How Clancy Brown got to ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ from ‘Shawshank’ and ‘SpongeBob’

Clancy Brown is modest when he’s asked to share the secret that’s kept him working steadily in hundreds of TV series and movies over the past four decades.

“I just think I’m far enough down the list,” Brown says on a recent phone call from his Los Angeles home. “After everybody says no, they finally get to me and I say yes. It’s kind of they’re stuck with me at that point.

“To be honest with you, I mean, maybe I’m cheap enough, and as I get older, a little well-known enough,” he says.

But there’s modesty and then there’s the truth, and the truth is that he’s long been a talented, versatile character actor, whose work shines in roles small and large. And, he picked some great projects.

Brown made his film debut in the 1983 Sean Penn prison movie “Bad Boys.” He followed that with a pair of cult favorites, “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai” and “Highlander.” If you’ve seen “The Shawshank Redemption” – and at this point, who hasn’t? – you’ll remember him as the corrupt, sadistic Captain Hadley of the prison guard.

In recent years, Brown’s been in films including the Coen Brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” writer-director Emerald Fennell’s acclaimed “Promising Young Woman,” and “John Wick: Chapter Four.”

As for TV, he’s guested on dozens of shows, while costarring in series including the Colin Farrell hit “The Penguin,” “Dexter: New Blood” and “Billions.”

Oh, and he’s been the voice of Mr. Krabs on “SpongeBob SquarePants,” for 25 years now, too.

Now Brown is starring in the CW network’s new dramedy “Good Cop/Bad Cop,” which premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

He plays a good-natured police chief in a small Pacific Northwest town whose two adult children, played by Leighton Meester of “Gossip Girl” and Luke Cook of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” end up as detectives in the department where old sibling rivalries and very different personalities create comedy and chaos.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Brown, 66, talked about what drew him to the new show, what it was like shooting a Washington state-based series in Australia, life as Mr. Krabs, and what it’s like for him at comic cons where many of his shows and movies are beloved by fans.

Q: What was it about the role of Police Chief Hank Hickman that drew you to ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’?

A: Well, it was bopping around years ago. I remember thinking it was a pretty great and funny idea, but then it went away. Then when it came back, I think it just got sent to me. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is really worthwhile. This is really funny.

Let’s see, what did I do? I think I just wrapped up on ‘Penguin,’ and it was something completely different from that, which I always find attractive. I always like to turn 180 degrees after I do something if I can. [On ‘The Penguin,’ he played violent gangster Salvatore Maroni.]

Q: This is definitely different from Salvatore on ‘The Penguin.’

A: Yeah, and then Leighton, I sort of dug into a little bit and watched some of her stuff, and said, ‘She’s pretty great.’ I thought, Yeah, eight episodes in Australia, I could do that. And John [Quaintance, the show’s creator] is a really good guy.

Then as the scripts came out, the scripts just got better and better. It kind of starts off as kind of a screwball, and it gets layered and deeper. It’s always still funny, but as the characters are revealed, we get to see more and more about them. It becomes way more interesting than just a joke-a-minute type thing.

Q: And you get to be a good guy, when you often play the antagonist or the villain in some capacity.

A: Well, you’ll find out there’s a little – you know, families are always complicated, and as we get deeper into the family, we find out everybody’s little crimes against each other.

And the role is the role. It’s never a matter of being a villain. Did you think Salvatore was a villain? A lot of people tell me Salvatore is not a villain.

Q: I mean, he’s kind of a villain but you do feel a little bad for him when the Penguin goes after his family.

A: I know, I know. It’s crazy, though. I mean, like, Dexter and Salvatore, it’s like when I did the ‘Dexter’ thing it was like, ‘What was it like playing the big bad?’ I’m like, ‘I’m the big bad? Dexter’s the big bad! I’m a victim of a serial killer!’ Now, OK, I’m a serial killer, too, but at the end of the day …

And Salvatore, the same way. At least he loves his family. [He laughs.] He really, sincerely loves his murdered family. He doesn’t hate women. That ‘Penguin’ is so crazy. It’s so great. Really, really dark.

So this was a nice little tonic to all that’s been going on for the last couple of years. There is darkness in it, as you’ll see as it goes on. It’s not super dark, but it’s complicated and human and fun. And it was a challenge. I gotta tell you, this isn’t my usual thing. But I had the best seat in the house for Leighton and Luke and really enjoyed everybody.

Then I’m just old, fat Clancy sitting there providing the bassline, I guess, for everything else that’s going on. I’m just the rhythm section.

Q: I did not know until after I’d watched the first few episodes that the series was shot in Queensland, Australia. What was it like creating Washington state in Australia?

