of Chicago, a small town called Sterling rockfalls, slash rockfalls, little mini Twin Cities right on the border of Iowa.

They love him there. They promote Frank hearts big time.

They do but not for the same thing. It's mostly just because of my good cooking. But oh, he's an actor, too. But, yeah, so. But yeah, I'm here in New York. Now we about? Well, a few months before the pandemic kicked off. In 2019. October 2019, we moved up to the Westchester area to Yonkers, New York. Nice. And I've been here ever since.

You said you made that move into in 2020. No, 2019, October 2019. More the pandemic kicked. Oh, nice. You got out just in the nick of time,

just in the nick of time. And, you know, originally it was like, it's gonna be just gonna be there for a short while transition into a house and then we're like, the pandemic and we're not going anywhere. We're not going to move. And even if you want to do this markets insane. Yeah, no. So but then then the law, we are back to who I am. Well, you know, the reason I came to New York was to go to law school called Juilliard to train as an actor.

I've heard of that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's right there next to that school in Connecticut. Not far from that school in Connecticut. Yeah. All the people who've got a yellow you know, I love like Bloods and the Crips. It's like, in Connecticut, you mean you even Yale? I feel them because it's like anyway, and when I was younger, you know, just getting out it was like when you go to schools and because I was so proud of it, but it was like you if you say it with like, full strength if you're like, I went to Juilliard, conceited bastard.

Fair, it's super.

Yeah, you have to be like a little bit embarrassed of it, even though I'm sure you're not embarrassed of it at all right? There's a question mark at the end Juilliard. But now I'm fine with the Juilliard. Yes, yes. But so yeah, just been doing the theater while we were doing the theater thing. Right. Right for a while.

Yeah, that's how Frank and I met in 2008. We did a show.

Gosh, it was Wow. somewhere.

off off off off off off Broadway. Yes.

We got our union cards. Yeah, we had a good nice. That was Yeah. And then so then jumped into the television game so I could make a little living. And, you know, about 50 credits on IMDB later. And I'm not even that old. I have I'm just finishing up my second season as a series regular on the show PRODIGAL SON for FOX.

Got his series reg! (celebration)

Yes,

I had a hilarious conversation. My sister, and I were catching up on shows we've been watching. And she was like, Oh, yeah, we're in love with this one show. And the second seasons about to come out. This is a few months ago. And she was like as a show called prodigal son. And I was like, Oh, really? So just started asking questions. I didn't tell her anything. And she was like, Yeah, really loved this character, JT. And it was just so much fun, because she had no idea that I knew you. And it was just awesome to hear her just kind of like, fan out on on your show. That's so

cool. Man. That's so cool. I do that to people all the time with my mask in my head on. Like, yeah, that should probably go fun. Yeah, tell me about it. It's me under there.

So you're not pulling a Steve Martin. He runs around with a sign above his head that says I'm Steve Martin.

but one of the standards did get me a gift of a parting gift last season. That was that on the shirt. It just says in giant white letters, I play a cop on TV. And I was I've always been too embarrassed. That's a little bit too. And plus, you know, with everything going on.

Now, you don't want to be proud of playing a cop and not not these days. You know,

hold on now. I'm proud of playing the kind of cop that I play. Yeah. But in all seriousness, though, we did have that conversation between and this is maybe a different podcast, but But yeah, we had that conversation between season one and season two, because I was sort of waking up in a cold sweat every now and then, that summer after Ford was murdered, and just thinking, Okay, dude, you are doing anyway to go back Play, play black cop on television, post Floyd and Taylor and all the rest. And, you know, what are we going to do about that, guys? How are we going to approach this? And, you know, they heard me they listened and they integrated some things into the storyline that, you know, I think help at least kick it off in the right way. And, you know, it helped me sleep a little bit better at night. Knowing that I'm playing. Okay,

that's awesome that you could have that dialogue.

Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. I

mean, you know, we have a dialogue, you know, they don't have to listen, but we talked, and they did, you know. And, you know, it's,

well, you had an interesting, and one of the reasons why we wanted to make sure and get your perspective was, you know, with this, this will come out as part of an industry series that we're doing is we're trying to get some different experiences from folks who've been working during the pandemic, and you had the first season coming out right as the pandemic started, right.

And brother, we had a, we had a 22 episode order and got lucky because we made it all the way to Episode 20. And when it really hit in mid in mid March, and so we lost the final two, but they were able to, since we shot the finale out of order, because of my protein schedule, we got lucky. Wow, we're able to splice it together and finish the first season, and then enter our natural hiatus period. But you know, of course, then we came back a lot later than we would have because everything was on hold. So instead of coming back to shoot in July and premiere in August, we didn't even start shooting till October. And then we premiered January of this year.

I remember that because because you and Shelly and me and Whitney, were catching up on zoom. And you said you were going into to your shoot schedule again. And that was that wasn't even at the beginning of October. That was pretty late in October. Yeah. Remember?

Yeah. Like mid Yeah. Late enough. I mean, the longer it took, you know, each day, sort of, because, you know, I like to, I like to work everybody, like, you know, a lot of people enjoy working. And we, as actors, we like to do do do instead of just sit around and do other things that aren't related to our craft. And so I want to get back, you know, but yeah, I didn't feel I felt, you know, I still felt blessed that I had a job to look forward to. I didn't find myself complaining too much. And also, you know, as we all know, we find things that matter, matter during that time off, and we were lucky like for me, I got to spend more quality time with my son and really be there for him instead of all unset all the time and still be able to go back to the job and always sort of have these like nightmares of like, you know, what is it really gonna be like when we actually start production back up, you know, if I would have these nightmares where I was, like, all alone, like by myself, like, eating crafting, and like seeing other people walk by, but I couldn't like get to them, you know, after the cameras were would roll. And that's exactly what it was like when we went back.

Yeah.

So tell us a bit about some of that. Like, because you had the experience of shooting the first season in the before times, as I like to call it and then shooting in, like, truly still in the pandemic.

Yeah, it was. It I mean, I'm looking for a better word, but really surreal. surreal does sum it up because we went from and I was looking at these old photos the other day from first season we're out in the streets in New York City surrounded by all these crowds of people watching this film and you know, asking for, you know, having conversations and giving autographs and we're eating craft D just like with no, just open m&ms on the crafting table. And you're just reaching that licking fingers. Now the m&ms are individually wrapped. Now you're dang near individually wrapped my phone like you're embarrassed, it actually helps me lose a bit of weight because I'm afraid that because you have to ask for everything now.

Right now,

if I were to ask for what I used to get, I'd be like, so yeah, just give me a cup. I call it a snack pack. And what I want you to do is I want you to put a couple of those sweet, efficient, just a few. And that should do it. Maybe few jelly beans as well. I don't need much okay, Captain Crunch in there.

I love it. It's like the diet. It's like a four year olds dream diet right their

day and just want you know, my rule was as long as I can fit in my costume still go for it. But now, but now you have to ask. So, you know, yeah, but so the transition was like, you know, being able to in between takes, you know hanging around each other talk have that camaraderie talking about the same talk about life, talk about whatever, have lunch together first season, you know, all these things in the makeup room and the makeup trailer together. Now, you're coming back. It's in and it's like, you know, you show up, you're in, you're basically in your room until you shoot them the hair person comes in their makeup. And then until you're called to set and you're on everyone, the crew, everyone's mashed up your mashed up until they're about to call action, you know, and then you you take the the masks off, shoot the scene and you feel totally naked those first few times. Okay, I think this is okay, we're all tested here, right? I had a rapid and a PCR and all this stuff. And I think it matters and helps and but who nobody really knows, but we want to make television. So do the scene, throw your mask back on. And, you know, they have like a circle of you know, the cast chair still exists. So you know, they'll have the regular cast, the regulars cast chairs set up, like spaced out across the room, you know, like diamond shape. And so you can like sit there and kind of feel each other's presidents and yell across the room and still chat and talk with your masks on and take it down when you want to have a sip of coffee or something. You know, total firstworldproblems you know, no big deal at all, but just a marked difference from Yeah, and

