Leverage Q&A
“Leverage” is a TNT series that I had no idea even existed, even though others have seen it, until a few weeks ago. It will debut December 7th and it stars Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Aldis Hodge, Beth Reisgref and Gina Bellman as a group of thieves who help people who have been taken advantage of by corporations and other white collar criminals.
I attended the Q&A Tuesday night
I was really excited to see Timothy Hutton. I don’t know why, it’s not like I’ve seen him in a lot of things, but I know he’s a solid actor and there’s a certain charm to him. He was Turk 182. But I actually gasped when they introduced Executive Producer, Dean Devlin. In the Nineties when he and his former co-writer/co-producer partner Roland Emmerich were making hits that were essentially jingoistic popcorn flicks (“Independence Day”, “Godzilla”, “Stargate”) I admired that they weren’t worried about producing a Oscar winning film and catering to film snobs-they just wanted to entertain: cheesy film or no, they were thinking of the audience and not the “industry”. And crappy Noah Wyle vehicle, “The Librarian” (he has the nerve to have made another one! It’s going to air before “Leverage”) aside, I like that Devlin embraces sci-fi, high concept fantasy. I’m not sure how much was hyperbole, but he says he invested a great portion of money in the show. I’m saying portion, but he said he completely financed it which doesn’t sound exactly right to me, unless he’s doing some sort of experimental deal with TNT to recoup his money on the backend.
How the project came together
Devlin had done “The Librarian” for TNT and TNT asked him to do a series for them, he told them he wanted to do a heist show. He says the show that was the strongest influence on this show was the British version of “Life on Mars”. John and Chris’ influences were “The Rockford Files”. Specifically an episode called “Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man’s Job”. They say if you go back and watch that episode, people will realize how many films and shows have stolen from that episode.
John: Chris and I had been working together since the Cosby show. Not the one that made everyone rich, but the one that ruined lives and careers.
When they heard it was going to be a heist show, they were sold on the concept.
The casting process
Dean : This is a dream cast. We told them we wanted a Tim Hutton type…
Mod: Tim did you know that?
Tim: (laughs) No.
Chris Downey: And they said, “Why not get Tim Hutton?” We never thought we’d get an Oscar winner for this show.
John: I was looking for a Saturn Award winner. I think we dragged Tim to a bar, got him liquored up and had him sign a bunch of papers.
Tim: There is a week in my life I don’t remember.
Christian: I was in Nashville---I’m a country singer---and I’ve been there for two years, working on my album and one day the script landed at my door. (When he saw the character’s name) Elliot Spencer? He has wire rimmed glasses and drinks tea? I threw the thing twenty feet behind the couch. My agent called and was like, “Did you read it?” and I said, “Yeah”…went to get the script from behind the couch and I got to the part where Elliot takes out everyone in the room. I called my agent back, “You have to get me an audition! I have to do this part!
Tim: And boy can he sip tea.
Chris Downey: We had every Masterpiece Theater type come and read for that role (because of the character breakdown). Christian was obvious choice because he’s like Elliott-he’s just this sparkplug.
Dean: TNT, knew him. John and Chris knew him really well, but the studio thought he blew the audition.
(Chris nods)
Dean: I said let me see (the tape). And I said, “He didn’t blow the audition---he’s film acting.”
John: It wasn’t TV acting. You couldn’t see it (his next line) coming from 900 miles away. The character fully integrates how Christian acts and you’ll see more of that as the season goes on.
Dean: We didn’t know he was as good at comedy as he is.
With Tim, James Rogers and Chris Downey, the writers, went to TNT and said they wanted a “Timothy Hutton” type and TNT suggested they contact Hutton. They never imagined he’d do the role.
With Aldis, Dean Devlin already had an actor in mind for the role and he didn’t even want to see Aldis’ audition tape. Rogers and Downey convinced him to watch it and as soon as he saw it, he knew he wanted Aldis.
Rogers: And Aldis had just turned 21 when we hired him. Countdown to instant hatred in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
With Sara, who is arguably the master thief of the group, the writers ran into the problem that all the actresses who read were a “parade of hot chicks” who played the character as sexy, bad-girl thief and Sarah was the only one who played her as a character that is “unstable and clearly not right in the head”.
Timothy: And we are lucky for it.
When asked whether or not the cast auditioned together to see if the chemistry was there.
Dean: There were no rehearsals. We tried to keep everyone separate for as long as we could. I got a call from TNT and they were upset that I wouldn’t do a table reading. These characters are people who are loners and who distrust each other and I didn’t want to risk them getting to know each other too soon.
