He may be best known as Billy in Wes Craven’s Scream, Jake Green in Jericho, and now F.P. Jones on the CW’s Riverdale—but actor Skeet Ulrich takes on a rather different role offscreen: woodworker. The Virginia-born actor and father to 17-year-old twins is just as comfortable cutting a mortise and tenon joint in his home woodshop as he is delivering lines on set. Raised in a family of NASCAR drivers and mechanics (his mother founded the first public relations firm for NASCAR), Ulrich was ultimately drawn to acting, but a love of woodworking was never far behind. “I’d spend all my time in my trailers—I always knew my lines way in advance—so I’d spend my time reading woodworking manuals and the Encyclopedia of Furniture Making and all kinds of different stuff just to understand it,” Ulrich reveals. We caught up with Ulrich to chat about the roots of his woodworking passion, the tree fort with working elevator that he built when he was 10, and what it’s like texting with William H. Macy about carpentry projects.
Architectural Digest: How did you first get into woodworking? Was it a relative or a friend who taught you?
Skeet Ulrich: Well in terms of furniture, no one taught me. I didn’t really know anybody who did it. I just kind of got obsessed by it. And when I was 27, I was “offer only” on films, so I didn’t have to live in Los Angeles. I bought 500 acres in Virginia, on the edge of the Shenandoah Valley. And I made probably 15 films while I lived there. But anytime I wasn’t working, I was building: my shop to start, and then I started building furniture.
Construction-wise, I’ve been fortunate to have a best friend, Bryan Sloop, who was a genius. We built a tree fort when we were ten that had an elevator in it. It was basically a winch hooked into the tree that would pull a platform up. Needless to say, he sort of sparked my interest in construction in general, and we were always building. We went to college together briefly, before I went to NYU, and we’d build all the furniture for us and our friends. Just rudimentary picnic-table-style stuff. I was studying marine biology and hated it, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I started building sets for the theater company at UNC-Wilmington, and fell in love with what became my career. I went to New York University after that and trained for four years, and then started making movies. But I was always intrigued by architecture. Moving to New York, I was suddenly aware of such grandeur, architecturally. But in terms of getting my building skills, I just keep building. I’m always building something.
AD: Where are you building these days? Do you have a shop in your house?
SU: Since ’96, I’ve had a shop connected to my house in some way. It’s a two-car garage basically. But I run full dust-collection systems, and on the side of it I’ve added a huge lumber rack, plus a dust-collection room that pulls everything out. You know, I actually prefer it over the 40-by-20 that I started in because you’re carrying heavy timbers all the way across the shop until you get them sized and stuff. So in the small shop you can pivot around much more easily.
AD: When you’re in the midst of a project, what are you going through physically and mentally?
SU: For me, it’s constant calculations. Like, OK, where this meets this, how does that happen? How does that affect that? It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to piece it all together. And because I’m not classically trained in woodworking, it’s a lot of stuff I’m figuring out as I go. Then I’ll have to sometimes look up how people do things. Because of my job, I don’t have a ton of time. So once I figure out the joinery I want, I have to figure out, What is the most expedient way of cutting the joinery? Do I just want to take the time and cut my dovetails? All that stuff. It’s just ever-evolving.
AD: Have you found any connections between woodworking and acting?
SU: [laughs] Not necessarily. I mean, there’s an attention to detail that is very similar. I could make up some hokey line to tie them together. And I guess that’s part of what I like about it. With acting, I go and hand over a piece of me. And somebody—a director in film and typically a producer in TV—will mold it into whatever they want it to be. With building, I get to pick it from the start all the way through the finish. My hands are in every piece of it.
AD: What’s the piece you’ve built of which you’re the proudest?
SU: A friend of my friend was redoing a Rudolph Schindler house here in Southern California. Schindler also built furniture, and so the owner wanted some replica pieces from Schindler. Really, he had one black-and-white photograph of a side profile of this chair, and he had gone to five different woodworkers who couldn’t figure out how to do it. I figured it out; we made him six of the chairs. And they’re quite cool, they’re very different than what I would do, because they’re built with plywood. I think I understand why plywood became all the rage post–World War II. It was technically challenging.
Then I built the same person a table that was a knockoff of a circular dining table. I did a rectangular coffee table. The guy, when he was redoing the house, pulled some of the ceiling pieces out—two-by-sixes—and he wanted the table top to be out of that. So that was interesting. He had the certificate for the wood. You know, you had to write the government at the time to get a piece of lumber and nails! So he had the paperwork for that material. That one only took ten hours to figure out, but it’s basically a cantilevered . . . 50-50 cantilever off the edges, and it turned out really cool. People tend to dig it. I built one for myself after I built his.
