Actor Luke Tennie on Starring on "Shrinking," "The Pitt" and "Abbott Elementary"

0:00This is all of it. I'm Allison Stewart Live from the WNYC Studios in Soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. On today's show, we'll speak with the Commissioner of the City's Department of Cultural Affairs, her name is Diavige, and she's joining us in studio. We'll continue our full bio conversation about the book, Judy Bloom, A Life, and we'll learn about the new HBO documentary series, Born to Bowl. That's the plan, so let's get this started with actor, Luke Tenney. Luke Tenney is a busy man. You can see him on three critically acclaimed shows, The Pit, Abbot Elementary, and, of course, shrinking. When shrinking premiered, viewers quickly fell for Sean, a young army veteran navigating post-traumatic stress disorder and stepping into therapy for the first time.

1:03Now in season three, my next guest in shrinking star Luke Tenney is showing us a new side of Sean. He's someone who's older, a little wiser, and trying to move forward. He's got a new girlfriend or an old girlfriend. He's considering finally moving out of his friend and former therapist Jimmy's garage. Now Luke has also joined the hit sitcom, Abbot Elementary, as Dominic, a brand new fourth grade teacher trying to find his footing. And he's also pulling the night shift as a fourth year resident, Dr. Cruz Henderson, on the high-intensity medical drama The Pit. He'll make his appearance this week. Actor Luke Tenney joins me now. In studio, Luke, it is nice to meet you. What an intro. Thank you for that. Kyle Lee, it's nice to meet you too. I have to ask you about this. This is a really incredible time in your life as an actor being on three critically acclaimed shows, sort of all at once. What do you think you'll remember about this time? Great question. You know, I think my kids are the reason why I got these jobs. And a lot of people would be saying that I can't explain why. Okay, let me break it down.

2:06This is a weird thing in acting where if you really want a job, you probably not going to get hired for it. It's going to be obvious to the casting director for some reason that it's like a necessity for you. And that creates this weird energy that's immeasurable, but somehow still something that people can perceive. It's like, that's just not the right fit. When you just left your babies after wiping butt all night and mixing the formula and trying to put everything together and keep everybody. It's just like, I will do whatever I can to feed those kids, whether or not you hire me. And something about that energy makes people go, he'll do. And I'm pretty sure that's why I'm busy. It's because I'll figure it out whether these people hire me or not. And that energy is something that they can rock with, which, you know, I ain't going to fight them on that. It probably helps you relax in some way. I think you're right. I'll figure it out. Now I'll clean floors. I'll work at the restaurant. I do not care. I'll do whatever I have to do. It doesn't just have to be saying words on this camera, but what an honor to be able to do so.

3:10Let's talk about shrinking. Most people around here know we love shrinking on this show. It's basically about three therapists who work together and their families and their relationships. And when Michael Yuri came to the studio and I interviewed him, I said, well, what do you like about the show? And he said he really liked the way it approached mental health. And it helped him seek therapy. How did shrinking focus on mental health? What did it mean to you when you first picked up the script? It meant the world, especially being able to play a young African-American man who's experiencing benefits from committing to therapy. And shout out to Michael. I'm a big friend of him. I'll talk about that man to the cows. He was so good. He's so good. He's so good. He's so good. He's so good. Oh my gosh. I wish I could have seen it. I saw him in once upon a mattress. Oh, that was he was good in that too. Yeah, he's good in everything. Man, it's dude. He's crazy good. I remember talking about how good he is with Jason on the first day. Like his character was introduced. What an incredible actor. Anyway, had to take that time to talk about him. But yeah, what it means to me is like it's our show is entertainment, but there's also a bit of education in it.