Christian: And that was a little difficult, but in a great way.
Tim: The first thing we shot together was the warehouse scene (a scene that takes place midway through the pilot).
Dean talks about how well it worked out that since they shot on location in Chicago, the cast were able to bond.
Dean: (wagging a finger at Christian) Get in bar fights together.
Tim: A bar scuffle really. (Laughs and gives Christian daps)
Aldis: Christian and I actually met in the elevator at the last audition----I didn’t know it was going to be the last audition. And we were the only two sitting in the hallway; all the other guys (auditioning) were in the next room, but we were the only two talking and telling each other, “You know it’s me and you” and sure enough the first day on the set I come into the fitting and there he was, (excitedly) “Yeah, baby!!” (He and Christian low-five each other). (dawnybee: It’s funny how that turns out: Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh spoke about a similar experience when they auditioned for Nip/Tuck and Ian Somerhalder and Jorge Garcia when they auditioned for “Lost”.)
What the cast likes about the project
Tim: I like the idea of 5 strangers coming together---who don’t trust each other. You never know when it’s all going to blow up; when they won’t be able to coexist together. I (base his performance) go for what was presented to my character in the pilot: he wants to get the people who step on the little people.
Christian: It’s not a who did it? Why did he do it? Yay, let’s put him on trial. The end (like other procedurals). It’s like a sequel. It’s a different film each episode.
Aldis: What do you call a movie that has more than ten sequels?
Christian: A damn good movie.
On the stunts and special effects
John talks about a stunt in the pilot where Beth’s character is hanging from a building: Dean Devlin likes practical stunts, so he didn’t use a green screen. They strung her over the side of a building.
Beth: I was in Chicago hanging upside down, forty stories up.
John: And it’s not windy in Chicago.
Christian: Or 40 degrees in October.
Beth: I’m hanging upside down for five hours and the guys are like, “We’re going out for drinks.”
Dean: It made for a better performance.
How are they like their characters
Aldis: It’s real life. I’m a genius in real life. Nah. I’m computer savvy, but not like that. (Aldis’ character is the Chloe of the show and does a lot of exposition, which they writers say he whips through), I can go online and find stuff.
Aldis (on the exposition): (affectating a crisp, posh accent) It makes me enunciate. My grammar is better.
Christian: It’s the hardest character I’ve ever played physically or mentally. I grew up doing martial arts-all kinds, and I grew up with a bunch of shit-kickers in Oklahoma and had my ass handed to me too many times to repeat and then I did a series, “Angel” and that had a lot of stunts and I brought all that to this show.
John: All the stunts you see (Elliott doing) is Christian.
Dean: I was surprised to watch the dailies one day and there’s Christian rolling across a car.
(everyone laughs)
Dean: You know, really, a stunt guy should be doing that.
Christian: He was shooting at another location so I asked the stunt guy if I could do it and he goes, “Go ahead.”
(Christian talks about how the stunt coordinator/David Boreanaz stand-in on “Angel” would let Christian do his own stunts when possible, so he likes to do stunts as much as he can because then you don’t have to worry about it looking like a cheat.
Christian: (on an stunt sequence in an upcoming episode): I would put it up against any of the Bourne fight sequences. (dawnybee: And when did the “Bourne” films become the marker for greatness? Every film now is compared to The Bourne Identity…I couldn’t even get through that film.)
Behind the scenes
They talk about the various aspects behind the scenes and they have an advisor who is a sleight of hand artist and they will use it a lot because it’s helps moves a scene. It’s choreography. The sleight of hand artist taught the cast how to pickpocket.
John: I can say this because Gina (Bellman) isn’t here, but he said Beth has the best hand.
Beth: Apparently I’m a genius at stealing.
Aldis: We give you entertainment and we teach you how to steal. You’re welcome.
Q: Tim, what is it like doing TV versus a film. Do you feel it takes away your freedom?
Tim: It’s the same equipment, same hours. Good material is good material. This show is well-produced, extremely well-written. There has not been a single time where I have felt rushed or that I want to be somewhere else, so no. (dawnybee: my feeling about Tim is that he seems embarrassed about the idea of being an Oscar actor because it was so long ago. It’s like he’s the star quarterback who has made a nice life for himself and has moved on, but the only thing people want to talk about is his winning touchdown and he’s humbled by it, but embarrassed that that’s the marker his life is being compared to. Just my take on it.)
On filming on digital versus film
Dean: There’s a sense of theater and you’re not burning film.
