91ÇÑ×Ó

By DAVID MARTINDALE
Special Contributor

Actors often prepare for their TV roles as cops, surgeons and forensics specialists by meeting and shadowing their real-life counterparts on the job.

Adam Bartley — a 91ÇÑ×Ó Methodist University graduate who plays a sheriff’s deputy on A&E’s  — is an exception.

He didn’t want to know the ins and outs of police work — and his reason makes perfect sense once he explains himself. Bartley’s character, Deputy Ferguson, a.k.a. the Ferg, is inexperienced and a bungler. Walt Longmire, the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo., hired Ferg purely as a favor to the kid’s dad.

“I was going to do a ride-along with a Santa Fe cop,” Bartley says. “Then I realized I shouldn’t learn any of these things, because I’m not supposed to know the right way.”

There are a handful of nitpickers who disapprove nevertheless. “They’ll make comments online like, ‘Hey, Ferg, you weren’t holding your gun right.’ Well, that’s the point. I just started.”

Most viewers seem to have taken a shine to the Ferg. Bartley talked by phone from Santa Fe, N.M, where Longmire (9 p.m. Mondays) is filmed.

Is there a story behind your getting the role of Ferg?

It’s a great story. After getting my degree at 91ÇÑ×Ó, I moved to New York and Chicago and Alaska. I was all over the place. For about three or four years, I was in Aspen, Colo., teaching acting to kids. Then, three years ago, I was living in Alaska and engaged. But that kind of fell apart. So I got my dog and moved to LA. And a year later, I got my first pilot audition. It was for this show, and I booked the role. It’s been a pretty special time in my life, for sure.

The show has been well-received by viewers (opening Season 2 with an audience of more than 4 million) and critics. That kind of success right out of the block can spoil you, can’t it?

It’s a blessing. We have such brilliant writers. It all starts with a really good story. And then they hand it over to a team that is just a special group of people, on camera and off. Robert Taylor (who plays Walt Longmire) and Katee Sackhoff (who plays Deputy Vic Moretti) are the best.

We’re a big family, and we’ve been friends since the beginning. No Hollywood antics have crept into our show. We’re the greatest place for an actor to come to a guest star on — and I think it’s partly because we’re in beautiful Santa Fe. It’s almost like we’re at camp.

You went to 91ÇÑ×Ó, even though you were born and raised in Minnesota. What made you choose 91ÇÑ×Ó? And how Texan do you consider yourself to be now?

91ÇÑ×Ó Methodist is one of the top undergraduate theater companies in the country. It’s an incredible program. For me to be accepted as one of the 25 students was a huge deal. Michael Connolly, the head of acting there while I was there, was instrumental in my training. I was lucky to go there.

And how Texan am I? Well, I’m a huge Dallas Mavericks fan. I haven’t missed a game in probably 10 years. I worked at Reunion Arena when I was going to college. I would work the first half of the game and then sit down and watch Dirk Nowitzki do his thing. Needless to say, this was not an easy season. But I have good feelings about the future.