Clifton Collins Jr. takes his time to prepare for every role—sometimes to the chagrin of his agents. The actor is known for his meticulous research and for throwing himself into preparation, even for an audition. "When I'm passionate about something, I don't want to go in and give a good read," he explains. "I want to go in and give a good performance." Sometimes his commitment can backfire. "I had an agent at CAA who didn't like it very much," Collins admits. "I'm with a different agency [UTA] now that supports the process a little more. But if you tell me I have a meeting with Michael Mann in the morning, I can't do that. I've got to prepare; it takes days."
Collins almost kept himself from auditioning to play Perry Smith, a killer who befriends and is betrayed by author Truman Capote, in Capote. Though Collins has been working as a professional actor since his teens and has dozens of films to his credit, Capote has proved to be his breakthrough role. He came across the script while shooting the pilot for Thief, the FX action series starring Andre Braugher, in New Orleans. Collins called his manager saying he wanted the part, and his manager insisted the actor put himself on tape immediately. "I told him, 'I have a project right now that I'm very passionate about, and it's not going to allow me the time I need to prepare in order to do the job necessary to get the [Capote] role,'" the actor recalls. "He said, 'You're going to lose it.'" Fortunately, Collins' sister is casting director Veronica Collins, who recently won an Emmy for her work on the ABC series Lost; she helped wrangle her brother an extra week and a half to prepare.
When Collins auditioned in front of Capote director Bennett Miller, the actor became very emotional during his monologue, breaking down in tears when he completed the scene. "I was thinking about the crime I'd committed, and the people I'd hurt," he says, referring to his character. "And I just couldn't stop crying." Miller recently told Back Stage, "It was so raw; his audition was undisciplined, but he had so much of the character in it. We talked afterwards, and I basically said if he could get himself together, I was sure he had it in him to play this part."
Collins credits his grandfather, character actor Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales, with instilling in him the desire to become an actor, as well as a strong work ethic; Gonzales-Gonzales, a frequent guest on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life, also taught Collins the ins and outs of the business. "I started tap-dancing at the age of 7, and I already had the work ethic to study, study, study, to always be the best you can and to always be sure your audience enjoys the show," Collins says. "My grandpa used to say, 'You don't belong to yourself anymore; you belong to the people.'" At age 17, Collins was Taft-Hartleyed for his first commercial, an antidrug PSA. He continued to work steadily, in films such as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, and in 1990 changed his name to Clifton Gonzales-Gonzales to honor his grandfather. "My grandfather would go to auditions and come back and say they didn't know who he was," notes Collins. "It was so sad, people not honoring those from the past, the trailblazers that created the business and allowed people like us to work today." For 10 years Collins built a résumé under the new name, before deciding to change it back. Along with identity-theft problems, the suicide of his father was a large factor in his decision. "Ten years of honoring grandpa was pretty good; I thought it was time to make my own name," Collins notes. "And I started to really miss my father, who had always been upset about me not carrying my own name."
Collins' grandfather died earlier this year, and family remains vital to the actor. He even flew in his cousin, an Oklahoma police officer, to be a technical advisor on his new film Dirty, also starring Cuba Gooding Jr., now in theatres. Collins jumped into the grueling role of LAPD officer Armando Sancho in the police-corruption drama just three days after wrapping Capote. And despite his tendency to lose himself in his roles, playing the characters back to back ended up being a cathartic process for the actor. "I think, as I was experiencing Armando's dark life, I was subconsciously able to detox Perry," he recalls.
It's interesting to note that Collins admits to little formal acting training, beyond studying at Stella Adler for two months and what he calls a six-week "crash course." Still, there's little doubt he immerses himself in his roles with an intense passion. "I don't do good in schools," he explains. "But I'm a student of life."