Andre Braugher’s passing has shaken everyone across the world. Having played the role of Captain Holt, the designated father figure in the beloved sitcom, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he was loved by all who knew him. On top of playing the iconic character, he was also an immensely talented and qualified actor, having starred in several other well-known projects as well. These include the likes of City of Angels, Glory, and Passengers. Through projects like this, he established his acting capabilities outside of the comedy genre, having studied the profession at both Julliard and Stanford.
A perfect example of this was his 2022 film, She Said, based on the ‘Me Too’ movement, Harvey Weinstein, and everything surrounding all that happened in 2017. The actor played the role of Dean Baquet, an executive editor at The New York Times who was heavily involved in the article that exposed the disgraced film producer. During an interview, he talked about how this film was like no other he had worked on and proved extremely challenging.
Andre Braugher Hadn’t Worked On A Project Like This
Andre Braugher’s character in She Said, based on the real-life person, Dean Baquet, had a very big hand in the exposé that brought all of Harvey Weinstein’s dirty laundry out, for the world to see. The film was directed by Maria Schrader, and the actor appeared in it after working on television for almost 10 years. Shifting from television to film is a transition that is quite difficult to adjust to, considering how differently things work on the two mediums.
“It’s part of her genius, but we never rehearsed,” he explains. “We just started filming, and there was a broad outline, like, ‘You go here, and you go here, and you’re sitting here and there.’ And that’s quite shocking coming from television, where you get rehearsal time and everything’s programmed [with] three cameras.”
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter for the promotion of this film, the actor revealed that this transition was quite surprising for him. The biggest aspect of this was that there was no rehearsal happening before the cameras were turned on. Actors were simply told what to do, and the scene began. This was quite different from television, where things were rehearsed, time and time again, and when shooting did begin, it was with multiple cameras.
Andre Braugher Found This Extremely Challenging
Andre Braugher also went on to express that this way of working was very liberating for him. He explained, stating that the lack of rehearsals, of course, led to quite a few mistakes. However, the fact that the production made an environment where this was accepted, felt very refreshing for him.
“The most shocking part — which I thought was actually liberating in its own way, because it was new for me — [was that] we just started acting. Mistakes will be made, but there’s a spontaneity I felt in the film that was quite refreshing. That was, for me, the most challenging part.”
Oddly, this was also the most challenging aspect of filming this movie. This sudden change and freedom to make mistakes and learn from them is quite different from network shows. On series like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, everything works on a schedule and is time-sensitive. On top of this, rehearsing scenes was a very frequently done practice, to come up with the best jokes possible.
