For so many actors, one of the most important goals is just to keep working, and thanks to NBC’sThe Blacklist, stage and screen starHarry Lennixhas been pretty busy for the last several years. “It’s been a blessing,” he told me during our fullCollider Connectedinterview. “I’m grateful for the job. And I like the job, in addition to being grateful.”
For eight seasons, Lennix has played the key supporting role of Harold Cooper on the crime thriller series, who we first meet as the head of an FBI counterterrorism division, but has evolved over the years into a complicated figure whose relationships with master criminal Red Reddington (James Spader) and profiler Liz Keen (Megan Boone) are constantly evolving.
“Cooper doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time relative to some of the other characters, but what’s there is of substance and dense in its own way,” he says. “I kind of feel that Cooper is sort of a black hole in a way that he allows other people to be in orbit around him, but I’m holding a kind of center, which has been very interesting.”
While some shows, after eight seasons and over 150 episodes, might seem close to ending their run, Lennix doesn’t necessarily think that’s the case forThe Blacklist. “There have been shows where I couldn’t wait to have them done,” he said. “But not this. I hope it goes for, you know, another 12 seasons.”
After all, he added, “one of my favorite shows of all time, if not my very favorite show isGunsmoke. That went on, I think, for 20 seasons. So why not? You know that the criminals aren’t going to stop coming, right? These guys are infinitely inventive with, you know, the weirdos that they create forThe Blacklist. So, sure, yeah, I love it.”
He does think that the writers have an endgame for the series — but he doesn’t know what it is, because he’s the sort of actor who doesn’t like to know what’s coming before his character does, and also he suspects that it might have changed since the show’s beginnings. “Let’s just say they knew it was going to end after Season 3. I think that that would have been a different end than it would be now,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to think that, but I do. I think that as the show has lived, and as they’ve created other characters in it, and other intrigues to follow… I think it has evolved and I and it’s gotten more stable and better.”
Beyond getting to explore the character of Cooper across so many episodes, Lennix is grateful for howThe Blacklisthas not only taught him about the business of television, but the opportunities he’s gotten in other arenas. Lennix has an extensive theater background, and right now he’s in progress on the Lillian Marcie Center, a complex a la New York’s Lincoln Center that would bring compelling theater works to Chicago’s South Side.
In the interview above, Lennix goes into detail about his plans for the center, including what it means to be developing a project devoted to theater in an era when people can’t actually go to the theater safely right now. He also digs into so many other facets of his fascinating career, including:
Check out the full Collider Connected interview with Lennix above, as well as recent installments withJason IsaacsandColman Domingo.The BlacklistSeason 8 returns with new episodes Friday, January 22 at 8 PM.
