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Catch Creed Bratton doing whatever it is he does at City Winery
In advance of his Boston show, Creed Bratton talks cults, free love, “The Office” scene that made him cry, and his secret “between me and the evil lord.”
Selling Kelly a tapeworm (“That wasn’t a tapeworm.”) Understanding pirate code. (He can’t speak it.) Watching with glee as Dwight clung to a high-wire. (“Not bad for a day in the life of a dog food company.”)
I’ve always wondered just how much actual Creed Bratton was in Dunder-Mifflin’s Creed Bratton.
The answer, I found in our recent conversation, is maybe more than you’d think.
In our phone interview, “The Office” alum was a wild card. Makes himself laugh often. Sometimes talks about “Creed” in the third person. Answered at times so deadpan it took me a second to tell he was joking.
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In fact, I still can’t tell if he was kidding when I asked him about the cult-fanship of his “Office” character.
Someone sent him an article from Europe, he tells me. “In Norway, there’s a Creed cult. They have their own shrine with my face. They were sacrificing small animals in my name. So I had to have my lawyer call them up and say: He appreciates the gesture. He really does. But don’t do that. I had to put a stop to that. It’s flattering, but not for the animals.”
A joke? Who knows? He didn’t laugh, as he did with his other jokes here — but I can’t find the article online.
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Born William Charles Schneider (as in, “When Creed Bratton gets in trouble, he transfers his debt to William Charles Schneider”) the former musician for The Grass Roots is set to release his 10th album, he tells me.
But Creed’s gonna Creed: His website says: “This year Creed is slated to release his 7th full-length album.” There’s a video on the homepage called “Chan Chu Toad” with no context. It gives www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts vibes. (And yes, a fan turned that into a real site.)
You’ll be able to see the blurry line between Bratton and Bratton for yourself soon enough, as he brings his guitar and stories to City Winery Boston Jan. 17.
The 80-year-old talked to Boston.com recently about a sphincter-puckering “Office” moment, his Triple Black Ops work (he’s kidding) his work as a surgeon (kidding again) and his thoughts on an “Office” reboot. Buckle up for this ride.
Boston.com: So tell me a little bit about the show. It’s tagged as “comedy” on the City Winery website, but there’s no actual description.
Creed Bratton: I really never know what he’s gonna show up with. He’s an interesting guy. He inhabits me at times, you know, like any actor. But basically, I’ll come out and sing a couple of songs and then I’ll run off the stage and kind of peek out and watch the audience’s reaction. See how they respond to it. If they’re [cheering] “Come back out,” then I’ll come back out again and finish the show. But I have to make sure they encourage me.
[laughs] So is it more musical? Storytelling?
Well, I’m going to do a lot of songs from my new album, my 10th solo album,“Tao Pop.” Plus I have to do a couple of the songs that I sang on “The Office.”
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[The show is] basically half stories about my life. And it’s life advice. Hopefully, eventually I’ll maybe do an off-Broadway thing. That’s a work in progress, Lauren.
I won’t be playing with a band. I’ll just do the show with my acoustic guitar. It’s very brave. Very brave thing to do. [laughs]
Most people know you from “The Office.”
You know the character from “The Office,” Lauren.
Right.
No one really knows — I don’t even know myself. How can I even know what this guy’s about, really? Go ahead. [laughs]
So how did you come up with the character of Creed? You pitched the character yourself.
I did. I was on “The Bernie Mac Show.” [Director] Ken Kwapis was going to do “The Office” and I wanted to be part of it. So I spent about a week writing out these little vignettes. I saw what they were doing with the talking heads, so I got in front of the Venetian blinds with a tie and started just winging it. I ad-libbed a bunch of stuff, and had close to an hour’s worth. Without telling anybody, I completely eliminated the casting process. I did a Hail Mary. I took it straight to the show-runner, Greg Daniels. They came back a couple of days later and said: This is really funny.
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Then, season two — which we weren’t sure if we were coming back; we almost got canceled — that first week I got the Halloween episode with a six-and-a-half page scene with Steve Carrell. And my sphincter puckered up. I went Oh God, pressure!
[laughs] Right.
Because I’d seen Steve work and he’s the best. I had to play hardball. You have to rise up or you’re not going to make it. Next thing I know, I’m just going at it. [laughs]
That Halloween scene was the first real Creed scene. How did the character take off from there?
They responded very positively from that. If I hadn’t done well, the other character who was in the same situation I was in, Devon Abner, they would’ve given him a shot. But Devon told me — we’re still friends — he was going off to do a play, and he did.
But they said “Wow, he can really act.” So they gave me [the now-famous Creed lines] “is somebody making soup,” “Which one is Pam?,” the chairs — all these things started taking off. I found my niche. And I have a cult following now, Lauren.
It’s true, we were always left wanting more Creed. Do you have any favorite Creed moments?
So many. The Halloween episode resonates because it was so scary. I love the [birthday pie] scene John Krasinski and I did in “Survivor Man,” going back and forth.
Oh, I love that.
He suggested we shoot it like “Glengarry Glen Ross.” I thought it was a great idea. If you notice, it’s right up in our faces, in our eyes. Bam, bam, back and forth. We were laughing hard. I love that scene.
