Actor, writer, and producer Tony Winters chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about the film “National Champions” and being a part of the Showtime series “Yellowjackets.”
‘National Champions’
Winters is featured in a co-starring role as Wes Martin, an executive with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in director Ric Roman Waugh’s upcoming STX film drama, “National Champions.” “It was the best script I’ve ever read,” he said. “Then, when I got cast in it, which was a miracle, I was able to work with super-talented people.”
He stars alongside JK Simmons, Timothy Olyphant, Jeffrey Donovan, and Kristin Chenoweth and it opens in theaters on December 10. “I was pretty blown away with them,” he said. ” Timothy Olyphant and I had done a film together in 2010 called ‘The Crazies’. It was an awesome experience.”
“Coming from the theater, since I’m a theater actor, the script was originally a play. It was then adapted into a screenplay and it was just a magnificent read. I am extremely proud to be a part of it,” he added.
‘Yellowjackets’
He also appears as high school assistant principal Berzonsky in the pilot episode of Showtime’s drama “Yellowjackets.” “That was amazing as well,” he said. “I got the chance to play a character who ages or de-ages 25 years, depending on how you look at it. This is the first time when my character is visited in two different time periods: 1996 and 2021, so that was the biggest challenge for me. Trying to find the little nuances in the character that would connect me from my older self to my younger self.”
Winters also portrayed jazz drummer Robert Ellis, opposite Don Cheadle in the “Black Monday” series, and he appeared as Dr. Wilton, a psychologist opposite Sterling K. Brown in the NBC hit series, “This Is Us.”
He is perhaps best known to television audiences as Clive, the owner of the High Yellow Restaurant, on OWN’s critically acclaimed Queen Sugar series, and for his guest-starring turn as Mayor Wilkins in an Emmy-nominated episode of HBO’s Silicon Valley.
In an effort to expand his career into film and television he moved north to Hollywood. Having earned a coveted SAG card with a supporting part in the prison drama “Penitentiary III,” his career was off and running. The recurring roles of Anthony on the daytime soap “Days Of Our Lives,” and his breakthrough turn as Ossie Dunbar M.E. on NBC’s long-running “Hunter” followed shortly thereafter.
In the years subsequent, Winters has evolved into one of Tinseltown’s busiest talents and boasts of having worked with two Academy Award-winning directors, Phil Alden Robinson and Mike Nichols, and of sharing the screen with his idol, Sidney Poitier. In addition to his work in more than 75 different television shows and movies, he has also acted in scores of television commercials and modeled in print advertising.
When selecting any role, Winters noted that he looks for “good material.” “It’s about the story speaking to me and/or the character speaking to me,” he said. “That’s what I look for when I pick my next project.”
On being an actor in the digital age, Winters said, “Actually the approach to my work has not changed since I started in the analog days in the ’80s. The only difference is the different distributions for consumption purposes.”
For young and aspiring actors, he said, “Get your formal education and read often and voraciously since you need to be knowledgable about a lot of different things. You need to be a mile wide and an inch deep.”
“You need to have a broad understanding of different things. Also, get as much local experience as you possibly can. Join your local theatre group. In today’s age, you don’t need to be in New York or Los Angeles, you can find representation in these cities, and I submit tapes from my apartment in Los Angeles daily,” he elaborated.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Winters responded, “The Second Act.”
Winters defined the word success as “creative freedom.”
For his fans, he concluded about “National Champions,” “It’s an important film, it’s timely and very relevant, especially if you are a sports fan. It is going to spark a national debate about compensation for college athletes, especially those that play contact sports.”
