Ib ijonkbojats: {alltv} 'Harry's Law' star has 'street cred'

Monday, March 14, 2011

{alltv} 'Harry's Law' star has 'street cred'

Nate Corddry isn't name-dropping to try to impress us. He actually is name-dropping out of humility.

"Diablo Cody is a genius. Aaron Sorkin is a genius. David E. Kelley is a genius," Corddry said. "I've had unbelievable scripts to work with.

"I want to take credit for it myself, but the people who are writing the words are 99% of it."

Corddry currently is co-starring in Harry's Law, the legal drama-comedy with Kathy Bates that airs Mondays on NBC and Citytv. Harry's Law was created by Kelley, whose other credits include Boston Legal and Ally McBeal.

Prior to that, Corddry played a truly creepy pursuer of Bree Larson's character on The United States of Tara. That show was created by Cody, who won an Academy Award for writing the film Juno.

And prior to that, Corddry played a cast member on the much-hyped but ratings-challenged show-within-a-show series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. That was created by Sorkin, whose other work includes The West Wing and more recently the acclaimed film The Social Network.

Yes, that's quite a murderer's row of creators, so we can see why Corddry -- the 33-year-old younger brother of comic actor Rob Corddry -- is prone to deflecting credit. But clearly all those creators saw something in Nate Corddry.

Notably, Nate attributes much of his subsequent success to the "street cred" he gained more than a half-decade ago when he joined his brother for a spell on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

"My first big job was on The Daily Show, and Jon Stewart establishes a certain level of credibility that very few people do," Corddry said. "If that wasn't my first job, maybe I would have had a different career.

"Your first job sometimes is your most important, because that's the first time your face is out there. It's your first impression. So having The Daily Show be my first job still helps me today.

"I wish I had a nickel for every time I've gone into an audition and had the casting director or the producer ask me, 'What was it like to work on The Daily Show?' You just have an advantage over the average actor, so I totally lucked out."

On Harry's Law, Corddry plays young legal hot-shot Adam Branch, who also "lucked out" -- so to speak -- when he hit Bates' character with his car in the pilot episode.

"The way that (Adam) best can practise his craft is not at the top floor, but at the ground floor, face to face with average people, not corporations," Corddry said of his character. "But it's fate that interceded and made him realize that.

"If Adam didn't hit Harriet with his car in the first place, he never would have considered joining her new firm. He would have stayed in his former office and made partner. That's the fun of having him in this new setting."

Well, much like his character on Harry's Law, Nate Corddry keeps getting hired by the right people.

It can't all be by accident.