WIRX “Decoding Carnivale” call-in with Clancy Brown & Tim DeKay • 03-14-05

This is the transcript from Clancy’s radio call-in segment on Southwest Michigan’s WIRX/Rock 107.1, with Shelley Morgan.

SHELLEY: More revealed last night on HBO’s “Carnivale”. Brother Justin Crowe, actor Clancy Brown, is on the line and we’re gonna “Decode Carnivale.” Clancy, we found out a bit more about Brother Justin last night, and Apollonia, who is Sofie’s mom, and their, uh… well… I want to say relationship, but it wasn’t really a relationship.

CLANCY: Well, I STILL don’t think we found out the circumstances of it.

Shelley: But we saw a little bit more, and we know that Iris has knowledge of it. And so we didn’t know that before.

Clancy: Right. And we also know that Norman has knowledge of it, so this is obviously an episode in their past lives, but the details of it are still mysterious, and how they hooked up with each other. And that’s sort of what I want to know! (chuckling)

Shelley: Just cuz…

Clancy: Just cuz…

Shelley: It helps your backstory, right?

Clancy: It is a bit of backstory...

Shelley: It helps you as an actor.

Clancy: Uh, it explains things to everybody BUT Justin. So now, everybody’s hip to it, but Justin. He still doesn’t quite grasp it that that’s his daughter. But maybe he will, now that he’s got the boon… I’m not sure.

Shelley: Well, okay, now that you’ve brought up the boon… Have we ever really found out exactly what the boon is?

Clancy: Well… I… Ya know…

Shelley: Was it ever explained to you?

Clancy: Judging from what happened when Ben got his boon, I would think it’s, you know, it’s like a tremor, it’s like a seismic event in the metaphysical world that effects people that are sensitive. But I got mine and nothin’ happened to Ben!

Shelley: Thank you very much!

Clancy: So, I dunno!

Shelley: I noticed that! I was like, wait a second, shouldn’t Ben be like driving off the road now? Shouldn’t he be…? Shouldn’t he know it instinctively?

Clancy: You’d think that. I mean, it’s pretty obvious. Maybe Justin’s just more sensitive. I think that’s a joke, but I also think that the only explanation is that, somehow, Justin is just a little more empathetic to this metaphysical place, this astral world that they operate in. But yeah, you would think so. You would think that every time Justin draws upon that power source, that somehow Ben would respond. But, no, it doesn’t happen that way.

Shelley: All right! I told you we had a special guest… Let’s click it through! Tim DeKay, who plays Jonesy on “Carnivale”!

Clancy: Okay!

Shelley: Hello!

Clancy: Shelley?

TIM: Shelley!

Shelley: Yeah!

Clancy: Tim, Shelley.

Shelley: Hi!

Tim: Hi, how are ya?

Shelley: I’m doing well! How are you?

Tim: I’m good, thanks! I’m in an airport right now, just waiting to fly to Denver for some promotional stuff.

Shelley: And it’s always fun to fly to Denver in March! Eek!

Tim & Clancy: (laughing)

(Background noise of a flight being called over a loudspeaker)

Tim: See? That’s proof that I’m in an airport.

Shelley: (laughing)

Clancy: Ya know, what I wanna know is…

Tim: Yeah?

Clancy: … Why would Jonesy leave his wife, his new wife, to the mercy of Rita – who we both know is going to behave badly. And Jonesy knows it. He’s witnessed it. He knows how cruel they can be to Libby, and you’re lovely wife PLEADING with you not to do this…

Tim: Not to go. Right.

Clancy: And Ben saying, “Don’t come with me.”

Tim: Right. Why would Jonesy still do it? Well, he says, “I don’t know, it’s something I gotta do.” I guess… I think because if you were on your death bed, with tar & feathers all over you (chuckling), and somebody healed ya, you kinda owed them a little bit. And since Jonesy doesn’t have much in his pocket, he basically has gotta help him out that way. He knows he’s gotta do something. He’s got this feeling about Hawkins that he doesn’t know what… He certainly doesn’t know that it’s “save the world”, but he does know, well, maybe he’s got some score to settle with some guy in another town, something like that, and I’ll be there to help him.

