Pop-Culturalist.com

Dylan Walsh has done it all in his three-plus-decade career, so when he signs on to a new project, you know it’s going to be good. From playing a plastic surgeon in Ryan Murphy’s Nip/Tick to an FBI agent in Whiskey Cavalier, Dylan is a chameleon on screen, transforming into each character he embodies.

This July, he has audiences questioning what’s more important, science or faith, in the all-too-timely An Incomplete Education. We caught up with Dylan to learn more about An Incomplete Education, how the project’s taken more weight given the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the media landscape continues to evolve.

PC: Tell us about An Incomplete Education and your character.
Dylan: In An Incomplete Education, there’s been a pandemic. Believe it or not, this was written before the pandemic. So when I read it, I thought it was a work of science fiction. It’s jarring to think the events that have transpired. But anyway, we appear to be the last two people on earth. There may be others. But we’re guarded. We have a gun. We’re always vigilant about every place we go. We’re looking for people, and we’re kind of not looking for people. There’s a lot of fear.

It was thirty pages long, and we shot it in Idaho. The whole thing took one week. It was just an adventure for me. Paloma [Rabinov] plays my daughter. She’s a very smart, big-hearted person and brought so much to the role. It was fun. It’s a two-hander. It’s just her and I. Every day we had a lot of lines to say. It was like doing a play. I loved doing it. You had to move quickly, but we were able to try different things. It was a short shoot. We had some spectacular locations. Every day was like a new place. We’re traipsing along the snow and through the sand dunes.

PC: You’ve done it all in your career. What was it about this particular project and script that stood out to you?
Dylan: The fact that it’s just a father and his daughter. I have three daughters, so that part isn’t something that I would need to work on; I would let that happen. The idea of going on this adventure in Idaho, where I had never been, that’s what appealed to me. I liked the concept of it. I was up for the challenge. I’m really, really glad I did it because you don’t always know if these things are going to work out. But by the end of the seven days, we all felt we’d been through this big deal and hugging at the airport with tears, which is one of the great things about what I do. When it works, it can be such a deep experience.

PC: You finished filming An Incomplete Education late last year, before the pandemic hit. Does that bring a new light to this project, given the situation that we’re in today?
Dylan: We made it in November of last year. We talked about possibly turning it into a series or something. We all enjoyed doing it that much. We weren’t sure how that would work, since it’s just two people. But we all liked the subject matter. Then we all went our separate ways. Scott [Swofford] had to edit it. Then the pandemic hit and we were stunned that we literally did this project two months ago as a work of fiction and now it turns out to have a lot of weight to it. You have to give Scott credit that he had a nose for this. We live in a world now where something like this can happen. It’s very telling, and I love that it’s a short. It felt like a full-on production. But yeah, it sure took on a lot of meaning since the real pandemic came along. It’s almost too much for words.

PC: In the series, your character is trying to pass on what he believes is the most important life lessons to his daughter. For you as a father, if you could pass down one piece of advice to your three daughters, what would it be and why?
Dylan: This is going to sound cliché, but through all the years, I’ve tried to teach them how to be happy. As children, we take it for granted. I’ve got daughters ranging from eight to twenty-two. So to teach them how to be happy, it sounds like such a Hallmark card, but it takes work. Little things like meditation, that I didn’t get into until my fifties, is something I wish I knew earlier on. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed. We’re getting that worse than ever. There’s this sense of panic. But even before the pandemic, you can feel that on any given day as an adult. It’s an art and craft learning how to be happy.

PC: In addition to being a father and daughter, Preston and Rachel have this teacher/mentor relationship. Did you share any words of wisdom with Paloma as she embarks on her career?
Dylan: I really enjoyed working with her. Before I got to meet her, I inquired about who she was. They said, “Well, she hasn’t done a whole lot of stuff. This is going to be a difficult piece, and hopefully, she’ll be prepared.” She was completely prepared, so professional, that after a while we just enjoyed each other. Of course, I wanted to impart advice. I’ve been doing this for so long. But the best thing I could do for her is something that Paul Newman did for me many, many years ago, which is treat her like an equal. Green or not, experienced or not, she was always present. I told her at the end when I hugged her goodbye, I said, “This is going to do a lot for you. This is going to start some things for you. You deserve it.”

