Funny but Careful
Whenever he appeared on the set, Henry Simmons caused quite a stir among the cast and crew of the low-budget indie comedy “Let It Snow.”
“Henry makes grown women faint and men weep at the fact they don’t look like Henry,” says Kipp Marcus, who stars in and wrote the romantic comedy that opens today. Marcus’ older brother Adam directed the film.
The 6-foot, 4-inch Simmons also has heated up the precinct on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” when he joined the cast of Steven Bochco’s police drama two seasons ago as the serious-minded Det. Baldwin Jones. And just as most of the regulars on the Emmy Award-winning series, Simmons has taken off his shirt and a whole lot more. Since joining “NYPD Blue,” Simmons was named one of People’s 50 most beautiful people in the world and was featured in its issue on the world’s most eligible bachelors.
But in person, the 30-year-old African American actor is self-effacing and funny. “It’s almost as if he doesn’t even realize that he is that perfect,” Adam Marcus notes.
In “Let It Snow,” which Simmons made before joining “NYPD Blue,” he plays Mitch Jennings, the gregarious friend of Kipp Marcus’ lovesick James. Mitch, who is as successful with the ladies as he is as a Wall Street broker, keeps trying to help his friend find the woman of his dreams.
“It was so much fun working with Kipp and Adam,” says Simmons, relaxing on a recent morning in the living room of his manager’s Hollywood apartment. “I didn’t’ want it to end.”
“Let It Snow” marks the first time that Simmons has had a chance to show off his comedic chops. “Pretty much everything I have done has been drama so it was kind of nice to use those kind of muscles,” he says with a warm smile.
“I don’t like stuff that is just plain silly. This comedy was a little different. I am particular anyway in the things that I choose, but when it comes to comedy I really am because I don’t want to do something that is slapstick silly.”
Notes Kipp Marcus: “He plays the lovable best friend and he is this ultra-successful guy. But he is a bit of a cutup too. The thing Adam and I were really struck by was his level of comic maturity. He was able to completely make fun of that side of himself.”
“Let It Snow” was made for less than $500,000. “It was guerrilla filmmaking where you shoot one scene, and as soon as you are finished, you pack up and race around New York and you set up and shoot and move again,” Simmons recalls. ‘You just change in the back of the van, jump out and do your thing.”
Late last year, Simmons made another indie film, “A Gentleman’s Game,” with Gary Sinise.
“The good thing about independents is that there is more of a feeling of camaraderie,” Simmons says. “We are all in this together and you are not really doing it for the money because there is no money. If you are doing an indie, you are there because you really want to do it.”
At First, He Was Too Shy for Acting
Simmons grew up in Stamford, Conn., the son of an IRS officer and a schoolteacher. He excelled in basketball in high school, but asked if he acted during those years, Simmons responds, “I was way too shy.”
Attending Franklin Pierce College in Vermont on a basketball scholarship, he got his first taste of acting when he took an introduction to acting class. “I just saw the possibilities,” he explains. “I remember I did a monologue and the kids in the class applauded. It really moved me. It’s a nice feeling that people appreciate what you are doing and you touched someone.”
After graduating from college, he trained to be a financial manager. But he stuck it out barely a year. During his stint in the business world, Simmons traveled from Connecticut to New York to study acting and go on auditions.
In fact, he was still working in finance when he got his first movie role, the 1994 basketball film “Above the Rim.”
Getting the role was so easy, Simmons quit his job and moved to New York, where he soon discovered the reality of a struggling actor. He worked as a bouncer and eventually as a hotel bellman in between episodic TV work and theater gigs.
Still Choosy Even While Working as a Bellman
Simmons was still working as a bellman to make ends meet when he was offered a regular role as an attorney on the CBS daytime soap “Another World.”
“I was like, no, I don’t do soap operas,” says Simmons, who adds that he was afraid he would fall into bad acting habits on the daytime drama.
“That is a hell of a thing to say if you are still working as a bellman. My agents came in and said, ‘Let’s talk.’ We talked about it and they reminded me, ‘You are a bellman.’ I was like, you know, that’s a good point.”
After his two years were up on “Another World,” Simmons came out to Los Angeles “for the opportunities, the weather and,” he adds, laughing, “the women.”
Originally, Simmons was going to be a guest on “NYPD Blue,” but the job quickly turned into a continuing role. He and Gordon Clapp, who plays Jones’ high-strung partner, Det. Medavoy, have a breezy, offbeat chemistry.
“He’s a very generous guy,” Clapp says of Simmons. “When he came on the show I had no idea what to expect. He fit in the cast very easily. He was really willing to learn. He is very open and very funny. . . . Right away, we became friends.”
This past season, Baldwin began a romance with the precinct’s new district attorney (Garcelle Beauvais). “One thing I like about the show is they do explore the personal side,” Simmons says.
He doesn’t know what the new season will bring other than the facts that Rick Schroder has departed the cast and that the series is moving from Tuesdays to Wednesday nights, opposite NBC’s high-rated “Law & Order.”
“The one thing I have asked our writers is that Baldwin is such a good guy, I would like to have a flaw--give me some flaws,” Simmons says. “It makes the character more interesting for the viewer and me. It makes him more human.”
“I don’t like stuff that is just plain silly. This comedy was a little different.
I am particular anyway in the things that I choose, but when it comes to comedy
I really am because I don’t want to do something that is slapstick silly.”