I don't think I mean, actors understand that. All that all that time. In the cast chairs sitting next to each other, you're building rapport, you actually might also be working on the relationships between your characters. And it doesn't seem like you are maybe to someone watching on the outside, but you're building those relationships. Like for example, your your team of detectives, and you got to you got to remind yourself all the time that that team relationship. And and that's what you're also building in all that what looks like downtime, but it's actually his actors. Were still working. That's right. That is so true. Yeah.

And also imagine that, like when you say bringing down the mask to do a scene and you feel like naked, I would imagine that that would probably be distracting for the first couple of takes or so just like that sort of self awareness of like, like, Oh, no, I'm doing the thing I know, we're not supposed to do even though it's a safe environment. And we've all been tested. Have you been? Have you been worried about catching it in those instances?

Well, I was in the beginning, and then I sort of became a bit numb to it. You know, just it was just like, because otherwise I'd go a little crazy. If I'm always thinking about catching it. I just got to the point where I was like, whatever I mean, I'm doing everything I can within the bounds of what I'm allowed to do or what I'm told to do. And I felt like I was you know, really one of the strangest things was not even taking the mat It was strange taking the mask off the first time. But it was even more difficult having it on and doing the scene for the first time.

So in rehearsal you you kept the mask.

Yeah, we keep we keep you keep the masks on for her. Oh my God when you come back in and do the scene without the mask on. I'm like, that's not what their face look like during rehearsal. I didn't know what was going on

doing two different scenes now.

Director comes in like I need more from you actually, for this next step. You can't see what I'm doing. You can't see me. Really no said that to me. They never asked for more, but I'm saying if they did, that's what it would have felt like

I was dangerous. asking you for more Oh, yeah. real small. I'm curious. So do you remember some of those? Because you guys were shooting last fall? Do you remember some of those testing protocols? How many times were you being tested a week?

Yeah, it was the same all throughout the season. Up until the end, we ended the end of April. Okay. And it was basically, yeah. And you know, the season isn't over yet. Air don't finished airing until the end of May. But we were done shooting end of April. And basically up until that moment, you know, it was it was every, every day you're on set, there's at least going to be a rapid test. And there was like a three day cadence is what they would call it, they call it with the PCR. And so you do that every few days, every three days or so. And that was everywhere. That was the show up, you go to the testing trailer, and you get your whatever, it's going to be a PCR and a rapid or just a rapid if that's what you're getting that day and say hello to the to the, to the nurses and have a chat and then roll on out to the inside to go inside the studio. Yeah, because you couldn't technically enter the studio until you were tested. And that's good. You know, so you wait, you know, 10 minutes or so until you're clear or 15 or however long it takes. Wow, coffee or something.

So you're looking at about seven tests a week.

Yeah. And, you know, the good thing was, is that was that they didn't it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would it. I know when they first I think we started at the right time because it nurses figured out rhythm of you know, get putting the Q tip up there. And they have to go so far so hard. And so by the time we came along, it was

Wait, we'll wait wait prank, you know, that's not supposed to be anal. Oh, I requested. Nevermind. 2021 Let's hear like while you're taking my tablet, as well.

The liars. And really it had nothing to do. I was wondering why I don't really supposed to be doing a maximum two tests, but it was always three.

Don't you guys remember those, like early days of testing where they would shove it and you could like feel it tickling your eyeballs in your brain? You know what I'm saying? And now it's they've calmed down a little bit.

Yeah, they just swirl it around for 10 seconds. Yeah.

Rolling around. It's a light touch to light tickle. And it feels kind of fun. If you think about it the right way.