Tim: When there’s film in the can, as an actor, you hesitate to start over again because you don’t want to waste film, but with digital you can stop and do it again, as many times and we all started doing it.
Christian: It’s freeing. More freedom on this than any film or project I’ve done. You’re not wasting film, you’re just wasting their time.
Devlin and Rogers both say that shooting for high definition is the biggest difficulty because the makeup looks pancaked on in digital. Rogers predicts that because of hi-def people will realize actors look like everyone else and that the standards of beauty and attractiveness will shift.
On how Dean’s background as an actor helps him direct actors
Dean tells how he gave the cast a DVD of a tribute to his former acting teacher and asked them to watch it. And how the teacher’s big thing was about actors living in the moment. Not really overthinking a performance. He went on to talk about a scene in the pilot that Gina nailed, but Tim was having problems.
Dean: Tim wasn’t in the moment. So I went to Gina and did this trick that he (the teacher) taught everyone. Gina’s line was, “I knew you had it in you”-the subtext being, “I love you” (dawnybee: I didn’t get that impression at all) so I took Gina aside and told her to say the subtext instead. We begin rolling and she tells Tim, “I love you” and his reaction was so honest! He got this huge smile and his cheeks went red. You can’t be afraid to get into the moment and get out of your head; get into the immediacy.
Timeliness of the show
John: The tone is that Robin Hood type of camaraderie and as you can see, life is imitating art. Our cast has great chemistry, it’s like, It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.
Chris: When we first plotted out the idea for the show we wrote Wall Street versus Main Street.
I have a degree in criminal defense law…
John: Which makes me hate you.
Chris: TV has serial killers laid down. (According to procedurals) There’s serial killers all around, the villains we have on our show show up on your door every morning in the newspaper. They’re the ones embezzling from companies and ruining people’s pensions. They’re the ones foreclosing on homes.
Chris goes on to talk about how they base the stories on real incidents a lot of times. They find the worst person they could think of, the CEOs like the ones at Tyco and other companies that went over and they write a revenge script.
On how to deal with show cancellations
(Chris pretends to burst into tears; John holds him)
John: You cruel woman!
Dean: You have to realize that it’s out of your control. Whatever you’re doing, you have to do it for yourself. The only thing you can control is the quality of your work. Whether they like you or not. You can’t just chase the results because then you’re resting your self esteem in other people’s hands. You have to stay on your path.
Christian: That was fun to listen to, man. Thank you.
That was the end of the panel. Christian Kane is not a dick. That surprised me. He may very well be, but he was very laidback and nice. I think I was working off of seeing the video of the “Angel” Palely Fest and he was so disinterested. He just sat slouched in his seat, barely gave any response when asked about playing Lindsay and didn’t seem interested in what his costars were saying. Add that to having that greasy, shaggy hair…he just struck me as tooly. But it’s obvious he’s enjoying being with this cast and playing this character and I think that fact is what made him so open and engaged during the panel. He and Aldis are really chummy with each other. They would whisper in each other ears and talk amongst themselves.
Christian and Aldis hung out in the hallway afterwards and I saw Tim duck away. I told Christian and Aldis congratulations on the show and that I wasn’t sure if they could hear the audience from where they were, but everyone was laughing and enjoyed the pilot.
Aldis: I’m glad. We worked hard on this.
I turned to Christian and I told him I loved his work and his music and that made him happy. Boy is really a musician! I thought he was a musician like Keanu Reeves and Russell Crowe are, but he’s a musician like Jenny Lewis is. Music is his primary career now.
So he told me thank you very much. Shook my hand, clapped his hand on my shoulder (he smells like sandlewood-he smelled so good. Manly scent.) and just beamed.
I told Aldis I loved him on Supernatural and he cracked up like he couldn’t believe I recognized him from that. Told me thanks and he had fun doing Supernatural.
Aldis was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans and some really cool Converse type shoes that had black and gold designs on them. His mom and little sister (I think) was there with him.
Christian was wearing a brown beanie, a suede jacket and some brown boots. He’s not the tallest dude which is why each time there was a scene that showed how bad ass he was, I couldn’t take it seriously.
Went outside the building and Tim was just standing there talking to people. He’s just like he seems in movies. Affable, seems a bit frazzled, like he has a million things going on in his head and it’s a struggle for him to maintain attention. He seems very easily distracted. I don’t know if it’s nervousness or….actually I think it’s nervousness. I was too chicken to talk to him. He’s Turk 182---that’s just like flying too close to the sun.
