"Have we met before?" He's a member of the Life and Death Brigade. He's one of Logan Huntzberger's BFF's.
Tanc Sade is Finn and he is here!
I Am all In, I Kiss You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Everybody Scott Patterson I Am all In Podcast one eleven Productions iHeartRadio one on one interview with none other than Tank Sade. He was born in Sydney, Australia, named a young emerging Colony, worked in the theater before moving to Los Angeles in two thousand and four, and he rose to prominence on the show as Finn in The Death Brigade. Sade rose to international attention playing the quirky role of Finn in the cult series Gilmore Girls. Amy Sherman Palladino took a liking to Sade and created the role after he auditioned for the love interest of Logan Huntsberger. He starred in the series Roady's one hour drama written directed by Cameron Crohn, produced by JJ Abrams for Showtime, which lasted one season. He starred opposite Nicholas Cage in the movie Stolen, and has appeared on Sons of Anarchy, The Mentalist, Body of Proof nine O two one zero CSI Miami, CSI, New York. He wrote and directed Flowers and Weeds, starring Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Terrence Stamp and music from Academy Award winner Glenn Hansard. He first appeared as Tank Sod in episode three, season five, Written in the Stars. His last appearance season six, episode twenty two Partings. He was in fifteen episodes from two thousand and four to two thousand and six. He appeared in A Year in a Life in Fall. Shall we bring in? Mister Tank said, Tank, how are you? Thanks for joining us? Excited to have you. The fans are excited so appreciate your time. Good sceneing you. We never met I never met you on the set.
I don't think we ever did a scene together.
No, we never did a scene together. I never I don't know that I ever. Did I ever do a scene with Logan? I can't even remember. Well, anyway, how did you get your career started? How did it all begin?
I started in Australia. I worked in the theater for a few years and there was very limited opportunities there for like film and TV at the time, so I thought it was time to make the jump. I moved to La just kind of want to win. Didn't have didn't have much money to know a visa. So yeah, I just came out here. I was crashing on couches and I got an agent, and that agent going this audition for sure. I called Gilmore Girls, which at the time I never heard of, and they said to me, look, we want to give you this audition just to let you know. I've already pretty much cast the guy, but they want to see some other guy, so we're just going to send you, but just let him be known they've got. So I'm like, all right, great, So go in there and I meet the casting directors and there wonderful and I meet Amy and the role was for Logan and at the time, Matt Zuker was already in the room, and he was in the room for probably about forty five minutes.
After take take that's a that's a bad feeling when you're sitting waiting to go. That is not a good feeling.
I've been there before, but I already knew that that they had the guy, So for me, it was just kind of like a ghost sing, you know, back in the day, that's the way I was going to make the casting director.
So I went in there. You know, I was in the ninety seconds tops, and I swalked out the door. And then Amy called up my agent and they said, you know, we want to write a role for him. He's going to be Logan's friend. And and it was supposed to be I think one episode, one or two episodes, and then it just kind of just kind of grew from that.
Was Amy in the room. Do you remember Amy? Do you remember who was in the room. Jamie and Mara casting directors, right.
Yeah, and yeah Amy was in the room.
Yeah, yeah, those rooms. Man, you just can't tell sometimes, you know, you think you're tanked and then you got the job, no pun intended, or you think you did great, and you're just like, yeah, no, they don't remember you.
You know, I have no idea. I was so Australian, you know. I mean not that I'm less Australian, but I just didn't understand how it worked in America. I mean I walked in barefoot, like, because you know, I come out of the theater. I was like, until I've got the roll, I don't wear shoes, and I was what I had. I had flip blocks on and I walked in. I just kicked my flip flops off started doing the audition and Jane to this daye she was like, I'll never forget that kid walked in the room with nice shoes.
There you go, that's it, you know, that's the moment they knew, right, So it was originally written for Logan. So tell us what happened after the audition.