4:15There's a bit of responsibility that's taking place on behalf of the writers. They're doing the bulk of the work, you know. It's not saying the actors are doing nothing, but we come in and we say the words that they done the research to make sure are arranged in a healthy way in pretending to mental health. And you know, just the whole awareness around being mentally fit. Tell me how Sean was presented to you in season one. So apparently I was wrong. I was just wrong about who this, who this guy was. I got the audition. It was very clear to me who Sean was. I'm like, well, if he's this dude who's struggling with all this anger. Obviously, that's something that we can't see right when we meet him. He's got to have some like gentleness to him. It was very clear to me that that was like what the words were telling me to play. Before I know, apparently Brett and Debbie said like, that's not what they were looking for at all. They were looking for like the stereotypical, you know, kind of like they saw him as like a roared rage kind of guy.

5:15Just mad, you know, ready to go. I don't think that the character was written race specific. I think that they were open to anyone. But I think when I came in and did that, me thinking that that was exactly what it was. They said that they didn't like redirect me. They were just like, oh, good. And just explored it further just to see what would happen. And I ended up getting hired. Yeah, for doing it wrong. So shout out to them for making wrong right in the case of Sean. Well, you did it right for you. Yeah, I'm into that. Right. Very grateful. In season three, we're seeing some developments in Sean's character. What's been especially rewarding in the arc that he's taking? Oh, man. Well, he's the client we follow the most. And I think that that means it's responsible to give him the burden of hope for the viewer. I think he represents hope. He represents what it could look like for a viewer to commit to what they're seeing in front of them, which is therapy, which is making a change, which is a little bit beyond the stereotypical self improvement.

6:21It's more like getting into the nitty-gritty and arming yourself with tools so that when, you know, you have to face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. You're not just taking arms for no reason. You've got a strategy in doing so. Have you related to how your character has developed over these three years? Yeah, I mean, he and I both changed a lot since I met him and he met me. You know, he was a really angry dude who didn't really know why. He didn't know it was particularly connected to war. He didn't know he was ignorant. He knew he came back with something like when he went overseas, he did what he had to do for his country. And something came back with him. He didn't know what it was. He didn't know how to identify it. He didn't know how to shake it. The last thing he expected to do was embrace it. And for me, when I started, you know, me and my wife were in this lovely two bedroom apartment, you know, on recently married. And now we're coming up on five years. We got two kids. Congratulations.

7:21Thank you. Yeah, so Sean and I are both growing. You know, this dude's got his own food truck. You know, I got, I got these girls who I already miss. I left them yesterday and I'm like, I wonder what they're up to. Oh, just waiting for pictures from my lady. Well, hopefully she'll text you some today. Yeah. My guest is actor Luke Tenney. He's weird for me to discuss his character Sean on shrinking as well as both Abbott Elementary and the pit. Let's listen to a clip from shrinking in the scene. Your character Sean, who was just dumped. He's explaining how he feels to his therapist played by Harrison Ford. Let's listen. We talked about it more and she said that being with me was keeping her from moving forward. I understand it, but it's still annoying. Well, maybe it's annoying because deep down you realize that you should be moving on too. I know you want more of a real relationship. Your own place. A sailboat in Connecticut. Okay, last one's mine, but the point is, if you're not growing, you're not living.

8:25Now I live this morning. Twice. I'll make a note of that. Patient keeps bragging despite having been dumped. I missed a notebook. So do I kid. A handwriter can go up to shaky. Have I taught you about the field? Is this more your crunchy munchy spiritual crap? Life is a conversation with the universe. And we're off. That was Luke Tenney. What lessons are Sean learning this season? I think it's very hard for people who are comfortable to be told by people who love them. That that's not the goal. He says, if you're not growing, you're not living. And oh, man, that's so true. I think comfort is a dangerous, dangerous enemy of those who are really, really doing the work to improve themselves. And in Sean's case, comfort's particularly dangerous because he doesn't just have to improve himself.

