Interview: Mark McKenna on 'Wayne', his band milk., and upcoming projects.
Dublin-based Mark McKenna turned heads with his acting chops in cult hit, 'Wayne', cancelled by streaming network YouTube Premium during a move towards more ad-supported content instead of original programming, but critically acclaimed, with a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the Los Angeles Times declaring 'Wayne' one of 2019's best TV shows.
Having wrapped a pilot for NBCUniversal’s small-screen adaptation of young-adult mystery-thriller 'One Of Us Is Lying', an upcoming EP release with his band milk. (named after the drug-laced drink of choice favoured by the main antagonist of 'A Clockwork Orange'), and a burgeoning interest in film photography, McKenna has been busy flexing all of his triple-threat muscles in the pursuit of creative fulfilment.
We talked to McKenna over the phone recently, to discuss all things 'Wayne', his upcoming projects, and some incredibly strong feelings against exclamation marks...
COUP DE MAIN: What do you miss most about being Wayne McCullough?
MARK MCKENNA: How real the show was. A lot of the fight scenes were very surreal and kind of came off the ground a bit and were a bit unrealistic, but the rest of the show, like relationships and everything, were all on a very human level. I miss being a part of something that's very human and true to real life.
CDM: I really loved the reveal of Wayne's history with Del, from before they even really knew each other. Do you think that's kind of reflective of real-life? That life can sometimes feel like a weird series of coincidences that eventually one day come full circle and make sense?
MARK: Definitely. I'm not religious or anything, but I definitely feel like everything happens for a reason and there's some weird plan for everyone on the planet or in the universe or whatever, and everyone's plan just works out in weird ways.
CDM: Rock music plays whenever Wayne is about to take action in the show. What would be your theme-song for Mark McKenna-equivalent moments in life?
MARK: Maybe 'What A Fool Believes' by The Doobie Brothers because I feel like it can either go over things ironically or seriously, and it will always suit the theme of what's going on no matter what.
CDM: When Wayne is told the story about sacrifice, where the old man orders a mushroom pizza even though he hates mushrooms, just so he can pick the mushrooms off and give them to his wife, I think that's one of my favourite moments in the show. It's just so pure and wholesome. Have you ever done anything like that for another person?
MARK: I feel like maybe I have. Maybe not on such an endearing level, but I feel like I maybe have and I've just forgotten about it. Or maybe I haven't at all and I'm trying to manifest it in my head to make myself believe I have.
CDM: That can be your personal growth goal for 2020.
MARK: Yeah, definitely. Pick a food I hate and whenever I go out with my girlfriend, I'll order that food.
CDM: There's all these urban myths that have built up around Wayne - like, "I once saw him hammer a #2 pencil into a dude's hand." If you could spread a rumour about yourself, what would you want it to be?
MARK: That I saved somebody's life in a very cool way. And I didn't make a big deal out of it. I just saved somebody's life and went about my day.
CDM: Very modest.
MARK: I know.
CDM: Was the dance scene in 'Wayne' choreographed? Or did you freestyle it?
MARK: The dancing was actually completely freestyle, and we wanted it to be as awkward as possible. So I requested that we didn't play any music or anything, and I just kind of danced in a room in front of a lot of strangers in complete silence. It was very awkward.
CDM: Like the most awkward silent disco ever?
MARK: Oh yeah. 100%, especially because there were a lot of people in that room who were actual dancers. So I made it a lot worse.
CDM: Having just finished shooting a pilot for 'The One Of Us Is Lying' in which you play the character of Simon... what can you tell us about that?
MARK: I honestly don't know how much am I allowed to say, but I do know it's based off a book. So I feel like anyone who is a fan of the book knows exactly what's going to happen in the pilot. In terms of the actual story, there's a kid called Simon who outs everybody's secrets online. He sees himself as a vigilante and then he dies in detention one day and it becomes about the rest of the students in detention with him, they all become suspects and are trying to work out which one of them did it, or who was involved.
CDM: Is there something about vigilante roles that you're especially drawn to?
MARK: For me, personally, no, but maybe casting directors see me that way or something like that because it just seems to work out like that.
CDM: And Jennifer Morrison directed the pilot right?
MARK: Yeah.
CDM: Do you think it makes a difference when being directed by someone who is themselves an actor?
MARK: Yeah for for acting, definitely. Some directors are not actors, so they'll try to work through a scene with you and they can't really get across to you the way they want you to do it sometimes. But Jen was very, very good at throwing out ideas or throwing out inputs for ways to play things, and it came across very clear because she's an actor.
CDM: Your band milk. recently released a new song! What was running through your mind while writing 'A Little More'?
