John C. McGinley Is Home for the Holidays! The Actor Opens Up About ‘Holidazed’ and Showbiz Memories
In 2001, the producers of Scrubs were looking for a “John C. McGinley type” to play sarcastic attending physician Dr. Perry Cox. “I auditioned five times to play the John C. McGinley type,” John C. McGinley tells Closer. “That always seemed curious to me.” Of course, he eventually got the job, and John co-starred on the popular hospital-set comedy for nine seasons.
This month, John stars in Holidazed, a limited comedy series from Hallmark that follows five families who live in the same Oregon cul-de-sac as they experience all the joy and stress of the holiday season. “Each house is a study in dysfunction around the holidays,” he explains. “Our house is just insane. It’s really very funny.”
Tell us about the character you play in Holidazed.
Chuck is a guy whose children are adults and he’s feeling less and less relevant. So he rages. He’s overcompensating for everything to try to not be a dinosaur. One of the manifestations of this is that he has to have all the [Christmas] lights in the neighborhood. Of course, it has nothing to do with the lights. It has to do with him being relevant and finding a lane where he feels important. It’s just so misguided and so delicious to play.
Sounds like fun.
Yes, and they let me have an opinion about who was going to play my wife. Virginia Madsen and I have known each other — we did Highlander together with Sean Connery about 30 years ago. Because I am so fond of Virginia, I don’t have to act. The camera knows when you really love someone.
Did you always want to be an actor?
It felt cellular to me, like it was part of my DNA. I knew I wanted to participate in some sort of storytelling process. My grad school was just theater boot camp, and I loved every second of it. I transferred to NYU, and Olympia Dukakis was our master teacher — rest in peace. She was a drill sergeant, a poet and a mom. She was everything.
You were working off-Broadway when Platoon director Oliver Stone saw you.
I was understudying John Turturro in a play called Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. John was away for maybe eight days doing Desperately Seeking Susan, so someone from the casting department didn’t see John, they saw me. And they invited me to audition.
Platoon seems like it would have been a very intense shoot.
We got to the Philippines, and it was a really dangerous place. There was a revolution, so [the film was] postponed for six months. There was abject poverty. There were 12-year-olds walking around with AK-47s. The only thing that was safe was to go to work. Oliver Stone put all that in front of the lens — all that acrimony, anxiety and confusion.
Who have been some of your most influential costars?
The first Broadway play I did was called Requiem for a Heavyweight, and John Lithgow was the star. His work ethic and his level of excellence in that play validated everything I learned at NYU. It threw down the gauntlet to try to approach how magnificent Johnny was and is.
How about in films?
John Cusack and I were down in Durango, Mexico, doing Fat Man and Little Boy. We got to be with Paul Newman for almost four months. Sometimes you have a mental picture of who you want someone to be, and it can be a recipe for disappointment. Not with Paul. He was exactly who you wanted Paul Newman to be.
That’s so great.
The set was in Los Alamos, about 35 minutes out of the town of Durango. The way up to this mesa, where the set was, was called the Road of Death. We found out that Paul was driving himself up there every day, so Johnny and I were like, “Can we ride with you?” We sat in the back of this dilapidated Toyota that Paul is downshifting the whole way up this Road of Death.
Sounds dangerous.
Well, Paramount found out, and the suits descended on Durango. Paul understood, but he was just like us. He said in this quiet voice, “For [heaven’s] sakes, I can drive myself to work.” They’re like, “No, you can’t. It’s the Road of Death, and you’re number one on the call sheet!”
What has been one of your favorite acting experiences?
The greatest experience of my life was doing a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway with Al Pacino, Bobby Cannavale and David Harbour. It’s the hardest play on the planet because the language is so circular and repetitious. The show was just watertight, and that ensemble were just titans. My proudest moment was being able to do 125 performances of Glengarry.
Have you made many sacrifices for your career?
That’s a really salient question because I did pivot quite a bit after COVID and the writers’ and actors’ strikes. I realized I really liked being home. I’m Papa Bear around here. I’m Daddy the Driver, and I like it. So, a reverse thing has happened. Instead of work pulling me away from the family, I’ve pulled away from work quite a bit. It’s not born of arrogance. I just don’t want to go and do certain things anymore.
Do any of your three kids have an interest in acting?
No, zero. [My daughters ] Kate and Billie have their own endeavors. Max, who’s soon to be 27, is a kid with special needs. He was born with Down syndrome. He’s doing great. He plays in a band called Spec Labs — everyone in the band is on the spectrum. He’s George Harrison. He plays rhythm guitar.
You’ve been married to Nichole for 17 years. What’s your secret?
You’ve got to be able to put your issues on the table, otherwise you’re dead. Because even stuff that sounds unimportant to someone else is significant to the other person, and that has to be respected. It’s hard sometimes. But what can happen if you’re not careful is that you can become roommates. I don’t want a roommate. I want the love of my life, so have to cultivate that.