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New Englander Charlie Day on Rhode Island love and how Merrimack College ‘changed the course of my life’
Day poured whiskey at some half-dozen Boston bars and pitched at Fenway Park in a whirlwind home visit.
The Nightman Cameth.
For 20 years now — 17 seasons on FX’s cult-classic dark comedy, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — he’s played Charlie Kelly: Philly’s illiterate, Pepe Silvia-hunting, waitress-pining, musical-writing, long-john-wearing king of rats who does the Charlie Work at Paddy’s Pub.
In real life, Rhode Island’s Charlie Day is a Rhody beach-loving, baseball-playing Pats fan who graduated from Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in ’94, credits Merrimack College for changing his life — no, he didn’t study bird law — and loves coming home to New England.
You may have seen the affable actor — or taken a pic with him and/or tried his whiskey— while he was here on a whirlwind tour this past weekend, wearing a Sox cap and pouring his Four Walls Whiskey from Sept. 25-27.
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Day hit up 10 bars and restaurants: The Rooftop at the Envoy, Coquette, Lucky’s Lounge, Biddy Early’s, Willow & Ivy at the Lenox Hotel, Cheers, Back Bay Social, Flight Club Boston, Lansdowne Pub and The 88 Club. [Check back soon for full coverage and videos of Charlie’s visit! — Eds]
He also signed bottles in Dorchester at the Total Wine at South Bay Center. Then, the former baseball player threw out the first pitch at Fenway at the Sox game Sept. 27
“Being back in the city is great. It’s like putting on an old glove that just fits right,” Day tells me. “I love New England. You talk to someone from New England, and you both just get it — there’s a commonality there. So it’s nice to be back home.”
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It’s not just lip-service.
When I tell Day I grew up in Rhode Island, he audibly perks up.
“Are you really? Where are you from?”
Little Compton.
“Ohhhhh get out of town! Did you go to Middletown High?!” the Middletown native asks me.
Little Compton is tiny, high-school-less town — after eighth grade, kids in my generation, at least, were bussed over to Middletown High.
I tell Day I didn’t because the bus came at 5:30. I literally chose somewhere closer. This gets Day going on Rhode Island geography.
“See, it’s kind of weird that they bussed [Little Compton kids] all the way to Middletown, up and over [the river]. If anything, there should’ve been a boat. I sometimes fantasize about owning a house in Little Compton, but then I’m like: It’s gonna be so hard to go over to Middletown and see my friends.”
Day, who is calling me from the car after his publicity event at Cheers, can complain about New England driving with the best of us. In fact, after this, Day pauses as cars beep. “Sorry — a truck almost hit another truck.”
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(Welcome back to Boston, baby.)
He may live in the always sunny California, and pretend to live in the always sunny Philadelphia — but he’s an eight-seasons-a-day New Englander through and through.
“I feel like the sun is trying to kill me in California,” he tells me with a laugh. “I fit right in here.”
I called Day, 49, before he heads back to California and the “Always Sunny” writers room for the upcoming season 18.
In a wide-ranging interview, we talked about his Rhody roots, how Merrimack College and Western Mass. changed his life, “Sunny” past and future, his job polishing photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger at a New England gym, and more.
Boston.com: We were talking high schools. You went to Portsmouth Abbey ‘94. Your mom taught in Portsmouth and Middletown. Your dad taught at Salve Regina in Newport. Do you still have family in New England?
Charlie Day: I do! I get back at a minimum twice a year. My parents are still in Middletown. And all my childhood friends, too — I’d say 90 percent of them stayed because it’s a great place to live. So I get back and I see them. Sometimes they come out and see me in California.
Any spots you like to hit up when you’re back?
For sure. I like Second Beach in Middletown, or even an afternoon walk on Third Beach. Those are the prime spots. My kid likes the arcade, so we go to the arcade in Newport every year, go down to Lobster Company, grab lunch there. And I got a couple buddies that work at Castle Hill, so we’ll have a fancy dinner at Castle Hill. I love it.
So you were born in New York. You came to Middletown when you were 2, and grew up here. Then you went to Merrimack College ’98.
Yeah, I went up the road to North Andover.
Their site says you were one of the “first students to major in fine arts,” and played shortstop. Did you always want to be an actor or comedian? What were you looking to study there?