Shelley: But we’ve been talking about how Jonesy is SO John Wayne!

Clancy: And that’s really what I was driving at! (chuckling) He doesn’t need to do anything that makes any sense, as long as he’s… I mean, to normal people, because he is, he just does the right thing. He intrinsically knows what has to happen.

Tim: Yeah, they certainly have written him that way.

Clancy: He doesn’t plead for his own life. He wants them to leave his wife alone. He wants them to leave the woman alone.

Tim: Oh, interesting!

Clancy: It’s kinda incredible! Well, it’s not incredible… It makes perfect sense.

Tim: He’s the one guy who gets up every morning, I think, on this show… The one character that just says, “I wanna do the right thing.” And sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. He certainly falls, he drinks a little too much, and maybe has too much of a temper. But he’s trying to do the right thing. It’s just innate. It’s in his nature. And I guess there is a bit of that John Wayne, the classic hero with flaws, kind of a Burt Lancaster. I remember Dan Knauf told me, if Burt Lancaster were alive, we’d try and cast him in the role instead of you. But there is that essence of Jonesy where, because I think there’s so many… not that he’s simple, because here’s so many complex elements going around in the story, that he’s there to just kinda keep it simple and try to keep it right.

Shelley: On the phone Tim DeKay and Clancy Brown from HBO’s “Carnivale”. We’re “Decoding Carnivale,” and maybe not even decoding “Carnivale” today, more than just talking to Tim & Clancy about their characters. So, havin’ a good time playing Jonesy, do ya Tim?

Tim: It’s fun playing him! Ya know, and I get to kiss Cynthia Ettinger, and I get to kiss Carla Gallo, and Clea DuVall, so I can’t argue that!

Shelley: Yeah! Life is rough!

Tim: Yeah, I know it.

Shelley: But then you get tarred and feathered.

Clancy: You never get to kiss me…

Shelley: No, there’s no kidding between the two of you?

Tim: Well, we’re NOT going to say anything… Keep watchin’!

Shelley: That’s future episode stuff! We can’t talk about that.

Tim: Exactly!

Shelley: So, one of the things that was so wonderful… And we’re not talking about Sunday night’s show, but the Sunday night before, when Ben heals Jonesy, it was so great to watch Jonesy’s joy at, first of all, still being alive and not having the tar and feather thing there. But when he realizes, ya know, his knee is okay now…

Tim: You know, you’ve carried around this burden for so long, and this thing that kept you from something that meant everything to you, and now you no longer have it.

Clancy: My favorite moment is when you realize you didn’t feel that pain anymore.

Tim: Yeah!

Clancy: You know, it’s become part of your daily life, and… you know, it was just great! It was like it just dawned on you, “Holy (bleeped)! Wait a minute…”

Tim: Yeah! It was also written in a way where he didn’t know either, Ben didn’t… “What are you talkin’ about?” You know… And it was still one of those things where Jonesy’s, “I’ve still gotta SEE it.” Even though I can run, even though I don’t feel any more pain, and I can bend it a certain way and I don’t have that awful feeling in my knee, I still have to see it to believe it.

Shelley: Sure, see it to believe it. Uh-huh.

Tim: Yeah, and then it’s just holy cow! Wow! It’s like winning the lottery. It was as if, you know, somebody just said, “You’ve won a million dollars.” And also it was interesting as an actor, because it informs, it just informs everything you do. It informs on how you sit in a scene, it informs… It’s always there, the pain of the knee and the fact that you have that brace is always there. And when you don’t, it’s interesting, cuz there were a couple of times where I was limping where they had to say, “Cut!” because I didn’t need to be limping anymore.

Shelley: Sure!

Tim: But I’m so used to being in that world with a limp. Yeah, it’s… it’s a great challenge. And one of the great things that the writers do, and I’m sure Clancy would attest to this, is that the STAKES are always so high in this show. It’s always fun to act with high stakes. Wouldn’t you say, Clancy?

Clancy: And the stakes were very clearly drawn in that… in my favorite moment in that scene, back there, when Libby says, “Are you GONNA come back?” And he says, “Well, yeah.”

