ABC’s Body of Proof has been re-energized in its third season, and of all its interesting characters, there’s none more entertaining than the blustery Curtis Brumfield, played perfectly by Windell Middlebrooks. BFTV had the pleasure of chatting with Windell recently about the revamped show, working with his leading ladies, and what he gets recognized more for – playing Curtis or those Miller High Life commercials.
“We’re not just a procedural,” he said, ruminating on what’s made Body of Proofdevelop a passionate fanbase. “You get the cases and we’re solving them, but from the beginning the audience got to connect with these characters. We have such an emotional life and it’s so relationship-based that they watch to see not just what the case is, but they want to see the drama within the office, with each other. You wonder what a medical examiner does, you wonder what their life is outside of the office, what are their struggle emotionally and how do they handle it. With Curtis, I kind of built up on that from not only the writing, but we also went and we got to meet with doctors and talk with them. A lot of us kind of took that and then took a part of ourselves and built these characters.”
The best part of his job? That’d be “The characters I get to work with,” he continued. “It was a special situation where we shot the pilot in Providence, and then when [the series] got picked up, we all had to move to Providence for a year and we shot in Warwick. We kind of bonded on a different level because we were all we had. I think that bond kind of carries over to on-camera. We kind of know each other well enough to know who needs what. If Dana [Delany]‘s doing this huge monologue and we’re there in the scene, we know what to give her, and she does the same thing back.”
This season, Windell and the Body of Proof cast have been joined by two new regulars, Mark Valley and Elyes Gabel, both of whom Windell has enjoyed having on the team. “He’s a great guy. We enjoy being on set with him,” he said of former Human Target star Valley. “He has this kind of dry humor. It’s very dry and very subtle, but he will bring it out and he can be a smartass. It’s so brilliant. He’ll say something to get [me] back, and I don’t catch it till I’m like one foot from my trailer.”
As far as what’s still on tap for the remaining episodes of season three, he’s looking forward to Curtis’s interactions with Dr. Kate Murphy (played by Jeri Ryan). “I kind of get to be a support for her, with the whole idea of running for office and all this stuff,” he explained. “Her struggling with the decision, and ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ ‘Have I sold out?’ You get to see some great moments between [Kate] and Curtis. I’m very excited for people to see that softer side of him.”
When it comes to his leading ladies Delany and Ryan, Windell says that he doesn’t think they get enough credit for being both beautiful and talented. “Dana and Jeri are two stunningly amazingly beautiful women, and everybody knows that,” he said. “But they are amazingly talented. I think a lot of times we miss that. You can be beautiful but they don’t rely on that.
“I just love acting with them,” he continued. “I just appreciate that, really with all my colleagues, but especially with those two ladies.”
His tenure on Body of Proof is the culmination of a lot of hard work for the Texas native, who was bitten by the acting bug in high school, did his undergraduate work at Sterling College and in Kansas, holds a graduate degree from the University of California, Irvine. “I applied to UCI and they take nine students a year,” said Windell, who wasn’t just accepted but also earned a prestigious fellowship as one of the best in his class. “When I got to the grad school level, a lightbulb kind of hit. It’s not a common thing all the time that someone goes and gets a Masters Degree. What really popped was UCI does a showcase at the end of your three years. By going to grad school, you bypass the three to seven year hustle of just trying to be seen. I came out of school with representation across the board. I kind of jumped a few steps in a way.”
Windell went on to build up a resume that’s included guest spots on TV shows like ER,Entourage, Veronica Mars and Scrubs. Aside from Body of Proof, however, his two most notable parts have been the recurring role of Kirby Morris in the Disney Channel seriesThe Suite Life on Deck and his no-nonsense Miller High Life deliveryman character. If you’ve somehow missed those hilarious Miller spots, check one of them out below.
So what role does Windell get noticed for the most? “It depends on the group, literally,” he said with a laugh. “If it’s kids, it’s Suite Life. Then I was walking in New York just about two weeks ago, and it was an older couple and they were like ‘Curtis, tell Dana we love the show.’ But college guys and people who watch sports, they’re like ‘We’re living the high life!’”
One could argue that so, too, is Windell himself – and it couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy. He might have the bluster down pat for all those scenes in the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, but off-screen, he’s one of the coolest, most fun to be around folks working today. It’s impossible not to smile when you’re talking to him. With Windell’s positive energy, Body of Proof should keep going strong for a long time to come.
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