The show is really good. And I’m sure I’ll watch it, but when the writers said that they go around the world helping people, I kinda lost my excitement. I don’t know why that doesn’t seem keen to me when that’s what Sam and Dean do, it’s what Jared did on “The Pretender”, but as soon as they said, “The group goes to Serbia, Miami, New York”---I was ready to give up on the show.
I’m interested in how they can pull this show off for thirteen weeks (and hopefully beyond for a S2) because it is like an hourlong “Ocean’s Eleven”. I don’t know if that premise can keep from going stale.
I attended the Q&A Tuesday night
I was really excited to see Timothy Hutton. I don’t know why, it’s not like I’ve seen him in a lot of things, but I know he’s a solid actor and there’s a certain charm to him. He was Turk 182. But I actually gasped when they introduced Executive Producer, Dean Devlin. In the Nineties when he and his former co-writer/co-producer partner Roland Emmerich were making hits that were essentially jingoistic popcorn flicks (“Independence Day”, “Godzilla”, “Stargate”) I admired that they weren’t worried about producing a Oscar winning film and catering to film snobs-they just wanted to entertain: cheesy film or no, they were thinking of the audience and not the “industry”. And crappy Noah Wyle vehicle, “The Librarian” (he has the nerve to have made another one! It’s going to air before “Leverage”) aside, I like that Devlin embraces sci-fi, high concept fantasy. I’m not sure how much was hyperbole, but he says he invested a great portion of money in the show. I’m saying portion, but he said he completely financed it which doesn’t sound exactly right to me, unless he’s doing some sort of experimental deal with TNT to recoup his money on the backend.
How the project came together
Devlin had done “The Librarian” for TNT and TNT asked him to do a series for them, he told them he wanted to do a heist show. He says the show that was the strongest influence on this show was the British version of “Life on Mars”. John and Chris’ influences were “The Rockford Files”. Specifically an episode called “Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man’s Job”. They say if you go back and watch that episode, people will realize how many films and shows have stolen from that episode.
John: Chris and I had been working together since the Cosby show. Not the one that made everyone rich, but the one that ruined lives and careers.
When they heard it was going to be a heist show, they were sold on the concept.
The casting process
Dean : This is a dream cast. We told them we wanted a Tim Hutton type…
Mod: Tim did you know that?
Tim: (laughs) No.
Chris Downey: And they said, “Why not get Tim Hutton?” We never thought we’d get an Oscar winner for this show.
John: I was looking for a Saturn Award winner. I think we dragged Tim to a bar, got him liquored up and had him sign a bunch of papers.
Tim: There is a week in my life I don’t remember.
Christian: I was in Nashville---I’m a country singer---and I’ve been there for two years, working on my album and one day the script landed at my door. (When he saw the character’s name) Elliot Spencer? He has wire rimmed glasses and drinks tea? I threw the thing twenty feet behind the couch. My agent called and was like, “Did you read it?” and I said, “Yeah”…went to get the script from behind the couch and I got to the part where Elliot takes out everyone in the room. I called my agent back, “You have to get me an audition! I have to do this part!
Tim: And boy can he sip tea.
Chris Downey: We had every Masterpiece Theater type come and read for that role (because of the character breakdown). Christian was obvious choice because he’s like Elliott-he’s just this sparkplug.
Dean: TNT, knew him. John and Chris knew him really well, but the studio thought he blew the audition.
(Chris nods)
Dean: I said let me see (the tape). And I said, “He didn’t blow the audition---he’s film acting.”
John: It wasn’t TV acting. You couldn’t see it (his next line) coming from 900 miles away. The character fully integrates how Christian acts and you’ll see more of that as the season goes on.
Dean: We didn’t know he was as good at comedy as he is.
With Tim, James Rogers and Chris Downey, the writers, went to TNT and said they wanted a “Timothy Hutton” type and TNT suggested they contact Hutton. They never imagined he’d do the role.
With Aldis, Dean Devlin already had an actor in mind for the role and he didn’t even want to see Aldis’ audition tape. Rogers and Downey convinced him to watch it and as soon as he saw it, he knew he wanted Aldis.
Rogers: And Aldis had just turned 21 when we hired him. Countdown to instant hatred in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
With Sara, who is arguably the master thief of the group, the writers ran into the problem that all the actresses who read were a “parade of hot chicks” who played the character as sexy, bad-girl thief and Sarah was the only one who played her as a character that is “unstable and clearly not right in the head”.
Timothy: And we are lucky for it.
When asked whether or not the cast auditioned together to see if the chemistry was there.
