Benjamin Bratt has done his fair share of cop shows: four seasons on Law & Order as Detective Rey Curtis, a season of 24, and a little ditty called Miss Congeniality — that’s a lot of law, if not very much order. But as he told Vulture on the Poker Face red carpet, these days he’s less into being a crime solver and more into being a crime doer. “At this stage of my life, I want to be doing. I am in the midst of doing,†he said. “I want to be in the thick of doing. I’m in the throes of doing.â€
His latest baddie is Cliff, head of security at the casino where Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie Cale works. That is, until Charlie runs afoul of Cliff. He is an unrelenting sense of menace that looms over each episode’s mystery of the week. “He is an ex-soldier,†said Bratt. “I know from knowing soldiers that they are very specific in behavior, in habituation. Precise in everything they do. And also they’re dutiful.â€
“The majority of my professional career, which is over 30 years as a professional actor, it’s truly been one or the other: the man in uniform or a deeply troubled, devious bad guy,†he added. “I don’t know if I’ve aged into it now or learned more about how we all possess a darker side. But it’s certainly more fun.â€