For someone who lives in Philadelphia, actor David Morse (“Treme,” “St. Elsewhere”) has spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh lately.
First he was in town a year ago to play Steelers Hall of Fame center Mike Webster in the new movie “Concussion,” in theaters on Christmas Day. Then he was back in May to film the first season of WGN America’s “Outsiders,” debuting at 9 p.m. Jan. 26, playing the would-be patriarch of a clan of illiterate mountaintop dwellers.
Not that he went very far from one project to the next — both filmed at 31st Street Studios in the Strip.
“There was a hospital here,” he said, standing on a 31st Street soundstage in June, surrounded by the interior shack sets, homes of the mountain people on “Outsiders.” He gestured to the east end of the building and said, “And [on ‘Concussion’] we did green screen stuff over there re-creating the old stadium and a young Mike Webster in that stadium.”
Mr. Morse said prior to “Concussion,” his knowledge of Mr. Webster was limited.
“I was probably like most people, except people in Pittsburgh, in that I only heard of him when he died and was homeless,” Mr. Morse said. “And I knew a little bit about CTE, [football-related brain trauma].”
Mr. Morse would like to have spoken with Mr. Webster’s family, but that was not permitted.
“For legal reasons I wasn’t allowed, none of us on the film were allowed,” he said. “I would like to have paid my respects, even if we couldn’t have a real conversation, but even that was not allowed. I did talk to his lawyer who stood by him forever. I spent some time with some people who were brain damaged and talked to doctors, the kind of research you’d want to do for that role. I also hung out at the [Pittsburgh] bus station at 2 or 3 in the morning and the train station to expose myself a little bit to the kind of life he led.”
Mr. Morse still considers himself a football fan but admits appearing in “Concussion” has colored the way he looks at the NFL.
“I’m a fan of the Eagles and, after being so intimately involved with this character, I’m very interested in the Steelers. It’s a fascinating game, but I cannot watch it the same way knowing the toll it’s taking on people,” he said. “The game is gonna have to change. You can’t keep doing this to people. It won’t be immediate, but it’s gonna happen. There’s just too much we’re finding out about the damage it’s doing to people’s lives.
“Because it’s unpredictable who it takes a toll on,” Mr. Morse continued. “It’s sort of Russian Roulette, but there’s not just one bullet in the chamber. There’s a lot of bullets in the chamber.”
In addition to research, Mr. Morse spent hours in the makeup chair so he could be made up to resemble Webster in his post-NFL period.
“I was impressed [director] Pete [Landesman] wanted to go that far with it,” Mr. Morse said. “So much scar tissue built up in his forehead that it was important to have that symbol of the damage to his brain and also how broken and twisted his hands were.”
He’d report to the studio at 3 a.m. to go through 3½ hours of makeup so he’d be ready to film at 7 a.m. And then he’d spend an hour at the end of his shooting day having the makeup and wig removed.
“It was important for that character,” Mr. Morse said. “We needed to get a real good image of the toll this game had taken on him.”
For “Outsiders,” Mr. Morse is made up in long hair and a beard to play the villainous Big Foster, son of the leader of the Farrell clan that resides on an Eastern Kentucky mountaintop.
“I’ve done a lot of police and military but never anything like this,” Mr. Morse said. “And the world is so colorful and unusual. It’s these people living up in the mountains, off the grid forever, riding around on these ATVs with their own kind of culture. It seemed like a fun thing to do and explore.”
TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook.
First Published: December 24, 2015, 5:00 a.m.