Interview: Scott Wolf — The Likable Bad Guy
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| Scott Wolf (photo by Trae Patton/ABC Studios) |
Scott comes aboard as Donnie Ryan, Kate’s soon-to-be ex-husband, an assistant U.S. Attorney who is transferred back to Chicago, and ends up working with Daniel and Kate on cases. And a little birdie told me he might still be carrying a torch for his estranged wife. I spoke with Scott recently about his new role, and he told me all about life in the world of “Perception.”
Celebrity Extra: Tell me how your latest role came about, how you landed the role of Donnie Ryan.
Scott Wolf: First off, I am a fan of the show, and a big fan of both Eric and Rachael, so when the opportunity came about, I was really excited. Before I was cast, we did a “chemistry meeting” with Eric and Rachael, where I went in and the three of us just read through some of the material. Right from the beginning, there was just something very easy about it. Coming into a situation like that where they have a really great thing going, and they have this great relationship, you want to be respectful of that. And then at the same time, you want to bring something new and be a good addition to everything.
They’re both pretty great people. They’re really talented artists, but they’re really cool people. They could not have been more welcoming and generous and glad to have me join the show. I think the character of Donnie has added a pretty cool, interesting, sometimes disturbing new dynamic to the proceedings. And in a way, I think it’s allowed Daniel and Kate to show sides of themselves that would be difficult to show otherwise.
CE: Tell me about Donnie.
SW: Donnie Ryan is Kate’s estranged husband, soon to be ex-husband, who had a very bad indiscretion in their relationship and caused things to fall apart. He’s been in D.C. working as an assistant U.S. Attorney, and he winds up coming back to Chicago. It doesn’t take very long for him to reveal what his true intentions are. He says he just got transferred back there for work, but it becomes obvious that he’s come back there to be closer to her.
On the professional side, he winds up being integral to a lot of the cases that Daniel and Kate are working on. So, they end up working together a lot. At some point, it becomes clear that Daniel and Kate have feelings for each other, whether they’re romantic or they’re just friendship or whatever they are. That becomes something that Donnie is conscious of, so there’s a little bit of a triangle between the three of them. But the journey that the three of them go on is really interesting because in a sense, they find sides of each other that you wouldn’t expect them to when we see them crossing paths at the beginning of the season.
CE: The ambiguity of Donnie reminds me of another role you played, reporter Chad Decker on “V.” Is it fun to play a character where the audience isn’t quite sure whether to love him or hate him?
SW: It absolutely is. It’s always fun to be cast in a role where the character is a little ambiguous, and you’re not quite sure whether you’re rooting for him or not. And I think it’s fun to play characters like that. I think if you cast a guy who always plays the bad guy, and then he does these awful things, then it’s difficult for an audience to root for him.
It’s hard to even talk about without sounding silly, but you know me — I don’t have a bad-guy face, and I’m not the least-likable guy in the universe. So if you can get past the idea of somebody who’s not the least-likable person in the universe in a role where he’s doing despicable things, it creates this tension. When the season begins, a lot of people will wonder what Kate ever saw in this guy.
Q and A: Week of June 10
Q: A while ago you said “The Killing” would be back for a third season, and I was thrilled. I have yet to see it on AMC’s schedule. Can you tell me when it will return? — Holly G., via emailA: “The Killing” returned June 2 for its 12-episode third season. This season will explore the dark world of a serial killer, Ray Seward (played by Peter Sarsgaard), who has a connection to Sarah Linden’s past. According to executive producer Veena Sud, Peter had a big hand in creating his character, saying: “He came in with really great ideas. … There is something that is so brilliantly internal about Peter. He takes all these characteristics of extreme violence, and he sucks it deep within him, and it becomes more terrifying because of it.”
Q: The actor who played Jake Abernathy on “Bates Motel” was in a sitcom several years ago. Can you tell me what show I am thinking of? — Shirley T., via email
A: The actor in question is Jere Burns, who is perhaps most recognized for his role as ladies’ man Kirk Morris on the Judd Hirsch sitcom “Dear John,” which ran on NBC from 1988-92. He has done a ton of stuff since then, including “Justified,” “Burn Notice,” “Breaking Bad,” “Hawaii Five-0” and many others.
Q: Can you give me any hints as to what we can expect this season on “Perception”? — Michelle W., via email
A: The second season of “Perception,” which begins Tuesday, June 25, brings aboard a new — but familiar — face. Scott Wolf joins the cast as Donny Ryan, Kate’s (Rachael Leigh Cooke) estranged, soon-to-be ex-husband. I spoke with Scott recently, who’s excited to play this new role, and he gave me a sneak peak as to what to expect:
“Donny’s been in D.C. working as an assistant U.S. Attorney, and he winds up coming back to Chicago. It doesn’t take very long for him to reveal what his true intentions are. He says he just got transferred back there for work, but pretty quickly he reveals that he’s come back there to be closer to Kate. Soon, it becomes clear that Daniel (Eric McCormack) and Kate have feelings for each other, whether friendship or romantic. So, there’s a little bit of a triangle between the three of them.”
