Q&A With Actor Carl Lumbly

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen
Photo credit Russell Baer

Carl Lumbly is an American actor best known for his roles as Marcus Petrie in “Cagney & Lacey” and Marcus Dixon in “Alias”. Starting out as a journalist, acting landed on him when he got an audition card by mistake while on assignment. In 2024 he attended the Caribbean Heritage Salute to Hollywood & Excellence gala in Los Angeles with Tyne Daly and her husband where he was honored with the Legend Award. He is currently working on a one-man play about his hero, James Baldwin and has been added to the cast of Mike Flanagan’s untitled new Exorcist movie.

KB: Did you always want to be an actor growing up?

No, Karen. When I was growing up I wanted to be many things. Actor was not one of them. For a long time, ages 10 to 17 or 18, I wanted to live in a library. I had learned to read pretty early, and I was a library nerd. I think I believed that, just as a priest lives in a rectory, a head librarian probably had an apartment on the premises. Ideally, a garret. I read everything, all the time. I loved all genres of literature, biographies, history, and science. In fact, at one point, I decided that ‘when I grew up’, I wanted to write and edit science textbooks. I was going to bring the passion and drama of the stories I found in science to classroom science texts. I guess it was always about the stories for me. And the stories of science, the scientific method, the scientists’ work and lives fascinated me.

It was the love of story, in fiction and non-fiction, that led me to journalism. The five W’s (and one H), Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, as the foundational questions for gathering information to get to the bottom of what actually happened in any given situation, seemed both vital and familiar. I’d been answering those questions all my life, as I waded through book after book, story after story. And I had to answer those questions every day of my life, in order to make sensible assessments and decisions centered around surviving and thriving, in order to write my own life. So, my first career choice became journalism. And journalism accidentally led me to acting.

KB: I read you were cast as an actor while on assignment as a journalist?

The short version of the story you read about is: I got an assignment from a local, downtown feature magazine in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I grew up. A popular comedic improvisation and political satire theatre was replacing their core cast of actors, five of whom had decided to take their talents to Hollywood. I arrived early on the first day of auditions, receiving what I thought was an audience survey card to help judge the actors. It turned out to be an audition card. I thought it would be novel to write the story from the perspective of someone who wanted to become a member of the acting company but didn’t make it.

I hoped it would make the story more personal. However, in the process of auditioning, I found the improvisation quite similar to writing, putting oneself into an imaginary scene or situation and thinking on your feet. It took place over a few weekends, and we were winnowed down to the final five, and I was among them! They asked me to become a company member. And I was hooked. From there, I ended up heading to San Francisco, became involved in scripted theatre productions, traveled to Los Angeles with a production, began doing theatre, got agents, didn’t love LA, got cast in a play in New York, loved New York and began to think of myself as a real actor doing theatre in New York City… and got cast in this TV movie that brought me reluctantly back to LA.

KB: Marcus Petrie in “Cagney & Lacey” was one of your first major roles. How did you landed the part and how did you get on with Martin Kove who played your partner Isbecki on the show?

I would say the part landed on me. Standard audition process in New York. A lot of actors were called in for the part. I think I did one audition and a callback or two. Then I got cast as Ronald Petrie. We shot it in Toronto. Television paid much better than theatre, and I remember being elated about the months of NY rent this gig represented. Then I learned that this TV movie gig, “Cagney & Lacey,” was actually a pilot for a series which would shoot back in LA. No problem, I thought. A lot of pilots got shot, but only a few got picked up. That was my experience. But this one got picked up for six episodes. No problem, I thought. Six episodes. Now we’re talking more than a year’s worth of NY rent! And I went to LA. We shot the six episodes. I returned to NY and plunged back into theatre. “Cagney & Lacey” aired, was taken off-air after three or four episodes. No problem, I thought. And I said goodbye to my character who had been renamed Marcus Petrie with fond memories. At that point, we had been through two different actresses as Christine Cagney, Loretta Swit, beloved from the hit series “M.A.S.H.” and a wonderful actress, Meg Foster, who replaced Loretta in the first six episodes.

So, I was minding my own New York state-of-mind, when I was told by my agents that, following some sort of letter-writing campaign, the show was coming back on with a new Cagney, Sharon Gless. I had no idea what was coming, but I stopped saying “no problem”. I got along well with Martin “Marty” Kove. I would say our approaches were different, but we enjoyed our partnership on the show. Martin, in my experience, was an extrovert who embraced the idea of stardom with all its trappings. He was a big personality, fun-loving, in the extreme, and wore his emotions on his cashmere sleeve. I was quite serious and quieter, oscillating between introvert and recluse. I never met a tweed jacket I didn’t like. I think Petrie and Isbecki mirrored our actual personalities quite well. Kudos to the producers and writers.