I went home. My agent called me up a few days later. They said they want you to do this show. I'm like, great, let's do it. But they want you to be Australian and I said no, and they said what do you mean now? I was like, like, I just got here. I don't want to be known playing Australian character. I just want to just you know, come in under the the American like everyone else. And they went back and they said he doesn't want to do it because he wants to be American. And they said, no, we want him Australian. And then they I went back and forth. My agent just went, you're an idiot, not in the Union, you don't have a visa, may just take it. I was like, and uh, there's you know, the best decision, right.
And it's just for the one episode, but you ended up doing gosh, let me look, I knew how many episodes you did? Fifteen episodes.
Well, we were supposed to do the seventh season as well. We were written into Oh really yeah, yeah, we were all in the seven Yeah, because I already knew. Oh, I was in the first three episodes of season seven, and then Amy parted ways, right, I did rewrise and.
I took us out. That's all right, that's what was missing, man. You kick it off with the Light and Death Brigade and you got something there, man. That was Those were the those episodes were just they sparkled. They were so much fun.
It was you know, it was fun.
Tell us about it. Tell us about shooting that stuff and being on location and outside and jumping off that platform and all that. Tell us about that.
You know, I didn't know any better. You know, I'd come out of very very small budget. You know, a high budget film in Australia was two million dollars and it sulted if you were an actor in Australia. It's because you want it to be, you know, because you weren't. You weren't making any money. You know, you tread the boards. You're lucky to scrape by a couple hundred bucks a week. You know, our furniture was milk rates, and you know, it was just everything was so small, and and coming out to America and then going to Warner Brothers, and I remember one of the first scenes I had was in exterior at Yale. So I kept thinking, well, God, we're in la where are they going to shoot this, Where are they going to find that kind of you know, sandstone kind of building. And we go in and they just built it on bloody set like this is America, you know this. It was insane. It was just you just you don't know until you know it, you know it. And the first director I had was Kenny or Taga.
Oh wow, that's good, look good, good fortune right there?
Yeah, Kenny. I mean, you know Kenny. Kenny comes from this big musical background, you know, and you know, with Michael Jackson did all these these musical films and dancing films and whatnot. And and so the note I was given was before I had started, was we want to give the show a little bit of a little bit of spunk, a little bit of spark, like a little bit of grit, Like we wanted to bring something a little different. And so I was like, all right, you know. So I painted my nails and I was just trying to just be loose and free, and Penny kept saying bigger, you know, just go with it. Because I said big he told me to rein it in wherever you want. He was just just go go for it, all right, this is the director. Do what he tells me. They're like, yeah, it's like Fear and Loathing Las Vegas, and I haven't seen the show, right, I'm just doing it and uh and then like a week later, my agent calls and says, you know, the studio, the studio just called us and name just wanting to rain it in. I'm going to get fired man. Oh so yeah. I was like, you know, I was devastating such an I was like, well, I just deal with The director told me said, yeah, nah, don't do that. So I was like all right, but we kind of just had fun. We could do it. Amy just let us run a mark, anything we could add. She let us do it, like any kind of physical stuff. She let us do it.
So Kenny didn't even direct you to do like, well we got the big takes, let's do sort of one with a little less. No, it was all just go go go right the other way. Oh man, Well it all worked out like fifteen episodes. Pretty good, you know, coming from a small role like that and you made it your own and you made it bigger, and good on you for that. So you'd been you'd been mostly in the theater before. Did you find that it was a hard transition coming into you know, had you been in front of a camera before, a movie camera before?
I had limited I had, so I kind of got the nuances of it. But the style of film and TV in Australia is very very different to America. And I don't want to say very very different to America, what I will say is very very different to Gilmore Girls. You know, as you know, Gilmore Girls was about you know, getting the lines word perfect and being you know, on the money, on the mark, and it was just there was a rhythm to it. Whereas in Oz the performance was less about you know, here's the close up on you, here's a close up on me. It was more about what was happening in between. They really wanted authenticity. They wanted that organic kind of performance, and there was a rawness to it and it meant that, you know, if if there was a little ad lb or if you armed an ard or stepped on each other's lines, that's what they wanted. So then that was gold. So it took me a little while to adjust when I came here with that stuff, you know, Like I remember saying something like, you know, I'm going to the park and on the set they came up to me and said, no, I am you know like that sort of stuff. In the first couple episodes, I'm good. I got that a lot, and so that was an adjustment for me. Yeah, it took me a second to figure that all out. And also I think it took them a second to figure out writing for Finn because I don't think they'd ever heard an Australian before, so he was kind of his manner was and his dialogue was more British, and it was and it was oddly because as as it progressed, I would find things that I was saying to the crew all of a sudden appearing in the script, like certain little words that I'm you know, like they were picking up on the vernacular. And then apparently America had at this scene with my accent, they couldn't understand me. So I was doing a lot of ad r in the beginning, and then people were complaining that I had the worst Australian accent ever.