9:25He has to handle these extremely dangerous scars in a responsible way. They're not going to go away. He's always somebody with the potential to snap. And he needs to, you know, like when people are in AA, they, even if they've been sober for years and years, like part of the steps, the journey is for them to admit that they are in alcoholic. And that's, I think something that Sean is kind of learning here from Sean. It's like, you don't get to say I'm done. For you to actually achieve the progress, you told me you wanted. You must continue to grow to live. And at this point, you know, it's a little annoying for Sean. It's not this detrimental criticism, like it might have been in years prior and seasons prior, which I think shows some of his growth. I think Paul's telling them some stuff that he knows, which is why he kind of anticipates the crunchy munchy. But that crunchy munchy stuff really changes people's lives and Sean is the example of how lives can change.

10:25You're working with Harrison Ford in that scene. What have you learned from working with someone who is, it's overword used, but he is an icon? That's the word to use. It is a word. That's the one for him. Yeah, right. He is iconic. And I think what's real cool about H, this dude is like, he really is a workhorse. Like I see your sign over there, work hard and be nice to people. And my favorite people who I've seen in the industry, it's like, if you miss in either one of those, the other one doesn't count. Like if you work hard and you're not nice, it doesn't matter. If you're nice and you don't work, it doesn't matter. You need both. You need both to execute. H is the prime example of what that is. He's like a fake cremation. That's just not who he is. He is giddy. He loves it, which is crazy too. Because when I meet people who see shrinking and they're like, oh, are you going to play Sean? I'm like thrilled, you know, also is new for me.

11:26So I ain't tired enough of that. Maybe I'll get tired later on and be respectful with him. And I'm like, hey, yo, it's nice to see you. I always try to like holler and all of that. That's part of it. Like for him, that cremation might just be because if he takes the time to talk to one person, he ain't never going to get nowhere. Right. You know, that's not the case for me. Not everybody know Luke Tenney, you know, but everybody knows Harrison freaking for it. So this dude, he's just cultivated this sort of like façade, so he get from place to place. This is probably why he became a pilot, you know? He's trying to get on the plane, but I haven't worry about all the nonsense. I should ask him why. Like, was that for efficiency? You know, but like he's the prime example of that. You know, the kindness really greases the wheels and the hard work are the wheels. You know, like it's the gears. It's the thing that props up the whole machine. So he's a prime example of that. And the main thing I learned was like all of our suspicions are correct. And if you're a good person who works hard, it might just happen that you could become an icon. It helps when you look and sound like that.

12:26Yeah. Sometimes. Like, why is he still so handsome? What is going on? Like, God, Lee. We got a really nice text about you. This says, love how Luke plays Sean, a character whose growth comes clearly painfully for both the character and the audience who's been compelled to love him. Oh, my gosh. That's very sweet. That is a very sweet text. Who said that? Like a listener? Yeah. Hey, yo, thanks, dog. That's very kind of. I'm trying. I'm just trying to hold my own. And there's, and there's like comedy with a bunch of titans. So thank you. It's interesting. The show is about, like, chosen family, you know, like Jimmy should look for Sean. He sounds like for Jimmy's daughter, Alice. Jimmy's mentor, figureist, Paul. What's it like? Sometimes it's very funny. Sometimes it's really sad, the show. Tell me a little bit about working between those two ideas. The comedy and the tragedy. Yeah. So Jason, he always says, and I can channel him a little bit.

13:29He's like, yeah, there's a, there's a fine line that we like to play between comedy and pathos. And I think that's what people want to see right now. He's so right. He's so right about that. Like, the reason why people are connecting to that so much is because gone are the days where we are looking for. And when I say we, I mean, like the majority of viewers, the majority of fans of TV, gone are the days where we're looking to see the same person we saw last week. You know, like love sign felt as hilarious. The reason why it worked is because at that time, collectively as a society, we needed to see people who we could identify, who we could trust. You know, even saying with fresh prints, like, I remember watching that show as a kid. I'm like, why is he still making this same dang mistake, bro? Like, the only time that actually complete an arc is like in the final season of a sitcom is usually where a character starts to kind of like grow up a little bit. You know, we're in a new age. People want to see the reality. People want to see something that shows them that it's worth it. I think especially for people around my age, it's kind of a hopeless time. Like, you know, when I was a kid, we kind of were made these promises.

