Mark Tallman is thought for showing in standard exhibits like Damages, State of Affairs, and First Wives Membership, however his newest position as Nick Brandes in Your Mates & Neighbors sees him parlay a formidable sporting background as a way to convey authenticity to a charismatic character.
M&F sat down with the athlete-turned-actor to learn the way the person from El Paso, TX, likes to coach, and we couldn’t resist getting the small print behind “that” severely memorable basketball scene too.
Dwelling as much as his identify, the 6’3” Tallman towers over most Hollywood stars. In Your Mates & Neighbors, his character, Nick, is a former NBA standout who’s now retired and dwelling in an prosperous group—juggling his “Sturdy Ass Gymnasium” with different hilarious entrepreneurial efforts, like a space-age rest room that he hopes will take off identical to the George Foreman Grill.
“The good rest room is one thing else,” says Tallman of the viewers’s response. “Folks find it irresistible.”
However together with the comedy comes some critical rivalry. Within the present, Tallman’s character has lately damaged a friendship code and brought the spouse of his buddy, leaving John Hamm’s character, Andrew Cooper, out within the chilly.
Casting the position would show troublesome as a result of Tallman’s character needed to be plausible as a assured former athlete whereas nonetheless being likeable regardless of hooking up together with his pal’s accomplice, performed by Amanda Peet. With only a month to arrange, Tallman quickly realized that the backstory to his character would require real health photoshoots for mock journal covers, together with scenes displaying him within the throes of swimming, basketball, and tennis.
Whereas the tennis method required some teaching, the actor tells M&F that he was all-in when it got here to that memorable basketball scene in episode 3 which resulted in a pleasant (however intoxicated) recreation going south — after his opponent received a gnarly damaged leg for his efforts.
Mark Tallman Breaks Down His Memorable Basketball Scene in “Your Mates & Neighbors”
Following the graphic leg break, the scene known as for Tallman to proceed play whereas being interviewed by the police.
“Nicely, it did take a very long time to shoot” he shares. “Significantly due to the stunt concerned, for somebody’s leg to interrupt. However the basketball half, hey man, I’m gonna toot my very own horn,” beams Tallman. “I’m being interviewed by the detective and capturing whereas performing. At the beginning of the scene, I believe I say one thing like ‘I hope you don’t thoughts if I maintain getting my photographs in.’ I needed to shoot all through that total scene and normally with TV or movie, they’ll superimpose minimize photographs the place the actor’s capturing, after which they simply present a ball getting in.”
However there was extra to the shot than meets the attention. “However should you look carefully, they had been intentional about placing some full, huge photographs in there as a result of I used to be making them photographs. Me and (Jonathan) Tropper, our creator, had been going forwards and backwards, and he mentioned he was going to place some cash on my share of capturing.”
With Tropper taunting Tallman and telling him to not “choke,” the athlete-turned-actor rose to the problem. In fact, the massive man wasn’t about to overlook an opportunity to compete. Tallman’s sporting pedigree contains being a former Division I soccer participant who earned All-Star honors in highschool in three sports activities: soccer, basketball, and baseball.
Mark Tallman Nonetheless Loves To Prepare
“I attempt to maintain it easy,” explains the actor of his angle to staying in form. “I imply, I really feel just like the extra sophisticated you get, the much less motivated you might be to do the work.”
To keep away from harm as he matures, Tallman says he works on his mobility in addition to his muscle. The star says that a number of of his mates who retired as athletes have suffered with torn Achilles previously, so he makes certain to strengthen that space with strikes like bent knee calf Raises. When it comes to pumping iron, the actor nonetheless likes to sweat it out within the fitness center, nevertheless. “I attempt to incorporate two push actions and two pull actions,” he explains. “Say a bench press and an overhead shoulder press (for push day) after which on the flip facet both pullups or lat pulldowns, and a few type of row, whether or not it’s an upright row or bent (over) row.”
Tallman tells M&F that he typically opts for 3 units of 10 reps per train, however when he’s making an attempt to get lean for a particular job, he’ll enhance the amount to 4 units of 15-16 reps, “The place it’s simply burnout kind of stuff,” he notes.
With Your Mates & Neighbors proving to be an enormous hit, Tallman has already been picked for Season 2, that means that he’s discovered comradery in a strong performing workforce, identical to the bonds he loved on the earth of sports activities. Whereas Tallman as soon as appeared to his athletic coaches to enhance his recreation, he now has some extremely skilled performing mentors, just like the present’s govt producer, John Hamm.
“I imply, he’s an outstanding actor,” says Tallman.” Everyone knows that, so I already appeared as much as him from a piece standpoint, however it’s been actually, actually cool to watch the way in which he carries himself not solely as an actor, (however) as a result of he’s simply what you’ll hope he’d be. He’s a professionals professional.”