Never a stranger to real life drama, A&E has scored another hit with original series The Cleaner. Blending the horrors of addiction with one man’s internal struggle, star Benjamin Bratt brings a level of intensity rarely seen on television. While the series may focus on Bratt’s character William Banks, the supporting cast rounds out the tone of the show.
Never a stranger to real life drama, A&E has scored another hit with original series The Cleaner. Blending the horrors of addiction with one man’s internal struggle, star Benjamin Bratt brings a level of intensity rarely seen on television. While the series may focus on Bratt’s character William Banks, the supporting cast rounds out the tone of the show
A member of the ensemble is actor Esteban Powell, whose character Arnie is a former addict and a member of Banks’s crack team.
An up and coming actor, Powell rises to the challenge of playing such a conflicted character. Since his debut as a rascally teen in Dazed and Confused, Powell is coming into his own as an actor and is happy to be playing such a challenging role. Now in its second season, The Cleaner continues to push the limits of scripted television and Esteban Powell is part of this special story.
We sat down with Esteban to discuss his life on and off the set, what drives him, his ambitions and more.
Your character is a recovering meth addict on the show. Do you think the series is changing the public’s perception of addiction through its personification of the problems recovering addicts face?
Esteban Powell: I think the show resonates with a pretty wide array of individuals because of how we approach the topic of substance abuse from fictionalized accounts that have their origins in very true and real experiences. I think it is the consistency of The Cleaner and the intense dynamic throughout both the first and second seasons that people relate and connect to.
We love our show. The tension, the id of recovery, substance abuse and brief looks into a very narrow spectrum of people who are unable to pull through on their own. Getting these people to realize that makes for compelling television yes. So that speaks well of the show. It is a very demanding effort to change the perception of addiction for anyone who has had first hand experiences with substance abuse and/or the recovery process either for themselves or someone close to them. Of course I wouldn’t be so bold as to speak for the public’s perception-but I can tell you that the people who have reached out to me about the show are appreciative of the human approach we take to helping people through the detox. And anybody that has ever had to experience one, knows its no picnic to do on your own.
How has your character, Arnie Swenton, evolved over the course of the 2 seasons of the series and what makes him a vital part of the William Banks team?
Esteban Powell: Well 26 hours really isn’t a lot of time to evolve per se and our primary focus this season (2) was developing more of William Banks personal history through his interactions on a case by case basis (with an absolutely stellar set of guest stars I might add-Thank you to Megan Branman and Dylann Brander for a wonderful line up).
We spent a lot of effort creating really rich in depth character histories and setting up the mythology of William Banks and his crew in S1. As the series progresses you begin to have a deeper understanding of why the dynamic works the way it does and why each member of the team is essential to creating the heartfelt understanding that is coping with addicts and their families week after week. Arnie is an anti hero with the same intentions as Akani or William but has a much different skill set to work from.
Where William is the infallible hero with flaws who must balance his family dynamic with his calling for helping others to help him maintain his own sobriety, while Akani is driven not only by her devotion to William, but her rogue demeanor along with her steely feminine persona help provide that element of balance within the work place. Arnie is the catalyst-unafraid of how the world sees him-which allows for a greater range of dynamic within the context of his world. He is humor under duress, calm among the chaos, expressive even in the most mundane of situations, and at times short sighted in the glaringly obvious.
But an unwavering loyalty expressed to those closest to him that embrace his faults and nurture his development in sobriety. Those are the qualities that continue to overcome any imbalance faced by the team and continue to be his truest assets.
How do you relate to your character personally?
Esteban Powell: I enjoy the subtleties of Arnie’s humor. He wants nothing more in life then to be his own person and bring comfort to those he encounters. His soul is good even if his actions are misunderstood-he is full of missteps but I think that is very much a part of his appeal and expands his life experience. For if we never made mistakes-how would we ever learn. I learn as much through him and the words on the page as I do encountering my own life experiences with people in real life outside of the surf shop.
Have you ever known anyone like Arnie? Did you draw inspiration from them for your character?
Esteban Powell: Arnie is a very unique breed of person. In my opinion to be openly flawed and likeable is a rare combination without being a “stereotypical dude”-or-caricature of what normies perceive a tweeker to be. I have had a few of my own personal experiences helping friends through detox and after the realization sets in-once people are able to separate themselves from the actions brought on by their addictions- there is a stage of humility that sticks around-embarrassing as it sounds once your body no longer needs the drugs- you realize that going through the dumpster bins for a 4th or 5th time seems pretty fruitless and in those moments there are a lot of very human qualities when you realize that the drugs can be deceptively powerful-and there is a strength in not falling prey to a very false glamour of drugs and the short term solutions that they may seem to offer.
Some people learn from the mistakes of others, while others only seem to learn from repetition of their own mistakes, and others unable to learn at all while under the grips of addiction. All of these scenarios provide a lot of inspiration to me when choosing how to approach my character and my scenes.
How did the role of Arnie come to you? Did you have to audition? What was the process like?
Esteban Powell: A table read with Robert Munic and Jonathan Prince about a year before the pilot was shot was my first exposure to the material and to my character. It was about 4 months before that when I had a real life experience where a friend of mine had recently upgraded into some pretty sketchy behavior and I found myself having to help him kick in my basement.
His parents were unable to cope and I couldn’t find any type of facility that would take him for another 3 days, and rather than turn him loose back into the street I babysat him for the next couple of days until I was able to drop him off at a treatment center. So when I first read the material –you can imagine that I didn’t have a lot of trouble connecting to the material. It was the type of project that you know is going to have a positive impact and the type of material that read so strongly off the page that it would be hard to muck it up.
I felt I had a pretty good handle of this character even though smoking speed had never really been an option for me in real life. So after some initial meetings and a work session I showed up to the test with a fresh cut Mohawk and covered my arms in tattoos the night before-the response was pretty good and they brought me back into read with Ben to reread a scene and I thought to myself “oh shit, did I screw it up?” Ben then proceeded to look at me and laugh while I was waiting for him to start the scene, and he says to me, “It’s just semantics kid, you got the role.”
I couldn’t stop the joy that day even if I wanted to.
You shoot with Benjamin Bratt, Grace Park, Amy Price-Francis and a truly amazing cast of guest stars. Any interesting or funny moments from the set you can share?
Esteban Powell: Absolutely! Check out aetv.com/the-cleaner we have TONS of funny moments and video to share on our site there
So far, what has been your proudest moment working on The Cleaner?
Esteban Powell: See for yourself every Tuesday night on A&E-seriously if you haven’t seen it yet I can’t talk to you about it anymore.
You are on Twitter, obviously. What made you get involved in using it? What are some of your favorite feeds?
Esteban Powell: @wendilynnmakeup got me into it-she is a big deal on there and if you follow her then you already know why. I would suggest doing that now! My favorite feeds are usually fans who reach out to me. I listen to what they like and it helps me keep a grounded base of real people. I’m @estebanics if you care to follow. I don’t tweet everyday but I do answer back :)
Like many other actors, you have founded your own production company, The SoundFilm Company. Why did you choose to do this and what types of projects are you currently working on?
Esteban Powell: I started SoundFilm as a web content and development company to satisfy my creative endeavors for short form and webisodics-and after growing the company for the past 3 years it has provided me an outlet for trying out different structures for web delivery and the opportunity to develop some very talented people-and serves as an outlet for all my zombie/space cowboy/3D/futurist stuff that I take a personal interest in.
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