14:31If you work hard, you're a nice person and you go to college, maybe you take awesome loans, you'll be able to like get a house. There's something people my age will never own property, you know? So when we watch TV, we want to see, we want to see something real. We want to laugh, but we want to cry because, you know, we too busy working to be able to let them tears out. So it's nice to turn on a show that comforts you by like punching you in the stomach and then like giving you, I don't know, a nice shiny red apple or something. You know, it's a little both sugar helping the medicine go down. I'm talking to actor Luke Tenney. You've recently joined Abbott Elementary. You've been with shrinking since the beginning, but you joined Abbott well into it being on the air. What was it like to join the cast of Abbott Elementary when you're off and running? Yeah, for real, it's so cool. That shows kind of like a elder brother to us on the lot because, you know, Abbott was the Titan on WB, like the big shots, you know?

15:31And then we started shrinking, putting it together. We kind of knew it would be a good show. We didn't know it would be like the hit it is today. It's really speaking to people, which is really cool to be able to say. Yeah, Abbott, they were doing this thing where it's the same thing, comedy and paint those. They're just leaning harder into the comedy. And it's the old model of TV. You know, they got 22, 21 episodes of season. It's a true half hour, which really means 22 minutes. All of that's TV jargon for the listeners out there, but like if you guys pay attention to the way things used to be, TV shows, you know, they used to come on for like a whole school year. And now we're getting these streaming shows that come in there about half the episodes, but shrinking, we say it's a half hour, but it's like 35 minutes. It's like 15 extra minutes, then something like Abbott. So all the technical stuff was different. You know, I go to that set. The camera's swinging around. If it's panning, that's your scene partner. So if the camera's not on you when you're doing like the punchline, you got to do it again. You got to make sure everything's caught captured and has a sort of chemistry and a pluckiness that actually, you know, contributes to the style and the genre of the show, whereas in shrinking, you know, we cross shoot a lot of time.

16:40The camera, there's two cameras running on one take of a certain scene. And then they can stitch it all together from different takes. It's different on Abbott. But at the same time, the heart of these projects are trying to make you laugh and also give you something that you need to be aware of. In Abbott's case, she need to be aware of these teachers that are raising your kids. They're sacrificing everything just to make sure they got reading writing, writing and a rhythm and take. Like it's crazy out there for them. Yeah, it's interesting. Your character on Abbott recently shared that he has an ADHD diagnosis and he takes medication to help him. What were your thoughts about the way they handled it on the show? And first let's start there. Shout out for me, Malcolm Jermall Warner playing Theo Huxable. I don't know if people like remember this. But when I was young, I was kind of felt like I had something, I had some letters, something. I don't know what. And I got family members who are diagnosed with ADHD. But Theo Huxable was a character who had dyslexia.

17:43He was always his bright kid, you know, but he struggled on tests. And then like seasons later on that show, he was a teacher. And then he was like working in a community center and was really kind of taking the lead in his community, helping these kids get their education. And I was like, wow, it's so cool that he's able to do all of that even with a learning disorder. And now I look at my trajectory. I didn't know I wanted to be an actor at the time I was watching that. But I remember being heavily inspired by Theo's character for my character, Dominic, because it's the same thing. He's somebody with a diagnosis that is something that would be detrimental to here, especially at a young age. At his time, it was stigmatized to take medication and figure out how to manage it. But to me, it's just a really cool legacy because I was so inspired by that storyline with Theo that now is Dominic. I kind of feel like in a contemporary way. That's a pretty common diagnosis for a lot of these kids, because of the state of the world right now, because of the state of technology.

