“I got a call out of the blue, and they’re usually the best calls,” says Boyd Holbrook. Such was the case for his role as Johnny Cash in “A Complete Unknown,” which was followed shortly by a call to join “The Morning Show” for its fourth season. 

“I don’t know what I did in the past life to get that,” says Holbrook, speaking back to the call about “The Morning Show.” “It came in and I just took a second to sit with it.”

Holbrook, who is 44, joins Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Greta Lee, Karen Pittman, Nicole Beharie and more in the smash success Apple TV+ series about the making of network news in this day and age. Holbrook plays Brodie, a podcaster who is beloved by a young male audience for his provocative, controversial takes, nodding to the rise of bro podcasters in today’s zeitgeist. Brodie’s show was acquired by the network that owns “The Morning Show,” making him now a colleague of the names above.

“The show reflects reality in a big way. You’re seeing all these breakaway podcasters do their thing and there’s a real audience for this, and I’ve got my favorites too. And I love learning about all these random detail jobs and what people do for a living,” Holbrook says of Brodie. 

“I think he is brash. He’s very blunt. His brand is kind of saying the thing that maybe people are thinking about or is not appropriate to say right now,” he adds. “And I think he’s rewarded by the amount of followers that’s there, and that people are seeing themselves in him by doing these risky takes on stuff. But I think for me, what’s the truth in that? There’s a person underneath there that’s also throwing a lot of smoke for you not to see who I really am. And I think why I like doing this job is finding that out and being honest about that and showing the humane part of the character. That’s the fun part for me.”

Prior to landing the role, Holbrook knew “The Morning Show” was the “industry darling” that everyone talked about, but hadn’t watched it. Brodie interacts mostly with Aniston’s character, Alex, the most senior person on “The Morning Show,” with tensions brewing between the two thus far in the season. She is a traditional news person who views the shock jock approach of Brodie’s brand of media to be shallow, but she can’t ignore the hold over the network he’s amassing.  

“She is the perfect dose of all the special bits,” Holbrook says of Aniston. “She’s funny, she’s professional, she has amazing timing as a comedian, as an actor, like a legend to work with. But you have to forget about that. And that’s the trick. But she’s wonderful to work with.”

Holbrook started work on “The Morning Show” directly following “A Complete Unknown.” 

“One was a lot of technical things to give the essence of someone. And then this was like no gimmicks on it at all. Just out, vulnerable, skin off, no protection from the elements. That’s the person. And I think that’s why you can’t judge these characters,” he says. “That’s what I’m trying to get at is you can’t make [Brodie] want to be liked. Sometimes in life, people don’t like you. That’s OK. Sometimes people are oil and water. That’s OK. And yeah, that’s a big part of the character of not judging who they are or what my points of view are on this.”