Check back later this week for my entire interview with Scott.
Interview: Mary McDonnell Is the Woman in Charge
Mary McDonnell and the rest of her crew are back on TNT June 10, when “Major Crimes” begins its second season. A successful spin-off of the equally successful “The Closer,” “Major Crimes” follows Mary’s Capt. Sharon Raydor, who took over the major crimes division last year when Dep. Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) left, and since then, she’s certainly made her mark within the division. Coming from the “enemy camp” of Internal Affairs, Capt. Raydor brings a new perspective to the department’s investigations, and, likewise, stage and screen vet Mary McDonnell brings her own brand of justice to the role. I spoke with Mary recently about the show’s premiere, and she assured me that fans won’t be disappointed. Celebrity Extra: First of all, a lot of new shows don’t even make it to a second season, so you all must be excited that you have indeed been renewed — and not just for the normal order of 13 episodes, but for a super-size season of 19 episodes.
Mary McDonnell: Yes, we’re really, really happy. We are about to finish shooting episode number five, so we already have a strong sense of at least the beginning of the season, and we’re pretty excited. It’s fantastic. And it’s new and it’s interesting and it’s complicated. It reveals more of all the characters and new characters. And it’s just really great. We’re very excited to premiere.
CE: I am not only excited to see how this new season picks up, I’m also eager to see what new cast member Tom Berenger will bring to the show. Are you excited to work with him?
MM: We’ve worked together before, so we know each other, and we knew that it would be awesome to work together again. He’s been on the set for the past couple of weeks, and it’s been absolutely great!
CE: He plays your character’s estranged husband, who we learn has a gambling problem. Are you glad to be able to explore more of Raydor’s personal side?
MM: It really is exciting, because any time you can start to fill in the gaps, start to have a larger container through which to view any character, it’s always refreshing and exciting and reassuring. The more I find out about the moment-to-moment experience of some of her past, the more I understand her present. And then you can start to share some of what you learned; it’s a wonderful, wonderful process to go forward and backward and forward. It’s really gratifying as a performer.
CE: What do we get to learn about her past?
MM: Well, we learn about her and how she deals with having him back in her life; whether or not it’s estranged. We learn a lot about her at work through the relationships there. We get to have a much more revealing picture of a woman. I don’t want to say too much about this because I certainly don’t want to give too much away. But let’s just say, there’s a lot to be learned, and it’s complex, and it’s been a tremendous amount of fun to shoot.
CE: A lot of last year was about Capt. Raydor’s career change, going from an “outsider” to an “insider” when she left her job at internal affairs to take charge of the major crimes unit. How difficult or challenging has the change been for her?
MM: She’s a very bright woman, and she knew that part of her job in internal affairs was not to make friends with people; you can’t keep your eye on the police while being friends with them. Sharon is very comfortable being an outsider. So, to have to then suddenly develop trust among those who you had been monitoring, she knew it would be a very difficult thing to do. It required tremendous discipline and humility. It also speaks to a kind of management style that I think she represents, which I think a lot of women who are in higher positions can relate to. There is an emergence of women in upper management in the workplace — women my age who are close to retiring are getting even bigger jobs.
So the question was, How does one step into hostile territory and begin to go about working with them? How to deal with oneself while making it very clear that she was the boss, but that she also respects their talents as great cops. She also needed to be really open about the fact that she has never been in the position where she sends her horse into the line of fire, literally. With internal affairs, they show up when the crime is finished. She wasn’t necessarily putting her people in harm’s way. They were there to investigate what went wrong. That’s a very different way that you go to sleep at night, where you worry about your people.
CE: What are some of the more difficult aspects of your job?
MM: I’m just beginning to understand the difficulty in having three scripts running in my mind at once. There’s the script that I’m shooting, there’s the script that I’m memorizing to shoot, and there’s the script that I’m just starting to read. As an actress, I have this wonderful gift: Our wonderful writers and producers trust us, and we have the chance to inject our opinions about the script, and think and talk to the writer. We’re not in the situation like a lot of television shows where you get the script the night before. So because of that luxury of having three scripts to work with at any given time, I’m finding that every once in a while, I go to shoot a scene, and I say, “This isn’t making any sense, because in the other scene I said, ‘blah-blah-blah-blah.’” And everyone looks at me like I’m out of my mind, and I realize I’ve already jumped to another script. My imagination has already started to work on one of the others, and so I’ve gotten mixed up.
It made me remember the organizational skills and the discipline that it takes to do this. I learned a lot from Kyra (Sedgwick). She was very generous with me about how to keep an ongoing story going and how to organize things. That’s when I start to feel the heat, keeping track of the overall arc and how to keep it moving. That’s been a huge challenge.
CE: I follow you on Twitter, so I was wondering if you’ll be live-tweeting the premiere episode?