Okay, okay, we're not gonna go there. No, I was literally talking about the technical, technical mind. I want to know, is when it comes to like being on set and everything when it comes to interacting with other people. Do you see anything returning to normalcy? Is anything starting to relax a little bit? Or are they still maintaining these really, really strict standards?

Yeah, I mean, where we left off? I mean, yeah, it was, you know, you'd have yet even if you had the vaccine, you know, you're fully vaccinated two weeks out, you still had to follow the protocol. And I feel like it will be that way, at least to the end of you know, this year. And, you know, maybe they'll do something where,

you know,

if you if you're outside, you don't have to wear the mask or something. Yeah. Because at this point, it's like, even if you're outdoors outside the studio, if you're on that block, it's overcup you weren't wearing that mask. Yeah. You know, and so maybe that'll relax a bit. Maybe we'll be able to come back to being in the same makeup trailer or makeup room or you know, hang out in between takes a different way. You know, go out to gatherings again, have missed Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got she had a second season, man. Oh, gosh, we used to go to these dinners. And you know, you get to go out to LA to the Beverly Hilton for the tgase and swimming around in that pool. Even if you're the only one in it, and everybody's like why is that person swimming?

So you're in the shot. You're in the we're interviewing here. Exact

sir. Why are you wearing a full suit in the pool? This is an award ceremony. Exactly. And you won Best as also in the bull. what's what's sort of like coming up for you? Do you have any good plans? Do you have any like roles or work you have coming up that you are allowed to share with us?

It's one of those things where it was talking to my wife about this the other day, we basically were like, you know, we're gonna go to like St. Thomas or we had a Hawaii trip plan for last summer we were to this summer and they were like, well, we don't want the kid traveling hours from New York to Hawaii with a mask on that probably won't be fun. And when we get there, we had to wear masks forget it canceled that stay local us New York beaches, which, you know, they're fun. And then, as far as like, work, you know, it's, it's, you know, I just started with, like, new agents and everything, and they're great. They're awesome. But it's like, you know, what do they do because we don't know how long the hiatus is gonna be. We don't know when we're gonna come back. So it's like, do you do some theater? That's not really happening? Do you do so so I'm in the mix now for like, you know, like the new Noah bombeck film for the couple of scenes, you know, like, that I could do quickly and nice. And, you know, like, you know, going on in, you know, meeting with folks about this show p Valley. I'm stars tomorrow. And you know, just like just just trying to figure out if I can fit in a guest spot or a nice Ricker that can work around the show. Yeah. Because otherwise, what do you do you know that you can't really do anything more than a few months, Max. And so we're trying to just fit it in where we can, because you're I mean, it sounds like you're because you're doing 22 episodes, you're pretty much as a six months schedule, shooting schedule, right? Yeah, well, that was the thing. COVID Actually, it was actually still about that even when we chopped it down for Season One was 22, we're probably we're gonna come back around 22 for season two, but then it got kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed. So we ended up back down to 13. And so those all got chopped away. And then, or depending on how you look at it, they've been reordered 13. And that still took the same amount of time, because of all the COVID protocols and people being Oh, wow, you know, oh, we lost a regular this week or for two weeks, you know, okay, rewrites, you know, like, let's move this episode, that slot and this to that episode. And wow,

I don't think I realized that it was. So it was it was that malleable that you could excuse me change it? Like,

I don't think they did either. Wow. That's not, that's not preferred?

No, no, I can imagine they were that because that is something we know, it just does not happen that way. And it had to happen that way, this time, if you want to keep the show alive. So I'm sure I know, the creators and the writers and everybody, they were like, Oh, my gosh, what, but they did it, they made it work. You don't any lose, you know, you have to kill a lot of your babies, because you know, you for lack of a better metaphor, because you don't have the time or the person or the space anymore to do it. And you just try to find something different last minute, you know, and make it work and pull it off, you know, pulled together we had you know, Catherine Zeta Jones join the cast this season. And and, you know, so they had to say So you not only had not only did you have COVID, sort of, you know, messing with scheduling, but then you also had these great actors who joined like Alan coming and Catherine zetta, which added another layer of you know, trying to fit really great storyline in for all the regulars, regulars that you already have. And then these great guest stars that come on now within 13 episodes, dealing with people in and out because of COVID it was just, I couldn't I mean for them to balance all those plates in the air like that. I mean, it's a lot. That's a lot. I mean, it was like probably like 100, you know, line producers that retired, like, right before the season after COVID it, you know, I'm not doing this.

