In today's Sci-Fi Blast From the Past, actor Tyler Labine (who can currently be seen as Dr. Iggy Frome in New Amsterdam) talks about his first season playing Bert "Sock" Wysocki in Reaper. Enjoy!
Where, oh, where is Tyler Labine? On this particular Friday afternoon, the Canadian-born actor, who is currently starring as Bert “Sock” Wysocki on the Fox TV Fantasy/Comedy series Reaper, is hanging out at a mini-golf course somewhere in British Columbia. A reporter and film crew from Entertainment Tonight Canada are scheduled to arrive shortly to shoot an on-camera interview with Labine about his work on Reaper. “They asked me about my favourite spots and I suggested we come out here, so here I am,” he says.
In Reaper, Labine’s character of Sock helps his friends Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez) track down souls that have escaped from Hell in order to return them to the underworld. When they are not “soul wrangling,” the three spend their days employed at a chain store called Work Bench, or in Sock’s case counting down the hours until quitting time. Not the most productive worker, he often spends time snoozing away in the stock shelves and daydreaming about such things as opening a topless supply store. However, despite his lackadaisical approach to work as well as goofball demeanor, Sock’s friends/coworkers can count on him when the chips are down, and Labine appreciates that aspect of his character.
“I think a lot of people are under the impression that it’s pretty easy to be the joker and say ridiculous things,” muses the actor. “When you’re bombarded, though, with being the levity and the comedic relief of a TV show, you find yourself not only having to make a lot of things work, but also wanting more. And by that I mean you want to show that your character can be something other than a boob. That’s been a big challenge for me insofar as talking with the writers [on Reaper] and saying, ‘I don’t want to make another joke about Sock being fat and I don’t want to eat another burrito. I want something meatier for him.’ They’ve been extremely receptive about that and have been giving me more interesting and juicy things to do as Sock. I’ve tried to make my character a little more well-rounded and three-dimensional, and that can be tricky when you’re expected to just be funny.”
If you recognize Labine, you’re in good company. Besides his feature film work, he is well-known by audiences from guest-roles on such TV series as The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Traveler and Boston Legal. The actor was also a regular on Dead Last and, just last year, Invasion. When that program was cancelled, Labine remained with Touchstone Pictures as part of a development deal, and then came Reaper. Its pilot was directed by the award-winning Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy).
“When I met with Kevin Smith, he walked into the audition room and said, ‘Come outside with me,’” recalls Labine. “So we went outside, smoked cigarettes and talked about the show. Kevin and I saw eye-to-eye on lots of things, such as what I wanted to do with the character and what he felt I should do. After our meeting, I got a phone call offering me the job, and, of course, I said, ‘Yes.’”
In the Reaper pilot, Sam Oliver discovers that before he was born, his parents sold his soul to the Devil (Ray Wise). Using his newfound abilities (including telekinesis and electrical powers) along with vessels handmade in Hell, he must now serve as Lucifer’s personal bounty hunter and track down escaped souls. With vessel in hand, in this instance a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, Sam and his friends, Sock and Ben, set out to find and capture the soul of an arsonist who is repeating the crimes he committed in life. Despite his years as an actor, Labine still had the proverbial butterflies in his stomach while filming his first episode.
“My nerves were pretty frazzled because I had this job offered to me,” he notes. “As an actor that’s a great feeling, but then you show up on day one and think, ‘Oh, my God, as soon as I open my mouth, they’re going to figure out that I suck and that they made the wrong choice.’ Even though you know it’s all actors’ neurosis, you can’t help but think that. So there was all that pressure being built up with the job offer, and then there was the anticipation of working with a guy of Kevin Smith’s stature. I thought, ‘I’ve got to have a good line of communication with him, and I hope he’s good to work with and that he likes working with me.’ I remember sweating bullets before stepping on the Reaper set that first day, but as soon as I opened my mouth I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, this character [of Sock] fits well. I’m going to – hopefully – be wearing him for a while.’”
