An Interview with Jocko Sims from ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’

GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY -- "Pollination" Episode 105 -- Pictured: Jocko Sims as Tucker -- (Photo by: Daniel Delgado/NBC)

Jocko Sims is an accomplished actor of the silver and small screen that has been a part of a bevy of beloved franchises. Such as New Amsterdam and The Last Ship. Currently, he stars as Tucker in the magnificent new NBC series, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, and we had the honor of sitting down with Jocko to discuss his work on the show, and his wondrous career.
 
John Betancourt: I would love to start getting to know today what it was that attracted you to this project.
 
Jocko Sims: Oh my gosh. It was a few things. One, to be able to return to my network, home of recent years, NBC was great. I love everybody there, and I've had the chance to work with Bill (Krebs) and Jenna (Bans) before, the show runners. And I just like, I can get emotional talking about them, because they're just so loving and fantastic and open to collaboration, and they appreciate good artists and work, and they work hard, and they write very well. So that was enough in itself. But then after we shot the pilot, and I talked to the two of them and asked them, kind of where this was going and where Tucker was going and what would happen, and particularly that scene where Catherine, you know, tells him what happens, and he just reacts in the way that he did. I was like, “Sign me up.”
 
John Betancourt: That brings me right to I want to talk about a lot today, because what I love about the work you're doing on the show, your coworkers as well, is that everybody's finding a very special essence of every character. And I'm curious how you found that essence of Tucker's kind of even keel nature, because he, he does take that moment, with an absolute grain of salt.
 
Jocko Sims: Yeah, you know what was interesting about this particular job. And actually, most TV shows, they kind of have a general idea where they want to go with the characters, with everything. And so, you have a little bit of an idea, but generally, as the weeks progress, sort of more ideas flow. But this show… everything's a secret, you know, so, it’s interesting to approach it in a way that would make the performance interesting in these first few episodes. But also, kind of not tip your hand too much, to lean this way or that way. You know, is Tucker, you know, a potential suspect with the group? Is he a victim? Is he in the garden? Does he have an affair of his own happening? These are all these interesting things that I found as an actor, it would be fun to navigate and figure it out and just walk that fine line. And, yeah, it's just been great.
 
John Betancourt: You bring up another good point too. Something that I really love about this series is that it is such a series of want. Everybody's searching for something, searching for something they need. And I'm curious, since you're so close to Tucker, what do you believe Tucker is searching for in this story?
 
Jocko Sims: I think Tucker is very much in love with his work and the idea of success, and I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
 
John Betancourt: I think that answers a fairly good number of questions there. Now, you’re back working with Bill and Jenna, back to work at NBC, what have you enjoyed the most about playing such a complex character?
 
Jocko Sims: I like not kind of knowing where we're going week to week. I mean, there was a period of time in the first couple of episodes where the core cast didn't even know who they buried in the garden.
 
John Betancourt: Oh, wow.
 
Jocko Sims: Yeah. How fun is that? Talk about walking a fine line, just trying not to lean either way. So, that’s fun. And I will say, also working with this cast. They are so talented. I mean, I actually worked with Aja (Naomi King) before on a show called Emily Owens. We were in Vancouver, and we had such a good time. And she was so great on that. And of course, she was great on How to Get Away with Murder. And I just watched AnnaSophia Robb in Rebel Ridge, and I was just thinking about how great her performance was. And here I am on the set, on the show with her shortly thereafter. And Ben (Rappaport) is great, and all the other guest stars are great, Saamer (Usmani), who plays Gary. Everybody's just so lovely and so talented. And that's really the best part of being on the show.
 
John Betancourt: I love that there's so much to take away from the show. I mean, we’ve got so many themes on relationships and just on… kind of life in general, all those things, what are you kind of ultimately hoping audiences take away from season one of the series?
 
Jocko Sims: You know, with a question like that. I always love for people to just have a good time. I love a good murder mystery. I'm a big fan of, like, horror movie franchises like Scream, like the who done it. But I guess in this case, it's not so much who done it. It's like, “Who is it?” So, it's like, this sort of reverse thing. So, just have a good time. And I think we really, really need that right now. And this show does a good job of having you escape to this amazing town of Grosse Pointe. And Grosse Pointe is a real place that Bill Krebs grew up in, and he talks about how you have these people, these elite who are kind of mixed in with the common folk in this community, and I think they're doing a damn good job of portraying some version of that, and every time I tune into the show myself, I feel like it is an escape. I feel like I get to step into this world, you know, and it's a lot of fun. So, what I want audiences to take is that this is a show that you tune in to when you want to have a good time, escape and have a guessing game, drinking guessing game, whatever you want to do. (Laughter from Jocko and John)
 
John Betancourt: Now, I'd be remiss to not ask without spoiling of course, there's so much going on, so much happening. What are you most excited for audiences to experience in the coming weeks?
 
Jocko Sims: I'm excited for audiences to get some big payoffs. I'm excited for them to find out a lot more what's going on. Much more about all of the characters will be revealed. I think of the metaphor of, you know, everybody in this town kind of wants to have this image of looking beautiful, like flowers. But flowers that come out of the ground, you look at them on the surface, they're great, but at the roots, there's always dirt, right? And so, I'm looking forward to a lot of things being revealed.
 
John Betancourt: Now you have been part of some amazing stories over the years, and I’d love to know… what you’re most proud of when it comes to what you’ve accomplished in your career.
 
Jocko Sims: Oh, I love that. I got to go recently, last month, actually, to the Middle East, spent time in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. And it's my first time in that region. The amount of fans that particularly they, love New Amsterdam, you know, the NBC show, that came up to me, just warmed my heart, stuff like that. And then I have people who contact me since I was on New Amsterdam, and after that, telling me that their kids want to be doctors now, because of Dr. Reynolds, that's not something I expected. And the first time I experienced something like that was actually on The Last Ship. We worked directly with the Navy on The Last Ship on the time that I was on that show, our poster was up at the Pentagon. I got to go to the Pentagon. I'm still friends with the Secretary of the Navy. So, we got all of these sort of analytics and this information, and when they saw my character, Lieutenant Burke, they saw an uptick in the number of African Americans who wanted to become officers in the Navy. And I'm just like, “I just wanted to be an actor.” So, these are the residual effects that I didn't think of. And when you ask a question like that, that's what comes to mind. Just it's amazing to be able to touch people in that way.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Also, Also, enjoy a sample of Jocko’s work as Tucker on ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’, courtesy of this clip from NBC from this week’s episode of the show, ‘Pollination’.