The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He’s ‘that guy in that thing’
You might not be able to place actor Mike Pniewski. And he’s fine with that.
It’s a gray November morning at Daddy D’z BBQ Joynt in Atlanta, the sweetly acrid smell of smoky ribs wafting in the air. Actor Mike Pniewski, in a booth, is staring intently into the eyes of fellow actor Malcolm Jamal-Warner of “The Cosby Show” fame while shooting Fox’s medical drama “The Resident.”
Pniewski’s surgeon character Abe Benedict, as mentor to Jamal-Warner’s Dr. AJ “The Raptor” Austin, is imparting advice to his arrogant colleague:
“You’re great but you’re not invincible. My advice? Learn humility. Make a mistake. Own it. It makes you a better doctor.”
It’s a life lesson Pniewski himself takes to heart as an actor who has lasted in show business for nearly 35 years.
The longtime Acworth resident has more than 160 movie and TV credits to his name, spanning groundbreaking dramas (“Hill Street Blues,” “The Sopranos”), comedic hits (“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Roseanne”), inspirational films (“Remember the Titans,” “We Are Marshall”) and many, many TV movies even he has tried to forget (e.g., “My Fake Fiance,” “My Future Boyfriend,” “My Son, the Matchmaker”).
He has worked with everyone from Eddie Murphy to Gene Hackman, from Sandra Bullock to Denzel Washington, from Matthew McConaughey to Morgan Freeman.
In other words, practically any American who has watched any amount of TV or film over the years has seen Pniewski on screen, perhaps as a cop, a general, a football coach or a defense attorney. But he falls in the category of “Isn’t he that guy who was in that thing …?”
“I see people come up to him all the time wondering if they know him,” said his daughter Hannah. “The few times he’s owned up to being an actor, they’d say something like, ‘No, no, no. Did you teach second grade in Spartanburg in 1993?’ “
For many actors seeking Oscar-level fame and mansion-style fortune, this level of semi-anonymity would be the apex of frustration. Not Pniewski. He found his place in the Hollywood machinery as an affable character actor, excelling in roles that help A-list actors shine.
“Being a character actor made Mike sensible,” said Brian Reise, a veteran Los
Angeles-based acting coach who taught Pniewksi in his early years and has trained stars ranging from George Clooney to Tiffany Haddish. “He has never been driven by celebrity. He’s driven by the work. I wish more people had that level of clarity.”
Pniewski focuses on the positive.
“There are guys who would give a limb for what I have. I am tremendously grateful,” Pniewski said recently in the living room of his comfortable suburban alcove in Acworth. “I’m never going to complain about where I am.”
And at age 57, his career is more robust than ever. He’s simultaneously juggling part-time roles on three shows: CBS All Access legal drama “The Good Fight,” CBS political drama “Madam Secretary” and “The Resident.”
What makes Pniewski especially unusual is he did the opposite of what most actors do. An Orange County native, he spent 10 years in Hollywood, then moved to Atlanta in 1994, long before Georgia became a tax-credit haven drawing hundreds of shows and movies to the state.
Married with a daughter and a second on the way, he knew Atlanta had a significantly lower cost of living than Burbank, where he and his wife, Jaye, lived in a modest but expensive townhome with homeless on the sidewalk outside.
“It wasn’t about business,” Pniewski said. “It was about quality of life.”
So they moved to Acworth, where his wife — a hair and makeup artist — grew up. They soon purchased a four-bedroom home for $116,000, and they are still living in it more than two decades later.
While Pniewski isn’t sure this necessarily benefited his career, it made him much happier, more grounded.
And even during times when work was slow, he scrambled. He booked commercials. He did corporate videos. He taught acting classes. He became president of the local chapter of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union.
His patience paid off. When Georgia began creating tax credits, he was able to get more work in the state such as “We Are Marshall,” “Meet the Browns,” “Necessary Roughness,” “Drop Dead Diva” and “Coma.” And now he hardly ever ventures to Los Angeles, mostly finding work in New York and the Southeast.
As a child, Pniewski set his eyes on the stars, not the ones on the red carpet.
“I was the one that would wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning to watch Apollo launches live,” he said.
He lived 40 miles from the glitz of Beverly Hills with two younger brothers in Santa Ana, Calif. His parents were decidedly middle-class, his dad a former Marine who worked in electronics manufacturing. His mom worked in the Orange County library system.