Dean: There were no rehearsals. We tried to keep everyone separate for as long as we could. I got a call from TNT and they were upset that I wouldn’t do a table reading. These characters are people who are loners and who distrust each other and I didn’t want to risk them getting to know each other too soon.
Christian: And that was a little difficult, but in a great way.
Tim: The first thing we shot together was the warehouse scene (a scene that takes place midway through the pilot).
Dean talks about how well it worked out that since they shot on location in Chicago, the cast were able to bond.
Dean: (wagging a finger at Christian) Get in bar fights together.
Tim: A bar scuffle really. (Laughs and gives Christian daps)
Aldis: Christian and I actually met in the elevator at the last audition----I didn’t know it was going to be the last audition. And we were the only two sitting in the hallway; all the other guys (auditioning) were in the next room, but we were the only two talking and telling each other, “You know it’s me and you” and sure enough the first day on the set I come into the fitting and there he was, (excitedly) “Yeah, baby!!” (He and Christian low-five each other). (dawnybee: It’s funny how that turns out: Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh spoke about a similar experience when they auditioned for Nip/Tuck and Ian Somerhalder and Jorge Garcia when they auditioned for “Lost”.)
What the cast likes about the project
Tim: I like the idea of 5 strangers coming together---who don’t trust each other. You never know when it’s all going to blow up; when they won’t be able to coexist together. I (base his performance) go for what was presented to my character in the pilot: he wants to get the people who step on the little people.
Christian: It’s not a who did it? Why did he do it? Yay, let’s put him on trial. The end (like other procedurals). It’s like a sequel. It’s a different film each episode.
Aldis: What do you call a movie that has more than ten sequels?
Christian: A damn good movie.
On the stunts and special effects
John talks about a stunt in the pilot where Beth’s character is hanging from a building: Dean Devlin likes practical stunts, so he didn’t use a green screen. They strung her over the side of a building.
Beth: I was in Chicago hanging upside down, forty stories up.
John: And it’s not windy in Chicago.
Christian: Or 40 degrees in October.
Beth: I’m hanging upside down for five hours and the guys are like, “We’re going out for drinks.”
Dean: It made for a better performance.
How are they like their characters
Aldis: It’s real life. I’m a genius in real life. Nah. I’m computer savvy, but not like that. (Aldis’ character is the Chloe of the show and does a lot of exposition, which they writers say he whips through), I can go online and find stuff.
Aldis (on the exposition): (affectating a crisp, posh accent) It makes me enunciate. My grammar is better.
Christian: It’s the hardest character I’ve ever played physically or mentally. I grew up doing martial arts-all kinds, and I grew up with a bunch of shit-kickers in Oklahoma and had my ass handed to me too many times to repeat and then I did a series, “Angel” and that had a lot of stunts and I brought all that to this show.
John: All the stunts you see (Elliott doing) is Christian.
Dean: I was surprised to watch the dailies one day and there’s Christian rolling across a car.
(everyone laughs)
Dean: You know, really, a stunt guy should be doing that.
Christian: He was shooting at another location so I asked the stunt guy if I could do it and he goes, “Go ahead.”
(Christian talks about how the stunt coordinator/David Boreanaz stand-in on “Angel” would let Christian do his own stunts when possible, so he likes to do stunts as much as he can because then you don’t have to worry about it looking like a cheat.
Christian: (on an stunt sequence in an upcoming episode): I would put it up against any of the Bourne fight sequences. (dawnybee: And when did the “Bourne” films become the marker for greatness? Every film now is compared to The Bourne Identity…I couldn’t even get through that film.)
Behind the scenes
They talk about the various aspects behind the scenes and they have an advisor who is a sleight of hand artist and they will use it a lot because it’s helps moves a scene. It’s choreography. The sleight of hand artist taught the cast how to pickpocket.
John: I can say this because Gina (Bellman) isn’t here, but he said Beth has the best hand.
Beth: Apparently I’m a genius at stealing.
Aldis: We give you entertainment and we teach you how to steal. You’re welcome.
Q: Tim, what is it like doing TV versus a film. Do you feel it takes away your freedom?
Tim: It’s the same equipment, same hours. Good material is good material. This show is well-produced, extremely well-written. There has not been a single time where I have felt rushed or that I want to be somewhere else, so no. (dawnybee: my feeling about Tim is that he seems embarrassed about the idea of being an Oscar actor because it was so long ago. It’s like he’s the star quarterback who has made a nice life for himself and has moved on, but the only thing people want to talk about is his winning touchdown and he’s humbled by it, but embarrassed that that’s the marker his life is being compared to. Just my take on it.)
