Max Casella of HBO's 'VINYL' on Julie Silver, Music & Much More! [EXCLUSIVE Q&A]

Actor Max Casella has had a career of memorable roles in TV series like The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire and even Doogie Howser, M.D, but we can honestly tell you that his role of Julie Silver on HBO's hit music industry drama, VINYL, was literally written for him. In our exclusive interview with this talented character actor, Casella told us about Terence Winter creating this character, compared today's music scene to the 1970s, and much more!

How did you get involved with VINYL? Was it a normal process?

Not at all normal, it wasn't normal at all. I was very lucky. I've known Terence Winter, "Terry," since the late '90s. I was on The Sopranos so I got to know Terry even better. Terry and I have an old friend in common and I started auditioning for The Sopranos in 1999 I became friendly with Terry. Then I got on the show and I was on until 2006 and then I did Boardwalk Empire right after that.

So when Terry was writing VINYL and he was writing this character Julie he had actually already heard my voice in his head when he was writing it. He kind of wrote it with me in mind-if not, he wrote it for me. It was just a question of Martin Scorsese signing off and giving me the okay. So I made one take with Ellen Lewis, the great casting director of the pilot and Scorsese saw it and said, "Yep that's the guy," and that was it. I mean for a series regular role to be simple, usually it's a pain. You've got to jump through hoops. You've got to go in four or five times. You've got to go in front of the network for a big part like that. This was very simple

What attracted you to the role of Julie Silver, aside from Terence Winter basically writing it for you?

What attracted me to the character from the beginning? Well here's the truth: my agents- they send me out on auditions and I get the emails that say, "Max Casella appointment for" fill in the blank. I was aware of this project, so I had actually already told my agent, "Please track this; make sure you get me; anything I'm remotely right for, get me in there." So I got this audition for what was then called "untitled rock n roll project" and this was Terry's project with Bobby Cannavale, who was an old friend of mine too, with Ellen Louis who cast me in Boardwalk Empire. So there were a lot of people I already knew.

I didn't know anything about this character, Julie. In the pilot, there's only a couple of scenes and the pilot script was completely different ... it's not even what ended up being shot. It was a small scene; I'm on the telephone with Richie's character. So I didn't even know what to think about the actual character. What I liked or what not... it was a series regular role, so without knowing anything, I'm liking it anyway! Whatever it is, it's a series regular role and I'm like this is a huge opportunity for me.

I figured out who the guy was and fell in love with the character later as I got to know more about him, but from the get-go, it wasn't about that. It was about, "I gotta get this series regular role, huge opportunity this is going to be great. I've got to get on the show!"

Did you do any sort of research for the character?

Yeah a lot! I did research on the entire music business of which I knew next to nothing, if not nothing. So I just started reading books. I asked production to let me know what books they had been reading and the first book I read was called Hit Men [by Fredric Dannen]. That's really the best first book to read. I just started reading lots of books and as I read books about the music business and read books about people who wrote the hits and how a lot of hit records came into being, I learned a lot about the artists-not on the record, but all the geniuses behind the scenes that you don't know about like Bert Berns, who wrote every great rock song from "Twist and Shout" to "Piece of my Heart." He's actually just being inducted to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame next month, but mostly not a household name at all.

I just read about people like that and I put together sort of a feeling for this character of Julie Silver of being this nice, Jewish kid from the Bronx, with a musical talent, but didn't quite have it enough-didn't quite have what it took to be a performer. But maybe Julie ... I'm making up backstory, the scripts could come out later that totally contradict that, but this is me just doing my job as far as filling in the blanks ... that Julie was the guy who wanted to be a singer and maybe cut a few records and that he wrote a few songs and maybe other people recorded some of his songs and those records did well, but that was Julie's way into the business and anybody who's in A&R usually comes from some kind of musician background.

What else can we expect from Julie's character arc or story?

I don't want to give any spoilers away or anything like that. I mean Julie's going to be doing more of the same ... I mean I can't really talk too much about what's coming down the pipeline or anything like that, but you can expect more outrageous behavior, probably, I'm sure.

Are there any current bands or musical acts that you're into?

I love The Black Keys. I think they are great. I continue to think Beck is doing the most interesting and terrific things. I'm a huge fan of his. I bemoan the fact there is no huge rock band right now that's like as big as U2 used to be or Nirvana after that. You know what I'm saying? I mean the White Stripes are great, but even they're like, as great as the White Stripes and Jack White ... Who's the biggest rock band in the world right now? Some of that is like I don't know what is happening to rock n' roll music right now.

Yeah, it's a little weird.

I think it's kind of sleeping right now. It needs to wake up!

What do you hope viewers take away from VINYL's first season, and what do you think will bring them back for season 2?

I hope by the end of season one we've got them hooked and that they'll be chomping at the bits for season two. That's all I can hope for. We do only ten a season, which is not a lot. Most networks shows do more than twice that in a season and we deserve a chance like to find our audience.

A lot of people know because of the names involved: Scorsese, Mick Jagger ... I'm afraid a lot of people basically say with a show like that, "Okay go ahead. Change my life." And if it doesn't change your life, you're like, "Oh, what a disappointment," you know? But people have to get over their initial unrealistic expectations and just get involved with the characters after the hype has maybe died down a little bit. When people watch the show, they're going to see how well it's written, how beautifully acted it is, and what a quality show it is. It's such a beautifully made show and either they will or they won't come back, but it'll take time.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I've got two movies I've got coming out that I just finished doing while I'm on my hiatus period. I just finished Ben Affleck's movie Live By Night, which is actually not going to be out for quite a while. And a biopic, Jackie, about Jackie Kennedy with Natalie Portman. I played Jack Valenti who, in his later years, was the president of the Motion Pictures Association, but at the time of the movie set during the assassination and the four days leading up to the funeral of JFK, Jack Valenti was in the motorcade and he was on Air Force One when LBJ was sworn in. He was LBJ's top aid, you know. They're both from Texas, so they had this background together. I had a really good time. I went to Paris to shoot that for 3 weeks and that's going to be good!