18:44And it's really cool to see somebody like that in a position of education. Let's listen to a clip from Abbott Elementary in this scene. It's kind of a misunderstanding of a conversation that happens earlier around your character having ADHD. He thought he heard Barbara talking about it. And it leads Jacob to thinking that Dominic, you know, my P.K. This is Abbott Elementary. I could use some advice. Oh, come in. Sit. Let me share my wisdom. I don't want to make a big thing this. But that conversation didn't allow just me. I can't shake it. I totally hear you. 100% on the same page. But what are you talking about? Well, you know, Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Chimenti were talking and Mrs. Howard shared some opinions that didn't sit right with me, because I'm that way. So it was a little offensive. Oh, my God. I didn't realize you were, well, I am. Abbott Elementary had a distinct rhythm. It's comedic rhythm. What is it? First, let me shout out Chris Perfetti.

19:44That dude, he's nailed some sort of physical expression of what he's doing vocally so well to the point where you can imagine what he's feeling. Imagine what he's physically doing. Come sit. You can hear the energy in his veins as he's doing his pseudo jack sparrow kind of motions. So shout out to him, keeping it together when he was around was crazy hard. But I think that their style is something that's like it's people in moments of crisis. That's kind of what Abbott is. There's always a crisis. There's always a fire to put out. The reality is it is an elementary school. So the crises are very different than something like the pit, you know. But they still mean the world to these teachers. And here's an opportunity for Jacob Hill to take someone under his wing. Of course, he thinks Dominic and him share the same orientation. Because Dominic over here trying to be, you know, euphemistic and make suggestions. So he could have been clear on that front. But you know, hashtag GADHD hashtag straight DHD is one of the funniest things I have ever read in my life.

20:47Oh, my goodness gracious me. I was looking at man in the face fully prepared to be the actor I am trained to be. Okay, yeah, like I'm a theater guy. I could do this. I could lock in this man asked me GADHD and I broke three times. Just trying to keep it together. He's so funny and he is so sincere. I was like, godly, I'm embarrassed man. I'm trying to be a professional over here. He keep making me laugh. But I finally got through it, you know, and it's one of the funniest scenes I've ever been in in my life. Because you are a professional. I'm trying. Man, but it's so much fun to do that. It's a very different style of comedy than something like shrinking. And I'm a little less of a straight man in this show. Which is fun for me because, you know, I feel like I'm kind of working through the steps as a comedic performer to like on my way to being given more challenging material like Chris, Chris gets very challenging material. It don't look that way because he just cold with it. You know, he good at his job. Well, you get to you get to be challenged in the pit.

21:49Yeah, big time. I saw I saw the episode early. Oh, you saw it. I saw it. This is 13, yeah. Dr. Cruz Henderson. How would you describe Dr. Cruz Henderson? Character will meet him shortly. Cool and collected. I like it. And, you know, there's something I want to say, but I can't say it because the episode isn't out. But the way that they describe him using his name, that what that to me was like a sort of, you know, he's somebody who's cruising. You know, he's somebody who's really just got it on lock. He's just confident. He trusts his training. He trusts the other healthcare providers around him. He just has this sort of hope that it's going to work out. They're going to crack it, you know. And I think that's what a presence is something that we haven't really seen on the pit. And I'm curious to see because I haven't seen anything except like, you know, what I went in to do ADR for. You know, like voice matching. That's all I've seen of the show so far. So I can't wait. Oh, it's good. I'm glad to hear that because I wouldn't know. Was there any particular part of working on the pit that really pushed you out of your comfort zone?

22:51Oh, yeah, all of it. Like they don't have sides for the for the listeners. Sides are small little pieces of paper that have the the scenes for the day. And usually on a set. If you're an actor, you go into your trailer and there's sides there for you next to your contract. Signs your contract. You grab your sides. You can rehearse your lines. Not on the pit on the pit. It's just come. Come ready. Ooh, yeah, we ain't got that. We ain't got that for you. The only time you see sides is when there's a very challenging medical scene. And then you have a doctor, an actual doctor, who has written out your blocking. Like what you would do if this were an actual hospital on the sides. Which you must return back to the doctor before you like go to lunch. They're very, very specific about it. Oh, interesting. And scripts are not getting lost floating around in the ether. So the doctor needs to make sure they got all the sides before you break. It's really, really exciting. So, yeah, the biggest challenge there is acting like I know what I'm talking about.

