FUZZ-FREE: Pablo Schreiber in a hairless moment.
‘BLACK’ OPS: Inmate Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett (Taryn Manning, left) and corrections officer George “Pornstache” Mendez (Pablo Schreiber, right) size up the prison population on “Orange Is the New Black.” (
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Pablo Schreiber delights in wearing grotesquely bushy upper lip hair which rivals that on folks like famed porn star Ron Jeremy, actor Tom Selleck and too many members of the Village People.
“Don’t forget Freddie Mercury, man!” Schreiber says with a laugh, referencing the late Queen singer as he talks about George “Pornstache” Mendez, the sleazy corrections officer Schreiber plays on the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black.”
“When I accepted the role, we knew that was a major part of the character,” he says about wearing an off-putting, fuzzy prosthetic. “I’m actually incredibly proud to be part of the all-time best mustache club!”
On “Orange,” Schreiber’s corrupt and twisted Mendez smuggles contraband into a federal correctional facility with the help of female inmates, who he intimidates with sexually predatory behavior. Along the way Mendez falls in love with an inmate who has sex with him in attempt to get him fired for inappropriate conduct. The show is based on a 2010 memoir by Piper Kerman.
For Schreiber, the role is a gruesome great escape.
“I like to explore and play with things and try things on for size,” he says. “To try someone as out-there and grotesque as George ‘Pornstache’ Mendez is — it’s just liberating.”
As if that role wasn’t creepy enough, Schreiber will also be remembered as the psychopathic rapist who took NYPD Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) hostage on the Season 14 cliff-hanger finale of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” last May. That series returns Sept. 25 with an episode loaded with “trauma and anxiety,” he says.
“It’s kind of funny how ‘SVU’ lined up so perfectly — or imperfectly — with ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ and I happened to have two villains on TV simultaneously,” says Schreiber in a recent phone interview from a Los Angeles playground, where he juggled wrangling his two young sons — Timoteo, 4, and Dante, 1 — with discussing his recent slate of darker characters.
“I haven’t always been playing the bad guys, have I?” Schreiber asks before being reminded that he also voiced serial-killing businessman Patrick Bateman for a 2010 audio book version of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel “American Psycho.”
“Yeah, I guess that goes right into my oeuvre, doesn’t it?” Schreiber says.
“I think it just happens to be a moment in time right now,” says the Canadian-born Schreiber, whose half-brother is actor Liev Schreiber, star of the Showtime series “Ray Donovan.”
“Whether it’s a particularly nasty or villainous character, or a particularly heroic character, the extremes of human behavior turn me on and get me fired up,” says Schreiber, whose long list of television work includes roles on HBO’s “The Wire” and Showtime’s “Weeds.” He was also nominated for a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in the 2006 revival of “Awake and Sing!”
Up next for Schreiber is his role as a tough cop named Virgil (no last name) on the NBC reboot of the network’s 1967-75 drama “Ironside,” which starred Raymond Burr as paralyzed San Francisco detective Robert Ironside. Blair Underwood reprises the role, but as a wheelchair-bound NYPD detective.
Coincidentally, both Underwood and Schreiber are graduates of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. Fun fact: Underwood, a 1988 alum, was the commencement speaker at Schreiber’s 2000 graduation.
Schreiber, his wife Jessica and their kids moved from New York to LA on July 10, just before filming began for “Ironside,” which premieres Oct. 2. He says the role will be a change from his recent string of demented characters and will “kind of come back a little closer to me. Virgil has two kids at home and a suburban life and commutes into New York every day.”
Of course, Virgil’s back story includes punishment for excessive violence by the police department. Does that mean his next character could, yet again, have a sinister tone?
“Yeah, I don’t think I could completely get away from the dark side,” he says, laughing. “I’m never going to be a Disney star.”