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Michael Devine is laying down the law in HBO’s The Undoing. Starring opposite Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, The Undoing is an exciting whodunnit story that will have you guessing until the very end. Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Michael about his career, The Undoing, and what fans can expect from the limited series.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Michael: I feel like I was born with it. Like so many actors, I did school plays, going as far back as kindergarten. I remember being in school talent shows and performing for my family. It was really the direction I planned on going for almost my whole life. It’s very typical of an actor.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Michael: That’s a good question. There have been many different influences at different times in my life. I’ve always been a big fan of the cast of The Office and Steve Carell, especially within the past ten years. I’m a huge fan of every actor on that show. I love Steve as Michael Scott, but also the ensemble of actors. It really goes to show you what you can do in basically any size role. There are so many different layers to his performance; it can be big, but it can be very nuanced at the same time. I love that show as a fan and also as an actor.

PC: You come from a theater background. What has the transition been like going from the stage to the screen?
Michael: It actually took a bit of adjusting. In fact, almost all of my classes in college were theater-focused, so when I started getting into film and television, there was a bit of an adjustment period. In terms of auditions, I would go in and act to the size of the room—usually there are four or five people at the table. I would end up playing to the room rather than the camera, and a lot of the time I didn’t get the role. It wasn’t until I auditioned for Suzanne Ryan for Law and Order. She and I got to talking in her office and it was very conversational. We were talking about life in general and she went right into “What are your lines?”

I went right into my lines and I kept the same tone. It was small and it was very real, basically no acting. It was the art of throwing the line away. That was the first Law and Order that I booked. I realized that there’s an art form to throwing your lines away and that not everything needs to be acted, especially when you’re acting congruently with the size of the show. It’s important to know the size of the shot; if it’s wide, believe it or not, there’s a certain performance. Then mid-shots have a delicate balance, and close-ups are entirely internal. Once I actually started getting beyond the theatricality of the audition, it took me many years to adjust on set, basically learning as I went from watching some very good actors around me.

PC: Speaking of learning, what’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started your career?
Michael: I was recently talking to a friend and asked him, “At what point do you assume you didn’t get a part?” He said that as soon as you leave the room; that’s when you should forget about it. It’s for your own peace of mind because waiting by the phone can drive you insane. It’s better you do your best. You’re responsible for the effort, not the outcome.

PC: Tell us about The Undoing, your character, and what drew you to this series.
Michael: It’s a whodunnit, so it’s better to go in not knowing anything about it. It’s a dark, almost Hitchcockian-like film. Nicole Kidman plays a psychotherapist who’s married to Hugh Grant, an oncologist, and they seemingly have the perfect life until someone very close to home is brutally murdered. Then, her world unravels and she realizes that her perfect world isn’t perfect after all.

Seeing that there’s a murder, I play one of the two detectives assigned to the case, so that’s when her world collides with the world of police procedural and Édgar Ramírez, who plays my partner. We’re both investigating the whodunnit, and that’s the crux of the story.

As soon as I saw that David E. Kelley had written it, that it was directed by Susanne Bier, it was for HBO, and starring Nicole Kidman…that pretty much sealed the deal. I was all-in and excited from the start.

PC: You served on the force for over a decade. When you’re playing a character who hits this close to home, is that more or less challenging?
Michael: It actually made it less challenging, but that’s another way of saying that I felt a little more comfortable in this role because I was able to pull so much from previous experience. There were times as an actor that I felt almost out of my element, like when I was in scenes opposite Nicole Kidman and had some very intense emotional scenes. Nonetheless, I always returned to my center and my comfort zone in realizing that I do have experience in a lot of these situations, such as interrogations and the way you can conduct an interview. I was with the NYPD Detective Bureau for over twelve years, and playing a detective felt like I had reached the intersection of both careers. I found myself out of my element as an actor and returned to my element as a detective.

PC: If you had to summarize the first season in one sentence, what would it be and why?
Michael: It’s a dark, twisty, psychological thriller in which nothing is as it seems.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Michael: Anything on HGTV.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Michael: The Friday the 13th series.

PC: Favorite book?
Michael: Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Michael: Les Misérables.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Michael: Eminem.

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Michael: Steve Carell.

To keep up with Michael, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch The Undoing every Sunday at 9/8c on HBO.

Photo Credit: Dave Cross