<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1UK2gU_0vgS77VY00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1UK2gU_0vgS77VY00" width="1140" height="655" ><figcaption>AARP (Mathew Jordan Smith)</figcaption></figure>When actor Courtney B. Vance, 64, gets the opportunity to work with award-winning writer-producer Ryan Murphy, he says he jumps at the chance. Vance won an Emmy for portraying attorney Johnnie Cochran in Murphy’s 2016 FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and says, “Ryan called and said he had something for me. He’s my guy.”That “something” was a role in Murphy’s 10-episode horror-drama series Grotesquerie, premiering Sept. 25 on FX. Vance stars as the husband of a detective (played by Niecy Nash-Betts) in the middle of a serial killer manhunt, and the NFL’s Travis Kelce makes his acting debut as a recurring guest star on the show. Vance tells AARP what it was like working with Kelce, how he feels about his wife, Angela Bassett, 66, winning her first Emmy, and why he’s looking forward to life in a newly emptied nest.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.What can you tell me about the new series? It sounds creepy.Well, it’s Ryan Murphy, and he’s known for creep — that’s not surprising. It’s a combination of things. We’re a dysfunctional family that’s trying to figure out our way. And in the midst of that, my wife, Miss Niecy, is in the midst of a very gruesome serial killer manhunt, and [the series is about] how that impacts and has been impacting our family for years, and the repercussions of her work on both myself and our daughter. In my mind, it’s a family drama.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1YfPCZ_0vgS77VY00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1YfPCZ_0vgS77VY00" width="2007" height="1153" ><figcaption>Vance stars with Niecy Nash-Betts in the new FX crime drama, "Grotesquerie." Prashant Gupta/ FX Network</figcaption></figure>Travis Kelce makes his acting debut on the show. What was it like working with him?I love him. He’s so about getting in there and doing the work. He’s so open and humble. The cast and the crew just adored him. He’s just a guy who’s trying to go in this new direction. And because of that, we just embraced him and helped him, and he helped us. He added. He made our set even bigger and better and warmer, because he’s a people person.Did you give him any advice regarding his acting career?No, just within the scene. We had a very, very big scene [together]. With the technical aspects of that, he doesn’t know how to craft it so that it comes out right.… You don’t know, when you first start out, where to put yourself. Just like if I stepped on a football field, it would be, “Calm down, it’s going to come fast, but it’ll start to slow down for you.” It’s the same kind of thing.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=23IflA_0vgS77VY00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=23IflA_0vgS77VY00" width="282" height="297" ></figure>Your wife, Angela, just won her first Emmy (for narrating the National Geographic nature documentary Queens). Was there a lot of celebrating?Oh, there was. It’s been 30 years — come on now. Give the lady her due, give her her hardware. It’s a testament to us.… We love what we do, and we don’t do it for this. We do it because we love to work, and we love to share our gifts with the world. And that’s who she is. We’re blessed to be able to do what we do. That’s our attitude. We have wonderful young people [18-year-old twins, daughter Bronwyn and son Slater] who are going to college now. We’re in a wonderful, wonderful place in our lives.So you’re empty nesters now?We’re an empty nest. We just dropped them off three weeks ago. She’s at Harvard; he’s at Yale. But it’s not cold turkey. We spent a lot of time with them. We realized we had to start to wean ourselves off them and them off of us. We were gradually getting them ready. It’s not cold turkey.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0lpYJE_0vgS77VY00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0lpYJE_0vgS77VY00" width="1902" height="1093" ><figcaption>Vance attended an industry event in Hollywood, California, this January with son Slater, wife Angela Bassett, and daughter Bronwyn. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Would you encourage or discourage them from getting into show business?We wanted them to have a childhood. They were cutie-pies when they were little, and we made the conscious decision to move to an area where it’s a community and lets all of us get involved in the community and in the elementary schools and the school boards and all those kinds of things. I certainly didn’t want to schlep them around to auditions. Child actors growing up into themselves as adults — it’s very tricky. Very few young people can do it, have done it. We didn’t want that. [Slater] loves his music, he writes and he raps. And Bronwyn sings and acts. So they’ll get into it now. They’ll explore. They’re in the right place. I’m excited to see what they choose.Do you have any date night plans now that the kids are out of the house?We can do what we want to do. Angela’s schedule is very crazy, but when we have long weekends, we may just hop on the plane and go see some shows in New York. We can use the mileage and go there and hang out. We can have some events at the house and reconnect with friends that we haven’t seen because of the young people’s schedule and our schedule. We’re taking our time.Would you like to do a project together with Angela?We’d love to at some point. She’s just re-upped with [her role on the ABC drama] 9-1-1 for the next three seasons. The windows that she has now are on her hiatus. A lot of times, after grinding for 19 episodes, doing another project is the last thing you want to do. We’re actively looking now. We’ll time it out, see how it goes.What’s your perspective on aging?We’re just taking care of ourselves. The focus is the metabolism — everything slows down, so you have to change it up. We can’t eat the same way. We gotta be active, can’t just be sitting around. It’s just part of what we know we have to do for ourselves. My mother was a very big influence on us when she retired. She was more busy than she was when she was working — [volunteering at] Habitat [for Humanity], literacy programs and soup kitchens, and at the Art Institute. Things that we wanted to do and had in the back of our minds to do. There’s nothing holding us back now.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

For Courtney B. Vance and Wife Angela Bassett, Empty Nesting Is Exciting

When actor Courtney B. Vance, 64, gets the opportunity to work with award-winning writer-producer Ryan Murphy, he says he jumps at the chance. Vance won an Emmy for portraying attorney Johnnie Cochran in Murphy’s 2016 FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and says, “Ryan called and said he had something for me. He’s my guy.”