In the beginning, I loved playing Marcus Petrie because he represented the generation of men who embraced the feminist movement as a natural “next step” in the development of society. I was raised with three sisters and an amazing mother, and I witnessed the reality of the strength of women. Petrie listened and learned. He wasn’t an ally. He was engaged in the same battle, as a teammate. One woman’s liberation frees ten men. That was Marcus Petrie’s journey, and I was proud of him. And, most importantly, a beautiful and wonderful actress, Vonetta McGee, was cast as Petrie’s wife, and eventually consented to marry me. We were together for twenty-six years. Kudos to casting.

KB: Marcus Dixon on “Alias”: How did you get this part and what did you like about it?

Marcus Dixon in “Alias’ was the next step. He certainly was still a teammate, but he was battle-tested in a way that made him a mentor. Still learning, and willing and able to share and care. Once again, a pretty standard audition process. But I believe it was the second audition where I met J.J. Abrams, who was so refreshingly present, active and engaged and brilliant, I ached to work with him. I usually have a great deal of equanimity about being cast or not… that was out the window with this one. Dixon was a much more complex, confident and assured character. Solid and open. I still love him.

KB: You don’t shy away from difficult roles that are political and race related: Where does this come from? You played several in your career.

I have played a few difficult roles. Most of them were a joy to tackle. I was raised by Jamaican parents. Work is a privilege. I wanted to be versatile. That’s what I loved about theatre. It allows and often demands that one stretch for the truths of the character, even if they’re not your truths. It’s like writing an ethnography for every character, as they each represent a human being operating from a culture defined by the play, or the film, or the teleplay. And it’s not unlike the experience of reading a novel, following a character’s journey through the fictional landscape of the writer’s creation. And for me, the more difficult the journey, the more I learn about the craft… the more I learn about myself… the more I learn about what it’s like to be human. And as for race, biologically there is a human race containing individuals with different genotypic and phenotypic characteristics, skin color being one of them. But the social construct of race has created a false barrier between peoples that has maligned and disadvantaged all of us. My roles and my career have been shaped but not solely defined by this madness. In this republic, with this skin color, almost every role is “race related.” If I wanted an easy road, I would have been a librarian. And look what they’re going through in this country.

KB: Are there people you would love to collaborate with or you wished you had?

I would have to say no. Certainly, there are actors and directors I would have loved to work with, but I believe I’ve worked and collaborated with some wonderful people. I couldn’t wish for more.

KB: In 2024 you attended the Caribbean Heritage Salute to Hollywood & Excellence gala in Los Angeles with Tyne Daly and her husband where you were honored with the Legend Award. What can you tell me about this evening and how did it make you feel? What is the Legend Award?

The evening of the Caribbean Heritage Salute to Hollywood & Excellence gala was quite simply one of the most beautiful nights of my life. I was there with other honorees of Caribbean Heritage, being celebrated for representing the spirit and character of the region. I also felt my parents were being honored that night. Their courage, sacrifice and imagination made it possible for me to achieve, and I could feel them standing proudly in my heart. The Legend Award is like a lifetime achievement award for a body of work. Work again! The award itself is a chunk of crystal, shaped like an obelisk, with my name delicately etched in the glass. It stands on a shelf where, as solid and dense as it is, it is so clear you can see right through it to the wall behind, rendering it invisible until you get up close. I think of it as a metaphor that suits me to a T!

KB: I give you a script and you play the lead: Who do you pick as director and co-star and what would the story be about?

If you gave me a script, I would pick Charles Burnett, a fantastic writer and director of two incredible films in the National Film Registry, “Killer of Sheep” and “To Sleep With Anger.” I’ve had the privilege of working on six projects with Charles and would love one more. Greedy, I guess. I would want my co-lead to be the great, Oscar-nominated Delroy Lindo. It would be the story of two brothers, one a head librarian in a beautiful old city library, the other, a Vietnam war hero who trains therapy dogs. When developers target the library for acquisition, the brothers join forces to save the library. Action-adventure writ small.

KB: What are you currently up to?

I am currently working on a one-man play about my hero, James Baldwin. And, I’m embarking on a fashion journey to go out in style. I very much liked the questions. Hope you can do something with my answers. Hope your health is good and wishing you the best, Carl.

Check out Carl on Instagram: HERE

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