You got me and you're just getting re reamed from the you can't win.
But you know, we figured it and it's kind of like a happy meeting. But it took a couple of episodes, I think in the beginning.
So what did you like about playing Fan? What did you really thrive on?
You know, he was he was kind of like lovable song, you know, and they have such fun characters to play because there's that there's that depth. You know, most a lot of the times, as you know, you you read a character on the page and he's the good guy or he's the bad guy. But when you have a guy that kind of sort of does douchey things but has a good heart, there's some sort of complexity to that. There's there's a contrast. And it was just fun. It was play. It was always play, and I got away with murder and I think it was just because I was Australian and I didn't know any better. I mean, there was there was this thing on on set always like somebody yell out why does he do it? And the crew would go because he's Australian. I just go, I'm sorry, you know, you know, and you couldn't get away with half the stuff we did on set back then. But yeah, it was it was good. I mean, the nights were long, as you know, they liked they like to do another.
Take, thirty more, forty more.
Sure, Yeah, I'm sure you got a lot more of it. Yeah. When we did the reunion, we're doing night shoots for the dream sequence and we're in the middle of it and uh and Amy goes one more and I'm like, I'm like fifty feet away. I'm like amen, and she's like yeah, and I go, We'll do as many as you want, but we all know you don't want one more, you know, And of course you did twenty more takes. Yeah, God love. I mean, I owed my career to that woman. She wrote a role for me and she never gave me a single note, not one.
Yeah, you know, you're you're right about that. All the main cast does too, especially because they this studio wanted names, they didn't want unknowns. And that was right about two thousands of a time that film actress were crossing over into TV. It wasn't so for voting anymore. And and there was a lot of competition. I mean, it's just like you couldn't get a TV roll. It was like, Oh, Benjamin Bratt's gonna do it, and this guy's going to do it, and this film guy's going to do it. It's like, okay, So she fought for every single one of us. So yeah, we owere our careers as well. I mean, I know I feel you on that one, bud uh So you jump I jump jack big episode you got introduced life and Death Brigade. What do you remember about filming that? Where did you film it? What do you remember about filming it?
We filmed it somewhere in the valley. You're gonna know this. I don't remember it because I just moved to La then and I've actually been around there. I want to say it's somewhere around there's a lot somewhere around Agra Hills, Calabasas, somewhere out there apparently Pleasantville out there or something. I'm sure you've shot there.
Oh yeah, there's there is. There is a movie ranch out there somewhere.
Near Malibu Lake at this property there. The one thing I do remember is we we had a lot to shoot that day and we weren't going to get it in the can. We're running out a lot and we had the skirmish sequence, which involved couple of us shooting with paintball guns, these guys flying through the air.
Funniest stuff. I mean, that was one of the funnier things I've seen on that show.
Yeah, it was fun. And I believe the cinematographer said, we don't have any time to shoot this. We're going to shoot it. And the cinematographer said, to the best of my knowledge, or we can't, and I think Amy said, well we are, so you can go home. And we shot the entire sequence in a oneer.
Oh my, A wanner for the audience is there are no cuts. It's like you're getting everything in one shot, which is impossible to do. Everything has to come together to accomplish that. Very courageous.
