An Interview with Josh McKenzie from ‘The Hunting Party’

THE HUNTING PARTY -- "Roy Barber" Episode 105 -- Pictured: Josh McKenzie as Shane Florence -- (Photo by: David Astorga/NBC)

Josh McKenzie is a highly accomplished actor that has appeared in a host of television shows, including the beloved NBC series, La Brea. Currently Josh plays Shane Florence on the amazing new NBC series, The Hunting Party, and we had the honor of sitting down with Josh to discuss his work on the show.
 
John Betancourt: Would love to start by getting to know what it was that attracted you to this project as an actor.
 
Josh McKenzie: So, at the time there was, I was doing a lot of auditioning, getting a lot of scripts sent, and there's not so often you read sides, and you kind of don't really have to learn the lines, you know, you just kind of go, “Yeah. I'd say that,” you know, it was very close to, at least on a surface level, how I would be. It was, it felt very effortless. And then reading the script, I picked up on a few things that I was like, “Oh, shoot, there's like, something else going on here with this dude” that wasn't on the page, but it was between the lines, if that makes sense. And I kind of… during one of the casting processes, the show runners, they asked me, “Why'd you play it that way?” And I said, “Oh, because of this.” And they’re like, “What?” (Laughter) I ended up kind of spoiling his storyline a little bit just from reading the pilot, and they couldn't work out kind of how I pieced it together. But it just, it was a sense, I guess. And every now and again, you just have a sense about something, and maybe it's because you want it to be that way and sometimes that aligns with what the writers want for the character.
 
So that was probably that, and also the boldness of the of the script, you know, it opened, originally opened with, like, a guy being burnt alive, you know, which is crazy. That's still in the pilot. It's not as up front and center, but, I was like, “Oh, well, I've not seen that.” And, you know, it's the usual kind of, you know, network stuff that you're reading. And I was like, “This is, this is ambitious.” And then as the story unfolded, I was like, “Okay, there's, there's a lot going on here.” They put a lot into the pilot, and that excited me. Yeah, so there's combination of those things, and I mean, the team, oh yeah. The team, Thor Freudenthal, who directed, set up, director and supervising producer. You know, I've worked with him before, and, you know, the line producer is another guy I've worked with, and I never worked with JJ (Bailey) and  Jake (Coburn), but they were awesome people to chat with, even in the early stages when I wasn't properly cast. So, all those things, I was like, “This is this is going to be cool. This is going to be special.”
 
John Betancourt: So, you bring up something that I want to talk about a lot today. Because I do love the fact that Shane is… there's a little more to him than just, you know, the clean cut, you know, standard soldier, if you will. He's got a little grey to him. He's got little secrets. Now, since you had that kind of bead on it well in advance, how much did that impact your performance going forward, when you started actually filming and getting into the story?
 
Josh McKenzie: Um, not a huge amount. I mean, the nature of this show, it's a procedural at its core, like, functionally. So, every episode, you know, it's case of the week. And in our case, it's the serial killer of the week. So, and being a military guy, Shane's very task oriented. He's very -- he can come compartmentalized. So, it wasn't hard to just, like, focus. You know, the thing I had to get right from the get-go was like, what's motivating this guy? Like, because every decision he makes is hinging on that. Every interaction is hinging on that core motivation. Like, “What do I want? What is he looking for? What is he trying to do here?” Is it more than just, like, “I want to help out.” You know, “What's going on here?” Why does he, in that first episode, say, “Hey, I'm going to come with you.” Like, you know, “I've been pulling bodies out of this rubble. I want to help.” Like, what's the reason behind that? Obviously, in episode four there's somewhat of a revelation, and there will be many more. So, it wasn't hard to like -- because he didn't have to hide it in the in the beginning, because there's so there's so much going on.
 
It's so propulsive, this show, that, like, things move quick. We move on. We move on. We don't sit with him, you know, like if there was more scenes with him, if it was written that way, then, then we might have seen a little bit more. But thankfully, the writing was just like, let's smash out these serial killers. Let's catch them. Let's catch them. We don't see Shane go home afterwards, you know, we don't see what he gets up to between the cases in the first half of the season. So, yeah, I wouldn't say it was hard, the difficulty, and this is in every role, is the preparation. That where it's hard. If you prepare well, you know, you answer all the questions. You come up with the questions you need to answer, and you have the questions you can't answer yet. You have all of that locked away, then you can kind of turn up and do what you need to do, you know, and be a good soldier.
 
John Betancourt: Now something I genuinely appreciate about the show is how it features such a big concept, but is so incredibly grounded, especially via the characters, and I’m very curious how you as an actor have managed to ground Shane in such a realistic manner.
 
Josh McKenzie: I mean, that's the goal. So, that's the up to the audience, to interpret, and if that's how it's interpreted, then I've done my job, you know. But it is, it is super grounded. And you know, I've never served in the military, you know. But you know, I know people who have. I know people who work in social work and police officers and people who chase bad guys, who help bad guys. I mean, that's such a subjective thing, but you know, deal with criminals, deal with death, deal with, you know, mental illness, and you know that it's not something that they you know… it grinds them down over time, but in the moment they're not, you know, it's an invisible burden. And there's a lot of humor which grounds them, like gallows humor in a lot of cases, like, dark humor that no one else could get away with, you know.
 
And that kind of is the panacea, in a sense, for dealing with that step, you know. So, I think that's what keeps Shane grounded, this idea that he's like, he makes the jokes. He's not looking at everything constantly going like, getting all emotional about it, like, I don't think we as humans, we don't, we don't demonstrate that as much as, like we see on TV. So that was a big thing, a big balance to get right, because then it's a TV show, you know? And, yeah, but I like the fact that Shane is very --- he provides a lot of liberty, and I think that's needed for a show this dark.
 
John Betancourt: What does it mean to you as both just a person and as an actor to be a part of such a unique and refreshing show.
 
Josh McKenzie: I mean, I'm so I feel so lucky, you know. And so, you know, people talk about luck in this industry a lot, and you know, some people don't believe in it. Some people do, like whatever your belief system is. But I do, I do. I feel so, so grateful, you know. And I love it. You know, my partner, she's an actress, too, and she's on another kind of procedural. And we both, you know, pinch ourselves every, every day. You know that we get to go to work and do this and play and on a show like The Hunting Party, where it is a lot, you know, and it's NBC, so it's big, it's splashy. It's shot beautifully. It's, you know, they can afford all the things. And I love indie filmmaking. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love that. That's my, like, I cut my teeth on that.
 
But this is, like, everything's laid out for you to go and play. And I think that's one of the coolest things about being part of The Hunting Party. And prior to this, doing La Brea as well, the stage is set, man, you just, you just need to go on and do your thing. You know, you're not like, you know, sometimes you're acting to a tennis ball or a green screen, but a lot of the time, there's physical, tangible things around you and, in our case, for The Hunting Party, the murders and the crime scene and everything. It's very visceral. So, you just have to go back and play make believe, I guess. And, you know, it's a theme park, to some extent, a horrible theme park. No, a haunted house.
 
John Betancourt: Probably better to call it that. I don’t think a Murder theme park would go over well. (Laughter from John and Josh.)  The last question that I have for you, relates to how we talked a little bit about, obviously, revelations to come. And in talking to Sara (Garcia) and JJ (Bailey) they too have mentioned that the back half of this season is going to be big. So, if you have one word to describe the back half of season one with no spoilers, what would that word be?
 
Josh McKenzie: Revelatory.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.