He caught the acting bug mostly by accident. As a senior at his Catholic school, he joined “Fiddler on the Roof ” as a bonding experience with his friends.
To his surprise, he ended up getting the lead role of Tevye, the poor Jewish milkman who sang the classic song “If I Were a Rich Man.”
“To this day, it’s still one of the most impactful things I’ve ever done,” Pniewski said. “It was the one thing nobody had to push me to do.”
On performance day, he barely remembers the reaction from the audience.
“I’m the last one out,” he said. “I walk out and there’s this big roar. It literally shook me. That really kind of crystallized things. ‘Wow! This is something!’”
But he said he was supposed to be the responsible one in the family, the steady one.
So Pniewski in 1979 received a full scholarship to UCLA to study sports medicine. “This was a hot new profession in the late 1970s,” he said.
Problem: He found the partying scene was far more fun than studying kinesiology and nutrition. His firstquarter GPA was an “Animal House”-level 1.0.
He soon made a decision: pursue what he loved, not just a profession to get a job.
So he chose acting, the memory of that “Fiddler on the Roof ” moment embedded in his head. “The power to think you can move people like that,” he said. “That’s kind of a drug. It’s intoxicating.”
Fortunately, he happened to be at UCLA, which has minted many a Hollywood mogul, producer, director, casting director and actor over the years.
Right out of school, he got an agent and began auditioning. In 1984, he nabbed his first speaking role on the ABC action series “Hardcastle & McCormick.” And he played a cop, something he’d have to get used to.
“I come across as credible, dependable, honest,” Pniewski said. “I haven’t played a lot of bad guys, though I’ve played guys I didn’t think were bad though others thought were bad. So I’ve settled into playing cops, which was fine with me.”
Pniewski understood his place in the acting pecking order very early on. He knew he wasn’t leading man material. He was a little hefty and prematurely balding.
“I was going to be the every man next-door guy,” he said. “I was comfortable with that. Still am. It’s been pretty good to me.”
But Pniewski did have a moment where his ego briefly overtook good sense.
“I got another audition for one of those nice guy buddy best friend things,” he said. “I had this brilliant idea. I can give the guy a little attitude. I was going to reinvent the genre! I did the audition and felt really good about it.”
Then his agent called and said, exasperated: “What the hell were you thinking?”
So he learned a lesson: “Don’t be cute. Be comfortable in your own skin. Embrace where you fit in. Do it well and enjoy the ride. You’ll work for a long time.”
Pniewski has followed that philosophy ever since, working hard to be reliable, agreeable and prepared. And while it has allowed him to get plenty of work, he’s never gotten a regular role on a TV series.
“It takes a lot of good fortune and there are a lot of good actors out there,” he mused. “Also, as I get older, there aren’t as many spots for regular roles for actors in their 50s and 60s.”
But he still aspires to get one.
“I don’t say this to brag, but for a number of years, especially the last 10, I have consistently been delivering really high-quality work. I’ve been doing my best work on really good projects.”
Barbara Hall, creator of “Madam Secretary,” has given Pniewski his biggest role to date as Secretary of Defense Gordon Becker, a foil to Tea Leoni’s Secretary of State character Elizabeth McCord.
During an episode this past Dec. 9, Becker enters McCord’s home unannounced in his pajamas and clearly mentally off. “He found this moment in that scene where he goes and picks up a Christmas ornament in a way that makes you realize, ‘Oh my God! There’s really something wrong!’” Hall said. “He did things in a way that we weren’t necessarily expecting but made his character more believable.”
Even a week before Christmas, Pniewski was still plugging away, doing auditions, often from his studio basement office, seeking the best work he can find. And he never gets hung up when he doesn’t get a role. Rejection comes with the territory.
“I’ve been working professionally since 1984,” he said. “I’m still in the game, still working at the highest levels of the business with some of the best people in the craft. I’ve been able to support my family and live a nice life and put two kids through college.”
Pniewski has three daughters: Hannah, 27, Grace, 24, and Meredith, 18, who’s still in high school.
Hannah saw her dad travel a lot out of town for his work as an actor and struggle at times. But that didn’t deter her from entering the same field.
And now — purely coincidentally — she and her dad will be in the same episode of “The Resident” set to air in February.
“We’re not in the same scene,” Hannah said, “but my character definitely influences what happens to his character in an indirect way.” She said her dad is pretty low-key except when it comes to his kids. “He got very emotional about this,” she said. “And I couldn’t be more excited about it myself.”