ON DECK FOR ‘BLACK SAILS’
We chat to a returning cast member about his work on the popular series ‘Black Sails’ which is being filmed in Cape Town
SEASON two of Black Sails began on History Channel this week (Tuesdays at 8.30pm). One of its stars is South African actor Sean Cameron Michael. After getting a green card and membership in the Screen Actors Guild, he now calls Los Angeles home, but he was recently here on holiday – and a bit of work, like meeting with a director about a movie to be shot in Durban at the end of the year with
Black Sails co-star Hakeem KaeKazim, auditioning for a new American series which will be filmed here, and being interviewed by me.
Michael’s memory serves him incredibly well; he recalled our previous meeting 13 years ago when we talked about the SABC legal drama
This Life. Since then he has gone on to appear in numerous series, and feature and short films. We had a fabulously long chat about just some of the series in which he can be seen on local screens this year, a bunch of other film and television related stuff, and how the Hollywood system works. We began with
Black Sails, in which he plays Richard Guthrie.
“In season one we met Richard Guthrie, Eleanor’s dad – this really ruthless powerful guy – and then he disappears. He leaves Eleanor alone on the island to run things. What’s cool about season two is that Richard Guthrie returns to Nassau. The s**t has hit the fan, Eleanor doesn’t know what to do, and daddy comes to the rescue.
“What I loved about season two is that we get the opportunity to go a little deeper with the character, to find out the back story of him and his daughter. We find out about Eleanor’s mother – my wife – and Eleanor as a child, and how I treated her which explains how she turned out to be the woman she is.”
There are really passionate intense emotional heavy scenes with Hannah New (Eleanor) and as an actor that’s “awesome”, says Michael. “You want to sink your teeth into that stuff.”
Michael was an Emmy contender for seasons one and two, and the ensemble cast of Black Sails was also a contender for a SAG award for its second season. This means they were submitted to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for consideration as nominees. “As a South African actor – a boykie from Bellville – when I saw my name on that ballot next to Jon Voight and Kiefer Sutherland and Mads Mikkelson, of course it’s cool,” says Michael. “You feel like you’re making some sort of progress. I think for anyone in any job, my god, if someone tells you you’re doing good work, how can it not feel good?”
For him it’s never ever been about awards or fame or any of that “nonsense”, says Michael. It’s about the work, the experience, learning, and challenging himself. “I’ve been lucky in that casting director Christa Schamberger – whom I’ve known for more than 20 years – decided a few years ago that I was ready, and started bringing me in for bigger roles, working opposite big guys. So there were things like Strike Back with Charles Dance
who was in Game of Thrones, and The Salvation with Mads Mikkelson and Eva Green, and certainly
Black Sails, which was auditioned around the world.”
Slowly but surely doors are opening for South African actors, and Michael found he was being told he was “paving the way” for other actors. “I’ve never seen myself as a successful actor. I see myself as a working actor,” he says. “What is success? It’s something different for everybody.”
But then an actor said to him: “Sean, don’t you understand? You got a green card. You went to America. You got yourself an agent, you got yourself a manager, you got auditions and started booking jobs. What that means to other South African actors is that when they arrive in Los Angeles and they go knock on that agent’s door or go see that casting director, they will say ‘well, I hired Sean Cameron Michael to work on Criminal Minds so sure, I’ll see him.’” And that’s how it works, to make inroads into what is a very closed industry in which actors are going up against literally thousands of other hopefuls, many of whom have similar experience. “You constantly have to prove yourself, and every day you face rejection,” says Michael. “I know it sounds corny but for the first time in my life I know exactly who I am, where I’m going, what my niche is… as a South African actor, representing, I know without any doubt this is exactly where I want to be.”
While Michael is extremely comfortable with accents – slipping seamlessly and humorously between them to make different points during our conversation – he was cast as a South African in
Beyond Borders, the new Criminal Minds spinoff, as well as in Scorpion opposite Robert Patrick. Both are in the CBS stable. The Beyond
Borders job was Michael’s first official one as a SAG member, which is an understandably proud moment.
“Scorpion was actually my breakthrough moment in Hollywood because it was my first direct offer, and that’s a big deal. I play the lead baddie and it’s a lekker role.”
When we see these episodes here we’ll notice Michael uses an Afrikaans accent, and he’s been called out on this. He explains it’s because that’s how Americans perceive the way we talk (think Matt Damon in Invictus and Leo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond). An “English” South African accent is too close to Australian or British for them to be able to detect the difference.
Extending far beyond these highly visible roles Michael also works extensively with student and independent film makers. “For me, it’s giving back. A lot of it can lead to bigger things too, and you’re
building relationships,” he says. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, a spinoff series about an international unit of the FBI charged with coming to the aid of, and solving crimes involving, American citizens in foreign countries, begins on M-Net on June 23 at 9.30pm, and stars Gary Sinise (CSI: New York). Michael appears in episode 10, in which an American college student working in Johannesburg is killed and his brother goes missing. “It just been renewed for season two,” said Michael.
Scorpion is on Vuzu AMP, Mondays at 8.30pm. Michael will be in episode 20 of season two, later this year. Monday’s episode is number 10.
Shonda Rhimes (The Fixer, Grey’s
Anatomy, Private Practice) is a producer of this new crime thriller about a top financial investigator who goes after her cunning exfiancé, after he cons her out of millions of dollars. Mireille Enos plays Alice Vaughan. Her breakout role was in the AMC crime drama series, The Killing (2011–14) as Sarah Linden for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Her fiancé Benjamin Jones is played by Peter Krause, whom we have seen previously in
Six Feet Under, Parenthood, and Dirty Sexy Money. He took over the part of Jones from Damon Dayoub, who played the role in the pilot. The series has been renewed for a second season.
TOP GEAR BBC Brit, Wednesday at 8pm
The long-awaited new season – the 23rd – premieres next week. Whether it can live up to, or surpass, its predecessor remains to be seen. For me, the magic of this show existed mainly in the presenting team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. Now we have seven men and one woman. They are motorsport guru and Formula 1 commentator Eddie Jordan, world record-breaking German racing driver Sabine Schmitz, motoring journalist and YouTube petrol head Chris Harris, car reviewer and TV presenter Rory Reid, comedian Chris Evans, Friends star and fastest ever celebrity around the Top Gear track Matt LeBlanc, and The Stig, who could be anyone and is no longer the novelty he once was. BBC promises us the series will be crammed full of fresh twists and excitement, along with familiar features like the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.