The second season of Work In Progress is in full swing, and the brutally honest Showtime comedy has not been afraid to tackle the very real events of the last year. From COVID restrictions to the Black Lives Matter movement, series lead Abby (played by and partially based on co-creator Abby McEnany) has had to contend with both the outside forces affecting her life as well as the way her own biases and experiences have shaped who she is today.

In last week’s episode, “Oh Say Can You See,” Abby conjured up a vision of her longtime crush Vincent D’Onofrio – specifically him playing Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent – to help her work through the reasons behind her father’s attempted suicide. This week in “FTP,” she calls on him once more but in a very different context: police violence and anti-blackness on a systemic level.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

D’Onofrio spoke to Screen Rant about his role in the series, working with Abby and fellow creator Lilly Wachowski, and the importance of revisiting police procedurals through the lens of racism – not to mention his shoutout to Daredevil fans coming to see him return to the MCU.

Vincent D’Onofrio as Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Screen Rant: I love Work In Progress, so it was delightful to see you make a special appearance. What was your reaction when Abby and Lilly first approached you about the project?

Vincent D’Onofrio: Well, I didn’t know much about it. I knew that the two of them were doing something, but I didn’t know what exactly it was. They pretty much explained it to me in their first couple of emails. I said, “Of course,” because it seemed like a wonderful thing to do, and then it was just finding the right time to do it.

With COVID and all the jobs that I’m doing, it was a bit tough to figure out how and when. But eventually, our schedules matched up, because they had finished shooting their season but still had additional shooting to do. It was during that additional shooting that I was able to go to Chicago just before I left town for another film, so it worked out perfectly.

I was flattered that the two of them would want me to come and do it. I just loved supporting a story about the LGBTQ community, and also people who suffer from mental illness and depression. This is all stuff that I’ve always been involved in [throughout] my whole career, so it all makes perfect sense to me.

I love how many layers there are to what is essentially just a cameo. You have another scene in this next episode, and there are so many layers to you recreating the iconic role of Bobby Goren beyond the joke of Abby having a crush on you. What was it like for you to step into those shoes after so many years?

Vincent D’Onofrio: I have to say that I was looking forward to it. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew that it would come back fairly quickly. Especially because they put a lot of time into finding the clothes: the coat and everything is very similar to what I used.

Once I dressed like him, the dialogue reminded me of the tone [of Law & Order]. I have to say it was much easier than I thought it would be to just fall right back into his way of speaking and the cadence he speaks in. He was a very particular character. I didn’t know I would, but I did fall back into it.

The tonal shift between episode 7 and your episode 8 appearance is impressive. Without specific spoilers, we know Abby’s reconciling herself to the racism in her own past. As a police officer, what’s it like to grapple with Bobby’s role and the evolution of how crime shows approach important topics?

Vincent D’Onofrio: The thing about it is that you can’t do something like that now without that context – you just can’t. That helps a lot because the truth always rings the loudest. You cannot deny it, and if you do, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

It’s a perfect scenario, and it’s not difficult to fall into it and get it and understand why we’re doing it. When I’m in character playing Goren, I know he was a very emotional character that had his own issues. But one thing he wasn’t was a racist, and neither was Kate Erbe’s character Eames.

We dealt with dirty cops, and we dealt with racism a few times on the show, but the combination of cops and racism was never really directly dealt with. So, it was nice to have the conversation with her. I won’t spoil anything, but it was nice to have that conversation in the episode.

When it comes to these issues, no way to avoid them. You can’t, it’s important. And it’s false, if you don’t [tackle them].

On a lighter note, I know that Abby really respects your work and was very excited to have you on set. What was it like for you to meet her and work together on these scenes?

Vincent D’Onofrio: She’s got so much energy, and she’s such an interesting person. It was really just absolutely delightful to be with both her and Lilly. They were very kind, and we just talked the whole time we were on set.

It was the first time I’d met Abby, but we just all fell into it like we’d known each other for years. It was [a] very nice and familiar feeling, and it was a very creative day that we spent together.

Given how easily you were able to slip back into Robert Goren, are there any other characters you would like to revisit – just in case Abby has need of Vincent D’Onofrio again?

Vincent D’Onofrio: That’s a funny thing to think of. I can’t imagine… Some of them would be too scary for her.

But for shows like that, I really enjoy doing stuff that’s out of the box for me. I’m always up for anything that’s written well and has awesome people behind it. I would bring in any character that I’ve done and repeat it again for somebody if I thought it worked, and they thought it worked.

I know that Work In Progress has some Second City alums and does plenty of improv. Did you get to participate in that, or was it mostly working from the page?

