TV Equals had the pleasure to chat with the brilliant Ato Essandoh who plays Doctor Matthew Freeman on BBC America’s Copper and Alfredo Llamosa on CBS’ Elementary.
Check out what he had to say below and don’t miss him in tonight’s season 2 premiere episode of Copper which airs at 10:00pm ET/PT on BBC America.
How are you able to balance a schedule between two shows?
Ato Essandoh: I actually have no idea. It’s funny because ‘Copper’ has been very accommodating as to letting me do other shows, and so ‘Elementary’ has been wanting to work with me more and more because my character…my character at first was just a one off. Then they just said, ‘Hey, bring him back, bring him back,’ which was great.
But what had to happen to fit me in was to a lot of times on those episodes, I would fly in. I would take a 6AM flight from Toronto where we’re shooting ‘Copper’ and land at seven in JFK, get picked up by the crew van and then drive straight to set and have to act. Lucy [Liu] was giving me all these suggestions, like, ‘Okay, do some jumping jacks. Wake up. Do you need some tea?’ Lucy Liu is so cool.
If you watch the last episode I was in, because I just watched it, in that first scene where you see me, where I’m like talking on the phone and I say, ‘Hey, come over and help my friend out,’ I remember just sort of mumbling through those lines and not reali ing it because it was so tired. It was like literally the first thing I did in the morning after flying . The other thing was because of the international travel, I was shooting ‘Copper’ until eleven o’clock at night at one point, and then I’d have to…because of the international travel you have to get to the airport earlier.
So I would have to take a three o’clock in the morning car, or some three or four pick up, to get to the airport. So I’m completely freaking knackered at this point. So Lucy is giving me massages and she’s giving me all this, because she has all this Chinese medicine knowledge. She’s like, ‘There’s some roots that you can use.’ I’m like, ‘Lucy, just get me through this first scene.’ So that was fun.
Can you talk about working with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy on the set of ‘Elementary’?
Ato Essandoh: It’s great. I’m a big fan of both of them just because of the work that they do. I mean, Jonny Lee Miller’s work is ama ing. In my career, I’ve done so many guest stars that I’m used to it, and what I say about being a guest star is that it’s like being invited to an acquaintances family reunion where you’re welcome, but you don’t actually belong. You don’t know where you’re supposed to sit. You don’t know what’s up with weird Uncle Bob. You don’t fit there.
However, Lucy and Jonny were so accommodating, sitting with me at lunch and letting me know what the writer’s were thinking. So I felt instantly like I was a part of the group and the crew, and the directors also…it was funny because as a guest star, you have to show up and just do your thing because they’re waiting to turn the camera on Lucy or Jonny or whoever the star is, Tom Selleck or whoever it is.
But with this, the director would come up and ask me my opinion. I’m like, ‘You want to know my opinion? OK.’ There was an artistic input that they actually wanted from me, and so as an actor, to have that sort of…given that respect for whatever reason, it was great. I’d love to work on that show again, if it all works out. I would go back and do some ‘Elementary’ in a heartbeat because it’s a fun character, and it’s a great contrast to what I’m doing on ‘Copper,’ too, because I get to play like the hoodie guy, kind of. Then I go to 1864 and I’m this doctor in 1864/1865 New York. So that’s great stuff.
I feel like there’s a part of Alfredo being the other Watson, to a certain degree.
Ato Essandoh: Yeah, yeah. I don’t want to blow up Lucy’s spot, but Lucy and Jonny were very excited to try and get me to do more episodes. Lucy shared that with me, and I know that there’s a little kindling on Twitter, if you will, every time I appear, Alfredo appears. People are like, ‘Yes! Alfredo,’ and there’s a Tumblr blog dedicated to the character of Alfredo. So I think that people are looking at that, and are going, ‘Yeah, Alfredo is good to have on our show,’ and it’s a fun character. I think it’s a supportive character which is great, and yes, being the other sort of hood watch is pretty cool, too.
What can you tease about what’s coming up in the second season of ‘Copper’?
Ato Essandoh: Ooh, I can tease that it’s going to be a lot darker and a lot more sex. Talk about tease, but it’s sexier and a lot more sex, and what’s great, we’ve brought on Tom Kelly who’s our show runner and Larysa Kondracki who’s our co-executive producer and the main director of the show, and they’ve brought a brightness and an openness to the show. The writers have really expanded such that it’s not so Copper central. It’s now more of an ensemble piece. So you’re going to get a lot more of all the other characters, including my character and [the character of my wife] as well, played by Tessa Thompson.
I’m really, really excited. I thought that this first season was a great season and they had a lot of, like, nice sort of cliffhanger moments and so forth. This has now become more of a sprawling tail about the sort of birth of one of the greatest cities in the world, and where it came from and really, really interesting and complex stories that are really character driven. So it’s really fun. Every time I get a new script, I email Tom Kelly and I’m like, ‘Dude, this is freaking awesome.’ Like, ‘Wow, look at all this stuff that I get,’ especially representing a black doctor in 1864 where you don’t think that actually exists.
It’s a real sort of…I hate to say responsibility, but there is a responsibility in telling that story as well. I think that they’re really starting to expand that part of the story and make it way more interesting. This is not what happened in season one at all. This was my fear though, and Tom Fontana, one of the show creators, he really set me straight on that, but my fear was, okay, we’re going to have a token black doctor who just shows up and says really cool medicalese stuff when he’s needed and then disappears until he’s needed, sort of that magic negro thing. But that doesn’t happen because the man has a wife. The man has ambition. The man has stuff to do, and so for me it’s an ama ing character to try to portray and they’re really not giving it short shrift. It’s only getting more complex, which is really fun.
If the characters of Alfredo and Matthew Freeman were to meet in real life, what do you think those two would say to each other?
Ato Essandoh: Oh, that’s funny. First of all, I think that Freemann would be ama ed at the car. It would be like, ‘So what is this horseless carriage? What is this internal combustion engine?’ But I guess what they would say to each other, that’s interesting and has never ben posed to me, but fascinatingly enough, I think that Freemna would be most interested in what the future looks like for black people in America.
So I think that Freeman would be ama ed that Alfredo has a freedom that Freeman doesn’t get to enjoy. I’m not saying that things now are perfect for black people or minorities, or so forth, but there’s been such a progression. I think the first thing Freeman would say is, ‘You have a black president? Are you serious? Come on. No, no, no.’ I think Alfredo would sort of have to explain how far things have come and how much more work there is to be done. I think the first thing that Freeman would be shocked with, yeah, is, ‘Oh, you have a black president, because we just got freed as slaves.’
Do you have any other upcoming projects you can talk about?
Ato Essandoh: Not yet, just because we shoot so long it’s hard to schedule anything. Hopefully stuff will come up in the summer. It usually does. I’d love to do more movies and stuff, and actually I want to do some more theater, some Broadway and stuff like that. Nothing in the pipeline yet, but the pipeline is still a pretty long ways off for me.
If you could guest star on any TV show, your pick of the litter, which one would it be?
Ato Essandoh: Ooh, it’s too late now, but my first thing is ‘Breaking Bad.’ But they’re done. Right now, and I know it’s my network, and so maybe I’m just a little biased, but more ‘Orphan Black.’ Have you seen that show? Dude, it’s a bad ass show. I was literally thinking, like, ‘Look, I’m on BBC America. They could hook me up with a couple of episodes of that,’ but that’s awesome. I met Tatiana [Maslany] at one of our up front advertising things, and she’s just awesome. They gave me the first four episodes and I watched them back to back. I was like, ‘This show kicks ass.’ So, yeah, that’s one that I’d love to be a guest star on.
Exclusive Interview: Ato Essandoh on Copper Season 2 & CBS’ Elementary
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