My worst moment: ‘Inventing Anna’ co-star Anders Holm on the perils of improvising a line about crypto and calling a fellow actor ‘old’
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“Inventing Anna” on Netflix stars Anna Chlumsky as a pregnant magazine journalist obsessively investigating a con artist, with Anders Holm playing her patient husband, forever encouraging his spouse to find a better work-life balance.
“He’s kind of the reality check for her,” said Holm. “She’s hyper-driven about this story and she’s buried herself in it, and I’m the guy who’s like: ‘Yes, I love that about you — but you’re going to have this baby in two weeks and I want to make sure you’re taking care of yourself as a person, as well as a journalist.’”
An Evanston native who first gained fame as part of the central trio on Comedy Central’s “Workaholics,” Holm is just one of several cast members in “Inventing Anna” who has ties to the Chicago area, including Chlumsky, Steppenwolf Theater founders Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney, and “Succession” alum Arian Moayed.
When asked about a worst moment in his career, Holm didn’t need to dig back too far: “This is very recent and it was definitely a foot-in-mouth moment where I was like, you’re an idiot! And it involves another Chicago person.”
My worst moment …
“I was filming in Mobile, Alabama on a forthcoming movie called ‘About My Father’ with (Chicago native and comedian) Sebastian Maniscalco, who plays a guy who’s going to propose to his blue-blood girlfriend. Robert De Niro plays his father and they’re both blue collar Chicago Italians, and they go to the country house of the girlfriend’s family, and I play the obnoxious brother-in-law-to-be, so I get to wear all sorts of insane blazers and say things about yachts and Jet Skis.
“So we’re filming a scene and I improvised something about crypto currency. That’s just my guy’s speed, right? I’m working with David Rasche, who is playing my father — David is also, incidentally, from Chicago and came up through Chicago theater (and currently plays Karl on “Succession”) — and the director says to him, ‘Any maybe you should say …, ’ I forget the exact words, but it was some kind of affirmative thing that made it sound like he understood crypto currency.
“And I said, ‘Well, he could. But old people don’t really know about crypto currency.’
“And the entire set went quiet (laughs). And my heart just sank.
“And then David, who is hilarious, just goes: ‘Old people? Are you talking about me? I’m the old person? Hey Kim’ — Kim Cattrall plays my mom — ‘we’re the old people. We don’t know about crypto currency, we’re too old.’
“And I was like (long pause), ‘That’s not what I’m saying — it is what I’m saying, but it’s not.’
“And I was like, oh man, why didn’t I just say, ‘Do we think David’s character would really know the in’s and out’s of crypto currency?’ instead of, ‘old people don’t know about crypto, you guys are old.’ (Laughs)
“So I was like: ‘OK, let me formally apologize. I did not mean to call you guys old.’ And I didn’t! I was talking about their characters, who are kind of fuddy-duddies, at least David’s character is this clueless old rich guy.
“This was Day 1 or Day 2 and I was like, did I just set the worst tone for this movie shoot by calling the people who are playing my parents old? And Kim Cattrall, I love her too — I was bothering her way too much about (her 1986 movie) ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ — they were both giving me grief. So after we did a few takes, I said: ‘I want to apologize again, I’m so sorry, I take it all back.’
“And then 10 more minutes went by and they were ribbing me a little more. They knew they had their boot on my neck at that point. So I said: ‘Alright, (screw) it, do you know about crypto?’ (Laughs) And David goes, ‘What if I do?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know! Do you know anything about it?’ And he goes, ‘No, of course we don’t!’ And I go, ‘That’s kind of what I was saying!’
“Not that I know anything about crypto either, by the way (laughs), and I did say that: I’m 40 and even I’m too old to know about crypto.”
According to Google, Rasche is 77. The connotation of “old” is always considered a negative rather than a neutral descriptor. So how does one appropriately describe a person who is in their late 70s?
“I know! And I wasn’t like, ‘Hey, withered near-death people don’t know about crypto.’
“Luckily the tone was not set in a way that ended up ruining the shoot. I walked into this trap and they knew they could turn the screws a little and have some fun — and know that me, being a comedic actor, I could take it. If I lost my cool? Now, that would be insane, right?
“So I won them back with my trademark buffoonery. I won them back because they realized I wasn’t a (jerk), I was just a guy who misspoke and, for sure, will misspeak again. But I’ll try to be more careful. It just highlights how important word choice is. I could have said, ‘People of a certain age might not know about crypto,’ instead of ‘Old people don’t know about crypto and you’re in that cage of ‘old.’”
What might happen if and when Holm reaches 77 himself and a 40-year-old calls him old?
“I’ll let it slide and then later that day fake a heart attack in front of them and look into their eyes in a way that traumatizes them, and then go: ‘Life’s too short.’ And I collapse and let it ride for a bit. And then I jump up and go, ‘Acting!’”
The takeaway …
“Be a little more thoughtful with your words. Especially on Day 1 (laughs). I was just too casual. I was too flippant about: These people are funny, they get it.”
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic
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