East Providence Officer Plays Cops AND Robbers in Movies, TV
An officer from IBPO Local 569 in East Providence, Rhode Island has made a second career of playing characters on both sides of the law as an actor in such TV shows as Brotherhood and The Sopranos, as well as movies from Federal Hill to The Departed—and he has tips for other officers who want to break into show biz.
Lieutenant Armen Garo, a shift commander and 23-year veteran with the East Providence police, is also a working actor. He had a recurring role as Det. Lt. Gillardino on the Showtime’s locally-produced Brotherhood, the critically acclaimed show about a pair of Providence brothers—one a politician, the other a gangster.
Police work and acting have a lot in common
How do the two professions compare? “I see them as indistinguishable,” said Garo. “To be a good cop, you have to be a good actor. You have to be able to find out what happened in a neighborhood, to talk to somebody involved in a case, sometimes without letting them know what your intentions are…you have to keep all your information and intentions close to the vest.” While the outcomes of the two kinds of work vary greatly, Garo said that the processes are surprisingly similar.
Despite their different products, both police work and acting demand professionalism, a fact he said his fellow officers have discovered as they have worked as extras or on details on the Brotherhood set. “They found the daily schedule from the film company was even more detailed and more exact than the daily schedule and traffic for the police department.”
On playing cops and robbers
When the IBPO asked Garo if he was worried about being typecast as either a tough cop or a tough mobster, the 6’2” black-clad Garo smiled, shrugged like a stereotypical wiseguy and said in the kind of exaggerated voice you would hear in any Mafia movie, “What do I look and sound like?” Playing to his physical type, he said, opens doors to the possibility of more work.
Portraying a police officer regularly, however, gave him an opportunity to bring a level of real-life detail to the role that most actors can’t. “If [my character] is a police officer, I’m not an actor playing what I believe is my perception of a police officer,” Garo explained. “I’m portraying what I know to be the facts behind the job, the motivations of actual police officers, whether it’s myself or others.”
His success on Brotherhood has impressed his fellow officers—and inspired a few, too. “They’ve always been complimentary,” Garo says of his fellow Local 569 members. “Some of them have auditioned for smaller roles and done some extra work and they really enjoyed it. It’s been nothing but a positive experience all around.”
From blue-collar to blue-uniform—and casting calls
The idea of pursuing either police work or acting seemed distant to the only child of Armenian parents in upstate New York (“My father didn’t speak English well,” he recalled). But Garo earned a BS in speech communication from Emerson College in Boston, and after joining the East Providence PD in 1985, he earned a BS in Criminal Justice at nearby Roger Williams College and an MS in Administration of Justice from Salve Regina. While he rose through the ranks as a patrol officer, vice unit officer, and head of the traffic division, he was also studying acting and related disciplines, appearing in productions as the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence and taking work as an extra wherever he could.
“I learned quite a bit from great people as an extra,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to network. I can’t stress enough what an important part of the process working as an extra is.”
After reaching his 20-year mark with the East Providence department (Rhode Island officers may retire with full benefits after 20 years), Garo decided he wasn’t ready to stop police work but wanted to expand his horizons into a career he could continue to follow when he was ready to hang up the badge.
“You’ve got to consider what you’re going to do post-retirement, and it’s nice to make it something you’re passionate about and you love to do so that it doesn’t become work,” said Garo.
Around the same time as Garo was starting to explore more acting work, the nearby city of Boston, Massachusetts became Hollywood’s new on-location hot-spot, bringing lots of day work for local actors in the Boston-Providence corridor. With high-profile acting jobs in his own back yard, Garo said he can easily use a few vacation days or swap shifts with other officers when he has a role and still maintain his full-time police career.
Some of Garo’s other roles:
- A mouthy mob thug from Providence who gets a beating from Leonardo DiCaprio in a local lunch joint in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
- Mafia tough guy Coco on the final season of The Sopranos. Coco says something vulgar to Tony Soprano’s daughter, Meadow, while she is on a date with her boyfriend. Tony then tracks down Coco and separates him from most of his teeth.
- Several commercials, including an AT&T Wireless commercial in which a deli manager makes a wisecrack to Garo’s meat supplier about Garo’s (offscreen) wife having eaten all of the supplier’s roast beef. The deli manager then grovels to Garo’s supplier when the dropped signal means he can’t hear Garo laughing along with the joke.
- A short promotional teaser for an international film festival in which he plays an unflappable New York bartender talking to film star Harvey Keitel.
You can see video clips of these and more at Garo’s website, ArmenGaro.com. (Please note several contain inappropriate language and violence and may not be safe for viewing at work).
Hey, officer, you wanna be in movies?
What advice does Garo have for IBPO members who want to work in films or television shows shooting on location in their areas?
- Check out your state’s secretary of state website. That’s the branch of state government that usually oversees a state’s film bureau or commission.
- Visit the bureau/commission page and you’ll probably see links to local casting agencies and any small roles or extra work they have coming up for local actors.
- Be ready to send a close-up photo of your face, head and shoulders, along with information about your height/weight, general body type, any acting experience, and any special skills you may have. “This is important,” Garo emphasized. “SWAT teams, for example, can already rappel and may get work under the stunt coordinator.” Weapons experience and any other specialized skill, be it juggling, dancing the tango, or martial arts may earn you a job.