Last year, Carter Hudson played a young man participating in a pharmaceutical trial for an antidepressant in Lucy Prebble's play "The Effect."
Come July, he'll find himself in the middle of a different kind of drug narrative.
Hudson, whose career has largely played out on the New York stage, makes his major TV debut playing Teddy McDonald, a CIA officer-turned-undercover drug dealer in the FX drama "Snowfall." We recently caught up with Hudson to talk about going undercover.
Q: This is your breakout role on TV. What are you feeling ahead of the premiere?
A: It feels like this far-away thing. Onstage, there's this weird feeling you get right before audiences are coming, which is sort of terrifying and exhilarating.
Q: How would you describe Teddy?
A: He gets himself in way over his head dealing with some pretty scary individuals. The fun thing is to watch him paddle as fast as he can to keep his head above water.
Q: On top of that, Teddy speaks fluent Spanish. But you do not. What was that learning curve like?
A: I hadn't been warned about any of that. I panicked. I was calling friends in Los Angeles, and was like, "Can you help me? I have to start now because I'll never get it if I don't." All my friends are like, "I speak Spain Spanish or Mexican Spanish. I don't know what kind of Spanish your character is speaking." So, finally, I went to (creator) John (Singleton) and I was like, "I'm freaking out." He got this guy named Aaron who does linguistics at UCLA ... . I started having these sessions with Aaron, just drilling it and drilling it.
Q: I didn't even know some of the places cocaine could be administered _
A: Right? My mom is very excited about the show and said she was thinking abut throwing a party. My parents live in Texas. She wants to have some friends over. I hung up and was like, "Wait a minute. I should definitely warn her that there are some things that her friends in Dallas might find questionable."