23:52I wanted to tell people that you attended the American Musical Intermatic Academy, the College of Performing Arts. And you think about someone in the academic sense learning how to train, learning how to be an actor. What is something that you go back to from those days that you use regularly in your life as a working actor? I got a quote from one of my favorite teachers, Ray Verda, he said, there are rarely emotional solutions to technical problems. But there are always technical solutions to emotional problems. I think about that every day. Most people look at acting and they think this is an emotional thing that you have to do. And they're correct. But the reality is, most of the stuff that you see is setting up the few moments of emotion that anchor the whole story. You know, it's like, I don't know, I'm thinking off the top of my head, take Daniel Collouin and get out. This guy is incredible, right?

24:53For the majority of the movie, he's not in the sunken place. That one time, though, he has to be ready and prepared when Katherine Keener starts tapping that, that T-glass, oh my gosh. It's so juxtaposed from the casual conversation that you spend with Rose and Daniel's character in the car when they end up hitting the deer and when they're just doing the dinner stuff, like you got to know how to just communicate like a normal human being first. Once you get that on lock, then you can start cracking those emotional issues with your technique. So the foundation of technique will free you into discovering those emotional places that your character will go. So yeah, I think about that every single time. Every time the emotion is a tough nut for me to crack, I just go back to technique and think about what physically I need to make sure my character is doing. Do I understand these words? Like, does my character know what he's talking about here? I'm on my line. What's my point of view? What's my relationship to who I'm talking to? Where am I coming from? Like the basics, you know?

25:53So yeah, I think about that frequently and it helps me. I'm going to read one more text. Our listeners love you, by the way. This says, one of the most engaging things about how Luke plays his character is how he uses quiet to be loud, calm as power. Standing face to face with these legends shows the path he is on in his career. Keep going. Who is sending these texts? Who is he? Our listeners are great. Yeah, like T.S. Eliot, y'all getting poetry over here. What's going on? Man, thank you, yo. And yet, you discover my tricks here. Yeah, you can see. I try not to lean into, like, the typical, but I also try not to over complicate things. So I just think, like, if my character's real mad, what if he's quiet here? You know, if my character's really nervous, what if instead of him fidgety, he's frozen. I just try to think about, like, the opposite and just see how that goes. And what's great about TV and film is you got takes. So I can do the stereotypical traditional route, if I'm asked to.

26:55But it's a good opportunity for me to explore some things that are a little bit of a risk. And I feel very seen by that last one, Kyle Lee. Like, yeah, those are my, those are my tricks as a performer. I've been a big dude my whole life. So when I started on stage, I was like, they don't see me. I should move with purpose. Can't miss me. That's a big old dude over there. Look at that giant hair. He got the clown feet. You know, like, I should move with great specificity and purpose. Otherwise, I'm just going to be distracting. So that allowed me to understand that I am not the actor who's a sculptor who takes the giant block of clay and knocks all the stuff that's not the piece out of the way until you reveal a statue. That's not me. I'm a painter. So I start with the blank space. I start from neutral. And then I add and then I mix colors and then I go there. But the reason why I use those analogies is because a lot of my favorite actors are sculptors. Like, they throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and then you whittle away and then reveal the character.

27:57But for me, I start kind of from base Luke and then I add the character on from there. Because, you know, there's a lot of clay in my case, you know. You can watch Abbott Elementary. You can watch the pit. And of course, you can watch shrinking to see actor Luke Tenney. Luke, thanks for coming to the studio. Yeah, this was great. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Your questions were awesome and you got a great vibe. Congrats to you on these eight years. Thank you. Cheers.