Since being “drafted” into service for the Devil, Sam, Sock and Ben have captured and returned several souls to Hell, including a former disgruntled magician who is killing people who don’t appreciate his act (Magic), the former head of a chemical company that dumped toxic waste (What About Blob?) and a repentant soul who killed U.S. President William McKinley (Leon). So far, Labine’s favourite season one Reaper episode is The Cop, where Sock falls for Gladys (Christine Willes), a demon who works at the DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles), which actually houses a portal to Hell.
“When I read that script I was like, ‘Wow, every element is here that we want in this show,’” enthuses the actor. “You know when you start watching a new TV series and you can see them ‘setting the table,’ but that’s OK because you know they have to lay the foundation for what’s ahead. Well, once we’d passed that point we were anxious to see where they [the show’s producers and writers] were going to take us next. Episodes seven and eight were the first to ‘break the mold’ if you will.
“Episode seven, Love, Bullets and Blacktop, was great. We had a blast shooting that, but then number eight [The Cop] came along,” continues Labine. “One of my favorite scenes in it is when my character makes out with Gladys. That was really, really fun. Then there was another scene, which was cut down quite a bit in the final edit, where Sock visits Gladys in his dreams, but you don’t realize it’s a dream. I had almost a full-page monologue where he’s apologizing to her, and it gave me the opportunity to dig into a bit of a different Sock. Again, because you don’t know it’s a dream, I was able to play around with some of the inner workings of my character’s psyche, and I had such a good time with that. Going back to what I was talking about earlier, that’s the meatier stuff I want for Sock. I was really pleased with the final product and I think this episode is one of our best comedic moments on the show so far.”
Prior to Reaper, the actor worked on the short-lived but critically-acclaimed series Invasion, in which Labine played Dave Groves, a conspiracy theorist from Homestead, Florida who helps uncover a plot to replace humankind with a new form of life.
“Like Reaper, this was another show where as an actor you get to wear every hat,” says Labine. “I got to do a lot of dramatic work as well as action and some pretty funny stuff. I had to constantly be aware of the stakes in the scenes. It was extremely flattering for someone like me, who’s primarily a comedic actor, to be trusted to run with the more dramatic elements. Then there was the opportunity to work with such an amazing cast that included Bill Fichtner, Kari Matchett and Eddie Cibrian. You really had to step up to the plate to go toe-to-toe with such actors. The intensity they brought to the work and just to be in the same [acting] arena as them was a real treat.
“To top it off, we were working with [series creator/executive producer] Shaun Cassidy. At the beginning, we all thought we were making a show about alien invasion, but he was quick to sort of say, ‘No, no, no.’ Shaun then walked us through this huge chronology of what was going to happen in Invasion and our jaws hit the floor. The stuff that came out of that guy’s imagination was awe-inspiring and I hope to work with him again some day.”
At the time of this interview, Labine and the rest of Reaper’s cast and crew were busy filming the 12th episode of season one. “In this one I’m finding myself in some pretty physically demanding situations involving jogging suits as well as paintball suits,” chuckles the actor. “We’re trying to deal with an invisible demon that we’re chasing through the woods, so you can pretty much figure out where the paintballing comes into it.
“It’s quite an amusing, clever episode, and there’s also this whole other storyline in it where Sam, Ben and Sock move in together and set up their own little ‘reaper lair.’ We finally meet my character’s Mom, too, who’s a bit of a wild card. She comes back from Las Vegas with a very big piece of news for Sock. It subsequently blows up in their faces, though, and he leaves home to try to punish her for being cruel to him and ends up moving in with Sam and Ben for a little while.
“Honestly, we’re having such a terrific time that it doesn’t even feel like work now,” enthuses Labine. “Just before the writers’ strike began, the network ordered a couple of more episodes, so we’re totally thrilled to be here working.”
Steve Eramo
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