Back to One
A podcast about acting -- just the work. by Peter Rinaldi
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“If Every Art is Sacred, That Means the Act of Making Art is Itself a Sacred Thing”: David Malinsky, Back To One, Episode 350
For the 350th episode of Back To One, I sat down with an actor who brings me great joy when he’s on the screen, the one and only David Malinsky. He wrote the blurb himself for this episode. It follows: Peter has only met David three times in person before. His filmography includes Onur Tukel’s Abbey Singer/Songwriter, Black Magic for White Boys, Poundcake, Theodore Collatos’ Tormenting the Hen, MG Cinecraft’s A Moderate Folly and more. Dave has also done standup comedy, cabaret singing, and YouTube Video Essays. But Dave thinks it’s vital to situate acting within art and human history,… Read more
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“It was Physicalizing the Words That Became the Goal”: Erik Jensen, Back To One, Episode 349
Erik Jensen is a multipyphenate who, along with his wife and creative partner Jessica Blank have been called “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.” Their genre-defining plays The Exonerated, Aftermath, Coal Country, and The Line were all critically acclaimed. As an actor, Jensen’s credits include The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, not to mention his praised portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx is Burning. On this episode he details his approach toward playing that beloved figure, and finding out that “almost the entire body of that character was an emotional word-gesture.”… Read more
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“Right-Size Yourself”: Bonnie Rose, Back To One, Episode 348
Bonnie Rose started her professional career as a stand-in for Bette Midler on First Wives Club. Next up, the iconic and legendary film director Sidney Lumet hand picked her for the feature film Night Falls On Manhattan, playing a New York City cop opposite Andy Garcia, which led to many other Lumet projects over the next decade including a recurring role as a legal aid attorney on the TV legal drama 100 Centre St. Bonnie’s massive credits in television and film include Inside Llewyn Davis, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Mr. Robot, Blue Bloods, Broad City, The Sopranos, and the trifecta of all Law & Orders. She recently won Best Actress at three different… Read more
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“The Set is Home, and You Get to a Point of Where You Stop Pushing”: Steve Zahn, Back To One, Episode 347
Steve Zahn gained early attention for his breakout roles in the 1990s, including Reality Bites and That Thing You Do! He became a frequent scene-stealer in films like Out of Sight, Happy, Texas, and Saving Silverman, showcasing his offbeat humor and charm. In HBO’s Treme, he played a passionate music teacher navigating post-Katrina New Orleans. More recently, he appeared in the first season of The White Lotus, earning critical acclaim for his role as a troubled father on vacation. His latest is personal on multiple levels—the indie film She Dances, which he co-wrote with his producing partner Rick Gomez, who… Read more
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“If I Get Specific About What I’m Doing, Why I’m Doing It, the Humor Will Be There”: Tim Bagley, Back To One, Episode 346
Tim Bagley has so much experience doing comedy on television that his credits read like a comprehensive list of every sit com over the past 30 years. But his depiction of Brad Schraeder on the HBO series Somebody Somewhere is on another level. It’s beautiful, truthful, restrained work, that is often hilarious and sometimes very moving. Few performances on television this year have impacted me more. On this episode, he talks about how the collaborative nature of that show helped so much with his work, the big part logic plays in his comedy, why it’s important to keep challenging himself, and… Read more
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“It Was Like Being on a Cliff and You Just Leapt Off It, with Whatever You Had to Give”: Ian McShane, Back To One, Episode 344
The legendary Ian McShane has been acting for more than 60 years, from The Wild and The Willing, The Last of Shelia, and Jesus of Nazareth to Lovejoy, Sexy Beast, and the John Wick films. His two latest films are Ballerina, set in the John Wick universe, and and the action comedy Deep Cover. On this episode he talks about what made his time as Al Swearengen on Deadwood (perhaps his most iconic role) so special, and tells a story about an unforgettable suggestion from creator David Milch. He explains what sets Wick’s Chad Stahalski apart as a director/producer, why… Read more
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“To Me All This is the Circus and I Get to Join this Family, This Tribe of People”: Bobby Naderi, Back To One, Episode 343
You know Bobby Naderi from his subtle and sometimes hilarious work in films like Bright and The Beekeeper. Now he brings that same aliveness to the new Amazon series The Better Sister, where he plays Detective Matt Bowen. On this episode, he talks about how his nomadic youth shaped his life and work, how failures paved the way for breakthroughs, why he stopped anticipating how a scene will play out, how his mother’s blunt criticism of his acting work helped him get better, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts,… Read more
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“The Nail Came Off, But We Got the Shot and That’s All That Matters”: Forever Star Lovie Simone, Back To One, Episode 342
The young but wise Lovie Simone is best known for Selah and The Spades and The Craft: Legacy. Now she stars in the hit Netflix series Forever, an adaptation of the Judy Bloom book. On this episode, she talks about the giant role music plays in her preparation, why having a Black hair & make-up person on set is crucial to her work, “importance over relevance,” “quality over quantity,” her love of words “and the weight of each word,” the “accidental” way she and Michael Cooper Jr. built their Forever chemistry, plus much more. Back To One can be found… Read more
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“You’re Either Inhabiting the Part, Full On, Or You’re Not, and There’s No Pretending Otherwise”: Theodore Bouloukos, Back To One, Episode 341
Theodore Bouloukos returns to the podcast after nearly seven years (first time was episode 14). The “secret weapon of independent cinema,” as The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called him, brings us up to date on his adventures in acting. He talks about why he never dwells on a project’s prospects after his work is done, explains the kind of characters that attract him, reminisces about a couple exceptional recent shoots (including the wonderful ode to the game of baseball that is the film Eephus), makes a case for going “full on” for every role, and much more. Eephus is currently… Read more
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“Slow Cinema Meets Heavy Metal is Kind of Like My Goal in Life”: Joel Potrykus, Back To One, Episode 340
We rarely get to hear Joel Potrykus talk about himself as an actor. The independent filmmaker of such beloved low-budget treasures as Ape, Buzzard, and Relaxer says he has, in fact, never talked about it. In his latest, Vulcanizadora, he once again co-stars with the man he loves to point his camera at, Joshua Burge. The two reprise their roles of Derek and Marty exactly ten years after they birthed those characters in Buzzard. On this episode, Potrykus explains the decision to take on the role in both films, why he loves working with the “machine” that is Burge, the… Read more
