Major Crimes interview: Ransford Doherty on his nine-year journey
One of the reasons we wanted to conclude with Ransford Doherty (Kendall), pictured above with Leonard Roberts (Leo Mason) is because we like to end things on a positive note and he is a heck of a positive guy. He’s inspirational, charismatic, and we wish that we could give you a sense of the energy we felt doing this interview in the article. There aren’t many show-related specifics here, but we were so curious in just learning about his journey and how he perceives the show and the family dynamic that he formed as a result of being a part of it.
CarterMatt – How are you feeling right now after reflecting on the whole journey?
Ramsford Doherty – I’m feeling blessed, grateful — it’s a surreal feeling. I did The Closer, and I thought it was going to be two episodes — it turned into twenty episodes. You try not to get excited, so when they said they were doing Major Crimes I literally said ‘congratulations everyone on Major Crimes.‘ Then they said ‘Ramsford, you’re coming along. You’re part of the family.’ I was like ‘what?’
From 2008 to 2017 I’ve been doing this, and I’m also a high school teacher so you can do both things — I just got my Master’s in special education.
After all of this is over with the show, are you going to be to sleep?
I still have a class to go to until like June or something like that. I’m also working on a non-profit called Winning at the Money Game where we teach financial liberty through the game of basketball to elementary, middle, and high school students. We want our students to be not only triple threats on the basketball court, but also triple threats when it comes to financial matters.
I’m also writing a book called Dear Starving Artists: Here’s Something to Eat, because this is no joke. That’s the challenge. You hear all of these stories about [the entertainment business] being cutthroat, but being with this cast has been a family. There are a lot of people who come out here who are focused on being a star, but a lot of these people aren’t focused on being a star in life. I’m talking about shining a light with your family, your friends, your life. I’m talking about doing things where you’re giving back. You don’t want to end up being this shell [of a person].
I want to go back to that feeling you got when they told you that you were sticking around for more than just a couple of episodes on The Closer. Can you explain what that was like?
You know how they say ‘don’t get comfortable,’ because I still did not get comfortable [after that]. Fear can be the biggest liability. What happens is that people will go ‘you’re part of the family’ but then you’ll go ‘nah’ because you’re afraid of so much rejection. Then, you’re getting all of this acceptance and you’ve still got this wall up.
Over these nine years, though, you start to get comfortable and change happens. But, it’s not like I was given the part. I earned it. Over time I earned it — they’re not doing you a favor. They feel like they need you as a part of their story. You as an actor have to one day accept that, that you are a necessary part of the story. When we bring on our guest cast, it’s not one of those table reads where it’s like ‘let’s get it started.’ We do our introductions and everyone gets a round of applause. They’re a part [of it].
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