Currently portraying Sgt. David Gabriel, Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson's right-hand man, in the seventh and final season of TNT's "The Closer," Reynolds started acting in high school and hasn't stopped since. His earliest memory of being impassioned by a performance was Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.
"MTV used to play it every hour on the hour," he recalls, "and I used to do the choreography in my living room and I had a great time doing it every hour on the hour." He got involved in the show choir in high school and was cast as Larry in his first high school musical, "A Chorus Line." There was no looking back; he'd found a community of like-minded people who were fun and silly and provided a safe environment to be creative. After high school, Reynolds started performing in theme parks. "Basically my plan was: I can't fail; I have to prevail," he recalls. "I just went from job to job and thought, 'Well, I'll just keep doing this till I stop getting jobs doing this.' "
Growing up in Virginia, Reynolds wasn't really familiar with Broadway, but everyone kept telling him if he wanted to do musical theater professionally then he had to go to New York. He moved and booked his first Equity show, a children's theater production for Theatreworks. After some regional tours, he landed a callback for an ensemble role in "Hairspray." But after the third reading, composer and co-lyricist Marc Shaiman asked Reynolds to give the character of Seaweed a try. At the fourth reading, he read the role and got the part. "I had been screaming my little lungs out, singing my heart out from the ensemble for the previous three readings," he notes. "It just goes to show you that when you work hard, people notice. And a lot of times, the right people notice and opportunities come to fruition just by being determined and doing your best all the time. Someone's paying attention all the time."
'Terminal' to L.A.
While in "Hairspray," Reynolds says he had no intention of moving to L.A. He was living the theater actor's dream, working on a successful Broadway show. But again, someone noticed his work. He says, "I got a note from the stage manager one night that someone wanted to meet me. And it was Steven Spielberg." Spielberg told Reynolds he was going to find something for him in one of his projects when Reynolds was finished with "Hairspray." And he did. Reynolds got a call for a part in Spielberg's "The Terminal." He packed up his bags and moved to L.A., where he began booking guest parts on various television shows. "It's pretty wild when I describe it like that, but that's kind of how it happened. When someone like him sees something in you, I think you're foolish not to pursue it."
After "The Terminal" opened in summer 2004, Reynolds booked "The Closer." When he tested, he was the only African-American actor reading for the role. Reynolds points out, "It's unusual for producers at that point to say, 'Maybe we can see this differently. Let's just read the actors see and which one stands out to us.'" After the test, Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, had Reynolds autograph his headshot for Roth's daughter and told him that the "Hairspray" CD was actually in his car at that moment. Reynolds left the test feeling that he had a pretty good shot, because "at least these people had the ability to see me do multiple things between doing theater and coming in and doing the read."
He booked the role and has been playing Sgt. Gabriel for seven seasons now. Even after seven seasons, he says that the great material the writers provide and his focus on staying present in the moment help keep the role fresh. "We're not shooting scenes; we're living moments and the cameras are just there to record them and show them to other people." Although this is the final season of "The Closer," Reynolds isn't thinking about his next job. As in the past, he's open to whatever comes next.
Reynolds' philosophy of going from job to job has made him a versatile actor working in theater, film, and television. Each genre has its challenges, but they also each have something unique to offer. Reynolds says "Hairspray" was physically challenging, because it was such a high-energy show. The physicality of the show prepared him well for doing his own stunts on "The Closer." He studies mixed martial arts, so he doesn't mind getting physical. "I try to do as many stunts as they'll let me," he says. The theater also gave him a strong foundation for his craft. "In theater, the show must go on, so you train yourself to be able to nail it every single time because that's what the audience deserves and that's the magic of live theater. I think the theater is basically the boot camp for the actor. If you can survive the rigors of an eight-show-a-week schedule and be at your best all the time, you can handle virtually everything because no other craft requires you to get it right every single time. And that's something that it takes tremendous discipline and training to pull off."
Besides acting, Reynolds is also pursuing writing projects. Although he says he will probably never stop performing, he has ambitions beyond that. He says, "When the right part comes up, I'm interested in it. But for the most part, I spend my downtime away from the show writing." And he's interested in all different writing venues—television development, feature development, even animation. But he's not that interested in writing projects to star himself. "I think you can spread yourself way too thin way too easily, so when I'm trying to create, I'm trying to create ideas for projects and have a vision for other people."
When preparing for a role, Reynolds says he always prefers to read the whole script and not just his scenes, because it provides background on how a character got to a particular point. "The words mean something different when you're just memorizing and reciting them than they mean when you know why the person's saying them," he notes.
Reynolds encourages actors to be honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses and to "improve in places that you need improvement and be confident in ways that you don't."
"Stay determined and don't quit," he says. "But along with not quitting, you have to understand what your limits may be."
OUTTAKES
– Says his most difficult audition was for "The Color Purple" because he couldn't get back to the same emotional place for the callback.
– Tested for several pilots in addition to "The Closer" in 2004, but none of the others made it to air or remained on the air.
– Received an NAACP Image Award nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 2009, five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for outstanding performance by an ensemble, and an NAMIC Vision Award nomination for best actor for his portrayal of Sgt. David Gabriel on "The Closer."
