That seems like a tough balance to strike…
I mean, that’s just my whole feeling on acting, which is not to say I don’t believe in being real and honest and all…but you need to elevate it a little bit. Make it a little theatrical, otherwise, I’ll watch Eyewitness News. So, in that respect, I think the transition was not that difficult for me. And I learned as I went along. Because Jack says I can blow out the microphone sometimes. We were in the studio in Santa Monica and they can hear me in Fresno. You have to learn how to modulate it a little bit, go off mic. Technical things. One thing is to get the rhythm and the singsong in the voice. We’ll do two or three takes and Jack almost inevitably picks the one that I like. Which says something good about either one of us or something bad about either one of us.
You know, it’s funny you mentioned your Batman work. I’m a huge comic book nerd. And I love the work that you did, particularly as Harvey Bullock.
Bobby: Oh good. Thank you.
In the comics, he’s generally portrayed as a character who is like very morally gray. You are never sure if he’s a good cop who’s going to do bad things or if he’s a bad cop who’s going to do good things. Did you try to like inhabit Harvey in a certain way?
Bobby: Yeah, but not too much. I mean I thought of him as, he thought he was a good cop and he did what he had to do. I think that’s the 11th Commandment, of the cops I’ve talked to and all. With Bullock, I just kind of made him like, “you do what you have to do.” I think there’s a few different colors in there. I think there’s some envy of Batman, some admiration certainly, which he’ll never let him know because he’s not that kind of guy. We never saw his family. But I think he wouldn’t let his wife know she did anything good or anybody. He’s just kind of cutoff that way.
It was a great portrayal on a great show.
Bobby: And really loyal to the great strip, right? The artwork and all. Yeah.
Back to Mafia for a little bit. What’s the relationship like between your character and the player?
Bobby: I think Vito and I just have a camaraderie. Although it’s interesting… It seems like whenever there’s some real heavy duty stuff where we could get like blown away or something, Joe kind of lets Vito go, as in “You do it, you’re the war hero, you do it.” So Joe’s got that way about him. I see Joe as a con man in a sense that…it’s not that he doesn’t have huge balls himself. But he figures the kid is young, and he’s kind of earned his role as the sort of graybeard senior citizen, whatever you want to call it. So he lets Vito do some things. But I think ultimately they’re loyal and they back each other up. They are kind of goomba Napolidanza Butch and Sundance if you will.