Taylor Handley Reflects On His "Psycho" ‘O.C.’ Role & His New Cop Show, ‘APB'

The O.C.'s Oliver Trask is all grown up, from psycho to beat cop on FOX's new procedural.

Taylor Handley APB The OC
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Taylor Handley APB The OC

APB, FOX's newest mid-season cop show, pulled from one specific headline to create what could be the touchiest procedural imaginable right now. Based off of the New York Times Magazine's "Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans?," APB follows a billionaire's radical new experiment to fix the streets of Chicago by running his own, privately funded police district, ostensibly free of bureaucratic red tape and budgets. A privatized police force, set in a real city whose crime stats are controversial fodder for all types of questionable commentary on Capitol Hill? Under the stewardship of several executive producers that includes Matt Nix, Len Wiseman and creator David Slack, it's procedural anchored by a smart-ass genius type who thinks he knows what's best for everyone around him. How the show will shake out beyond the three episodes we've seen is anyone's guess—it is already committed to showing the flaws in a theoretically perfect system—but right now the solid ensemble of unknowns and character actors are helping to sell viewers on the concept.

One of those character actors should be a familiar face from a previous era of FOX, especially to anyone who experienced adolescence during the early aughts. One of APB's beat cops, the hot-headed Officer Brandt, is none other than Taylor Handley, best known as Oliver Trask, the psycho who terrorized Ryan Atwood and Marissa Cooper on The O.C.'s most memorable arc. We called Taylor up to talk APB, the ethics and feasibility of a privatized police force, and of course, a little O.C. reminiscing.

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This  show is loosely based on events that really happened in New Orleans. Is this system of privatized policing something that you could see working in real life on a grander scale?
It's a touchy subject, privatizing the police force. I think that the show definitely handles that question really well. In the show, we explore both sides of the spectrum of is it good? Is it bad? We explore both of those sides. 

You mentioned having an experience upon arriving in Chicago to film that really prepared you for the environment the show plays out in.
Sometimes when you read a script, you see the action that's happening, and you think, oh wow, this could never happen in the real world. That kind of got pushed aside because the first day I was in Chicago, I turned on the news, and there was this armed assailant carjacking people with an assault rifle in Bucktown, which is a really nice area of Chicago. It made those things in the scripts make perfect sense. Like, this crazy stuff is really happening in the real world. 

What made you choose A.P.B for your return to television?
A.P.B was an amazing script. There's a killer balance of comedy, action, drama. I really responded to the character of Officer Brandt. I thought he was just operating at so many different levels, and is a very layered character.

Among the ensemble, Brandt is the intense, livewire character. Is that what drew you to playing him?
He wasn't just your average cop. His backstory was really interesting. There was room to create a really rich character with the history that I got about Brandt through the script. It was like, he's this ex-military guy who's working on the streets of Chicago. So, what can I do? I can backstory this entire military history and really create something with this guy. 

Are you guys are going to explore issues like PTSD going forward? 
I know that the writers didn't want to just do the kind of trope that happens in TV with ex-military and PTSD. You see it on a couple different shows where it's like the guy who's in the military always has PTSD. They didn't want to just make Brandt this guy who only operates on that level. It's just one of the many facets of Brandt. It's just one of the things that he deals with. It's not his entire world, because that's just not how it is in the real world. 

Does a character like Brandt fall in line with the roles you like to play, or is this a departure?
I look back on all the characters I've played in the past, and they just seem to match up really well with what's going on with me personally and how I'm able to get there emotionally and physically in the character's mind space. There was just a really good flow with Brandt and what's going on with me. I really can't explain that, but it just feels like the right character at the right time.

Your most famous role was Oliver Trask, the deranged, manipulative villain on The O.C. Going off what you just said, what was going on with you personally then?
I was in kind of a dark place. At age 19, which was 13 years ago, there was a fear of the unknown. I was stepping into really committing to acting and there were a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of uncertainty in my life, and so I was able to pull emotionally from what was going on with me into that character. 

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The O.C. season one was this huge cultural moment and your character was the eye of that zeitgeist storm. How does it feel to reflect back on that today, over a decade removed?
It is a little bittersweet because the character was so dark and I went Full Psycho. I don't know if you're supposed to go Full Psycho, but I did for that role. I know that I did my job right because it was memorable. Now, having such a memorable character, people can associate how you are personally with the character, and I have to remind people that it's just a TV show. It's definitely a trip. Especially thirteen years later, you know what I mean? Now, I've kind of settled into it. It's pretty cool to have that out there.

You probably haven't seen those episodes in a while, but when you look back, which moments stand out from shooting that arc?
The New Year's episode, and then the episode in Palm Springs where I'm like, smacking my face, going Full Psycho. What I really remember is how I booked the job. They hired me off this self-tape audition that I sent in. I was on this road trip to Arizona to go visit a friend and I think only the fourth or fifth episode of The O.C. had aired at that point. I told my friend I just got this part and they were like 'Oh my God! The O.C., that's so cool!' I didn't know it was going to be such a crazy, big hit.  

I do have to say, my final episode where I had the gun in the penthouse—I remember that being a step up in my acting. I felt like I really went to a place that was tough to get in order to pull that off. After I had done that scene, I had to take a moment and I was sitting and crying, and I had to let my nerves settle down because I had worked myself up so much. This is the funny thing about TV—that performance was really edited out. That's the thing about being a guest star. They're mostly focused on the series regulars—which is totally understandable—and getting their reactions. I just remember being really proud of it [that performance].

So, Oliver goes away forever but the show went on for like, three more seasons. If they asked you to come back, how would you picture him coming back into the plot? What would Oliver be up to?
[laughs] That's so funny. I'd have to say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, you know? I imagine he'd still be that manipulating, sly, shit-disturber. Once he's convinced that he's been totally rehabilitated, he'd come back at you and throw you a curveball. 

I mean, he would have to be up to something. He couldn't come back and just be reformed.
Oh, hell no. And that's the thing, man. I know that I went Full Psycho, but I just can't stand these bad guys trying to be good guys. You know what I mean, in TV? There's the guys that are like bad guys, but they still want the audience to love them, so they want this redeeming quality. I just really like bad guys being bad guys. Oliver was a bad guy. That should fully be like, a tagline. Like, "Oliver: Never Go Full Psycho."

APB airs Mondays on Fox

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