HOLR Chats: Tom Nowicki On Starring In Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey”

HOLR is sitting down with actor Tom Nowicki to discuss his latest project in Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey”- which just premiered on August 14.

Tom Nowicki is showcasing his adaptability and dedication as an actor in his latest project- Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey.” Having just premiered earlier this month on August 14^th, the series follows Andrew Yancy, a former police detective who has been reduced to conducting restaurant inspections in Southern Florida. However, after a tourist discovers a severed arm, Yancy is drawn into a world of greed and corruption that devastates the land and environment across Florida and the Bahamas.

Nowicki plays Captain Keith Fitzpatrick, whose character can be seen on-camera throughout the series. The Captain also narrates all ten episodes in the must-watch series.

Today, HOLR is chatting with Nowicki to discuss his career to date, his latest project “Bad Monkey,” and his incredible work beyond the screen, in which he runs Hip Dog Canine Hydrotherapy with his partner.

Tell us all about how you got started and where your passion for acting stemmed from.

My 10th-grade English teacher offered extra credit to anyone who would audition for the school play. They were doing “The Crucible” which we happened to be reading in class. I got the role of Reverend Hale, who is kind of the conscience of the play, the young idealist. I remember so clearly standing in the wings before my very first entrance on opening night, pretty sure that if I could even remember my lines I wouldn’t be able to say them. But by the time I left the stage, I was transformed. The experience of standing in front of a few hundred people who were hanging on my words as I told them the truth, (at least the truth the way the play saw it) was exhilarating beyond anything I had ever experienced.

Somehow, my little backwater high school had a full, serious theatre department. It was run by Anne Derflinger, who really didn’t belong there. She had trained at RADA and had had a really good career in New York, and yet there she was in a little Florida town teaching surfer kids about the power and possibilities of the theatre. She tolerated the idea that theatre could be entertainment, but she fully believed in its higher purpose as a lever to move the world forward. She was fierce, talented, skillful, demanding, and not a little bit frightening, and she created a few generations of believers. I remain one, even when there’s a camera.

Talk to us about your latest project, in Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey” premiering on August 14. What can we expect when tuning in?

“Bad Monkey” was developed from a novel by Carl Hiaasen, the king of Florida comedy-crime novelists. He’s the master of telling the story of the state’s struggle to survive all the grifters, schemers, sleazy developers, and crooked politicians that it can’t help but attract. And somehow he makes it all hilarious.

The series centers on Andrew Yancy, played by Vince Vaughn, who was recently suspended from his job as a detective with the Key West police department, after making some very bone-headed choices in his romantic life. But he’s still investigating a case that began when some tourists on a charter fishing trip reel in a severed human arm. The police don’t want anything to do with the case, assuming that word of severed human body parts drifting in the Gulf will be bad for the tourist business, but Yancy figures that if he can find out who the arm belongs to and solve the crime, he can get his job back.

The show runs up and down the Florida Keys all the way to Miami and over to the Bahamas, crossing paths with an alarming number of oddballs thugs, and twisted characters. It’s comedy and suspense, what one person called “Tom Petty Noir.” I play Captain Keith Fitzpatrick, fourth generation Kew-Wester from a long and distinguished line of smugglers, also the skipper of the Misty Momma, the small charter fishing boat that snagged the arm, and good friend and drinking buddy of Yancy’s.

And I am the narrator of the series.

How do you approach different roles, as you have starred in other notable and acclaimed productions to date, such as “Reptile,” “The Glorias,” and “The Blindside.”

My approach to any role is still rooted in what I learned from Miss Derflinger. She was trained in the British way of doing things, and so were we (tho we also got our share of the Method and Stanislavsky). It’s a system that puts the text first and lets the words on the page do the work, both in how you research a role and how you perform it. The words drive the emotion, instead of the emotion driving the feeling, if that makes sense?

But it also allows for a big curveball, and that’s looking for The Joke in a scene or a role. This isn’t necessarily something funny, more like the Joker in a deck, the place in the writing that might allow you to turn the whole thing on its head, take it in an entirely unexpected direction and give it new energy and life, grab then audiences attention because suddenly aren’t sure of where they’re going.

It’s a risk, and not every role has it, nor is every director open to it, but if you get it right, it can be like sunlight breaking through the clouds.

Vince Vaughn grew up in the improv theatre scene in Chicago, and turning things on their heads is a big part of his work, so there was that freedom in Bad Monkey. The writing was brilliant and wildly funny, to begin with, but there were still places where we could pick up the ball and run.

You also run Hip Dog Canine Hydrotherapy along with your partner, Kristina. What can you tell us about starting this business and how it provides swim therapy for injured and disabled dogs?

Thank you for asking.

I was flying home from shooting a film. Someone had left a copy of Whole Dog Journal in the seat pocket. There was a long and enthusiastic story about this new approach to helping dogs with movement problems called “Canine Hydrotherapy,” basically swimming them back to health and fitness, or as close as you could get.

My friend (now partner) Kristina had a three-legged spaniel named Cosmo, and it seemed perfect for him. She also had a pool, so we decided to get trained and help him. But once we were there studying, it occurred to us that it would be pretty selfish to know how to do this and keep it to ourselves.

So we let a few vets know that we were doing it, figuring there might be a handful of dogs every week who might come for help

That was in 2001. Today, we’re swimming with 50 to 60 dogs a week, not all by ourselves, we have help. Older dogs with arthritis; dogs with bad knees, bad hips, or bad backs; amputees, dogs fighting cancer. I know I don’t have to explain why it feels good to be able to help them.

There have been many days when I haven’t really felt like going to the pool in the morning. But honestly, I’ve never gotten out of the pool at the end of the day when I haven’t felt like it was the best possible way to use my time.

What’s next for you?

What is next? At the moment, I’m spending a lot of time on my knees praying to the TV gods for another season of Bad Monkey…

Bad Monkey

Nothing else is fully on the horizon, but there is a rumor that there may be a revival of “Roller Jam”, an apocalyptic version of roller derby that I did in the late 90s, and one of my favorite roles ever. I played Kenneth Loge III, the billionaire owner of the World Skating League (and world-class moralistic prig), as well as his two triplet brothers Lenny and Benny, and our deceased mother Druscilla. It was mostly improv, and we shot 144 episodes in front of live audiences. I don’t think I need to explain here, either, how much fun that was…

The actor’s life, right? Right. What is next?

At the moment, I’m spending a lot of time on my knees praying to the TV gods for another season of Bad Monkey…

The actor’s life, right?