MM: No, I won’t be. I love developing that social-media relationship with the fans, I really do. But I think that the actress’ primary job is that when it comes to the actual product, you do it and stay quiet and let the audience enjoy it. If you’re constantly chatting with them while they are watching it, you’re editorializing, and to me, it interrupts what’s supposed to be happening onscreen.
I tried to do it during my “Battlestar Galactica” days, but I couldn’t do it. I know that a lot of the shows’ fans are really tech-savvy and they really get the process. But they’re used to me. They’re like: “Oh, yeah, that’s Mary. She’s old-school. We know.”
Renewed or Canceled?
The time has come to announce the fate of your favorite (or not-so-favorite) network shows from the 2012-13 season. Keep on reading to see whether your show has been renewed or canceled (or ended on its own).
ABC — Renewed
“Castle,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Last Man Standing,” “The Middle,” “Modern Family,” “Nashville,” “The Neighbors,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” “Scandal” and “Suburgatory”
ABC — Canceled or Ending
“666 Park Avenue,” “Body of Proof,” “Apartment 23,” “Family Tools,” “Happy Endings,” “How to Live With Your Parents,” “Last Resort,” “Malibu Country,” “Private Practice,” “Red Widow” and “Zero Hour”
CBS — Renewed
“2 Broke Girls,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Blue Bloods,” “Criminal Minds,” “CSI,” “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Mentalist,” “Mike and Molly,” “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Person of Interest” and “Two and a Half Men”
CBS — Canceled or Ending
“CSI: New York,” “Golden Boy,” “Made in Jersey,” “Partners,” “Rules of Engagement” and “Vegas”
CW — Renewed
“Arrow,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Carrie Diaries,” “Hart of Dixie,” “Nikita,” “Supernatural” and “The Vampire Diaries”
CW — Canceled or Ending
“90210,” “Cult,” “Emily Owens, M.D.” and “Gossip Girl”
Fox — Renewed
“American Dad,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Bones,” “Family Guy,” “The Following,” “Glee,” “The Mindy Project,” “New Girl” “Raising Hope” and “The Simpsons”
Fox — Canceled or Ending
“Ben and Kate,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Fringe,” “The Mob Doctor” and “Touch”
NBC — Renewed
“Chicago Fire,” “Community,” “Grimm,” “Hannibal,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “Parenthood,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Revolution”
NBC — Canceled or Ending
“1600 Penn,” “30 Rock,” “Animal Practice,” “Deception,” “Do No Harm,” “Go On,” “Guys with Kids,” “The Office,” “Smash,” “The New Normal,” “Up All Night” and “Whitney”
Q and A: Week of June 3
A: Well, I spoke with series star Mary McDonnell, and she gave me some insight as to what viewers can expect when “Major Crimes” returns for its second season on Monday, June 10, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. She’s especially excited about working with Tom Berenger, who plays her character’s estranged husband, Jackson.
“We’ve worked together before, so we knew that working together again would be awesome,” she said. “He’s been on the set for the past couple of weeks, and it’s been absolutely great! It is exciting because we learn more about Raydor’s past. As we learn about her and how she deals with this personal relationship in her life, we get a much more revealing picture of the woman. The more I find out about her past, the more I understand her present.”
Mary promises an exciting season, telling me: “We are about to finish shooting episode No. 5, so we have a good sense of at least the beginning of the season, and I can tell you we’re pretty excited. It’s fantastic. It’s new, and it’s interesting, and it’s complicated. I don’t want to give away too much, but let’s just say there’s a lot to be learned, and it’s been tremendous fun to shoot.”
Check back later this week for my full interview with Mary.
Q: I need to know if “Nashville” will be back for another season! — Eric P., St. Louis
A: Nashville has been renewed for a second season by ABC. Go here for a complete list of the fates of all the 2012/13 network shows.
A: TNT recently announced that this season of the cop drama was, indeed, its last, opting not to renew the critically acclaimed series for a sixth season.
Q: “Wedding Band” is one of my favorite shows, so as soon as the DVD?was available for preorder, I ordered the first season. However, in the Amazon ad it was labeled “The Complete Series.” Please tell me that this is a mistake, and that TBS has renewed the show for a second season! — George J., Fort Worth, Texas
A: Well, George, you might want to hang onto that DVD set, as it might become a collectors’ item. TBS has indeed canceled the comedy starring Brian Austin Green after only one season. The old standby of low ratings was blamed for its cancellation.
Q: I am so glad “Burn Notice” is back, but I heard this is its last season. True? — Ronald P., via e-mail
A: Yes, USA recently announced that season seven will be its last. Jeff Watchel, co-president of USA Network, teased: “(We) will raise the stakes even higher, leading up to a spectacular series finale.”
READERS: I had written a few months ago that Fox was considering a “24” movie. Well, Fox recently announced that instead of a movie, it is producing a “24” 12-episode miniseries to begin airing this summer called “24: Live Another Day.” And, of course, Kiefer Sutherland will reprise his role of Jack Bauer.
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