Alain Uy talks ‘Ballard’ and getting advice from Jack Nicholson: “I didn’t know how big the fandom was”
There are certain career milestones that you never forget, and for Filipino-American actor Alain Uy, one of these seminal moments took place extremely early in his acting journey. He achieved his first screen credit in 2005 and soon began appearing in small parts in TV series like The OC, Sleeper Cell, Veronica Mars, and ER. Somewhere around this time, though, he was invited to the set of a major comedy-drama feature film starring two Hollywood legends and left with some truly invaluable advice in the process.
“I never really shared this story,” Uy noted warmly when asked if he’d ever picked up any lessons from more experienced stars during his career. “So, this is for you. This is an exclusive. I remember being on the set of The Bucket List. There was a day when I was behind Video Village as a guest, and Jack Nicholson was discussing a few things with [director] Rob Reiner.”
Yes, despite only being a few short years into his career, Uy somehow found himself in close proximity to one of the greatest actors of all time, and a living legend who happens to hold the record for most male acting Oscar nominations in history. He noticed that Nicholson was demonstrating to Reiner about how his direction had inadvertently contradicted a choice he made in a previous take, and Uy marvelled at “how specific someone like Jack was working”.
Eventually, Uy plucked up the courage to address Nicholson directly. He asked the icon, “Hey, do you have any advice for a young actor like me?” The iconic star thought for a moment before answering, “Be friends with the editor”. Uy was still pretty green at that point, so he asked, “What do you mean?”, to which Nicholson told him that the more experience an actor acquires, the more they know in their heart what a good take looks and feels like. However, editors sometimes aren’t on the same wavelength, so an actor shouldn’t always leave it entirely in their hands.
“Sometimes editors don’t quite understand,” Uy explained, recalling Nicholson’s advice, “They’re just trying to match timing. And so, it’s that ability to say, ‘Hey, that’s a good take, or that wasn’t a good take, don’t use that’. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s interesting’.”
Ultimately, he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Nicholson, but the Chinatown star’s nugget of wisdom stayed with him. “It was just great to witness his work and what he does,” he said, adding, “I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with some tremendous actors in this industry.”
Over two decades in film and television, Uy has worked with stars like Rachel McAdams, Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, and Mark Wahlberg. However, the A-list name who added another building block to his career with a well-timed piece of counsel was Colin Farrell.
The Irish actor took Uy aside when he froze during a take on the set of True Detective‘s second season. He recognised that the young actor was struggling with nerves, having landed his first significant recurring role on a prestige TV show. “That was a scary time and humbling,” Uy admitted. However, after Farrell gave him some encouragement and shed some light on “little nuances” of working and advice on “how to carry yourself”, he was able to control his nerves. “These are the things you don’t typically learn in drama school or a repertoire,” he noted.
Over the decade since the release of True Detective, Uy’s career has gone from strength to strength. In 2020, he gained recognition for the indie martial arts comedy The Paper Tigers and the Marvel show Helstrom. Eye-catching recurring parts followed in the fourth and final season of Fox’s The Cleaning Lady and Power Book IV: Force, before Uy found himself being invited to play in Amazon Prime Video’s Bosch universe with the spinoff series, Ballard, starring Maggie Q as the cold case detective Renée Ballard.
Amusingly, though, when he secured the part of the savvy political operator Nelson Hastings, he had little idea of the kind of scrutiny he would soon face. “I didn’t really know anything about the world, if I’m being honest,” Uy chuckled. “I’ve had auditions for Bosch in the past, but I never really took a deep dive into it. So, I didn’t know how big the fandom was!”
Suddenly, the unfamiliar actor realised he would be playing a vital role in a show based on a character created by Michael Connelly, who has sold 78 million books worldwide. In 2014, Amazon turned Connelly’s signature character, LAPD Detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch, into a gripping police procedural starring Titus Welliver, and that show ran for seven seasons. Three more seasons of the sequel series Bosch: Legacy followed, including a one-episode appearance by Q that set her up for her own series.
Naturally, Uy did what anyone else would do after realising he’d just become part of something much bigger than anticipated. “I talked to a few of my friends who are huge fans of the books,” he revealed, “and they were like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re playing Nelson Hastings. That’s insane!’ And I’m like, ‘Sorry, yeah, what’s his character about?'” Upon the instruction of these pals, he read “the first couple of books to get a sense of who this character is”, and then dove headfirst into the LA shoot.
To his delight, while shooting the season, Uy was continuously “pleasantly surprised, not by just my character, but the entire story”. He likened Hastings to “a rock in Ballard’s shoes”, and laughed, “I am just kind of there, but my presence is annoying. You want to take it out, but you can’t, so I sort of play an agitating role in the season.” As for Hastings’ personality and motivation, Uy ominously noted, “There’s a lot of ambition in him. He’s not a sycophant by any means, but he does have his own political agenda”.
For the actor, one of the most joyous parts of being involved in Ballard was working with Nikita, Designated Survivor, and Mission: Impossible III star Q, whom he dubbed “one of the most professional, most determined, talented and very welcoming actors that I’ve ever worked with”. They formed such a close bond, in fact, that when he filmed his last scene of the season, Q commandeered the microphone from the First Assistant Director to bid him a fond farewell.
“I just want to say thank you to Alain,” he recalled her telling the entire cast and crew. “Thank you so much for breathing life into this character. I hated you, but the love is there.”
In many ways, all the success Uy has been experiencing lately is vindication for the little boy of Filipino and Chinese heritage who grew up in Los Angeles and had dreams of becoming an actor. He chose to follow these dreams despite having few examples of people who looked like him representing his culture on film or television.
Uy was born in Dagupan City, Philippines, and his family moved to Glendale when he was six. “Coming into the United States as an immigrant,” he explained, “I understood that, emphatically, I’m not from this country. I understand that I’m different; that I’m other. I have that perspective that I am from a different place.”
So, when he decided he wanted to pursue acting, he believes he approached it in a “really pragmatic” fashion. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities,” he admitted, “Outside of Dante Basco [The Lost Boys] and his brothers and a few other Filipinos that were coming up, there wasn’t a lot for me to strive for. Am I going to be the next Tom Cruise? Am I going to be the next Brad Pitt? Probably not. That’s what I was thinking.”
In recent years, Uy has appreciated the advances Hollywood has made in terms of representation, and he loves it when the public embraces movies like Parasite, Crazy Rich Asians, or Black Panther. However, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done, and he doesn’t necessarily think these advances will alter his career prospects overnight. Fittingly, then, he still operates with that pragmatic, realistic outlook. “If I’m being honest, the only goal I had as an actor was just to be working,” he revealed, “that’s it. In some ways, I’ve achieved that.”
In the future, Uy hopes to keep booking challenging roles that will help him grow as a performer. But if he had to pick a dream role, it would be José Rizal, the national hero who became a key figure in the Filipino Propaganda Movement in the 19th century. Rizal helped push for political reforms when Spain colonised the country, and he was always taught about “the impact he had on our culture” as a child.
Until the day he can finally realise that dream, though, Uy will continue doing everything he can to represent Filipino-Americans on screen, and if that includes a second season of Ballard, he’s only too happy to return as that pesky rock in the titular detective’s shoes.
