Richard Jenkins on Hollywood, the Oscars, and life in Rhode Island

By Alana Cerrone

acerrone@abc6.com

@Alana_Cerrone

NEW YORK, N.Y. (WLNE) – Of all the places Richard Jenkins could’ve lived when he moved to Rhode Island, he happened to settle down in the same Cumberland neighborhood as Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the screen writers/directors he ended up doing several movies with.

Now, he’s the actor you probably recognize from one of his many films, like ‘Me, Myself & Irene’ or ‘Step Brothers’.

Or maybe, you’ve bumped into him at Longo’s in Westerly.

"He has this pizza oven he brought in from Naples, and this thin crust pizza, it’s fantastic!"

In 2009 Richard Jenkins was nominated in the ‘Best Actor’ category for ‘The Visitor’. This year he’s nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in
‘The Shape of Water’.

But before he was a regular on the big screen, he was an apprentice at Trinity Rep in the 70’s.

"It’s where my career as an actor began. I was there for 14 years…my first line was ‘There’s enough gunpowder in here to blow up the whole neighborhood.’ That was my only line in the play."

Nearly 70 awards and nominations later, Jenkins says he owes it all to Trinity Rep.

"A career is something you look back on, and I’m at a time in my life when I start to look back on it, and if I hadn’t gone to that theater I don’t know what would have happened to me."

Despite his success in Hollywood, he and his wife still call Rhode Island and Trinity Rep home.

"We co-direct and she choreographs. We’ve done two musicals together we did ‘Oliver!’ and we did ‘Oklahoma!’. It’s a tough old bird, Trinity Rep. It’s still…it’s my home."

Jenkins hasn’t been at his actual home on the East Side of Providence in a while – he’s been traveling, filming a TV series in Berlin, and gearing up for the Oscars.

‘The Shape of Water’ is nominated for 13 awards. He says it’s incredible to be part of something like this.

"It’s so hard to make a movie. Let alone make a good one. Let alone make a great one. It’s almost impossible."

He’s certainly come a long way from the apprentice at Trinity Rep to being recognized as one of Hollywood’s elite actors at its Holy Grail event!

© WLNE-TV 2018