That's crazy. So you had mentioned a little bit ago about the family. And I'm curious, you know what conversations you guys had about? I've heard a lot of friends who are shooting on shows say that the safest they felt was on set. Did you did you have any concerns during the pandemic about bringing something home? Did you feel more safe? going to set the need at the grocery store? Were there any of those kind of comparisons?

Well, I'm trying to remember back now I never really I never felt unsafe, but that I think that's just my personality. Anyway, I'm like, uh, you know, like, it was, it was my time. It's my time. So like, I did everything I was supposed to do. And I assume they were too. So I just yeah, I mean, if initially, maybe there was a small bit of anxiety like, oh, man, what if I catch this or that? But I could do that walking down the street. Yep. Anything so very true. And actually look at it. It probably was one of the safest places to be in the world. Because he had he had a controlled situation where they're testing you all the time and up and you know, distance and I just yeah, I felt I felt pretty good. You know, they were like, probably a few times where I was like, Oh, wait a minute, you know, what was this person? So did they have it or didn't they It was around them too long. Because the thing is, the way it works is if someone tests positive and broken up into zone color zones, so my color zone was red, that's where the series regulars were the director and like people, makeup, hair, things like that. So if, excuse me, someone from hmu test positive, and you know, the next question is okay, which series regular does that person work with? Mainly, how long were they around that? You know, contract duration based? Yeah. And, you know, so you just, you always hope that people, you know, tell the truth, like, How long were you clean? How long were you around? So until that tested positive? Yeah, I'd probably say no more. For our our minutes or so.

Please don't put me in a cage and lock me away.

We're still doing the show. Right. But I think everybody was pretty honest about it, I'd say and, you know, then so you know, it's Yeah, it's it was a thing is just, it's so many, there's so many gray areas. They don't even know what to say how many feet back where you're sitting in the van. But the driver tested positive in your van, you know, how many feet? Were you aware how many inches or whatever? I mean, I don't I'm not I mean, I'm no mapping petition. But

we went into acting for a reason that we don't do math. I don't know.

If there's something you can glean from this podcast, it's that math is not an act of strux. No, no, unless it's counting that money that I can do.

Yeah. Do you have accountants, so

it was great hearing about what life was like, on on set, you know, I, I know a few people who were lucky enough to be on set throughout the pandemic, but I was really interested in your experience, because you had that all that time, right before and then during. So thank you for, for sharing that. And I'm so glad you got through it without any issues. And that, you know, you feel safe to keep going. And hopefully we'll return to some kind of normal. I don't know, within our lifetimes,

and you really seem to be making the best of it, too. And, you know, I can tell that you're still getting, you're still gleaning a lot from the experience. And that gives me just as fellow actors, it gives us a lot of hope to know that the good work is still happening and continuing.

Yes, it is it really I think everybody should feel confident that everyone should feel confident that the industry is going strong, and the protocols are there and what the work will continue. And, you know, there'll be hiccups along the way as we figure this out. But we wait, we completed a season of a show. Yeah. You know, it wasn't easy, but we did it as possible.

