Two of the world's best character actors once worked together as private investigators

In the purest way acting is a wonderful game apparently. If you're good enough to make a living at it, you show up to work every day and crawl under some stranger's skin. You could be someone as harmless as a loving parent or as malicious as a cold-blooded killer. The job requires you to be a master of empathy; you may not like the person you're playing, but you have to understand them well enough to make their desires believable, if not relatable, to your audience. It's a fun, scary act, and the deeper you get into it, the harder it can be to get out of the character.

This of course depends on your approach to crafting. If you are a methodically trained actor like Robert DeNiroyou become your own hero. However, if you're a seasoned fabulist who prefers a short game, you can dip in and out of character with little mental effort. This is where acting becomes indistinguishable from lying. This approach still requires an essential sense of play that all actors possess, but it can be disconcerting to outsiders because there is no emotional buy-in. One moment you're effortlessly seducing a married man into adultery, an hour later you're out of character and going home.

Sounds a bit like a private detective, doesn't it? Would you be surprised to learn that two of the most talented character actors of the last 30 years were once in the profession? Maybe not, but you'll be floored when you find out which actors have thrived in the industry.

two weeks ago, comic book writer Ryan Estrada Bluesy went viral by informing his followers that Wayne Knight and Margo Martindale once supplemented their acting income by working for the same detective agency. yes Newman from “Seinfeld” and Magazines from “Justified” used his acting talents to potentially catch people in a lie.

According to Knight, he took the gig as an extra push to avoid relying on unemployment. How did he get into this line of work? As Knight told Vice in 2015:

“(I) was waiting tables like everybody when I first started. And I had a friend who said, 'Well, I have a job that you might be interested in.' I go, 'Yeah? What's that? And he says, “I'm a private detective. You've got no police experience.” He says, “They like to hire actors.” are usually intelligent, knowledgeable, can play a variety of roles, and have no scruples.

Knight's delusion allowed him to hop on the phone and bust unfaithful spouses and, more ambitiously, corporate executives and high-ranking military figures looking for a wall in the world of venture capitalism. He used the name “Bill Monty” to keep the hoax going as long as necessary, and he was successful enough that in recent decades he has tried to turn the experience into a comedy or film.

As for Martindale, she was much less excited about the gig. As she told Backstory in 2020“They hired a lot of actors. I didn't have a lot of interesting things to do, but it was all about getting information from unsuspecting people for headhunters, husbands who were jealous, or wives who were looking at their husbands crazy.” She added that while the men got to go out occasionally, the women were stuck working on their phones. If this ugly story is to be made into a movie or series, I'd rather see it told from Martindale's perspective.