You may know Richard Schiff from his seven years on The West Wing, his run on Ballers opposite Dwayne Johnson or as Elijah Wood’s dad in the disaster flick Deep Impact. Or perhaps it’s from one of the dozens of movies and TV shows he’s been in throughout a highly acclaimed career now well into its fourth decade.
A native New Yorker who came to acting in his 30s, he almost immediately found work and continued to do so even before he was cast as Toby Ziegler, the role that won him an Emmy award in 2000, for The West Wing’s first season.
More recently, he just finished a seven-year run on another show, The Good Doctor, which aired its series finale in May. He’s also the narrator of Peaco*ck’s very entertaining three-part documentary series, Bronx Zoo ’90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball, about the hapless 1990 New York Yankees squad. He spoke to us from his home in Montana.
How did you start acting?
It was not a very typical journey. I was a bit of a lost soul. I was literally on the very fringe of society back then. Went to Colorado, was a hippie for a while, came back and went to CCNY because it was open admissions.
Growing up in New York, I was fascinated with movies that made me forget my own story, so I took this theater class, and we would read all these great scenes from classic plays. I fell in love with Death of a Salesman and ended up going to the Lincoln Center Library on numerous occasions just to listen to the album of that play, I was so touched by it. I started taking more acting classes, which led me to take a directing class and the teacher suggested I audition for this acting program, even though I had no interest in being an actor.
But you auditioned anyway?
Yeah, and I was terrible. Every time they laughed, because it was a comedy, I would stop and look up at them and go, “What are you doing? I’m trying to read here.” When I was done, one of the two gentlemen asked, “Why are you so nervous?” I said, “Well, I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what I’m doing.” And he goes, Well, “Why do you want to be an actor?” I said “I don’t want to be an actor.” And he goes, “Well, what are you doing here? This is a three-year professional training program.” And I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Anyway, his name was Earle Gister, and he became my mentor. He came from Carnegie Mellon and later ran the Yale School of Drama for 15 years. He was the master of his profession, and I tripped over a threshold and fell into this thing, and he let me in.
For a guy who had no interest in acting, you were suddenly acting.
Well, sort of. I was fascinated with the process that he was teaching, and sometime later, I asked him why he let me into the program, and he told me out of all the years he’d been doing this, no one had ever been as honest as I was. He thought he’d take a chance.
Around then I started directing. I directed an Odets play that was a big hit on campus and then followed a girlfriend to Brooklyn to audition for a James Baldwin play. It was a paying job, and I ended up getting the lead role. It was by all measures of success, but I just didn’t want to do it again. I had to go out to Brooklyn at noon to begin warming up, to get my nerves for an eight o’clock show. I thought, “This is going to kill me, so I’m just going to direct.”
What brought you back?
Years later, there were certain kinds of actors that I was very happy to work with who I thought were quite talented and also easily directable. They had one teacher in common, so I called him and he said to come in and talk to him. He said, “You’re an interesting fellow. You should take my class.” I go, “Well, I don’t want to be an actor.” And he goes, “You should take my class anyway.” That turned out to be William Esper.
I was going to ask because it sounds like him. I knew Bill well. Wonderful guy.
He and I became very close towards the end of his life, shockingly, because I hated him when I studied with him. He yelled at me once, and no one ever yelled at me. But it was very motivating.
I took his class, and my partners would take me to do these scenes that we were working on to agents because they wanted to get an agent. Then the agent would come to me and go, “We want to sign you.” And I would go, “I don’t want to be an actor.”
I’m sensing a theme.
Yeah, that’s a theme that has not changed much. I’m still debating. (Laughs)
Anyway, after two years, he challenged me to do this play. I was working with this wonderful actress named Robin Lord, who I’ve never seen again since those days, and she taught me how to engage the art of performance, to the nth degree. Up until that point, I was like, “I’ll do this exercise because it will help my directing.” But it was that commitment to the full experience, where I just went for it, that made me think, “Oh, I get it now.” I was already 32 at that point.