Well, I was just hoping to make the baseball team. I think reality sunk in there. [laughs] There was one theater professor, Robert Heinlein, who has since passed away — no relation to the science fiction writer. He encouraged me to look into the Williamstown Theatre Festival, out in Western Massachusetts. That was the summer after my junior year, I went out and interned there and it pretty much changed the course of my life. So I attribute that to Merrimack College, for sure.
How did Merrimack change you? What did you want to be before that?
I just didn’t think acting was a real profession or pursuit. Growing up in Middletown, I didn’t know any actors. I didn’t know anyone whose uncle was an actor. That seemed pretty far away. An actor was Tom Cruise. [laughs]
Right.
That seemed unattainable. But going out to Williamstown, maybe you’re lucky enough to get a few lines in a play. There were some big names and celebrities that came through, but also a lot of working actors, guys like Bruce MacVittie —who’s from Providence, who’s also since passed away. Seeing Bruce, talking with him, and realizing, “Oh, you can have an acting career without having to reach the top of the mountain.” It just seemed more attainable. That’s what changed. Suddenly it seemed possible.
Were you always the funny kid?
I find everyone [in New England] is funny. Everybody I knew had a great sense of humor — my dad, my grandma, all my buddies were funny. I was always making jokes, but I didn’t think I was any funnier than the next guy.
When did you feel like you got your big break?
Probably up at Williamstown. I graduated Merrimack and moved to New York, sort of bopping around, trying to get cast in anything, but I didn’t have an agent. Then I was up at Williamstown for my third summer and got noticed in a play, and that felt like a big break. But if we’re serious about the term big break, it certainly was when Rob [Mac] and Glenn [Howerton] and I decided to make “Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” There’s no doubt that changed the course of everything.
And how did you meet them?
We were all actors in New York, I’d see them around at various meetings with the other young actors reading for one thing or another. But Rob and I officially met on a flight to California. We were both being flown out to test for a television show about college kids — I think we were reading for the same role. And while we were out there they canceled the pilot.
[laughs] Classic.
[laughs] So we bonded over that. Then I feel like Glenn and I met at an audition for the movie “Tuck Everlasting.” [2002] We just took a liking to each other, shared similar sense of humor, and started hanging out.
What sparked the creation of “Always Sunny”?
I remember having coffee with Rob and commiserating that we thought we were auditioning for things that weren’t funny; feeling like there was a lot of material that just felt sanitized, playing by the typical TV rules. The big shows, “Frasier” and “Friends.” And while they were funny, we didn’t really feel like they were particularly honest to the world that we felt like we were living in.
Right.
Then I’d been away. A couple weeks later, I came back, and Rob and Glenn had been writing something. They brought it to me, it was a scene of Glenn coming over to my house to ask for sugar and I tell him I have cancer.
[laughs]
[laughs] He has to console me, but he still wants the sugar and has to figure out how to ask for it. We filmed that scene a few times until we found what we thought was a unique voice and then expanded that into more of a full episode. Then we developed and worked on it for maybe the whole year until we found something we felt we could take around town and pitch.
It premiered in 2005. Can you believe how it took off and found a cult following?
No. I can’t believe it. It’s been 20 years! [laughs] I had no idea. What really surprises me is how much it still resonates with a young audience. I meet teenagers who just started watching it. It’s one of those pinch-me moments — I’m surprised it’s worked so well, but I’m happy it has.
What episodes stand out to you as favorites?
Oh my gosh. There’s too many. I know there’s fan favorites — everyone likes “The Nightman Cometh.” Getting to do that live was a really great experience as well. And obviously, there’s “Charlie Work” which we did in a single shot — that was a lot of fun. But, I have entire seasons that are favorites — Season 5, Season 7, Season 17.
You mentioned “Nightman,” which is one of my favorites. What’s the origin story behind that? Did you come up with the songs first?
We came up with a story first. We spent a while, actually, trying to break that story, trying to decide, did it need another plot? You know, they’re doing this musical while they’re trying to, I don’t know, break into a rival pub across the street? We eventually decided to use that joke of “who are we doing it versus?” [laughs] The characters couldn’t understand that we’re doing it just to do it.
But it started just like any other episode, just a story we thought was going to be funny. Then we sat down and started writing the songs.
