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LOS ANGELES - Tim Kang is costarring on the biggest hit of the new television season, CBS's "The Mentalist." But the actor is more excited to reminisce about his days as a student at the American Repertory Theatre's acting institute in Cambridge than to talk about his role as Agent Kimball Cho.
The 35-year-old Bay Area native has particular fondness for playing Swiss Cheese in a 2001 production of "Mother Courage and Her Children." "Such a fun character," he says with a bright smile. It's the kind of grin his no-nonsense "Mentalist" alter ego, a brainy and blunt criminal investigator who spars with Simon Baker's footloose title character, wouldn't be caught dead flashing.
"Tim is a master of the deadpan, as good as I've ever seen, so we feed into that," says series creator Bruno Heller. That and his ART training have served him well, as Kang has worked steadily since earning his MFA with guest starring roles on a half-dozen series including "The Sopranos," "The Office," and "The Unit" and a recent series of comic Cingular commercials.
We turned the tables on Kang and interrogated him on the set that houses the utilitarian offices of the fictional California Bureau of Investigation.
Q. How was your experience at the ART?
A. It was fantastic training, the best experience ever. The schedule was actually a lot more grueling than this schedule and this schedule is grueling. I mean [at the ART] it was literally six days a week, waking up at 6 a.m. and not going home until 11 p.m. every single day, including Saturdays. That was one of the time periods in my career where I really felt like an actor. Because from the minute I got up until I went to bed, everything I did during the day had to do with becoming a better actor. I cherish those days.
Q. After doing that kind of intense theater stuff is it a challenge to work on a procedural where there's not much time spent on a character's back story?
A. I think the biggest challenge is the idea that in a play you have everything laid out for you. You read it from beginning to end and you can pick up things on your character. And yes, of course, you come with your own ideas but the playwright's pretty much - if it's a good play - laid it out for you and how he or she sees the character. With this, it was so little stuff in the pilot. Bruno gave us just enough: "This is the tone of the character." But everything else we're going to have to bring, so that was a challenge. But it was fun challenge.
Q. That scenario certainly gives you leeway to author your character in a way that you wouldn't be able to in, say, "Richard II."
A. Absolutely. It is a collaboration and it's really refreshing to really be able to throw ideas out there, whether they're the dumbest idea or the best idea. I throw a lot of dumb ideas out there but at least they're listening. (Laughs)
Q. You've done a lot of episodic guest-starring stuff but now you're a regular on the biggest, and pretty much only, hit of the new season. Of course you were hoping for success, but does the experience match what you were expecting?
A. I just looked at it one script at a time. And that's how I approach every script that comes our way: How can I do this specific thing this week the best I can? Beyond that, whatever comes our way is icing on the cake. I think we got some pretty decent notices for "Mother Courage," for example, and that was a blessing. We didn't expect anything. All we did was try to work together and come up with some good ideas and the reception we got was great. It's out in the world now and you can't control it anyway so why worry about it?
Q. You have yet to play a stock Asian stereotype, which is often a rite of passage in Hollywood for actors of color. How encouraging is that?
A. I'm pretty lucky to have been able to escape that. I feel like I'm not above playing any sort of a stereotype if it's substantive. Because a lot of times there are truisms to everything. If the story is about a Korean grocer, then yeah I'm all over it. If the story is about a math whiz and the trouble he's having with his grades, I'm all over that. (Laughs) But if it's just a quick, come in, do the stereotype, and then take off - that's a little tough.
Q. One of your highest profile gigs to date has been in that series of Cingular commercials. Did I hear you say that one of them aired during "The Mentalist" pilot?
A. [The cast] all gathered, excited, and the teaser played and we were all cheering and the first commercial up was one of those spots. (Laughs)
Q. Your accountant must have been happy.
A. Yeah, it's been a blessing.
Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.
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