Not at all. Whatever pays, that’s great. I like comedy and I like gangsters. I always had trouble with love scenes. I'm so insecure. But playing gangsters is great. They usually dress you sharp. And you have a license to pretty much bully anybody. I mean, I wouldn’t dare do that at home. My wife will give me a back hander. So doing it at work is a great release – it saves you all that money at the shrink.


QUESTION:
Is it true you had some real-life experience with gangsters and the mob back in your young days in Boston?

ALEX ROCCO:
I come from a place called Winter Hill, and I was kind of a wannabe gangster. I started off running errands for the guys that were always dressed nice in the long collars with their initials. They called me Bobo, and it was always “Bobo, go get me a milkshake” or “Go grab me the newspaper,” and they’d throw me a few bucks. Plus I learned a lot from the gangsters. Things like you never look at another guy's wife, always leave a good tip, never eat meat on Friday … but you can kill all during the week.


QUESTION:
Did your mob experience help you in the entertainment business?

ALEX ROCCO:
I tried to use that street energy to get started in this business. A lot of actors just wait for the phone to ring, but you’ve got to hustle. I don’t mean you have to be overbearing, but you have to stay on top of things – read the trades, know what’s going on in the town.  I call it “dare to be stupid.”  The worst thing they can say is “We got nothing for you.” So I've hustled a lot in the 44 years I've been doing this.


QUESTION:
How did hustling get you that first gig on the Batman television series?

ALEX ROCCO:
I'd worked at the Rain Check Room – an actor's hangout – for a while. You’d see people in there like Robert Vaughn, Shelley Winters and Rock Hudson, who used to comb his hair the other way to try and be incognito. I was one of the two main bartenders along with an actor named Arch Whiting, who was down the other end (of the bar). He worked on Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and Batman, just about any series at that time. Mike McLean was a casting guy at 20th, and he used to call for Arch. I knew the routine. He’d call Arch and ask, “You available – I’ve got one line for Bottom Of The Sea.” I was a little jealous and I never really loved Arch that much. So one day, Arch goes to the bathroom and the phone rang. It’s Mike from 20th and he’s looking for Arch. I said, “No, he's on vacation in Mexico. What are you calling for?” And he said he had something for him for Batman. And I says, “Hey, I did eight Naked City’s for Gold Medal” – knowing that  Gold Medals Studios in New York had burnt down, and they can't get the footage to check me out. I said, “I'm a hell of an actor.” And he said, “Pay is 150 bucks and it's two lines.” And that was my first gig. I stole the Batman gig and it turned out it was a two-partner where they introduced The Green Hornet and Bruce Lee, who ended up teaching my kids martial arts. So yeah, it was funny – when they called and asked if I wanted to be in this picture, I flashed back on 1966. So this is fun.


QUESTION:
Do you have any special memories from your Batman TV series experience?

ALEX ROCCO:
Adam West was terrific. The kiddo that was a pain in the ass was Robin. The director would say “Grab his wrist and hold him up against the wall,” and then the kid would whine, “He hit my wrist.” And Adam looked at me and said “He does it to every actor.” I remember the villain Roger C. Carmel, and Julie Newmar was on set. Oh man, Julie Newmar -- I had such a crush on her. She was in costume in the commissary, and I was just smitten.


QUESTION:
Did you ever read comics?

ALEX ROCCO: