David Harbour Is Conflicted About Becoming a Morning Person

The Red Guardian never made the varsity squad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s more than OK with David Harbour.

“Of the people that do love these movies, we are not the favorite,” he said of the antiheroes in the new Marvel film “Thunderbolts*.” “But we really poured our hearts into this movie and tried to make something that is about isolation in modern society and light and the darkness that is within all of us.”

During what Harbour called a bit of a nightmare, he worked on “Thunderbolts*” at the same time he was shooting the final season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” in which he plays Hopper, the heroic small-town police chief. He is currently working on “DTF St. Louis,” an HBO limited series and the first thing he has produced, with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini.

In a video call from Los Angeles, he elaborated on the headphones, sunglasses and Zen mantra that he considers essential. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

An Americano

I drink it all day long. My doctor has told me to knock it off, but it is the last vice I have. I have an assistant and she does a lot of great things for me, but probably the No. 1 job is she brings me too many Americanos throughout the day.

Wired Headphones

I love a tangled cord. I used to carry a CD player back in the early 2000s and I would put on headphones and walk around the East Village and have my little soundtrack to my life. Just sort of float through.

Jacques Marie Mage’s Yves Sunglasses

They’re wide, they’re big. I like them to be a very light tint so that I can wear them indoors and at night and people don’t think I’m wearing sunglasses. But they still sort of shield your eyes. It’s a funny thing that when people can’t see your eyes, they really don’t recognize you as well.

My Yellowbird Wallet

There’s a shop in Little Five Points, which is the East Village of Atlanta, for Native American stuff, and a guy called Yellowbird paints these wallets. I have a wallet with a bear on it, and I got a drum that I keep out as a talisman for the hawk that just basically sits on my roof until he finds a little chipmunk that hasn’t gotten the memo.

Zen Mantra

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Zen monk from Vietnam who was quite an incredible man. His mantra things are so simple, but so profound. “Breathing in, I’m aware that I’m breathing in. Breathing out, I’m aware that I’m breathing out. Breathing in, present moment. Breathing out, wonderful moment. Enjoy your breath.” It’s a bite-size bonbon.

My Meds

Since I was diagnosed bipolar when I was 26, I’ve always taken mental pills, whatever you call them. I’ve gone back and forth about the necessity of them so I struggle with the idea that they are an essential to my life. But I do know that it can help people to know that you are not alone if you need these medications and that everybody needs something.

A Binder With My Script Work

One of the things I miss about doing plays is you get to rehearse. Whereas with TV and film, you don’t rehearse. My assistant now compiles all the work that I have ahead of me for the next two weeks, two weeks in advance, in a nice little binder. I need to constantly familiarize myself with something so it lives in my body before I go to shoot it.

Acceptance

When I first got sober when I was 24, one of the pages of the Big Book [of Alcoholics Anonymous] that was really pivotal is they say acceptance is the key to all my problems. As the world gets more complex, the more deeply I need to find the people that can accept me, the situations that can accept me, and not only that can accept me, but that I can have acceptance for.

Sleeping In

I was such a theater rat in my 20s. You’re out after the play till 4 a.m., so I would sleep in until 1 p.m. Now I’m a more film and TV guy, so you’re up early at 6 in the morning. But I still have that beast inside me that wants to sleep till 1 p.m. every day. I feel no shame.

Ugliness

I like looking at ugliness in all sorts of ways. It’s another Zen concept that Thich Nhat Hanh has where it’s like the lotus grows from the mud. If you don’t have any mud, you don’t have any lotus. Sometimes I can isolate myself into just looking at what’s beautiful or hiding my face from situations or people that are ugly. It makes my life thinner and weaker, and it devalues beauty when I see it.