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Badass' who wears fanny packs
Actor Patrick Gallagher talks of his character, his costume and the joy of working on Glee
Toronto Star
Published On Wed Dec 09 2009


B.C.-born character actor Patrick Gallagher, left, with the Acafellas singing group formed in an episode of Glee.

Patrick Gallagher would like to achieve at least one thing with his role on Glee: make fanny packs cool.

No really.

"I'd like to have one," the Canadian actor says on the phone from Los Angeles.

"Women have purses; (men's) pockets are stuffed."

It was his idea to make a fanny pack part of the wardrobe of his character, Ken Tanaka, the football coach on the hit musical TV series about the travails of a high school glee club.

The shorts and knee socks and everything fitting a bit too tightly? That was the costume designer's idea.

"Patrick the person hates (the shorts). Patrick the actor loves them," Gallagher says.

"It would be nice for Ken to get a pair of pants," he adds.

Seriously though, the British Columbia-born actor is loving being a part of Glee.

The series has its fall finale Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Fox and Global.

The cast starts filming the first season's remaining nine episodes in January to air in April. And Gallagher, 41, is looking forward to getting back to work.

"It's kind of like candy with nutritional value, that's what that show is like, like a Twinkie that's good for you," he says.

"People really do love doing that show. ... It's a pleasant place to work."

Playing Ken has been a bit of a departure for Gallagher, who often gets cast in "badass" roles.

"I'm not really that tough a guy, I just look like one I guess."

His first real shot at comedy was the Night at the Museum movies with Ben Stiller, in which he played Attila the Hun. He's proud of the work and the fact he created a language for Attila to speak in the films.

"I haven't done a lot of comedy. It's actually really nice. I've played a whole bunch of different stuff," he says, part of the advantage of being a character actor.

He's been a vampire in True Blood, a detective in the Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall (the shows "that helped propel me to where I am now"), a British seaman in Master and Commander, even a racist coffee shop owner in the miniseries Taken.

And then there's Ken.

Gallagher's happy that Ken's been able to grow a little on Glee.

"I think Ken in some weird way is one of the most normal characters on there. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. ... He's lonely, a little bitter, but he's got a good heart."

From the teasers that have aired, Wednesday's episode portends developments in the love triangle between Ken, his fiancée, school guidance counsellor Emma, and Will, the Spanish teacher and glee club adviser whom she really loves.

But Gallagher doesn't give anything away, preferring to let us be surprised on Wednesday.

He doesn't know what's next for Ken, although he's heard some rumours.

He'd be happy if the producers bring back the Acafellas, the a cappella singing group that Will formed in one episode (Gallagher got to rap and dance, which he hadn't done for about 20 years).

He'd definitely like to sing again and he's got just the number: Radiohead's "Creep," his favourite karaoke song, which he thinks perfectly expresses Ken's feelings about Emma.

And, of course, he hopes to stay on Glee for another few years.

When it comes right down to it, though, he's thrilled just to be a working actor. He's been able to make a living at it for eight years now. (His last "regular" job was bartending at a White Spot restaurant in Vancouver, the same one fellow Canadian Cory Monteith, who plays Finn on Glee, worked at two years later.)

"To work at all in this industry is a big deal," he says.

"Even one or two lines in a TV show is no small feat. Thousands of people are trying to do that."