Interview with The LA Complex’s Ennis Esmer
Ennis Esmer is a Canadian actor and comedian. He stars in the Canadian sci-fi drama ‘The Listener’. He can also currently be seen on The CW’s ‘The LA Complex’ as the loveable, yet strict landlord Eddie. Be sure to catch two new episodes of ‘The LA Complex’ tonight on The CW starting at 8pm, and check out our interview with Ennis below.
How did your originally get into acting?
“I found out that I was really good at coming up with excuses about why I didn’t turn papers in during junior high and high school. I really had to perform to get the teachers to buy it. So it probably started there. Theatre and Drama were actually the only classes I got good marks in. Actually, Aaron Abrams and I went to the same junior high and HS. We took experimental theater and improv. I consider myself very lucky to have gone to a school with a fine arts focus. Earl Haig represent.”
How did you get involved with ‘The LA Complex’?
“With Canadian television, if you get offered a job, you take it [laughs]. I loved getting to work with Aaron again (after Young People Fucking). That was an added bonus. We actually have never acted together though. That would be the dream. We should play both sides of a buddy cop team, or I could play the bumbling loveable witness who saw a murder and he could play the eye-rolling grizzled veteran cop. ‘The LA Complex’ worked out great. I get to come in for a couple of episodes and swing a hammer through a wall, or cannon ball into a pool. Anytime you can cannon ball or swing a hammer and get paid for you, you are ahead of the game.”
Who are you more similar to: Eddie or Oz?
“I think Oz is a better person than I am and I feel like Eddie is more honest, and probably more of an asshole. I’m somewhere in the middle. They both have the same hair as me, so I really lucked out.”
Do your filming schedules every overlap?
“Not so much. ‘The Listener’ shoots in the fall and winter, while ‘The LA Complex’ shoots in the summer. For ‘The LA Complex’ I get to come in, mess around on the set for a few hours and then go home. It’s a blast.”
Who on the ‘LA Complex’ have you not shared a scene with that you would like to?
“Most of my scenes are with Cassie (Abby – the most frustrating tenant in the building) and Jonathan (Connor). They’ve had the most rental related story lines. I think it’s hard for them to write tenant-land lord relationship arcs into more characters. I’ve worked with Dayle (who plays Beth) a bunch this season. I had a little scene with Andra where I rapped lyrics at him in the first season. If Ricky Lloyd (Aaron’s character) gets outta rehab he should come live at The Lux.”
“It was a lot of fun to work with Ken Finkleman on ‘Good Dog’. He was on ‘The Newsroom’, (not the Jeff Daniels one), a show I loved from the 90s. It’s a thrill to work with people who I followed on TV as a kid. But also don’t tell them that because then they feel old and write you out of their shows. I also really enjoyed holding Ving Rhames at gun point on ‘Kojak’.”
What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to do while playing Oz?
“I’m always nervous about making all the medical procedural stuff look good and real. We did some paramedic training in the beginning, and I hope I’m pulling it off. Actually the hardest thing I’ve had to do was have my towel off of me while coming out of a shower for a scene in season 3. That was really intense. I gained 40 pounds for the part [laughs]. I ate solid cream for two months for that one scene. I’m that dedicated.”
“The most fun I’ve ever had making anything was “Young People Fucking”. The whole process was amazing. My friends wrote it, so I was there from the beginning. Aaron would ask for help with certain lines, and then hearing about the process of getting the movie made, everything that goes into it before the cameras roll, and then to be in it, and the reception it had at TIFF, it was an incredible experience, from top to bottom. I’d like to play a baseball player eventually. I just want to wear a uniform and field a ground ball, but “Young People Fucking” was pretty great.”