Tom Pelphrey on ‘Task,’ Working With Mark Ruffalo and Non-Celebrity Life

Tom Pelphrey isn’t a villain — he’s just played one on TV for two decades.

After growing up doing local theater in New Jersey, then training at the Globe Theatre in London, Pelphrey made his television debut on the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light.” For 154 episodes, he played the diabolical Jonathan Randall — a truly dastardly soap villain — whose crimes included, but were not limited to, seducing his own cousin to get revenge, choking his mother, framing his stepfather for abuse and drugging his aunt. 

Since that breakthrough role in 2004, which landed Pelphrey two Daytime Emmy statues, he has worked consistently. After guest starring on a handful of procedurals, “Blue Bloods” and “Law & Order: SVU” and the like, he booked a key role on the Cinemax crime drama “Banshee.” He’d struggled to shake the “soap opera” label — “You come off of there, and you’re starting from scratch,” he says — but finally landed his first series regular part on Netflix’s “Iron Fist” in 2017. 

Three years later, everything changed for Pelphrey when he was cast in “Ozark” (also on Netflix) as Ben Davis, the troubled brother of Wendy Byrde, Laura Linney’s coldhearted drug lord. Though he appeared in only 11 episodes, the attention-getting role put him on the map, and elevated his résumé from Daytime Emmy winner to Primetime Emmy nominee.

Now — after honing his skills as a character actor for more than 20 years — Pelphrey, at 43, is stepping into the spotlight on “Task,” which is premiering on Sept. 7 in HBO’s marquee Sunday-night time slot. Brad Ingelsby’s intricate thriller — his highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s “Mare of Easttown” — allows Pelphrey to shine in a way audiences have never seen him do before.

But on this sweltering August day, Hollywood feels very far away as we walk around the 40-acre ranch in Thousand Oaks — a Ventura County suburb of Los Angeles — that he shares with his partner, Kaley Cuoco, their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, and … too many animals to count. A few minutes into our conversation, Pelphrey pauses as one of their dozens (literally!) of horses comes to the fence.

“Hi, buddy,” he says, gently petting the horse’s snout. I meet a bunch of the rescued or retired animals housed here, from horses and dogs to chickens and goats, one of which nibbles on my hand. Pelphrey even introduces me to their zonkey, a cross between a zebra and a donkey, who is “very skittish, but obviously adorable,” and calms down upon hearing Pelphrey’s voice and distinctive, goofy, oh-so-loud laugh.

But we’re here to discuss business, not zonkeys. “Task” has big shoes to fill after “Mare of Easttown” — Ingelsby’s detective story and character study — became HBO’s pandemic sensation and won Emmys for Kate Winslet and Evan Peters, having received 16 nominations overall. And yes, “Task” — set in the Delaware County suburbs of Philadelphia — takes place in the “Mare”-iverse, but blink and you’ll miss the nod. For now, though, it’s the closest thing we’ll get to a sequel. 

As Robbie Prendergrast, Pelphrey delivers a layered performance as a single father who works as a garbageman by day, but at night becomes a masked robber who steals from various members of a motorcycle gang to keep his family afloat. His wife has left, and he’s raising their two children with the help of his young sister, Maeve (Emilia Jones), in the run-down house they call home.

On paper, Robbie is the series’ villain — but of course it’s more complicated than that. As the show’s co-lead, Pelphrey goes toe to toe with Mark Ruffalo, who plays an FBI agent who’s made a mess of his personal life. While theoretically on opposite ends of the law, the characters’ values align: Both are willing to do anything to keep their families intact, often getting in their own way. The cat-and-mouse dynamic leads to an enticing game between them that plays out over the show’s seven episodes. 

The moral complexities of “Task” caught Pelphrey’s eye — but first had caught Cuoco’s; she read the pilot before he did. “She goes, ‘This is one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever read,’” he remembers. “And then, ‘Did he write this for you?’”

Pelphrey understands why she asked: Robbie has a tough exterior, but inside, he’s warm, tender and at times, very funny. “The truth is, I didn’t have to do a ton of soul-searching with this one,” he says. “I just felt like I knew what it was pretty quickly.”

He was also eager to work with Ruffalo after years of being “a fan from a distance,” Pelphrey says, but struggles to describe exactly how Ruffalo’s process was so helpful to him. Then it comes to him: “There’s a way to be really present, and also, in a lot of invisible and not-talked ways, he holds a real space for others. Mark, in that sense, is one of the most generous people I’ve ever worked with. All of his energy was so available and supportive.”

That support was crucial as they built the dynamic between their characters — especially when the duo eventually come face to face (no spoilers!). In one scene in particular, when emotions are high for everyone involved, the two actors are in close quarters, inches from one another, and it’s hard not to hold your breath while watching. The opposite, however, was true of filming the scene, Pelphrey says. “I think we were laughing a lot!” 

