Andre Braugher: How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

Andre Braugher died at 61 and was responsible for some of the show’s funniest moments across its eight seasons.

The police chief at the center of the US sitcom thrived, largely thanks to Captain Raymond Holt, who provided the show’s pounding heart.

Braugher expertly depicted all of Holt’s personality elements, resulting in one of television’s most fully formed and well-rounded characters.

While the actor added heart and humor to the role, his harsh appearance and deadpan delivery endeared him to the show’s legions of fans.

“For me, Captain Holt was the best aspect of that show, bar none,”
Amon Warmann, contributing editor and columnist at Empire magazine, says. “Yes, he could be goofy, like many of the characters, but more than anyone else on the show, he brought the gravitas.”So, when it came time for a scene to hit as hard as needed, and there were several in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where that was the case, you could always count on Andre Braugher to deliver it and have it resonate with audiences.”

Braugher’s ability to keep a straight face while delivering some of the best lines of dialogue was generally applauded, but the rare instances when Captain Holt burst to life will be remembered fondly.

In season four, Holt spends the entire day building a balloon arch for another character’s wedding. Holt becomes deflated after being mocked by some of his coworkers, who think it’s not a good idea and begin popping the balloons.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

However, when Rosa, the bride-to-be, comes across the arch in his office by chance, she deems it “magnificent.” “VIN-DI-CA-TION!” shouts Holt, his face flushed with relief and excitement.

This was the scene that many people shared on social media after learning of Braugher’s death.

Captain Holt’s typically expressionless face belied a character of depth and warmth that fans grew to love.
“Holt was a man without expression but never without feeling,” commented Lester Fabiasteven Brathwaite of Entertainment Weekly.

“And he was a wonderfully complicated character, a man full of contradictions.”
He said: “Braugher’s deliciously deadpan delivery as Holt often provided some of the funniest moments throughout the show’s eight seasons, particularly when juxtaposed with the more cartoonish exploits of his cadre of kooky cops.”

Braugher delivered his lines with perfect pronunciation and grammar on all occasions. He insisted on referring to such a mystery as a “who has done this?” rather than a “whodunnit.”

In another incident, his crew realized he had been kidnapped because he used a contraction while on the phone.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

His caustic tone was frequently exactly what made a phrase humorous. In the Halloween heist episode, he only used the word “bitch” in the literal sense, referring to a female dog.

Surrounded by a fantastic ensemble cast that wonderfully riffed off each other, the straight-faced Holt found ways to show his friends and colleagues that he cared regularly.

How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

When Terry considers leaving the precinct in the second season, Captain Holt compels him to stay up all night digitizing files – hardly the kind of thing that would influence an employee’s attitude toward their employment.

However, Holt’s motive for compelling him to do so was so that Terry would be forced to reflect on his work memories with his colleagues, making him sentimental and ultimately prompting him to stay.
Although he may not always express his feelings and emotions on the surface, Braugher infuses his lines with comedy, intellect, and heart.

“Andre Braugher had a way of speaking like he loved every weird little clause of a sentence,” Vulture’s Kathryn Van Arendonk stated after learning of the actor’s death.
“Like his voice and gravity could hold more separate thoughts, rhythms, and linguistic turns at once than most people could ever hold.” It was a delight to listen to him.”

However, categorizing him purely as a comic actor may be doing him a disservice. He could also provide seriousness and authority, as Warmann points out, particularly in scenes like the last season when Captain Holt suspends Jake.

Andre Braugher: How His Deadpan Delivery Made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Beating Heart

“The way that conversation comes across, it’s so interesting,” Warmann said, “because Brooklyn Nine-Nine at its heart is a comedy show, but because of performers like Andre Braugher, who had a

Shakespearean background, any time there’s a big speech that needs to be made with gravitas, it could go from comedy and cut right through that and be like, ‘Oh, this is a moment’.”It clicked because you have a performer like Andre Braugher.”

Holt offers a stirring speech explaining why Jake Peralta must be suspended for five months for witness intimidation.
“Do you know what happens when cops are not punished for their mistakes?” “What happens when police are treated as a separate class of citizens above the law?” he wonders.

“It breeds distrust in the community, which means people won’t cooperate with our investigations, testify, or even call us when they’re in danger.” It makes them fear us more than criminals or gangsters. It causes people to regard us as the adversary, which leads to further conflict and distrust.”

It’s worth mentioning, however, that Holt would occasionally fall victim to gay stereotypes, either in jest or to make a point.

In one episode, he tries to get Terry to ride a motorcycle, but Terry refuses since bikes are “death machines.” Instead, he advises Holt to do so.

“Are you saying that my life is less important because I don’t conform to society’s heteronormative, child-centric ideals?” inquires the self-aware police captain.

“Are you really playing the gay card right now?” Terry reacts. “Yas, queen,” Captain Holt says. Rare occasions like this demonstrated Holt’s ability to use humor and snark when warranted.

Few argue that the figure was both creative and influential. “Andre himself was a big factor in that,” Warmann says, “playing.

Captain Holt is a person first, with real ambitions, real desires, a real sort of want to make change for the better, and that’s the sort of thing that comes across long before they start talking about gayness or blackness in any explicit manner.”

And they eventually do it in various episodes because that is a part of who Captain Holt is, but it doesn’t define him in the way it could in other series and other media.”

“That’s partly why Captain Holt resonates with everyone on some level, not just the black man or the gay man,” he concludes, “because he’s a person first.” He’s played that manner and written that way, so the word “groundbreaking” is accurate. I hope more media will study that and draw cues from it because we will have better art.

SOURCE – (BBC)