You want to feel good about Hollywood, or even the world, at the moment? Go over to Luke Tennie’s Instagram account. It’s OK, I’ll wait.
You’re back! So did you see the post where Tennie created a montage of his characters: Sean on “Shrinking,” Cruz on “The Pitt” and Dom on “Abbott Elementary”? “Grateful,” Tennie wrote.
My favorite part came in the comments, with his co-stars and producers out in force. From “Abbott Elementary” co-showrunner Patrick Schumacker: “You are the king of Warner Bros.!” From “The Pitt” star Tyler Dearden: “The King of the Warner Bros. lot!” His “Shrinking” colleague Jessica Williams: “Incredible incredible! Sooo proud of you!” Ted McGinley: “This kid BRINGS it!!” Patrick Ball: “This is so legend.” And so on.
There are a lot of overachievers on TV this Emmy season — Michelle Pfeiffer (“The Madison” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”), Jason Bateman (“Black Rabbit” and “DTF St. Louis”) and David Harbour (“Stranger Things” and “DTF St. Louis”) among them. But Tennie has the rare bragging rights of being seen on three different shows on three different outlets (Apple TV, HBO Max and ABC) at the same time.
The through line is Warner Bros. TV — which is how he was able to pull off that triple play. And it’s also an encouraging note that all three shows shoot in Los Angeles, including on the Warner Bros. lot. So, Luke Tennie, are you currently the hardest working man on TV?
“I keep seeing the hashtag, and I ain’t mad at it,” he smiles. “I’ll take it!”
Tennie tells me it was all serendipity that he landed on three hit shows virtually simultaneously. “I have no earthly idea how it happened,” he says. “I auditioned for each project. I went through the rounds like normal. And then the scheduling worked out. That’s the crazy part.”
With all his jobs on the same lot, Tennie jokes, “I didn’t even have to change my gym membership!” But he also turns serious when noting how this bonanza comes from years of training as an actor to prepare for a moment like this.
“For me as an actor, I would love to be a leading man someday,” he says. “But right now I think my skill, my toolbox, is supporting other leads. And I think I’m good at it. I don’t have to be humble about being a good supporting actor, which is why I think I get hired. I know how to be a color in the background or sometimes in the foreground, and how to come in and out. My job is to run support so that we can understand fundamentally what is going on and connect with what the lead is trying to convey. I’m doing this in all three shows because I’ve developed a skill for that.”
Tennie was a pleasant surprise when he popped up as part of the night shift this season on “The Pitt,” and as a new “Abbott Elementary” teacher who did not love it when the school had to temporarily relocate to an abandoned shopping mall. But it’s his full-time gig as Marine Corps vet Sean on “Shrinking” for which viewers know him best. This season, Sean made big strides as he reconnected with his girlfriend (Isabella Gomez) and moved into his own digs.
Now, as “Shrinking” enters a new story, what’s next for Sean? “It’s time for him to take risks. He’s at this point in his life where he could probably work as a sous chef for years, but he should figure out if he’s the kind of guy with ambition who wants to see how far he can go.” Kind of like Luke Tennie.