Troy Garity's voice is dulled but authoritative; he takes long pauses and strings together fragmented thoughts and metaphors and ends up--somewhat miraculously--at something poignant.
In 2003, Garity starred in Showtime's controversial military drama, "Solider's Girl" which landed him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor but it's been "hard couple of years" lining up a new compelling character.
"But I feel really blessed right now," he says.
The screen actor has found himself with a budding television career and he couldn't be happier about it.
This fall, Garity will star alongside Kelsey Grammer in the political drama "Boss," which Garity describes as "basically a Shakespearean drama set in the world of modern Chicago politics."
From the visionary Gus Van Sant, the Starz series follows a power-hungry mayor (Grammer) as he plots for another term as Chicago's top dog.
When he read the script he was hooked. "I didn't care what my role was, I just really wanted to be a part of it."
Garity latched onto the role of Miller, a hungry journalist "of the Mike Royko ilk" who attempts to expose the mayor's true colors.
"And to my good fortune," he says, "the character's life really grows and unravels in a grand way over the course of the season."
While wrapping up the first season of "Boss," Garity was called in to audition for NBC's new eyebrow-raising show, "The Playboy Club." The heavily-stylized series imagines anew the famed 1960s Chicago nightclub and its bunny-tailed cocktail waitress.
Here the actor has traded in his notebook and pen for a cocktail and cuff links; Garity plays a slicked-back character who returns to town to capture his father's murderer.
"This is the first year I really pursued television and there were two pilots that really stood out to me and the fact that I was able to participate in both is just fantastic...it's a blessing."
Garity isn't the only person in his family who is getting recognition. His mother, Jane Fonda (who is still turning heads), has just released a new book on aging.
"She started tweeting and signed onto Facebook and started a blog at 71 [she's now 73] and, of course, I hadn't done any of that."
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