MARK: I wrote that song two years ago maybe. When I first wrote it, I was like, 'This is the greatest song ever, I'm not gonna write anything better than this.' The general process was me and our producer, Adam, sitting in the studio, very, very bored and tired. And it was half-two in the morning. And then I showed him a demo that we had and it was a terrible demo. He was like, 'Yeah, we should try and do something with that and just see what we can get now and see what happens.' And I was like, 'Yeah that would be good.' And then we basically made 80% of the song at half-two in the morning and listened to it again the next day and we couldn't comprehend what we'd done. We've probably forgotten how half of the production was done. It was a spur of the moment type thing, but I'm very, very happy it happened.
CDM: What's your songwriting process like with Conor Gorman?
MARK: Me and Gormy do a lot of... I would write something and send it to him or he would write something and send it to me. And then we kind of add our own inputs and send it back to each other. Sometimes we will meet up in his apartment and just see kind of what happens. Sometimes we write three songs in one day and none of them will be good. Or sometimes we'll write three songs in one day and only one of them are good. Or we'll save it and work on it again later. Me and Conor have written a lot of albums and albums worth of music together at this point. So it's just now getting to a point of picking which ones we want to actually stick with and release.
CDM: Are you working towards putting out an EP or an album sometime soon?
MARK: Yeah, we're actually in the middle of finishing off an EP that we're hoping to have out early first-quarter next year. It's five songs, but six tracks because one of them is an eight minute long instrumental so we're gonna have to split the song in two.
CDM: Do you find that music and acting give you different feelings of satisfaction when working on either one?
MARK: Definitely. I find acting maybe gives me a greater satisfaction because it wasn't [written] by me, it was something that someone else wrote or made up. And they trust me to do it well, so when I actually do it well, I find it very satisfying that I got to take someone else's idea and add my own thing to it and kind of make it what it is. Whereas with music, it's just something I did, and sometimes with music I write a song and I can't tell if it's good or not until someone else hears it and they're like, "Yeah, it's good." I'm like, "I can't tell if you're telling me it's good because you're my friend or if you actually think it's good." I also think acting as a career is harder to break into at times or in certain situations. So I feel more satisfied with the creative aspect of it when you actually do get to do it, and you do it right or well.
CDM: Anyone can upload a song online for people to listen to, but there's no acting equivalent of that.
MARK: Yeah, acting is still the one career that you can't just break into with the internet now.
CDM: I love all the photos that you've been posting on your Instagram. Do you consider yourself a hobbyist photographer?
MARK: Thank you. Yeah, after we finished 'Wayne' I was given an extremely expensive camera. I kind of felt like it would be rude if I didn't learn how to use it, so I kind of started researching photography - specifically film photography and medium format and stuff like that. The ones I post are the good ones, I've taken a lot of terrible pictures that I shall definitely never ever post, but I'd definitely call it a hobby.
CDM: Do you do the photography for all of the milk. artwork?
MARK: Yes, I use a Polaroid camera and I do other photography.
CDM: What is it about photography that you enjoy?
MARK: I'm not too sure, I don't know if I've worked it out yet. I just find it very satisfying. I think that if you work in a creative field or career, I think all other creative hobbies will interest you regardless. So once you start doing anything creative, or anything like that, I think it's just a satisfying feeling. Like, I'd love if I could start painting or something like that because I feel like that would also just be a satisfying thing to get into, but with photography, the the act of actually just pushing the shutter is very, very satisfying. And then when you actually develop the film and get all the pictures back and when they turn out good, it's just satisfying to see that you've done something cool or that you've got a picture that nobody else in the world has - unless you post it somewhere for everybody to see. But in terms of creativity, or if you're an artist of any sort, anything in the artistic or creative field is going to be satisfying no matter what.
CDM: And lastly, here's a question from your milk. bandmates I asked them to send me last night: "I’ve recently found out that Mark hates exclamation marks, and he has yet to provide a proper answer why, so I’m curious...."
MARK: That was probably Conor King our bassist. He was putting up an Instagram post today and he sent in his idea for a caption and it had an exclamation mark in it and I said, "The caption is good, just don't use an exclamation mark." I find that they come across very fake and like fake enthusiasm. It's like a teacher trying to get the students excited kind of thing. If you keep it formal with a few full stops, the message will come across if you're being genuine in what you're writing. I think exclamation marks are for emails with strangers and only that.
CDM: I will try to not put any exclamation marks in this interview just for you.
MARK: Thank you very much, that's very, very kind of you.
Listen to the milk. song 'A Little More' below...
