Midlife Leading Man Breaking Bad’S Dean Norris, a Prime-Time Stalwart
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MONTAGE Left to right: An Aero L-39 Albatros (foreground) and Dassault Falcon 2000 over the Golden Gate Bridge; a World War II-era North American P-51 Mustang over New York City; an Oracle Challenger (red) and Wolfpitts (yellow); Ambats shooting from a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza photoship H BY DAVID FARR DAVID H BY P pilots,” specialists trained to fly feet higher.” Even such a small change can in close formation with other drastically alter the composition. PHOTOGRA planes: some are former Blue An- Ambats usually works from a Beech- gels or Thunderbirds. With ex- craft Bonanza with the rear doors re- posures from ranges as close as 20 moved. (She does not shoot through to 150 feet, this kind of expertise glass.) A harness holds her securely in is essential or it’s “too risky,” she place. Working with a handheld high-end says. “It takes finesse to move an digital camera, she exposes several hun- pleasure. (She rents these craft, which cost airplane exactly 10 feet.” During the shoot, dred images per flight. Lenses with image around $480,000 each; private jets fall in she constantly feeds both pilots directions stabilization can help, and at times she the $3-million to $10-million range.) to line up the planes properly with each deploys a gyroscopic camera stabilizer, “if For shoots, she hires only “formation other and the background: “Biplane, 15 it’s a bumpy flight.” Midlife Leading Man Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris, a prime-time stalwart ean norris ’85 is headed home on a Stephen King science by limousine after finishing a fiction novel, was anchored photo shoot with—he kids— by Norris as “Big Jim” Ren- D “a few underlings from the net- nie, a power-hungry lo- work”: CBS Entertainment president Nina cal politician in a town Tassler and CBS Television Studios presi- suddenly cut off from the dent David Stapf. The 50-year-old actor world by an invisible bar- LA COYOTE/AMC seems to be taking the media attention he’s rier. Season two will begin U receiving in stride. production in March. URS “Under the Dome turned out to be a huge But Norris is perhaps best known for Dean Norris, at right, in the television summer success,” he explains matter-of- playing Drug Enforcement Administra- series Breaking Bad with Bryan Cranston factly. “And it was profitable from day one, tion agent Hank Schrader on AMC’s cable In an industry often criticized for em- so it was a big game changer from a busi- series Breaking Bad, which won 10 Emmy phasizing youth and good looks over tal- ness standpoint.” A rare summer triumph Awards during its seven-year run, includ- ent, Norris’s leap to leading man in middle for network television, CBS’s Dome, based ing Outstanding Drama Series in 2013. age sounds improbable. Yet his stardom Harvard Magazine 53 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 MONTAGE is well earned, especially considering his Notre Dame University production. There at 25, I was playing 35. It wasn’t until 35 or many credits for performing smaller film were other roles at the university and as 40 that I grew into my age.” and television roles as a character actor in a high-school student, but Norris says But television has evolved to his ben- the past quarter-century, in shows from it was his Harvard experience that truly efit. Norris creditsNYPD Blue and actor The Equalizer and NYPD Blue to CSI and The prepared him for the career that lay ahead. Dennis Franz in particular for bringing Mentalist. “I was slotted into [parts play- “I remember one day when I literally had more grit and intensity—not to mention ing] cops and military and CIA,” he re- three plays in my head at the same time,” better acting—to the small screen. The calls. “There was always plenty of that out he recalls. Typically the social-studies show welcomed actors he calls “real- there, so I was able to make a good living concentrator acted in five or six plays a looking people.” And today’s cable shows just going from show to show and movie year: on the Loeb main stage, in the Loeb have further exploded the strictures once to movie.” Ex’s black-box theater, and in House pro- imposed by the networks because, as Norris grew up in South Bend, Indiana. ductions. The professional American Rep- Norris says, “all of this talent moved [to “It was the Rust Belt,” he says. His grand- ertory Theater was freshly arrived in Cam- cable television] from independent mov- parents were Hungarian and Polish immi- bridge from Yale, so he also got the chance ies, which are very difficult to make any grants who worked in the factories that to understudy or take on small roles more.” Norris likens film to the short sto- fed Detroit auto plants and, luckily, retired there—superb training for the demands ry and serialized cable to the American before the oil embargo of the early 1970s he later faced. novel. “With Breaking Bad, for example, changed the industrial landscape. His fa- “You have to be able to get into differ- it’s like you have 62 chapters that tell this ther, who owned a furniture store, played ent characters quickly,” Norris says of his long and complicated story—and to then in a band on weekends, like many of his job. “Because if you’re guest-starring on a think I’m going to do a movie? It’s like a other relatives. By the age of nine, Dean show, you get one or two takes and that’s moment in time.” was sitting in on guitar and getting a taste it. And for me, so much of that came from As for being a “character actor” in the for performing. “When I got older,” he re- doing theater, where you don’t have takes.” future, Norris asserts, “I think if you members, “I realized I wasn’t good enough After attending the Royal Academy of act, you act,” adding, “Those lines have as a musician to make any money.” Dramatic Art in London, Norris moved to blurred. That’s a term left over from when His first performance was inRichard III; Los Angeles in 1988. “I always knew that you had good-looking Hollywood guys at age five, he played a young prince in a I’d be a middle-aged actor,” he says. “Even and everybody else.” vLara pellegrinelli Showcase your book or writing/editing services in Harvard Magazine and reach 245,000 Harvard alumni, faculty, and staff. The July-August 2014 Harvard Magazine will feature the —a special advertising section for authors (in Montage, adjacent to coverage of Calling All Harvardbooks and theAuthors!Harvard arts). CallAuthors’ Gretchen Bookshelf Bostrom at 617-496-6686 or e-mail [email protected] to find out about the special listing package that includes: a full-color book jacket or photo, book title or company name, and a description of up to 25 words—plus online coverage. Harvard Magazine 55 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746.