Exclusive: From Mayor Of Kingstown to The Tulsa King to The Perfect Couple to Michael Beach Never Stops Working
Coming up this Sunday is the Season Three finale to the Paramount+ series Mayor Of Kingstown, executive produced and starring Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky. In addition to Renner, the series stars an impressive ensemble cast, including series regulars Hugh Dillon, Taylor Handley, Emma Laird, Tobi Bamtefa, Derek Webster, Nishi Munshi, Hamish Allan-Headley, Necar Zadegan, Nichole Galicia and Michael Beach.
In season three, a series of explosions rock Kingstown and its citizens, as a new face of the Russian mob sets up shop in the city, and a drug war rages inside and outside prison walls. The pressure is on Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) to end the war but things get complicated when a familiar face from his incarcerated past threatens to undermine the Mayor’s attempts to keep the peace among all factions.
For Beach, who plays the warden Captain Kareem Moore, things have gotten out of hand under his watch. With the riot that came about last season and its aftermath, along with inmates running rampant and killing each other, the pressure is on him to get his house in order or changes will be made…starting with him.
As the season comes to a close, it won’t be long before we see Beach on the screen again as he’s set to reprise his role as Mark Mitchell on the second season of the Paramount+ series Tulsa King, which is another production from Taylor Sheridan and is executive produced and stars Sylvester Stallone.
If that’s not enough, Beach will be on another series The Perfect Couple, which will premiere in September and stars opposite Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.
For nearly four decades, Beach has contributed his performance on the big and small screen, with roles in Lean On Me, Waiting to Exhale, Soul Food, Things Never Said, Insidious: Chapter 2, If Beale Street Could Talk, Aquaman, The Harder They Fall, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Sons of Anarchy, The Game, Dynasty, Chicago P.D., Kingdom Business, and more recently Dead Boy Detectives to name a few.
Blackfilmandtv.com caught up with Beach as he talked about his role in Mayor of Kingstown and what to expect in Tulsa King Season 2.
You're a jack-of-all-trades currently. It's good to be working, right?
Michael Beach: It's always good to be working
You're on season 3 of Mayor of Kingston. Your character went through some stuff after the riot last season. He's in charge again and he doesn't seem like he's going to be taking anything from Mike, but somehow he seems to be getting back into Mike's orbit.
Michael Beach: I think it's unavoidable to be in the orbit. Because we all work in the prison system and Mike's kind of like the liaison between everyone in the prison system. But the question is, are you on his good side or his bad side or some way in between and I think that's where Kareem is, some way in between.
What’s it like working with creator Taylor Sheridan?
Michael Beach: Well, you can expect quality, and I think that's a big thing. That's something I've tried to be a part of for the 40 years I've been doing this. To be involved in things where you know the writing is going to be good, but they're going to give fabulous actors and directors. You have a great set designer and and DP and all of that. When you're surrounded by quality like that it It makes you want to step up and and work hard so that you're not like the you know You're not the the link that's not holding the glue together.
Do you take stock in the background of the character you're playing? Do you have a perspective now of those who really have that job and what they have to go through on a daily basis?
Michael Beach: Yeah, you do. The great thing about what I do or at least how I see it is that everybody is a human. Everybody can relate to the to love, to hate, to fear to all of these things, right? The thing that we're doing is that we're taking a person and we're putting them in a certain lifestyle, and a certain situation and so I think that's why audiences can relate to people because they are these humans in these Incredible situations and the only difference is now based on who they are is how they deal with these situations.
From one show to another you’re still stick with another Paramount series. You've got Tulsa season 2 coming back. You get to work with Sly, but you're playing totally the opposite of what you're doing in Mayor of Kingstown. What's that feeling like to have another series with Taylor Sheridan and coming out this year?
Michael Beach: Well, it's great to be working let me say that. Yeah, it's another Taylor Sheridan show and so the quality is pretty high. You've got an icon likes Sly so it's kind of fun. As a teenager watching Rocky in the movie theater and of course all that he's done since then and to be able to step on set with him and and to trade words with him and at one point get in his face as if we're about to throw down is pretty thrilling as as an actor and as a fan.
From what we saw last season your character got on board with supporting his son and Sly’s character in his battles with outside forces. What are we getting this season?
Michael Beach: Well, I don't know if he was supporting it, but he was he was definitely supporting his son, but he's not happy with the lifestyle that his son has chosen and I think this season gets into that a little bit more in terms of my son the Tyson character who is really trying to decide who he wants to be, the type of man he wants to be and although I think Sly's character Dwight is has a very moral honor code side to him and of course Mark, my character, is definitely the hard-working everyday man, and he's got his moral side to him. They are still coming from different places and that's the battle we're going to continue to see and it actually gets much more in season two than in season one.
Between both shows and I'm sure you have other projects but what goes into saying yes to the projects you take? Is it the role, who you're working with, or the time frame in which you can do it?
Michael Beach: That's a good question. There's a lot of things that go into it. If you can get three or four of the things you like, that's great. But sometimes you only get one. But it's enough to make you say yes, I want to do it. But it ultimately all comes down to quality in some way. You want to work with the writer or the creator of the show or the star of the show or the story was so good or the character was so good. So, it all it always comes down to, do I want to be a part of this project because of five things, and if I'm lucky I get three great aspects of those five things and sometimes you take it because of one because that one is so powerful. So it just depends.
You know you mentioned earlier 40 years in the business and it's not easy to stay in this game, what's the the staying power?
Michael Beach: Again, I go back to quality. It's the effort you put into the work. It's your presence on set. I'm not late. I know my lines. I hit my marks. I enjoy the crew. I have a positive point of view and and attitude when I'm on the set and and I like what I do. You can come to the set and you can bring a negative energy or you can come and bring a positive energy and I don't think enough people understand that. That is as much as what people are looking at as your work. “Oh my god. He's so good.” Or “He's so good but god, what a what a dick was he? He was such a dick.” He treats people poorly. He's not positive or fun on the set. I like all of that stuff and I think all of that contributes to people wanting to work with you and because if you're around for a long time, people that you've worked with will call you back, because they want you to be in another project that they have coming up.
What’s coming up?
Michael Beach: I have three shows on now. I also have Dead boy Detectives on Netflix, which is airing now. But also a new show I don't know when it's airing but it's called The Perfect Couple. It's another Netflix show with Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning and that's coming out sometime this year. It's a murder mystery type thing. Very cool. We shot much of it during the writer's strike but in that time frame. So it was kind of hectic and crazy and all that stuff, but I had a lot of fun. So that's going to hopefully come out sometime this season this year.