Actor Bailey Chase, who grew up in Naples, discusses ‘Longmire’ role, new Netflix movie

Bailey Chase for years has played the character that viewers often dislike.

The Naples native and father of three said he's enjoying his new roles, including the new Netflix Original movie "Walk. Ride. Rodeo." that premiered earlier this month.

Chase, 46, gained prominence for his acting from 2012 to 2017 on the Western crime series "Longmire," in which he played an ambitious Wyoming sheriff's deputy, Branch Connally.

“More than anything, the arc that I got to do on 'Longmire,' that character Branch, he hit all the notes," Chase said in a recent telephone interview.

"It gave me a confidence as an actor that I could do anything, I could play good. I could play bad. And by portraying these newer characters, that’s how I connect with the audience more. Then they start rooting for you.”

In his latest role, based on a true story, Chase plays Cory Snyder, the father of Amberley Snyder, a successful rodeo barrel racer who returns to the sport after a car crash.

In real life, Bailey and his wife, Amy, have three children: twin 2-year-olds (a boy and a girl) and a 4-year-old daughter who was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when Chase was still shooting "Longmire."

“For me as a dad, to play that role, as an actor, you go to those places where I’m imagining my girl in a hospital bed and in a wheelchair," Bailey said.

“Since 'Longmire' and becoming a dad, I feel like I can play anything.”

Born in Chicago, he grew up in Naples from age 4 through his freshman year at Naples High School. He transferred to the Bolles School in Jacksonville, where he played football and baseball and graduated from the private school before heading to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

After graduating from Duke with a bachelor's degree in sports psychology, Chase said, he decided to fulfill "a boyhood dream" and headed to Los Angeles instead of New York.

"I came out here, being a Florida boy," Chase said. "The climate was a little bit better. I was living at the beach, waiting tables and going to acting class.”

He eventually traveled overseas to become a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, to study Shakespeare.

When he returned to the U.S., he landed a role on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," a television series that ran from 1997 to 2003. For the next few years, Chase portrayed Chris Robert Hughes on the soap opera "As The World Turns."

He co-starred as "Becks" Scott in the ABC comedy-drama "Ugly Betty," which ran from 2006 to 2010, and on the TNT series "Saving Grace," which ran between 2007 and 2010.

But his most notable role came in 2012, on "Longmire," which began on A&E channel and later was presented on Netflix. Robert Taylor starred as Walt Longmire, a stoic, rugged, no-nonsense sheriff; the actor revealed his Australian accent away from the camera, Chase said. 

"He’s a good dude," Chase said of Taylor. "It was a strong cast. We were all distinctly different.”

Longmire" also co-starred Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips and Gerald McRaney, known for his TV roles on "Major Dad" and "Simon & Simon" that Chase said he grew up watching. 

Upcoming work for Chase will include a role in the summer on season four of "Queen of the South," a crime drama on the USA Network. Chase said he has been flying to New Orleans for filming and returning home to L.A. every weekend.

All he said he could reveal about his character is that he's "a jazz musician with a dark past." 

Chase said he still has family in Florida, including a brother who is a builder based in Ocala. He hasn't been in Naples for more than a decade but hopes to visit again one day. 

“Growing up down there, I couldn’t wait to get out," he said of Naples. "But once I got into my 20s and my 30s, I always enjoyed coming back home. Naples will always be home. It's so humid; it just has a feel and a smell. It’s very nostalgic for me.”