Tim: Yeah! Of course, I will!

Clancy: And if I’m Jonesy, I don’t know what I’m getting’ into, but… (chuckles)

Tim: I know, I don’t!

Clancy: I’m coming back… I THINK I’m coming back… I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make it back, but you know, as we all know watching it, there’s a possibility not that you won’t come back because you’re dumping her, but you won’t come back because you’re dead!

Tim: True.

Shelley: Exactly.

Tim: Yeah.

Clancy: Yes, that was a great… That was a great final moment for you guys. You guys are good together, you and Libby.

Tim: Oh, it’s so fun! Yeah, she’s got some wonderful stuff this year, too!

Shelley: We gotta wind this up, “Decoding Carnivale”… And it’s definitely been a FUN day today as not only Clancy Brown on the phone, but special guest, Tim Dekay, who plays Jonesy, Clayton Jones. And so, Tim… What’s fun about having a special guest is I can kinda, ya know, go, having Clancy Brown around, what’s that like, baby?

Tim: Brother Justin is one strapping, handsome man in that black cassock. Let me tell ya…

Shelley: Don’t you think?

Tim: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah…

Shelley: I think Clancy should wear that all the time.

Tim: I swear to you, after EVERY episode, my wife says, “He is SO sexy… but scary.”

Shelley: (laughing)

Tim: And I always have to say, “Um, what about Jonesy, honey? What didja think about Jonesy?” “Oh, yeah, yeah… That was good. But CLANCY, there is just something about him!” And I’m like, “Oh, boy… I’ll be in the kitchen doing the dishes.”

Shelley: Cuz she’s completely emasculated you, huh?

Tim: Oh, completely. Clancy, Clancy, Clancy… Sexy, sexy…

Shelley: That’s really funny. Okay, so we talked about Jonesy, we talked about Brother Justin. So, this is actually the first time I got to talk to one of the other actors on the show. Last week, Dan Knauf was on the show, and that was a blast! But, so… I’ve never really been able to ask this… I guess maybe I did ask this of Clancy right at the beginning, but Tim, what do you like about being on “Carnivale”?

Tim: It’s so far from my reality. It’s a period piece, it’s way out in the middle of nowhere, where we film, so it’s just… The second I put on those clothes, I don’t have to deal with my reality.

Shelley: Well, and your reality, also, is that you wear CLEAN clothes.

Tim: I do!

Shelley: And you get to take a shower.

Tim: Yeah, people have asked me what’s the difference between you and Jonesy? And I say, for one, I bathe – every day!

Clancy: (evil chuckle)

Tim: Whereas Jonesy bathes… ya know, once a week, maybe? Maybe? It depends. But the trucks have to be clean first.

Shelley: If it’s a good Saturday night, yeah. You might get to shower.

Tim: Why not? But now that I’m married, I don’t need to. Libby doesn’t care.

Shelley: Uh-uh.

Tim: (chuckles)

Shelley: But the thing that happened when, after he’d been healed and the tar came off of him, he was all clean and stuff. And I’m like, wow, look! Look, Jonesy’s clean! The tar!

Tim: The tar, yeah!

Shelley: The tar really works!

Tim: Oh, yeah, that was a HUGE discussion… Okay, is he, you know… If he heals him, does that mean, since his skin becomes clean again, does that mean that the tar just falls off? Well, some of it does, some of it doesn’t. Oh, yeah… That was a huge discussion about what we do. Um, I just heard my announcement, so... Thanks!

Shelley: Have a safe flight!

Tim: Thank you! Shelley, it was great talking to you.

Shelley: Same here, Tim.

Tim: Clancy, take care,

Clancy: All right.

Shelley: Seeya! Wow! How about that? Got a chance to talk to, not only Clancy Brown, which is ALWAYS a great time, but Tim DeKay, too, “Decoding Carnivale” this week. And let’s see, tonight they’ll rerun last night’s episode on HBO2. And then only two new episodes left in this season. So, wow! Sunday night at 10:00, HBO… “Carnivale”.