A: They did a pretty good job, I thought. They found a place up in the mountains that didn’t have too many eucalyptus trees, and no koalas hanging off, as far as I could tell. I love all the people there and the actors are terrific, and writers and everything.

Would it be better if it was shot in the Northwest? Yeah, maybe. I mean it certainly would look a little bit more authentic. It’d be nice to see the Cascades, some snowcaps, and maybe Mount Rainer and stuff like that. But Australia is a great place to work, and the crews are terrific. I can’t complain.

I’ll tell you one thing they do that’s a little bit too much. If you look at the set decoration, it’s just a little overdone with all of the things they think are American. At one point I saw a jersey or a flag or something that was the symbol of the Ohio NHL team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, hanging on a wall. I said to John, ‘I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but if this is the Pacific Northwest they would have the Seattle Kraken or the Vancouver Canucks.

It was just red, white and blue with stars on it. That’s just insider baseball, what someone in Australia thinks is particularly American.

Q: So I have to ask you about Mr. Krabs on “SpongeBob” and what it’s been like to be him for 25 years now.

A: It’s put my kids through college. I mean, it’s one of those things. Did I have any idea it would take off? No, I didn’t. Steve Hillenburg came up with this crazy idea that kind of everybody tiled their heads a little bit. Nobody really had the full concept in their head the way Steve did. He sort of brought everybody along.

I don’t know why he cast me. I have no idea. He just kind of went with his instincts. And the next thing you know, it’s on for 25 years. I think they tried to cancel it once and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It’s an interesting story. When we’re all done doing it, we’ll all write books – ‘Inside Bikini Bottom,’ ‘Bikini Bottom Babylon.’ [He laughs.]

Q: I saw you and the cast at Comic-Con last year, doing a table read of the pilot. Do you get recognized as Mr. Krabs even though your face isn’t on that show?

A: Yeah, yeah, I get it, especially now it’s the 25th anniversary, we’ve been out and about for that a lot. It’s mostly Tom (Kenny, voice of SpongeBob) and Bill (Fagerbakke, voice of Patrick), that are the ones that carry the PR torch for everybody. And that’s a good thing.

Q: I would imagine at Comic-Con people would also know you as The Kurgan from ‘Highlander’ and some other things, too, that fit into that universe.

A: Yeah, people come up and say different things. When we were at the New York Comic-Con doing the same kind of thing, I look over and see Denise (Richards) from ‘Starship Troopers’ [in which Brown played Sergeant Zim]. I said, ‘What are you guys doing here?’ She said, ‘It’s ‘Starship Troopers’ anniversary and we’re doing a panel.

I said, ‘Oh, would it be cool if I just kind of crashed that panel?’ And then we got permission to do that. I think I was there for ‘The Penguin’ and for ‘SpongeBob’ and then I got to squeeze in a little ‘Starship Troopers.’

Q: For me, it would be some of those, but also ‘Carnivàle’ on HBO where you were Brother Justin. We were bereft when HBO canceled that one.

A: Yeah, that was a good show. I was also bereft when they canceled. It kind of broke my heart a little. But then you got to see it [the supernatural horror of ‘Carnivàle’] in other shows. You got to see ‘American Horror Story.’ All that stuff kind of recycles and gets a little better.

Q: Yeah, but the Dust Bowl traveling carnival, and you as the radio evangelist. Such a great concept.

A: Such a good idea. It never got realized. Oh, well.

Q: I think we might see you next in ‘Audrey’s Children,’ which just got picked up for distribution. And you’re playing the former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in that.

A: ‘Audrey’s Children’ is a great story. One of those things you don’t even realize how significant this woman was because you’ve never heard of her before, because she didn’t care about promoting herself or anything. [The film is a biopic about English pediatric oncologist Audrey Evans, played by actress Natalie Dormer, who was a pioneer in the treatment of neuroblastoma and co-founder of the Ronald McDonald House program.]

Her work, she’s the giant who has the shoulders we stand on as far as cancer research and everything. And Koop, I had only ever known Koop as kind of the caricature he was when he was surgeon general. But then reading about him, he was just as innovative and creative as a doctor, as a surgeon can be.

And he had the foresight and the open mind to hire Audrey Evans to be in charge of pediatric oncology, which was unheard of in the ’60s that a woman would be in charge of that stuff. She’s a pretty interesting person.

The toughest part I had was saying all that medical dialogue. I haven’t been any good at that since I did a guest shot on ‘ER.’ I’m just like, ‘Don’t make me say that stuff.’ And then there’s a big walk-and-talk where I have to say all that. Many takes.