James Badge Dale, 42, is primarily known for his performances in CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, as well as AMC’s political thriller, Rubicon. Now he takes on the role of a lifetime as Sergeant Ray Abruzzo in the critically acclaimed series Hightown, for which he’s garnered rave reviews. With an eclectic list of projects behind him, this New York-born actor also played one of the three leads in the HBO miniseries The Pacific and has appeared in Lord of the Flies, World War Z and The Lone Ranger.

There was a ten-year gap between your last project, Rubicon, and Hightown – what prompted your return to TV?

It was the writing. It was one of those scripts that snuck up on you. I was reading it, and I went, “Wow, this is really good!” It was one of those strange things that has happened a few times with different roles where I’ve noticed that I start to obsess about it, about Ray, even when I am dreaming. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and when that happens, that lets me know that this is the world I want to play in.  

Do you feel that you have anything in common with Ray? What is it about him that is so compelling?

I hope I don’t have a lot of things in common with Ray! (laughs) That’s what makes it compelling, especially when you find characters that strike a little chord of fear inside you because then you know you’re going to have to deal with some parts of yourself that maybe you don’t like or maybe you don’t want to come out. Ray is a complicated guy. There’s a lot of bravado there, but maybe there are also a lot of insecurities. 

Starz has a history of diverse casting in their shows. How much do you think that plays a part in the popularity of Hightown?

I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it and to be a part of this ensemble. It’s a diverse cast and a female-led set, with Rebecca Cutter and Rachel Morrison and Monica Raymond. We have a really positive vibe on set and I think that’s really important for us to be able to tell these stories because this is our world, this is the audience. I was born in New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world and it’s nice to see everyone being represented.

How much research did you do into the world of drug addiction?
I think we all have friends and family members who have had experiences with this, and there were some themes that were being played with that I recognized personally from my own life, and from people in my life. I like to read a lot, so Rebecca gave me some books: Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, is a great book to read. She also hooked me up with a couple of narcotics police officers in the Cape [Cod] so I spent some time with them doing ride-alongs. They kind of talked me through the whole season.

Tell us a bit about your background.

Both my parents were in the New York theater. My father was a director/choreographer, my mother was an actress, so I grew up backstage in this kind of wild family of gypsies. My parents were blue-collar actors, they were lifers, they were doing it for a long time, and they spent 20 years paying their dues. And to be honest with you, I didn’t want to be an actor, initially.

What did you want to do?

I had a dream of playing professional hockey. Hockey kind of saved my life a bit because I got in a lot of trouble when I was younger and hockey got me out of trouble. And in a strange way, hockey got me back to the theater. I was playing NCAA hockey, but I got injured in the first month of the season, and so then all my energy just went into the theater department.

Given that both your parents are actors, how did they react when you told them you were following in their footsteps?

Well, my mother passed away when I was 15, so I hope she would smile and laugh at what I’m doing with my life. My father couldn’t be more helpful. He’s been such a great resource over the years. He’s got so many stories – he’s experienced it all.  As far as his first reaction, I remember it well, because I was at The Stella Adler Conservatory in New York and I came home, and we had a VHS videotape of what we did that day. I was so excited about this and I brought the VHS tape back for my father and I put it in the VHS player, and we started to watch it, and he turned it off about after two minutes and he said to me, “You didn’t show anybody this, did you?” (laughs). And he was right, to be honest with you, it was really bad. But my father works at such a high level, and I have learned more from acting and performing from just watching him and my mother than I could ever express.

What have you been doing in your downtime now because of COVID? Are you discovering other creative abilities?

I am discovering what I wasn’t good at before. I demolished my kitchen and my house (laughs) thinking I was leaving to work in New Orleans but then suddenly everything shut down, and I was like, “Oh, wow, I don’t have a kitchen or a bathroom.” So in three months, I’ve redone my entire house. I have a new kitchen, a new bathroom, and it looks really nice. And it’s nice to have something that you can look at and go, “Well, that is actually a physical representation of what I spent my time doing during COVID.” But I just want to raise my hand and say this: I worked in construction for six years, I was terrible at it and I am still terrible at it (laughs), so out of respect for people who do it for real, I do need help!