Interview: Richard Jenkins is No Ordinary Detective on ‘DTF St. Louis’

“You think he is there to serve the plot,” says Richard Jenkins of his character Homer in HBO’s DTF St. Louis.

They are the first words he says to me when we sit down for our chat, and it makes sense. It is likely the first thought any of us have about Homer when he is first introduced alongside his counterpart Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday, with whom I spoke earlier this summer).

Homer and Plumb are brought in to investigate the murder of Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour), but they end up playing a far different role than your prototypical odd couple of investigators. As soon as Jenkins read Steven Conrad’s script, he came to a realization.

“This is a person,” says Jenkins. “And that’s all I need.”

Indeed, the industry veteran has carved out a career playing police officers and politicians – to say nothing of his Oscar-nominated work in such films as The Visitor (2007) and The Shape of Water (2017) – but such characters sometimes can be reduced to simple plot devices, no matter the Hollywood heavyweight embodying them. DTF St. Louis afforded Jenkins the opportunity to do what he does best, lending his authoritative voice to a man full of surprises, right down to his obsession with women’s bras.

“There’s nothing in this show I haven’t heard,” jokes Jenkins. “But it’s more interesting if somebody is not aware of what’s going in this world, and it ends up being Homer.”

Indeed, the hardened detective has to totally recalibrate his investigative approach, completely caught off guard by the bizarre proclivities of Smernitch and his compatriots. But as Jenkins himself learned more and more about Smernitch, he could not help but develop a tenderness towards the man even his own character never got the chance to meet.

And so late into filming, Jenkins asked Conrad “Can I say at some point at the end of this ‘I wish I’d known him?'”

They shot the line, and while it never made the cut, it underscores the humanity that Jenkins brought to the role of Homer, a detective in the twilight years of his career, still keenly aware of all the things he does not know.

Check out my full conversation with Jenkins below!