Triple threat
Role model: veteran actor Irby on ‘Mayans M.C.,’ ‘Barry’ and ‘SEAL Team’
SNARING a role in a primetime series is icing on the cake.
But co-starring on three shows simultaneously? That’s a TV sugar overload for Michael Irby.
The 45-year-old actor is having the run of his 20-year career with three key roles: as Obispo “Bishop” Losa on “Mayans
M.C.,” the “Sons of Anarchy” spinoff premiering Sept. 4 on FX; as Cristobal Sifuentes, the jaunty, book-quoting Bolivian drug lord on HBO’s Emmy-nominated dark comedy “Barry”; and as Adam Siever on “SEAL Team,” back for Season 2 Oct. 18 on CBS.
“Yeah, man, it’s all moving right now,” says Irby. “It’s just the way things lined up. It’s so rare [for an actor] to go from job to job. I’ve never done three jobs at once. If I was in New York [at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts] and was doing a play and had to go and do an episode of ‘ Law & Order,’ that’s not the same.
“Hopefully I won’t annoy anyone with being in their living rooms for the next few months. It’s awesome.”
Irby has paid his dues since his first TV appearance in that episode of “Law & Order” (in 1999). He played Sergeant First Class Charles Grey on “The Unit” for its four-season run on CBS, had a recurring role on “CSI: Cyber” and has appeared in a long laundry list of series including “Taken,” “Elementary,” “True Detective,” “Rosewood” and “The Following.”
“Once I got into the business I was typecast, for better or worse, and that took me down that ‘badass’ road, whether I was a cop, a drug dealer, a murderer or a DEA agent,” says Irby, who grew up in Riverside County, Calif. His longevity and versatility played a key role when he auditioned for “Barry” and casting directors Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas — who he knew from “The Unit” and other series.
“I don’t really get the opportunity to show my comedic side,” he says. “The [character description] for Cristobal was ‘a Bolivian Sammy Hagar.’ I was like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ With the beauty of the Internet I was able to start jumping into research about Sammy Hagar, and I just saw this free-spirit who’s in the now, in the moment. After reading the scripts I realized Cristobal was all into [Don Miguel Ruiz’s book of wisdom] ‘The 4 Agreements’ and he’s into thoughtfulness and a higher level of thinking.”
Irby has wrapped his recurring role on Season 2 of “SEAL Team” and is about to begin shooting Season 2 of “Barry.” He’s a regular on “Mayans M.C.” as Obispo, president of a drug- and weapons-dealing biker club on the California-Mexico border that’s testing prospect Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes (J.D. Pardo).
“Neither of [Obispo’s] parents were really present in his life and he obviously ended up going down the wrong road and making some different choices,” he says. “He thought he was going to be able to change his life by going into the military, which he did ... and when he got back he ended up going to Pelican Bay [State Prison] and doing a little bit of time in solitary with his cousin, Marcus (played by Emilio Rivera, who originated the role in ‘ Sons of Anarchy’). Marcus calls him and says, ‘Brother, why don’t you start up this [motorcycle] chapter and see if you can get your life straight?’ “[Obispo] is dealing with some very bad things ... and he’s very pragmatic: ‘If you wrong me, then I’m gonna have to wrong you twice.’ He’s gonna be there for his boys,” Irby says. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the club — and showing his cousin who he is as a man.”