Yeah. And it sounds like everybody played ball, you know, everybody was on the same page, the goal was for everybody to be working and get that show accomplished. And so long as we can do things like that, I think we'll, we'll continue to hear success stories,

your Warner Brothers was, you know, they were excellent at just planning all this impossible stuff and making our lives as easy and safe as possible, so that we could really do the job that we came to do, which was, you know, actor, or, you know, whatever, you're supposed to be doing camera work. Because otherwise, it's like, if you think you think about it, you're like we're spending all this energy doing, you know, it's like 70% of your energy is out the door by the time you get there from dealing with all this other stuff. And it's like, oh, yeah, right, but I'm supposed to be doing the scene.

Right? Well, and and when COVID has nothing to do with your storyline, so your character, you've got to be in your character's mind, which has nothing to do with a pandemic yet. You're you're wearing a mask during a rehearsal. Are you supposed to get into character? Yeah, no, it's true. It's like why is JT covering his mouth? The entire album, first of all? It's been real fun, guys. Yeah, it's been awesome. Caroline, do you want to ask you?

I do have I like, I have one question we love to end with and I think we've been touching on it already. But I want to know what what gives you hope and what keeps you going these days?

Oh, man, it may sound cliche, but I don't give it to the fruity it's my son. Yeah, no, that's it. I mean, that really is and that was one of those people to like, before we had kids, I was like, give up my freedom. Oh, hell no. Yo, behind and heavy. But then he got here and I was like, You selfish bastard. Like, you know, like, because the thing is, I would say, if you're on the fence about having children just have them anyway because you can least get them up for adoption if you don't want them. And then, you know, at least you have the choice. And so you know, I'm kidding of course, okay.

You're fucking hilarious, dude. Yeah, that's gonna be that's gonna be our episode clips that we advertise this episode. Damn it good. Me, I'll go on Bill Maher. Oh, God, please don't do that.

amount of times. I've been told when Whitney and I are like, we don't want to have kids when people are people just respond with your thinking about it too much. Just do it. I really would be bringing a life into this world. Would you say that about murdering somebody? Like you're thinking about it, but just take a life. You know?

You can't think about it. You won't do it. Get advice? don't end up in prison and don't have good Oh, my God. But no, I think I think everyone should give it a try. You might like it. And in the end, they really are. Murder again. Are you? I'm gonna plead the fifth on that one. I'll let the audience come in. Let's just say it wasn't murder. My lawyers over here my ear. Shut shut. Jim. You want to I'll take us out right now. Jim knows he's gonna get extractivism Be quiet. No lawyer. But, you know, I say I mean, Hendricks Hendricks has his name. Yeah. Right. I said he's two and a half. He's almost three, two and three quarters. And he's just, he's like, he literally has a spitting image. And he gives me hope. Because here's the thing because he teaches me so much about myself. Because, you know, you can hide from yourself if you don't have kids, like, you know, but they let you know, like, they they find the weakest link. And just like, you know, like, just press on it press on and press on it. You know, like daddy in the bathroom all the time. Like, I was just in the reading, you know, like

kids calling you out in your IBS isn't? Yeah.

full scale bullshit monitor. Anyway, that yeah, that's what gives me hope, man. And just the fact that Well, again, may sound cliche, but we're alive. Yeah, we're alive man. In a world in a COVID world and no, in the world period. Like we're here. We're breathing. We're warm. It's like, anything we want and nothing could stop us. Master knows no masks. You know, we only the only thing that can stop us is ourselves. You know? It's like I always tell people there's nothing new under the sun except you. So go on and find your signature and run it until the wheels fall off, baby.

Hey, this is Caroline. Raymond. Thank you so much for listening to fatigued

from patients to paramedics long haulers to lessons learned. Sure it's the same virus but these are very different stories.

If you have a question or a story you'd like us to address on an episode, please email us at fatigued podcast@gmail.com that's fit igpu ed podcast@gmail.com. And don't forget to check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter clubhouse, right clubhouse. What is that? I don't even know. But whatever it is, we're here to offer genuine conversations so we can humanize the issue surrounding COVID and the pandemic. These stories deserve the space to be remembered and we relish the opportunity for connection in this isolated time. Perhaps you will to stay positive test negative and thanks for listening. Bye