True Detective’s Richie Coster on Playing Mayor Chessani

By Reuben Levine | Jul 15, 2015

True Detective season two has four house-hold names for lead actors. What that typically means is that they get the lion’s share of attention. That’s what makes an interview with Richie Coster, who plays True Detective season two’s corrupt Mayor Chessani, so special. It also helps that he has a lot to say on the subject.

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Coster sat down with Arts Beat, a section of The New York Times for the interview. Coster prepared for the role by “watching a ton of California politicians on YouTube.” There’s a joke about political corruption somewhere in there. Probably. He also revealed an interesting secret to playing a drunk:

"“It’s kind of a truism among actors — I remember being told this when I was training — that the way to appear drunk is to try and be sober…You’re always trying to speak properly, stand up straight, keep your act together.”"

Sounds rather obvious when stated so matter-of-factly, doesn’t it? Coster isn’t in the business of revealing any True Detective secrets or any juicy behind the scenes bits, so don’t expect any of that here. Mayor Chessani has quite an ego, and has the pictures to prove it. There was one particular photograph that Coster wishes he could have kept:

"“There are also photographs of me with every recent president they worked really hard to create. There’s a great one right behind my desk of me with Bush the younger, and our arms are around each other. I wanted that so badly, ironically speaking of course.”"

You can read the entire interview over at The New York Times. Other fun bits include Coster on his “Irish potato face” and always playing a villain of some sort.

Next: True Detective is slow and there's nothing wrong with that.

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