Nick’s knack
In the women’s prison that is home to Orange Is the New Black, Warden Joe Caputo perseveres with a mix of fatuous authority and scattershot nobility.
“I think he wants to save everyone,” says series creator Jenji Kohan in an email. “His good intentions are often thwarted.” Striking that balance is Nick Sandow, who portrays Caputo with “nuance and humour and surprise,” Kohan adds.
THE MOUSTACHE
Part of Caputo’s look is his moustache, which, reflecting his personality, seems well-intentioned but a bit misguided.
Asked how the moustache came about, Sandow says he originally grew it to try out for the Caputo role. “I read a character description that said he looked like a walrus,” Sandow recalls. “I auditioned with it and Jenji was like, ‘Yes, let’s keep it.’ It became his signature.”
THE ROLE
As the series has evolved, Sandow says he has continued to explore his character’s conflict with “wanting and needing to help people but not being able to get out of his own way,” a condition, he confides with a laugh, “I know very well.”
THE FILMMAKER
While the 50-year-old Sandow has gathered many acting credits in TV (Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods, Third Watch) and film (Resurrecting the Champ, Return to Paradise), as well as on the stage, he has charted a parallel course as a filmmaker.
He directs the Orange season opener. He wrote, directed and starred in The Wannabe, a 2015 mob drama. Now, he is working on a docu-series about Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old high school student who was shot and killed in a Florida gated community in 2012.
THE ACTOR
“I grew up in the Bronx, where saying you want to be an actor was just not something you did. But I loved movies, and I had this secret idea to do it. I snuck downtown and took an acting class.”