Ross McCall: The Everyday Guy Amidst the L.A. Insanity of "Crash"

(Ross McCall and Eric Roberts, left, in "Crash.")

By Terry Keefe

(This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)

It isn’t necessarily great news for an actor to hear that the television series they’ve been starring in is going to be “retooled” in its second season. Your character can be retooled right out the door. Or, it can develop significantly. The latter has fortunately been the case for actor Ross McCall, who has been playing Kenny Battalgia on “Crash” for both of its two seasons. Earlier in the year, veteran producer and writer Ira Steven Behr (“Deep Space Nine”) was brought on as the new show runner, and he merged Kenny’s storyline with that of billionaire Seth Blanchard, the billionaire played by Eric Roberts in the new season, and the major plot focus. Blanchard has a spiritual reawakening which causes him to forgo the building of a new L.A. football stadium in favor of putting his significant backing behind a major philanthropy project. Kenny, who was previously a somewhat wild young cop with the LAPD, is hired by Blanchard as his new head of security, and becomes his right-hand man to some degree. Kenny has to learn a much greater sense of responsibility, as he now knows he can actually help make a huge difference in the world via this project with Blanchard, if he can hold it all together.

Born in Scotland, McCall was appearing on London’s West End by the age of 11, in productions of “Oliver!”, “The King and I,” “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He received a major career break as an adult when he landed a starring role in the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers,” and has since gone on to starring roles in Green Street Hooligans, Waterland, and The Polar Express, which reunited him with “Band” producer Tom Hanks. We spoke to McCall when he was shooting a guest spot in New York on the series “White Collar.”

Not every character, and the actors that played them, made it back for the second season of the retooled “Crash.” How much did you know what was going to happen for you and your character of Kenny during the hiatus?

Ross McCall: I knew some of what was happening. I had spoken to the network and they were complimentary. A lot of people liked the character and they wanted to keep following him and the storyline. I didn’t know an awful lot though until I sat down with the producers. I knew we were going in a different direction, and I thought it would be cool if I could become a bodyguard for someone, like Kevin Costner (in The Bodyguard), and that’s sort of where it went. At first, I thought I was going to be playing a strip mall security guard the whole season, and I thought, “That wouldn’t be too heroic.” [laughs] But it worked out.

Last month, we spoke with Eric Roberts, who plays your billionaire boss, Seth Blanchard, on the show this season. At what point did you know that Eric was cast as Blanchard?

This business is a funny one sometimes, because it was already a week into shooting, when Ira [Steven Behr] and I were texting and we found out that we would get him. I knew he was on the list and that an offer had been made. I was so excited, and now he’s my new best friend. He was coming off another movie (The Expendables) and was kind of thrown into it. I felt for him, because I was doing the same type of thing in the first season. Shooting a movie along with the series, and having to keep two characters straight. He wasn’t sleeping that well, and I took him under my wing. There aren’t many scenes we don’t have together.

That‘s true. “Crash” is a unique series in the sense that it has a large, ensemble-sized cast, but with characters who are largely in their own, separate storylines, until some of them slowly start to intersect. Do you get to know many of the other cast members?

Yes, and kind of the beauty of this show is that you can have all these characters, but not have them all together at first. They run into each other sporadically and that keeps it exciting to work on. On those days, it’s nice to work with someone new.

To what degree do you keep up on the other storylines, prior to them intersecting with yours? You could probably get by with just reading your own scenes.

There’s a lot of people who would just do that [laughs]. But I read the entire first draft of every script, to see who’s talking about you. There are sometimes so many drafts after that in television that I would probably want to shoot myself in the head if I read all of them. But I do read the first one entirely, just to get a gist.

With so many characters on the show who are larger-than-life L.A. characters - music executives, billionaires, and the like - Kenny is sort of the everyman of the show this season.

Absolutely. With some of the crazy shit that’s going on, I dare say he’s the most normal [laughs]. I do think he’s the audience’s eyes and the only sane person. Kenny is also someone who we can continue to follow. He can go into new storylines from here, and I’m very grateful for that.

I was surprised to learn that you are originally from Scotland. I was trying to guess whether you, the actor, grew up in either Boston or Long Island, based on your accent on the show.

It’s a bit of both. The east coast thing is something I can do without having to think of it. Kenny was LAPD the first season, and he was very loosely based on the brother of the show’s creator, who was a New York cop. I really wanted that kind of street boy thing about him.

You’ve also managed to score the best love scenes of the season again, it seems.

It’s in my contract [laughs]. It doesn’t suck. Last year, I don’t think it was gratuitous. It was kind of angry sex. But this year, I wanted him to have a real relationship and I mentioned that to the writers - if he’s going to have sex, give him a relationship. With the hooker [that Seth Blanchard sent to his apartment at the beginning of the season]…last season Kenny would have been all over that. But now, he has a girlfriend.

You were one of the cast of the “Band of Brothers” series, which helped to launch the careers of a lot of fine actors. While researching the role, did you meet Cpl. Joseph Liepgott, the real-life soldier you were playing?

I was one of the few in the cast who didn’t get to do that, as he had died years before. We only had pictures and stories and the book. I did discuss him with some of the other guys. But we only couldn’t get a hold of the family for the longest time. Some of the family came forward after the show screened. A lot of the actors, the“Band” boys, are still pals. It really connected a group of us. Frank John Hughes and I just sold a show together, entitled “Golgatha.” And I’m actually staying at Matthew Settle’s right now (while shooting “White Collar” in New York). We all have rooms open for each other when we’re traveling.

When you were 12 years old, you played a young version of Freddie Mercury in the Queen video for the song “The Miracle.” I just watched it. You really had his moves down!

[laughs] It gets a lot of views. Someone will always find out about it when I’m working on a set and bring it out. I’ve made my peace with it now, but at 13-14 years old, you try to hide from it. You know, none of that was choreographed. As a kid, you can really pick stuff up. They just sent me a bunch of videos, and I was bouncing around like a crazy kid with a broomstick [laughs].