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Being the manager, of course. Bobody, that was fun. Then of course, singing “All The Faces.” It went viral after that finale. People still buy that song. You can’t see it but I’m knocking on wood right now.
What was it like singing that during the finale? It must’ve been heartbreaking.
Oh, everyone was crying. I had to try to keep from crying. I wrote it, but it was given to me — that’s how songwriters are. You’re sitting there and all of the sudden the song comes through you. You can’t really say I wrote it. I wrote it down.
Right.
I wasn’t sure until the table-read that [I’d be singing it]. Greg asked everybody what they thought their character should do. I said I think I should play this song. I never heard another word until the table-read a couple of weeks later. And on the script: Creed sings his song. Then I cried.
I bet.
Oh my God. I was like, “Oh my God, they’re gonna let me sing my song in the finale?” Huge. What a gift. Life-changer. I’m getting emotional right now thinking about it. The hair went up on back of my neck.
And the show is still popular.
No one can foresee the lightning-in-a-bottle of something like this. The legs. Older siblings are turning on the younger siblings now, and they still relate. With music, people can grow out of the old stuff. But if it’s good, I guess they don’t. I still listen to Miles Davis.
So how much of the character was based on real-life?
Well, there’s a lot of statute of limitation stuff I really can’t talk about. You do Triple Black Ops, you’re helping your government, you think; taking out some people. I don’t really want to talk about it too much. Really. Makes me uncomfortable.
[laughs]
[laughs] Yeah, I don’t know. Seemed like they were eavesdropping when I talked to the other cast members. Because there was something I thought I said in confidence to someone [and a couple of weeks later it was] in the script. So just to be very honest, a lot of the stuff they said is kind of maybe taken from real life. I don’t want to say it’s not because I’d be lying. Or Creed would be lying. [laughs]
[laughs] So do you have a favorite episode?
I liked “Casino Night.” They gave me a little schtick. It was more than I usually got to do, so that pleased me to no end. But I have no problem with the amount that they gave me, because people always say: They wish they’d give my character more. I don’t think I would be as popular if they had. The character’s got staying power. He’s a mystery. I’m not complaining.
So do you still hang out with the cast?
I hate those people.
[laughs]
[laughs] No, truly, I see Oscar about every six weeks or so; we get sushi. Angela’s my neighbor. I see a lot of this cast. The love is still there. Nine seasons is a long time. I miss doing it.
Would you do a reboot?
I would do it. But I don’t think anyone else is gonna do it. I’m a whore.
[laughs]
But these people have moralities! [laughs]
[laughs] So how did you get into acting?
I had a tough childhood, so I ended up stuttering a lot due to nervousness. They had to pull me out of school because I couldn’t get words out. A speech therapist said, “I want you to try to stutter.” Once I got control of the mechanism, it was gone.
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Then she said, get up every chance you can, and speak in front of people. Once I did an audition, and got up on stage, and found I was received well — that was it. I became a drama major. And that was always the plan. Music was something I did to make money. But my endgame was to become an actor.
What did you like about acting?
Well, you’ll hear this from a lot of actors, but especially actors with a tough childhood: You get to be something you’re not. You get to get away from all those demons you carry. It’s a therapy in a way.
Yeah.
I tell actors, don’t just look for your strengths. Find your weaknesses, too. Show the warts. Show the imperfections because it makes you more human. When I submitted that tape to Greg, there was some dark stuff in there.
Like what?
Ehh, that’s between me and the evil lord.
OK. [laughs]
[laughs]
So after school, what was your journey?
I went to college for four years. I played in a band on the weekends to make money. Did plays. Then I was off to Europe with a folk trio, The Young Californians, and we played all over Europe, North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, took a boat to Beirut, to Israel. Then I went to Greece, through what’s now Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, back to England.
While I was in Israel, I met this guy Warren Entner. He gave me his number. I put it in the bottom of my rucksack. A year-and-a-half later I was back in LA for the first time since I was born there. I was staying with a girl who became my wife. I was cleaning out my bag and this piece of paper [came] floating out — talk about serendipitous — this paper floats out, I grab it, and there’s Warren’s number.
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I went: Oh my God, that guy from Israel. I call him up, in one week we put a band together, and that was the core of The Grass Roots. That paper could have floated [away] but my eye caught it. I picked it up. I remember the moment. Something about it was significant. A little murmur saying: This is the direction.
Wow. And you guys took off.
We were a big band. We had a lot of top 10 hits. We traveled all over the place. Gold records. Kind of a big deal — rock and roll band, then “The Office,” then a lot of people don’t know I have my doctorate and I do surgery for people on the weekends over at UCLA, at the hospital there.
Wait, what?
What? No. That’s Creed talking. Sorry. Shut up! Ass—. Sorry, he slipped in there for a moment with his bull—t. Don’t pay any attention to him.
[laughs]
[laughs]
So the ’60s must’ve been crazy as a rock musician.
You had really truly had to be there. It was remarkable. Free love, marijuana.
You’ve said you did acid but never had a flashback.
I paid for the flashback. I’d like to have one. I deserve one. Give me a flashback, please.
Lauren Daley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @laurendaley1.
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