Thanks to Ryan Murphy, Dylan McDermott Is Finding New Ways to Challenge Himself

Dylan McDermott’s Ernie West on Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” has been well-received as one of the series’ standout performances, and he was recently nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie category, his first nod in 20 years! As he explained in a sit-down Instagram Live interview with Backstage last week, the character based on Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers is different than anything he’s done before in all the right ways.

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Murphy wrote Ernie with McDermott in mind.
“I remember he said, ‘I’m writing you a part,’ and any day he says that, it’s like the greatest day of your life. So it takes a bit of time, he says I’m writing you a part and then you don’t hear anything and then it’s like, ‘Come to my office.’ Then I read the first script of ‘Hollywood’ and I was like, ‘Holy shit, this world is unbelievable.’ And Ernie, on top of everything with the gas station. I was just like, ‘This is the role of a lifetime.’ I was so excited just to jump in.”

McDermott feels he’s graduated into a new and better place with his acting.
“As a young actor, you’re so eager to prove to yourself that you’re talented, that you’re good. There’s so much of that going on. Then as you get older, you worry about that less and less. It’s more about pleasing yourself and making yourself happy in many ways. I think that’s where I’ve arrived at. It’s like, OK, when I give myself the report for the day, how did I do? So I think over time we relax into who you are. The great thing about age is that you care less about what anybody thinks. I’ve noticed that in my acting in the last couple of years. I’ve sort of graduated to this new place that is so much easier and better than it was before.”

He now prefers capital-C Characters over leading man-types. 
“I got caught up in the leading man thing for a long time. [But] I really like doing the character work. Like Ernie, to me that’s my best day, when I can find out who this guy is and shape this different look. I was doing ‘American Horror Story’ and ‘Hollywood’ at the same time. And they were two wildly different characters. So to be able to do that back and forth was the happiest I’ve ever been…. [Murphy] sees something in you that you don’t see in yourself. Like he saw Ernie in me. I didn’t fully get that, and I think because Ryan wanted to reinvent me as an actor, he said that, and he did! He saw something in me to play Ernie and I just ran with it. I think Ryan instills that confidence, he gives you the opportunity. He says, ‘Here, take this and run with it.’ Most people don’t do that. They want proof that you’ve done that particular character so then you can play it again. That’s the difference in Ryan: he trusts actors, he believes in actors.”

READ: What You Need to Know to Get Cast by Ryan Murphy Productions

You’ll handle rejection better once you make acting for you.
“The hardest thing is, how do you carry on? How do you continue? I think this applies today. As long as you love it, you can’t go wrong. If you’re becoming an actor because you want to be famous, have money, have power? Don’t do it. One of the biggest lessons I ever learned was I was doing a play and I was busting my ass, it was like three hours on stage and I’m sweating and bleeding out. There’s three people in the audience. But I learned a lesson that night: I asked myself, ‘Why am I acting? Who’s it for? Is it to get the approval of the audience?’ No, it’s for me, because I love it. So it doesn’t matter if there’s 10 billion people watching, 100 million people watching, or one person watching. It’s for you. And therefore you can never go wrong.”

Want to hear more from McDermott? Watch our full interview below, and follow us on Instagram: @backstagecast.