AD: Have you done any small projects that you’ve given away as gifts?
SU: Not in the last year or two. I haven’t had a ton of time with our Riverdale shooting schedule, and I raise my kids on my own. They’re 17, so they’re able to stay home, but I’m back and forth twice a week to Vancouver where we shoot. So I unfortunately haven’t built in the last little bit. But furniture-wise, I built this easel when the kids were really little, probably 12 years ago now. It was the first piece I built out of this shop. Their preschool had, like, one little plastic easel, and all the kids would line up and wait for their two minutes to paint. I built them an easel out of redwood, so it could withstand the elements out here, and four kids can paint at once. The back side can be a buffet for the outdoor meals they would have all the time. That one was fun. It was quite a challenge, but a lot of fun to deliver.
AD: Speaking of your kids, have you taught them to build? Are they into it?
SU: You know, not a ton. They’re starting to have a real interest in it, but only lately. My son’s starting to get into it. All my family are NASCAR drivers and NASCAR mechanics, so he’s more into cars. My daughter likes doing demo! But I hope to pass it on to them, for sure.
AD: What’s your dream woodworking project––if time and money were no object?
SU: And skills? Like, if I had the time to learn the skills?
AD: Correct.
SU: Well, my designs tend to be a little unique, so I’ve had an idea for a sofa in my living room. It’s kind of a throwback to the '50s, but at the same time it’s completely modern. It’s all bentwood laminates for the backing, but not a full heavy wood piece. Something that’s almost like they use steel or iron to build the frame out of, but I’d build it out of something like santos mahogany. And within its curves and all its nooks, you’ve got USB chargers buried. I love doing that.
AD: Who are some of your woodworking influences?
SU: Furniture-wise, I was always drawn to Sam Maloof’s stuff. I know his son is continuing some of that tradition of building. The hip joint is fascinating to me; the way Maloof used it. In terms of architecture, I got fascinated by Bjarke Ingels. And recently Zaha Hadid––I’m sure I’m way late to the game on Zaha.
AD: What’s one thing that people don’t understand about woodworking?
SU: Probably the precision of it. I mean, I think people tend to think that it’s something a little bit loose. And I find, in my experience anyway, that the more precise you are, the more you can allow the wood to move like it’s going to do and not mess up your entire system. I think it’s far more precise than people would expect.
AD: Do you have other actor friends who are into building?
SU: I was taught acting by William H. Macy—Bill—and he’s big into woodworking. And we’ll text occasionally about it. I’ll ask him what he’s been building, what he’s up to. We don’t really talk about work or business or any shit like that. We’ll just talk. He’s been dying to build this bridge at his place in the Hollywood Hills forever. I used to live down the road from him not too long ago. But he also turns a lot of bowls. He’s a bowl-turner, and very talented.
AD: What’s your philosophy for woodworking? Where do you fall on the spectrum of hand tools versus machines?
SU: Definitely a mix. I mean, I do hand-cut a lot of stuff, joinery-wise. Mortise and tenons. Dovetails. But if I’m dealing with a wood like santos mahogany, it’s almost impossible. It’s so dense. Then I’ll resort to machines. So it really depends on, A, how fast I need to get it done, what I have time for; then B, material, and what will best make the joints. Hip joints, for me, it has to be machines; I don’t know how to hand-cut them. I don’t think Sam Maloof hand-cut them either. But yeah, it just depends. But I’m a mix. I mean, I find a lot of uses for tools in different ways. The first piece I built was longer than I could get stock for, and I had to come up with a way to join the segments together in a nearly 12-foot length. I had four-foot segments, and I wanted to use long rods through it. So I flipped my mortar feed machine on its side and used it as a boring machine. I created a jig to hold everything in line and make sure it would all line up in the end. It just kind of depends what needs to be done.
AD: Which department on a film set—set construction excluded, obviously—might produce the most skilled woodworker?
SU: I mean, I think directors. With the eye toward detail; the vision. And it takes a bit of poetry, to be honest. You have to really see way into the future, what it’s going to be. So it takes vision. And directors certainly fit that mold.
AD: Has there been any extra-weird request for a project you’ve had to turn down?
SU: Honestly? I never get offered projects. I don’t put myself out there, you know? Like as a for-hire woodworker or builder. So I’ve not been offered anything, to be honest.
AD: Well maybe that’ll change after this article.
SU: [laughs] It might! I might be into something I can’t handle!
Check out a closet built by Ulrich and his friend, Bart Solhjem, in his Los Angeles home.
Related: Look Inside William H. Macy's Mediterranean-Style House in L.A.