It must’ve been awesome getting Danny DeVito for season 2.
Oh, total game changer. In fact, it was intimidating to a degree because we were this tiny, little homegrown show — then bringing on a guy who’s just a legend of the business. Was it going to be too top-heavy? Was it going to upset the comedic ecosystem, so to speak? But, obviously, it worked out great. [laughs]
What’s he like working with?
He’s a great collaborator and mentor. He’s game for anything and sort of immediately put his trust in us, which was amazing. I think about that even now — here’s a bunch of untested, unproven young people, and just watching one season and saying, “OK, I’ll take that risk.” He did that at a time where movie stars weren’t appearing on television. To his credit, he’s always had a keen eye for the next thing. It was really brave of him to say yes.
You’ve coming up on 18 seasons now. How long do you think you’ll go?
I think either this next season — season 18— will be the last, or maybe we’ll try to make it to Season 20. But we were having a conversation about it the other night, and a lot of it depends on FX’s appetite to keep making it. But the good thing is Rob and I and Glenn still love it. We’re still proud of it. We don’t want it to just go away. But at the same time, if they told us, “Season 18 is going to be your last,” then that’s what it would be, and we would try to make it as good as we could. But we’ll see.
How did the “Abbott Elementary” crossover come about?
I think Rob and [“Abbott” creator] Quinta [Brunson] had met somewhere, and she was a big fan of the show, and they were discussing it. Rob came in the room and said, “Hey, do you want to do this crossover thing?” I was a bit hesitant since the shows, tonally, are so different, but ultimately Rob has a good sense of what will get talked about in the press, and I think that was a bit of a motivating factor. And, our show needs that balance between the smaller episodes and the higher-concept ones. And once we started working with them, it was a pretty easy collaboration.
You mentioned Rob and Glenn — how did Kaitlin Olson [Sweet Dee] fit in?
Kaitlin auditioned for the pilot. We were meeting a lot of talented people, but it was pretty obvious when she read that she was going to be a good fit — someone who could go tit-for-tat with these crazy characters. It’s been a delight working with her ever since.
How does the “Sunny” writing process work?
We usually show up and go into an office building and spend a few weeks just jotting down general ideas — I might say, hey, would it be funny if they used an ambulance to do Postmates [deliveries]? So we’ll put a little note card on the board: “ambulance Postmates.” Then Rob might say, “I’d like to a ‘Golden Bachelor’ crossover.” And we’ll put “Golden Bachelor” or “Dog Track” — we’ll just keep throwing up note cards until we get excited about a few, and then sort of pick them off one by one.
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We’ll split the room into two different rooms and just start chipping away at them until we get them all done — which usually we don’t until the last few days, and we’re cramming on the weekends. [laughs]
[laughs] That’s always how it goes. So tell me a little bit about your drink and what you were doing today in Boston with Four Walls?
So, throughout the years, people have come to us with liquor brands and beers and tequilas, and we never really thought anything felt right. But Glenn has become a real whiskey connoisseur and thought that he could actually make a really interesting whiskey. We got approached with an idea for this American-Irish blend, which we thought feels like the bar and feels like the characters, and feels like us. We also feel like there’s a lot of people who identify with that Irish-American blend.
Especially in the Boston area.
Especially Boston. And Rhode Island. And New England in general. And Philly as well. And the Midwest. And out West. Let me tell you, those lrish got around.
[laughs]
[laughs] But we had bartenders help develop the actual whiskey, and found one we liked. It’s been fairly easy and fun to do exactly what I’m doing now: Go back home and meet people, meet people who work in the bar industry. It’s been great.
You’ve been pouring shots all over Boston. Were you ever a bartender?
No one ever trusted me. I definitely did some bar-backing, though. I’ve hosed my fair share of mats.
Around here?
No, in New York. In Rhode Island, I was a janitor. [laugh]
Wait, really? [His character was a school janitor on “Sunny.”]
Oh, yeah. I was a janitor at Waterfront Fitness, a gym in Newport. I used to have to polish their pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger because he worked out there when he was doing the movie “True Lies.”
[laughs] Amazing.
But most of the restaurant jobs were in New York. I was terrible. I got let go from almost every job I ever had. I worked one day at Via Via Pizza in Newport. Then they let me go.
Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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