Anyway, go ahead, And I you know, we were told we had like fifteen minutes worth of life. So the way it was the scene is basically and I'm going to I'm going to tell you the scene from my perspective because frankly, that's all I know is, you know, I think Logan and Rory walk over. I have a skirmish gun. I shoot some guy that's flying through the air. I have one or two lines of dialogue with Logan and Rory, and then I say something to effective. I want to have a turn, as in being shot out of the cannon. So then I run off camera. I rip my jacket off, I take my shirt off, I put another shirt on with squibs, and then they throw me onto a gurney and then they run me straight back through the scene. So I do it like a costume change while they're shooting their dialogue, and we come back through, and then they just went, yep, yeap, grab some cutaways here, great, let's roll, and we a scene with people flying through the air, props skirmish guns. Nick had to hit him like Nick was the guy shooting the gun and he had to hit the flying bodies. If he didn't, we didn't have it. And then dialogue for four characters in fifteen minutes flight.
Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish on a film set when you have to, You have to right, everybody figures it out. Suddenly there's no time, let's get it done. I think that's what I think some of the really great indie directors do that on their films. It's like you listen, guys, you have one take. We're going to do it in a wan er. We got to move on, let's go, and then then the performances are just brilliant.
Right Clint, someone done m Clint Eastwood only does one tape.
That's what I right, I was. I was thinking of him, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But also like you know, if you if you're on a if you're in a film and you know you got twenty days shoot or whatever, or you've got three months shoot, you're still getting the movie in the camp one way or another.
Yeah, you got to do it all right. Here Sarah from des Moines, Iowa wants to know what your favorite line was that you had to deliver it as a finn.
Oh wow, oh buttercup.
And in what kind of explain the context?
There's a scene where Rory is coming to the hospital and Logan's in the hospital bed and I have a scene with Allen who played Colin. But it took me probably I think in the two years on Gilmore Girls, I was happy with three scenes maybe two and one was with Ed and one was with Allen and that was it. And we have this chunk of dialogue and Rory's in and she's all mad at us, and I can't remember the lines exactly, but there was a bit, but we were we were on, you know, you know, there's that magic in the bottle and sometimes you're on and be a long while to figure it out. But that scene, yeah, I mean, all the classic lines that people quote from Finn Why you don't know at the time, right, You're just you're just doing your dialogue and then and then they come out and then all of a sudden, they're like there. You know, they're still quoted fifteen years later.
They're on T shirts and they're on coffee cups and yeah. Right, so you worked you worked with Matt on The Resident. What was it like working with him again?
Great? Yeah, great? He is Matt is the consummate professional. He's the hardest worker I've ever met. I like to think I'm a very hard worker. I take my job very seriously. I like to do a lot of research, and I just feel lazy when I'm around that. He's just so on point. He does so much homework and he just bangs it out, you know, he just drills, drills it, and I I'm still a part of me just has a bit of fun. You know, Math's consummate professional. I have a lot of time for him. He's he's he's been a good.
Friend, you know, brilliant, brilliant gay.
He's done so much work that you can't help. But you know, there have been times when you know, I'll be on set with him and I'll say, hey, you know, what to a take on this? Or what do you think about this? Or you know, and that was all that on the resident. So he's shot. You know, I was coming on just doing a guesting right.
Yeah, we we love him over here. We've had him on a couple of times and he's just the top guy. Gosh, top guy and great performances, logan, just fantastic perform I think that gets lost in all of the you know, the fan reaction to you know, where he comes from. He's a guy of privilege. He's breaking Rory's heart, he's manipulating her all of the stuff. And what I'm trying to focus on is like this guy's performance is epic. I mean, just the work. Look at the work, look at how everything just trips off his tongue and it's just like the timing of it is so perfect. You guys were all great together. Man, that was those those were the most fun scenes to watch so far. I mean, among the most fun. Uh. And so is there. Keep in touch with everybody and the and the brigade.
Alan Matt every now and again we'll send each other a text. But one thing I think part of that fun is, you know, we were blessed. We I think we kind of got given certain liberties that that you guys didn't, you know, because you guys were driving, you know. But when we met, it was very clear, at least clear to me, that we had to develop this camaraderie and we had to be very very close. So we hung out all the time in the beginning, like outside of it, you know, after that first day of shooting, we had pokon ice, the boys had cigar and nights. I was there, but I just don't smoke. We'd hang out anytime we were on set. We all hung out one trailer. It was you know, you know a site you go to set and you just go to do your own thing. That we'd all get one trailer. We're bringing some guitars. We'd start jamming or whatever. He wanted to get that kind of of kingship really quickly. And I think you see it. I think you see it on camera.