Vincent D’Onofrio: We worked with the lines on the page. We changed lines and did a little bit of altering as we went along. But the two of them are very creative, and they’re both writers. We were able to just stand there on set and think of better lines to throw at each other, and we’d see what fit until we would find the right ones.

I wouldn’t call it improvisation, although I love doing that. But I didn’t do it on the show. We were basically stuck to the script, and when we felt like they were little hitches in the dialogue, we would just straighten it out right there. It’s fairly easy to do when you have three people that have been in the business for that long.

Since you’ve got the chance to reprise this role again, what is it that stands out most to you about him after a decade?

Vincent D’Onofrio: I think it was the way we did it. It’s not just him; I think we did a really interesting show, considering where we did it and the company we kept you know. We lived in this Law & Order [universe]: there were three shows at the time, and they were very structured shows that I think were all good in their own way.

I think for Kate and [me], the writing in ours was very different, so we did a slightly different show. I’m really proud of Kate and all the great writers that we had, and I’m really proud of inventing this character of Goren. He was only on the page as far as the context in which he worked, but the rest of it was left to me to create. I think back of him in a very fond way. I think I created a good character for nine seasons.

I know fans have had fun speculating about Wilson Fisk returning to the MCU in Hawkeye or Spider-Man, which I hope you take as a compliment for your work.

Vincent D’Onofrio: I do take it as a compliment. I so badly want to play that character again. I love that character. I just have to wait for Marvel to ask me. I think it’s very clear that I would, and the fans know that I would jump at the chance to play again. I just need to be asked.

As a writer and creator yourself, what is it that inspires you to jump on board a project in general?

Vincent D’Onofrio: It’s the writing first, and then it’s also who’s involved in it – who’s producing it, who’s directing it, what other actors are going to be involved in it. But first, it’s the writing.

When you’re a young actor, you think it’s all about your performance and that’s what you focus on. But then you soon realize, as the years go by, that you have no performance unless the writing is great. And so you start to lean into knowing who the best writers are, knowing good writing, and knowing how to analyze a script. And what’s a good script or what’s not a good script always comes back to the writing.

For instance, with Wilson Fisk, there’s no performance of mine that I did that wasn’t written first. It was just great [work] by all the writers that did each season. They were all great in their own way. I never touched those scripts. I never altered dialogue; I never asked to alter dialogue. It was all there, all the time. And that’s rare. Especially in the first and in the third season, I would look forward to cracking open the script and reading it.

What is next for you? What are you most excited to work on, either as an actor or creator?

Vincent D’Onofrio: There’s a couple of things that we’re developing. I’m trying to put together a film that Mark Ruffalo is producing; I’m trying to put that together as director. That’s moving slow, but it’s gonna happen.

As far as working, The Eyes of Tammy Faye just came out. Godfather of Harlem is going to start back up in January or February; I think there’s a couple more seasons of that. And then there’s a couple of projects that I’m not really allowed to talk about that are out there.

There’s a Netflix film that I did with Sandra Bullock called The Unforgiveable, and I’ve got a couple of projects in Australia. I’m going to go back to Australia to do some research on another project that they’re asking me to do out there. I’m busy all the time.

I’m cutting a movie that I shot for George R.R. Martin, [Night of the Cooters]. We’re done shooting, and I was actually editing. Trioscope is the company, and it’s a film that’s made with actors and props, but everything else is green screen. Everything except for the horses. We shot the whole thing in the green screen world, so Trioscope – who are great people with a great team – are going to do all of the graphics and all of the CGI work in it.

New episodes of Work In Progress premiere every Sunday at 11 pm EST on Showtime.

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About The Author


Tatiana Hullender
(655 Articles Published)

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Tatiana Hullender is a writer at Screen Rant, focusing on film and television, as well as a co-host of several podcasts. In the interviews she conducts for Screen Rant, she seeks to learn what drives each creative mind and how different experiences influence the same narrative. As a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, Tatiana studied theater and comparative literature. She has been passionate about all manner of storytelling since being exposed to Jane Austen and BBC adaptations of her work all at once. But Regency satire of manners isn’t the only genre she loves, as a love of comic books naturally developed into a love of cinematic universes and their superheroes. So long as a story has heart and humor, there’s a chance of finding something to enjoy in the telling of it.
Visit @myrcellasear on Twitter to follow Tatiana’s articles, interviews and podcasts including: The Flash Podcast, Pop A La Carte and Ladies With Gumption. Subscribe to them on the Podcast app, or contact her directly at painted(dot)out(at)gmail.com.

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