The Six Feet Under actor on challenging roles, working with Guillermo del Toro and being recognised at funerals
American actor Richard Jenkins, 74, has been a screen regular since the 70s, but his big breakthrough came in 2001 playing deceased funeral director Nathaniel Fisher in the TV series Six Feet Under. He went on to receive an Oscar nomination for best actor in The Visitor (2007) and won an Emmy in 2015 for his role in the drama series Olive Kitteridge. Jenkins has worked with directors including Woody Allen, Kathryn Bigelow, the Coens and Mike Nichols, and next month can be seen in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. His latest project is playwright Stephen Karam’s film of his own one-act play The Humans – set in a newly rented, unfurnished apartment in New York’s Chinatown – in which Jenkins plays a man contemplating the state of his life at a family Thanksgiving.
You live in Providence, Rhode Island, where you’ve worked a lot in theatre, right?
I’m from Illinois, but I’ve been out here for 50-some years. I was a member of the acting company here for 14 seasons, and later I ran it for four seasons. My wife [Sharon R Friedrick] is a choreographer, and we still direct and choreograph some stuff there. We rethink musicals, like Oliver! and Oklahoma!. We love working together. When I directed alone, it was in your own head, but when you’re doing it with someone else, you talk about it for months before you even start rehearsals. It’s really wonderful.