Yeah, it's it definitely translates it. It really really helps. Let's talk about Yellowstone. So you're in we're starring on the spin off nineteen twenty three.
Yes, yes, so we wrapped that. I want to say January February.
Okay, that's season one.
Season one. They picked up a season two. Good at least that's what I heard when they wrapped in January. But that was mate. I have never I don't. I'm sure you have. I've never been to Montowner guy and boy, are they right that is the most magical place on the planet something. Yeah, I spent I spent a bit of time up there, and you know, I had to learn how to write a That's always the way I like. Can you ride a horse? Yeah?
Absolutely, yeah, grow up riding horse. Yeah.
They have cowboy camp. They call it cowboy Camp and they send it up and you just go on a ranch and you ride a horse for five six hours a day and you get your own instructor and they just you know, run you through the drills and I mean it's it's hard work, but it's great work. You know, when I was looking into horse essons out here and I speak to people and they go, yeah, we we typically do thirty to sixty minute lessons. I go, is that it and they go yeah, because there's quite a big cognitive load and you'll get tired, you'll be fatigued, and you know it's better that way to keep them sure. You know, Rock up to Montown it's like.
All day, yeah, end of it.
And they had to ride a horse.
So when's that gonna, when's that gonna, where's it going to? Uh extreme? And when's it coming out?
The streams? On Paramount Class it's out now. It seems to have gone some great reviews. I think they're in some you know, talks about Emmys and whatnot, and you know they're in consideration all that sort of stuff. But you know, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirror images, right, you.
Know, they're insane, absolutely amazing. Did you get to meet Taylor Sheridan? Was was he on set? Did he film some stuff with you guys because he likes to be in his own productions.
Yeah, it wasn't in my episodes, and I know I'm not sure where he was, but I know he has like nine shows in production.
Yeah, yeah, that we know of, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And twenty three was being shot in South Africa, Montana, Gibraltar, I think, yeah, and Walter at the same time, so I'm sure he was in one of the contents.
Unbelievable the guy. The guy is a marvel. I mean, he's just it's just I don't know how he does it, but he does it. So now we're going to jump into a segment of this episode called rapid Fire. I'm going to ask you some really silly, superfluous questions about the show, and you're going to answer them to the best of your ability. Good luck. How do you like your coffee?
I don't drink coffee.
Have you binged the entire Gilmore Girls series.
I've only seen one episode and it was with my wife and it was about six weeks ago. It was the first time I've ever seen an episode. What do you think I should really enjoyed it?
That's good? Are your team Logan, Team Jess or Team Dean? Do you know what that is?
Yes? Ok, same life.
There you go. And which Gilmore Girl's character would you not want to go on a road trip? With oh h Rory's mother Emily, right, gotcha, that's all.
The character character? Oh yeah, Emily.
You'd stay in good hotels though, don't you think that would be true?
Yeah?
Great service?
The size thing is a free lunch.
What would you order at Luke's diner? There you go, Harvard or Yale?
Oh my, Yael.
Luke's nickname in high school was Butch. What's your nickname? Who? From Gilmore? Would you not want to be stuck on a desert island with? Basically the same question, road trip or a desert island? Now we're on a desert island with somebody? Who? Do you not want to be on a desert island with? Ed?
What's it's character's name?
Richard?
Richard? Yeah, I don't think you'd be very useful on an island.
Right. There you go, boy, something in your life. You are all in on My wife, thanks said, pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for the time. You are one of the most asked about, in demand characters in this series. We are very grateful that you came on, and we hope you will consider coming on again because we are going to get into more episodes that you are in and we are enjoying them very much, so thank you so much for coming on.
Thanks Mine, I appreciate it.
Take care, Tank, thanks so much, Thank you very much, Buds, Hey, everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am All In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com