A Tribute To My Favorite Interviewee, Amy Ryan, Who Somehow Knew A Serial Killer
Last week, there was a New York Times headline that read, How I Found Out I knew a Serial Killer. The author, Gina Bellafante, recounts the moment in which she found out she knew the Gilgo Beach serial killer. She found out when Amy Ryan called her to tell her it was a consulting architect they both knew named Rex Heuermann who, according to the piece, had been in Amy Ryan's apartment, "arguing with her architect about window measurements." What makes this even more odd, and scary, is that in 2020, Ryan starred in the Netflix film Lost Girls about these very murders. (I interviewed Ryan at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 about this very film.)
Amy Ryan is my favorite actor to interview. (I like to think posting this is good karma after posting last week about my least favorite actor to interview.) I'm going to guess that I've interviewed her more than anyone on this planet because, anytime I get the opportunity, I say yes because it's such a delightful experience. (And, of course, most of them have since been deleted off the internet.) Her humor and deadpan delivery of answers is just everything I hope for in an interview. I read that Times piece in total shock because, well, what on earth?! The whole time I'm thinking, is there some confusion here because she starred in the movie about this? This is the equivalent of Jake Gyllenhaal just happening to know the Zodiac Killer. It's crazy.
Anyway, I have interviewed Amy Ryan six times and, ahead, I put together what is basically a greatest hits montage of her best moments from these interviews.
The first time I interviewed Amy Ryan was in 2011. I was working for Movieline and this was for the Tom McCarthy high school wrestling movie, Win Win. I remember being nervous turning this one into my editor, Stu VanAirsdale, because he had just given me a lecture that my interviews were getting too "loosey goosey." That I was getting way too off topic. And this Amy Ryan interview was pretty "loosey goosey."
(Thank goodness I finally course corrected. If I'm known for anything, it's never getting off topic during an interview. You can see this in my interview with Jorma Taccone that just published today about his new film, Over Your Dead Body, in which we discuss The Transformers: The Movie and Cobra.)
Stu sends me a note on Gchat (remember that?) that says, "So, your Amy Ryan interview..." Well, here it comes. "This is the funniest interview I've ever read." He then titles it, "15 Awesome Minutes with Awesomely Awesome Amy Ryan." I felt relief. This was much better than a lecture. I still have the Word doc on my old MacBook, which seems to be the only place this interview still lives. The first half reads fairly standard. A lot of talk about high school wrestling, which I know nothing about outside of Vision Quest. Things took a turn when we started to talk about her role as Holly on The Office and her character's role in Michael Scott's departure from the show:
Is it nice being a major part of The Office this season where you get the commercial and critical success?
Yeah, it is. Certainly, now, there’s been so many people who came to The Wire after the fact – but it still matters. People are catching up with it now on DVD. But, no, it’s a nice feeling that you were making people thing differently, or just simply making them laugh.
Are you prepared for America’s scorn?
What’s that?
Taking away Michael Scott…
Oh, I thought that was the name of a new show. I thought it was a new reality show.
I see here you’re going to be a guest on America’s Scorn?
That’s a great title. I’m going to make it my ambition and call my agent right now. “Get me on America’s Scorn!” Well, I suppose. We’ll see, we’ll see the reaction.
I was going to ask what you had coming up, but now we already know it’s America’s Scorn.
America’s Scorn actually comes out at Christmas. It’s a Christmas release, yes. It’s me and Vin Diesel.
