Photo: Kevin Scanlon
We caught up with actor Josh Pais who can be seen playing Herb Richman alongside Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane in the new Netflix limited series A Man in Full. From award winning creator David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies), the drama series premiered on May 2 and is based on the New York Times bestselling novel by the late Tom Wolfe. It follows Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker (Daniels) facing sudden bankruptcy, political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace.
Josh also played Wade in the 2022 Hulu miniseries The Dropout starring Amanda Seyfried. His first lead in a film was playing and voicing Raphael in the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We asked Josh about his over three-decade long acting career, working on A Man in Full, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and being part of the horror franchise Scream in Scream 3
Check out our conversation below.
What can you tell us about your character in Netflix’s A Man in Full?
Josh Pais (JP): Herb Richman, my character in A Man in Full, owns a fitness empire. He is a guy with tons of power, yet he feels no desire to outwardly exhibit his wealth and business prowess. When Jeff Daniels’ character tries to get Herb to help him out, there is a great showdown and powerplay between us as Jeff’s character is constantly trying to show the world that he has all the power in every situation.
What was something you enjoyed about filming A Man in Full?
JP: I’ll tell you the most outrageous thing that happened on set. In one scene, Jeff’s character tries to prove to me how powerful he is by showing me two of his horses mating. Well, not as planned, there was some issue with the male horse successfully, shall we say, mounting the female horse. And for the safety of the horses we couldn’t keep filming the ‘mounting.’ So, the horses were brought back to the stables and director Tommy Schlamme put the camera on me and described what my character would be looking at. “Ok, here comes the stud. He’s looking at the mare. He’s getting ‘firm.’ And now he’s mounting. Thrusting…” In retrospect it was a hysterically funny day as he described the sex act.
What is the best advice someone has ever given you about acting and storytelling?
JP: Trust your actual experience in the moment and always offer that. If you work from your truth the story will come to life perfectly. If you separate from your truth, you break the tether with the audience and they will disengage. This is one of the things I teach in my Committed Impulse (committedimpulse.com) workshops.
Horror movies are huge and getting even more popular. What was it like being part of one of the biggest horror franchises in Scream 3?
JP: I was finishing a movie that Wes Craven had directed me in called Music of The Heart. I had the delight of working opposite Meryl Streep. And as we were in the final days of production on that film, he offered me a role in Scream 3. We had so much fun filming it. Wes was one of the most playful directors I’d ever worked with. Having watched the first Scream, it was trippy filming with Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and the rest of the cast. For horror fans, also check out another horror film I did called Teeth. That’s a wild ride.
The TMNT universe is here to stay. You played Raphael in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. What’s it like being part of the TMNT universe and being part of it from early on?
JP: Well, not only did I voice Raphael, but I was also the only actor who was both in the 70lb turtle suit, and did the voice. It was a wild shoot being inside the turtle body. We lost 5lbs every day just from morning to lunch break because the suits were so incredibly hot.
When my agent called me and said I had an audition for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I thought my hearing was off. “Wait, what is the title?” He had to say it three times, and I was still baffled. And before I knew it, I was flown to Jim Henson’s creature shop in London to get body casted, followed by three months of martial arts training, and the rest is history.
What is your favorite thing about being a storyteller?
JP: I love the challenge of engaging the audience. I have always been curious how a performance can fire an audience’s imagination. It’s a delicate balance between being truthful without ‘telling’ the audience what they should think. As actors in this era, our competition is a drunk woman on YouTube falling off a table. People will watch the woman fall because it’s real. As actors we have to bring our truth in each moment to everything we create if we want to create a reality that’ll keep the audience guessing at what’s going to happen next. I do hope the woman who fell off the table is okay.
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