Sterling K. Brown and wife Ryan Michelle Bathé’s Los Angeles home had a surprising (yet unexpected) amenity when they purchased the property.
“My wife and I have a bunker in our home,” Brown, 49, said in a Sunday, June 8, interview for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series. “I think a lot of midcentury-modern homes have them because they were built right after World War II.”
Brown and Bathé, 48, have been married since 2007, during which they welcomed sons Andrew, 12, and Amaré, 8. The boys, however, have yet to experience the subterranean room for themselves.
“We sealed it up so the kids wouldn’t be playing down there,” Brown quipped to The White Lotus star Natasha Rothwell during Sunday’s conversation. “[But,] it can hold about 30 people.”
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While the bunker might not be operational, Brown has another favorite room on the property — his garage and self-proclaimed “man cave.”
“There wasn’t anything particularly inviting to the eye. It was a de facto pool house and held most of our storage,” Brown previously told The Los Angeles Times in 2017. “Things just started to spill out, the ping-pong table was covered with clothes and boxes, the fake Christmas tree was sitting in front of a bookshelf. What was once a sanctuary became a way station. We needed some help.”
Brown’s refurbished garage is a place where he can run lines for his multitude of TV and movie roles without being disturbed, but it also serves as a spot to watch TV.
“I need quiet when I’m memorizing lines. I need space I can walk around in and be as loud and weird as I want with no one overhearing. I can do that now,” he quipped, noting that it’s also the place where he goes to watch televised sports games. “There’s a TV set up, where I watch football when my wife gets tired of me watching in the house. I’m from St. Louis, so I was a Rams fan. I wish Angelenos all the best, and I hope the Rams are successful, but I’m now officially a man without a team.”
The Paradise star also keeps sentimental items on display in the garage.
“There are really great photos from when Andrew was born. The photographer, Linnea Lenkus, took pictures of me holding him and kissing him, and they’re some of my favorite things in the world,” he recalled to the newspaper. “They show the wellspring of emotion that this little boy brought into my life.”
At the time, Brown also praised his interior design team for helping renovate the space.
“I wish I had the design eye of Randall Pearson. If I could live in their house, I would be an exceptionally happy man,” he quipped to The Times, referring to his This Is Us character. “I live a very spartan existence [and] Sterling left to his own devices would have many a white wall to stare at.”
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