PC: How were you able to build that bond in such a short time?
Dylan: The only way I can answer that is you got to trust the script. You got to trust the person who’s a stranger when you first shake her hand. It doesn’t always work. So many things in the past where one hurdle or another messes it up. In this case, I guess we’re lucky. As I said before, because I had three daughters, I didn’t have to sit down and map out what this relationship would be. I could let it happen. We had that going for us. She was just so openhearted to it all. Obviously they love each other, but they were exasperated with each other often—most of the time. They had a different take on the situation. He’s very protective, as you would guess he would be, but almost to the point where he just doesn’t want to see any people, and she’s starving for it.

They’re at odds from the beginning. We could go in and out like a piece of music of these little motifs and emotions. It is an odd thing. It always has been odd to me in this business. Sometimes you shake somebody’s hand and you’re making love to them ten minutes later. In this case, how do you build an intimacy that it’s hard to put your finger on it? It’s father-daughter. They would have this history. It just happens. It happens very quickly if you just open yourself to it, and we did. Again, I think she felt the same way. Here we are in Idaho in some pretty beautiful places. That was our common denominator. We were enjoying the adventure, and that helped a lot.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, Preston and Rachel have different approaches to surviving this pandemic. Is there one approach that resonated more with you?
Dylan: Preston is overly protective. I think that the need to teach her day in and day out, Dylan would have started to feel like, you know what, what does this stuff matter? Let’s try to find some help. Let’s sit here and enjoy our company. But his obsessiveness about it, that’s clearly part of him. He knows that he’s running out of time. That was the answer to that little problem I had. He didn’t have much time. He felt his connection to his dead wife, and he’s doing this for her. Knowing that he didn’t have much time, he had to make this happen—convey as much as he could to their daughter, which was a promise he made to his wife. It’s actually a beautiful little predicament.

PC: The media landscape has changed with the rise of streaming platforms and shorter-form content. What impact has that had on you as an actor in this business?
Dylan: Well, it’s been great because the storytelling has exploded. I started out in New York. There were a couple of TV series that were your standard procedurals. They were pretty boring. If you could get one, you’d get a little experience. Most of the landscape back then, you were trying to get into movies because it meant at that time, movies were the most interesting thing you could do.

It has completely turned around. Now it’s amazing all the different types of shows, the subject matters, and the range of it. You don’t want to see the same old thing. It’s brought out some great writing and along with that, acting.

Acting is harder than ever right now. I have to tell you when I’m watching shows on Netflix and Amazon, I can’t believe how many great performances there are. These are not easy jobs. The procedural dramas I was talking about earlier were easy to act in. There was a small range of behavior that you had to mine. These shows now, you watch them, it’s unbelievable what the actors are asked to do. I think that’s what audiences have risen to is this huge range.

It amazes me when I turn on a show that no one has told me I should watch, and it ends up being first rate. In that respect, it’s been great. I think the storytelling has exploded, along with the acting. There’s a lot of varied content. That’s why it was fun to do this short.

PC: You’re going to be starring in the upcoming Superman and Lois. Is there anything that you can tell us about that project?
Dylan: I’m looking forward to it. One of the fun things about my job is that I can go from one thing to another and the contrast can be so severe. I’ve always loved Greg Berlanti. I worked with him many years ago on Everwood. He’s a great guy. He’s somebody who I want to work for. At my age, that’s what I’m looking for is the right people. I was offered this, and I think it’s going to be fun. I can’t wait to do it when we can all go back to work.

Binge-watch An Incomplete Education today.