On this week’s episode of Working, Isaac Butler spoke with Golden Globe- and Tony-nominated actor Blair Underwood about his work onstage and onscreen. They discussed how he decides which roles he wants to play, the difference between performing in theater productions and in TV and movies, and what he learned from Sidney Poitier. This partial transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Isaac Butler: Do you do a lot of preparation when you’re going to play a role? You said you were thinking about the physicality of the character. Are you sitting there, breaking down your script into beats? What’s your preparatory process like?