A self-described journeyman actor, Riley Smith has been in everything from “True Blood” to “Nashville.” This season he’s taking on a brand-new series: the CW’s highly anticipated adaptation of the 2000 film “Frequency.” In this version, a father and daughter (played by Smith and Peyton List) reconnect over a ham radio separated by 20 years—and inadvertently create a new tragedy that they must fight to rectify. We spoke to Smith about working with List on the series (premiering Oct. 5) and why he works so hard on auditions.
Tell us about ‘Frequency.’
I’m really excited about it. It’s a story about an ordinary father and his daughter, and they’re bound together in extraordinary circumstances nobody knows about but them. Through the season you’ll see them reconcile and work together over this 20-year time period to stop a horrible event that was triggered by their reconnection. At the heart of it, it’s a show about second chances. It’s a cool story and it’s got a lot of layers to it. I couldn’t be more proud of it, the way it turned out.
Have you ever used Backstage in the past?
I was telling a friend I was doing this interview, and back in the day I had an agent but you had to hustle. And me and my group of actor buddies would look at Backstage every single day. We used Backstage as our tool to find independent films, student films, anything.
How did you get your SAG-AFTRA card?
With a Wendy’s 99-cent chicken nugget commercial. It was my very first audition ever, and my very last commercial I ever did. I probably went on 300 commercial auditions after that, thinking it was so easy.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would say enjoy the journey. It’s really about the journey and not the destination. I did a good job of that, I think. I’ve been a journeyman actor and I like that about myself. Now! At the beginning and the middle, you just want it to happen faster. But looking back on it, I wouldn’t want it to happen any other way. Those years of other jobs and the pilots that I wish went but didn’t go, I kept thinking that was a negative thing, but really [it was] a positive thing for my development as an actor.
How do you typically prepare for an audition?
Time. I spend so much time with auditions. Peyton List, who plays my daughter in the series, and I have been acting partners for over a decade and we put in so many hours together. I had a friend over one day when Peyton came over to work with me for her test on the pilot, and we probably worked three hours just on her network test. And that was after we’d worked with her on the other rounds it took to get her there. Afterward, my buddy said, “God, you practice this long every time?” If you practice that hard, you don’t have to audition too often. In the last three or four years I haven’t had to audition as much, but when I do get them I drop everything.
What movie should every actor see?
On the way home from the upfronts a couple of months ago I came across “Glengarry Glen Ross” on the plane, and I just stopped on it because I’ve loved that movie ever since I saw it. I thought, I could watch this movie every week, it just never gets old. The acting in that from everybody… All the greats in that movie. That thing just holds up.
How did you get your first agent?
I got my first agent because I moved to New York the minute I graduated high school, and there was an acting coach there who came up to me who said, “I know an agent who I think would be perfect for you.” And he wrote down an address and I showed up and the agent basically just laughed at me because I’d walked in with a suit on. She had me read one commercial side and signed me. And she was my agent for more than a decade.
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