What was that light bulb moment like for you? When you said, Oh my god, I think I finally get this.
Well, it suddenly clicked, and then it kept clicking.
I went back and played softball in Central Park after not participating in sports for 15 years. I went to shortstop and I was a vacuum cleaner. I was cleaning up every ground ball and firing to first base. I was like, “I didn’t know I could still do this.” Then I thought, “Well, maybe you can do other things that you don’t think you can do, or that you haven’t practiced all your life.”
There was a series of epiphanies, each step was another platform to climb onto.
How did you get from there to The West Wing, which was the first big regular gig you had, wasn’t it?
Actually, no, not quite. It was about 15 years, 13 after I got to LA that West Wing happened, but I had already done a sitcom for Jim Burroughs and did a show called Relativity for Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. The network didn’t want me, but they fought for me and to this day it’s my favorite role.
Around then, I ended up doing this audition. I had told my manager at the time I didn’t want to do any more one-scene roles, but I got a call saying, “All right, it’s one scene, but it’s really good and it’s a new show, a cop show called High Incident.” I read the material and I loved it, a beautifully written character.
I say, “Okay, I’ll go in and do this because I’m curious, especially since it’s an old man who should be playing this part.” I did it, and I actually thought it was quite amazing how it came out, but then the casting director just took the tape and left. I don’t even remember her saying goodbye. It was insulting.
I drove home, and I then I get a call saying, “Okay, not only did you get the part, but Steven Spielberg was in the next room. He’s producing the show, and he wants you for his next movie,” which turned out to be The Lost World.
Wow. How did you work that into this new show you were doing with Zwick and Herskovitz?
I told them, “Look, I want to do movies.” It was one of those contracts that was seven episodes out of 13, so there were times when I wasn’t going to be used. They said, “Listen, we’re movie people. We get it. Don’t worry about it. We’ll make it work.” But then they decided to write me into every episode, because they loved the storyline that they’re developing.
Now I’m involved in everything, and they said, “We can’t let you go, the whole storyline depends on you.” It was a whole thing, but they eventually let me go, and I told them, “Lifelong, you have me at scale plus 10 whenever you need me if you’re in a bind.” Jason Katims, who was a writer on the show, ended up calling me a couple of times, once for a show called Roswell, which was on in the same time slot as West Wing. (Laughs) But John Wells let me go do it because I wanted to fulfill this favor.
I didn’t mean to imply that you hadn’t worked before West Wing. You worked a ton. You had a pretty big role in City Hall, for instance, with Al Pacino.
I played the probation officer, and it was a really good role. I remember having a great time with Danny Aiello. We had so much fun doing our scene and in the diner. Then I got an NYPD Blue where I played a Romanian terrorist, and then people started recognizing me around town.
I was doing movies. Deep Impact happened, the lead role in an independent called Heaven in New Zealand, which was quite something. I was trying to make my way up in the film world, and then West Wing came along.
I didn’t want to do TV. I knew it was great. Everyone was saying it was great. I read it and it was great. Toby wasn’t necessarily a fleshed-out character yet, but I still didn’t want to do it.
It sounds like you’ve been successful almost despite yourself.
That’s a very fair statement. (Laughs) I think that the directors and the writers who appreciate me especially are the ones who realize that I will interpret a role or a moment in a way that they never imagined. I got that from Aaron Sorkin all the time.
Hack writers will go, “You’re supposed to do it this way,” but the real writers will always be grateful when you present to them a better idea or a way of approaching it that they hadn’t thought of. I don’t necessarily see a part and go, “I can kill that role.” I see a part and go, “Oh, my God, there are so many issues here. How am I going to deal with them?” You know what I mean?
It might just be a different way to look at it, that is helpful in the craft, but not helpful in terms of negotiating a career.
All in all, though, it’s gone pretty well.
There’s so much inner discussion with everything that I do. I guess I’m cursed with that. But when the decision is made, it’s a commitment. There are no questions asked after that. I can’t half-ass it. I wish I could, but fear of embarrassment has driven a lot of decisions. (Laughs)
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