At a time when many have turned to lighter content — comfort TV such as the CBS thriller “Tracker” and TikTok videos are all the rage — there’s still a place for a dark drama, Pelphrey says. Mostly because “Task” is doing something different.

“What Brad’s doing really beautifully and unapologetically is saying there are consequences. We’re not going to glorify all this shit. We’re not going to have guys who rob drug houses from a fucking dangerous gang and get away with it,” he says. “So it is hard and heavy, but there’s some real beauty in there too.”

Not that “Task” plays it safe. Pelphrey was one of millions of viewers who watched every episode of “Mare of Easttown,” and was impressed by how Ingelsby wasn’t afraid to kill off a beloved character: “Brad was like, ‘Fucking “Game of Thrones,” hold my beer.’”

At this point in our conversation, the temperature on the ranch is clocking in at 104 degrees, so we move into the house. Inside, the walls are covered floor to ceiling with portraits of the family’s animals, including Cuoco’s late dog, for whom she named her production company. “This is the famous Norman,” Pelphrey says, showing me the photo. “A real icon.”

Pelphrey’s easy charm, Ingelsby says, was something that captivated him when watching the actor’s self-taped audition. “You need a guy that can go into a house and be believable as a thief; you also need a guy that can go home and have a sense of humor,” he says. “He’s able to lie in bed with his kids and tell them a story. I think that’s a tough thing to do.”  

It doesn’t hurt that Pelphrey had the look Ingelsby was envisioning for Robbie, which Pelphrey admits came about simply because he hadn’t seen the barber (or even a razor) during the months-long actors strike of 2023. “I came on FaceTime looking like I just got out of a fucking hole somewhere — huge beard and my hair all down,” he recalls. Ingelsby remembers it well: “We were like, ‘Oh, my God — that is exactly who Robbie is.’ I think Tom had a very clear sense of what this character would look like.”

Pelphrey leaned into the look, with Ingelsby’s encouragement, especially because of his roots — the East Coast ones, not his hairline. Growing up in central New Jersey, not far from Delco, he knew blue-collar men like Robbie. Early on, Pelphrey even worked closely with the makeup artist, crafting Robbie’s tattoos.

“He knows this world and these people in a way that other actors probably don’t,” Ingelsby says. “This is a part he felt ownership of from the jump — he came from this part of the world. Tom felt really confident about his understanding of the character, and I let him run with it.”

Neither Ingelsby nor Pelphrey views Robbie as a villain. “Even within this illegal activity, there’s a moral code,” Pelphrey says. “I think his heart is in the right place; I think he has the right intentions.”

Yet, without divulging specifics, Robbie does commit serious crimes throughout the series. How did Pelphrey justify that?

“Well, we could have a separate armchair-quarterback conversation about the best way to go about the situation,” he says of the economic stresses in Robbie’s life and the choices he’s made to get by. “What is a criminal who robs from criminals?”

The last time Pelphrey felt this way about a character was during “Ozark,” which served as “a real learning experience about working with professionals,” he says. Linney, he remembers, treated him like a real brother from the moment he joined the cast — something he didn’t expect walking into such a well-oiled machine in Season 3.

“‘Ozark’ was like hitting 777 on the fucking slot machine,” Pelphrey says. “That job definitely opened a lot more doors — success is having more ability to make good choices. ‘Ozark’ meant I get to read better scripts, which is all I’ve ever wanted — more opportunity to get closer to good material.”

It also changed his personal life. At the premiere party of the show’s final season in 2022, Pelphrey met Cuoco, one of TV’s top stars after her massive success on “The Big Bang Theory.” And although he wasn’t new to the business, he was introduced to an entirely different side when he saw into Cuoco’s world.

“To watch how Kaley navigates all of this is so incredible,” he says. “I’m so grateful that our daughter will get that as an example.”

Plus, their varied approaches to Hollywood are something they love about each other. “The way we think about this shit is so fucking different from each other that it’s really fun,” he says. “She’s constantly rolling her eyes and mystified at the amount of work I’m doing or how I’m working on something, and I’m just blown away and so impressed by how natural it is for her to do shit with such ease.”

That ease is foreign to Pelphrey. He’s always loved acting — “If you’re not fucking obsessed, you’re probably going to walk away,” he says — but the larger industry and the required gamesmanship have often thrown him for a loop.

“There’s loving the craft and the practice; then there’s plugging that into this gigantic business. Trying to navigate that can be quite hard,” he says. 

There’s also a big difference between being an actor and being a celebrity, I point out — and each has its challenges. But when asked what they are, Pelphrey smiles before answering. 

“I do not consider myself at any level a fucking celebrity,” he responds, followed by his signature laugh. “I live with one.”

And no, he’s not referring to the zonkey.