We rarely cover television with any real focus around these parts, but as you’ve probably gathered from my sporadic posts on the matter, I’m really digging the new season of “Rescue Me.” So it was a little difficult to pass up an opportunity to sit down with the film’s star and co-creator Denis Leary recently.
With the Emmy nominations set to be unveiled next week (7/9), it seemed the perfect time to get together. Leary was nominated for his performance as FDNY firefighter Tommy Gavin two years in a row in 2006 and 2007, but was unfortunately ignored last year. Perhaps this new, electrifying season will put him back in the awards saddle as he seeks his first win in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Leary, of course, got his first big break on MTV, where his chain-smoking, ranting misanthrope appealed to the pent-up angst of the network’s target audience. From stand-up to film roles and finally a break-out FX series, now in its fifth season, Leary has continued to stretch himself both as a writer and an actor. His most recent big screen appearance hit screens yesterday in the form of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” Leary voices the sabertooth tiger Diego in the successful franchise.
On a drizzly Santa Monica afternoon last month we met for lunch and discussed his versatile career, from his early years at Emerson College in Boston to his recently released best-selling comedy book, the edgeless MTV of today to his distant cousin Conan O’Brien’s assuming the “Tonight Show” throne on NBC late night. Oh yeah, and plenty of football talk between fellow devotees, for all the gridiron fanatics out there. There’s a little something for everybody…