During a recent set visit on the set of Psych, various other media outlets and I were able to interview C. Thomas Howell, who happened to be filming that day as well.
Can you tell us about your character in this episode?
Howell: I play Federal Agent Driggs, who is put on the case to search for [an] international mystery woman. And I’ve been tracking her down and following her to Santa Barbara. You’re thinking as I’m going through things that maybe I’ve got something to do with the shenanigans here. Because I’m sort of a hard a**, and it looks like I might be the one driving the problems.
Is there a bit of a friendship then between your charater and Lassiter, since both are so tough, or is there tension?
Howell: Well, I’ll tell you a little secret between me and Lassiter. The original pilot that was shot, the screen test came down between me and Tim to play Lassiter. So there’s definitely some hate between the two of us. And on day one over at the studio, take one, day one, I accidentally stepped on one of Tim’s lines and cut him off. And he said, “Howell, give it up. You didn’t get the role, for god’s sakes. Okay, get it over it.” So when they asked me to come up, I couldn’t wait to come up and do evil things to Tim when he wasn’t looking.
You’ve been acting forever. Was there ever…
Howell: Pretty much. Methuselah Howell.
Was there ever a time in which you contemplated another career, or was it just always this?
Howell: You know, all of my family are stunt people – my father was one of the top five stunt men in the business for years, and years, and years. He’s semi-retired now. My sister, my mother, my cousins, my uncles – all stunt people. So at Thanksgiving when we’re sitting at a table like this it’s all stunt people.
And somebody inevitably is like, “Would the sissy pass the potatoes?” That’s what it’s like in my house. So if there was a career change, I probably would have done stunts. So I would have been in the same business. There was never an inkling of going off to college to become, a doctor or something. I always knew I would be in the business. I just thought I would be doing stunts. And when I was a young man I did stunts with my father all the time.
And when I was 12 I got the role on ET because I could do stunts on the bike. I was one of the only kids that could actually do the stunts on the bike, so that’s why they went with me. I was sort of the stunt kid, the other kids were the acting kids. And, that sort of lead to the audition process for The Outsiders, and I was cast in that. So I went from Spielberg to Coppola, and then some agents started scratching their head going, “Maybe you shouldn’t do stunts.” And the rest is history.
Is there a specific genre that you prefer working in?