On filming on digital versus film
Dean: There’s a sense of theater and you’re not burning film.
Tim: When there’s film in the can, as an actor, you hesitate to start over again because you don’t want to waste film, but with digital you can stop and do it again, as many times and we all started doing it.
Christian: It’s freeing. More freedom on this than any film or project I’ve done. You’re not wasting film, you’re just wasting their time.
Devlin and Rogers both say that shooting for high definition is the biggest difficulty because the makeup looks pancaked on in digital. Rogers predicts that because of hi-def people will realize actors look like everyone else and that the standards of beauty and attractiveness will shift.
On how Dean’s background as an actor helps him direct actors
Dean tells how he gave the cast a DVD of a tribute to his former acting teacher and asked them to watch it. And how the teacher’s big thing was about actors living in the moment. Not really overthinking a performance. He went on to talk about a scene in the pilot that Gina nailed, but Tim was having problems.
Dean: Tim wasn’t in the moment. So I went to Gina and did this trick that he (the teacher) taught everyone. Gina’s line was, “I knew you had it in you”-the subtext being, “I love you” (dawnybee: I didn’t get that impression at all) so I took Gina aside and told her to say the subtext instead. We begin rolling and she tells Tim, “I love you” and his reaction was so honest! He got this huge smile and his cheeks went red. You can’t be afraid to get into the moment and get out of your head; get into the immediacy.
Timeliness of the show
John: The tone is that Robin Hood type of camaraderie and as you can see, life is imitating art. Our cast has great chemistry, it’s like, It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.
Chris: When we first plotted out the idea for the show we wrote Wall Street versus Main Street.
I have a degree in criminal defense law…
John: Which makes me hate you.
Chris: TV has serial killers laid down. (According to procedurals) There’s serial killers all around, the villains we have on our show show up on your door every morning in the newspaper. They’re the ones embezzling from companies and ruining people’s pensions. They’re the ones foreclosing on homes.
Chris goes on to talk about how they base the stories on real incidents a lot of times. They find the worst person they could think of, the CEOs like the ones at Tyco and other companies that went over and they write a revenge script.
On how to deal with show cancellations
(Chris pretends to burst into tears; John holds him)
John: You cruel woman!
Dean: You have to realize that it’s out of your control. Whatever you’re doing, you have to do it for yourself. The only thing you can control is the quality of your work. Whether they like you or not. You can’t just chase the results because then you’re resting your self esteem in other people’s hands. You have to stay on your path.
Christian: That was fun to listen to, man. Thank you.
That was the end of the panel. Christian Kane is not a dick. That surprised me. He may very well be, but he was very laidback and nice. I think I was working off of seeing the video of the “Angel” Palely Fest and he was so disinterested. He just sat slouched in his seat, barely gave any response when asked about playing Lindsay and didn’t seem interested in what his costars were saying. Add that to having that greasy, shaggy hair…he just struck me as tooly. But it’s obvious he’s enjoying being with this cast and playing this character and I think that fact is what made him so open and engaged during the panel. He and Aldis are really chummy with each other. They would whisper in each other ears and talk amongst themselves.
Christian and Aldis hung out in the hallway afterwards and I saw Tim duck away. I told Christian and Aldis congratulations on the show and that I wasn’t sure if they could hear the audience from where they were, but everyone was laughing and enjoyed the pilot.
Aldis: I’m glad. We worked hard on this.
I turned to Christian and I told him I loved his work and his music and that made him happy. Boy is really a musician! I thought he was a musician like Keanu Reeves and Russell Crowe are, but he’s a musician like Jenny Lewis is. Music is his primary career now.
So he told me thank you very much. Shook my hand, clapped his hand on my shoulder (he smells like sandlewood-he smelled so good. Manly scent.) and just beamed.
I told Aldis I loved him on Supernatural and he cracked up like he couldn’t believe I recognized him from that. Told me thanks and he had fun doing Supernatural.
Aldis was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans and some really cool Converse type shoes that had black and gold designs on them. His mom and little sister (I think) was there with him.
Christian was wearing a brown beanie, a suede jacket and some brown boots. He’s not the tallest dude which is why each time there was a scene that showed how bad ass he was, I couldn’t take it seriously.
Went outside the building and Tim was just standing there talking to people. He’s just like he seems in movies. Affable, seems a bit frazzled, like he has a million things going on in his head and it’s a struggle for him to maintain attention. He seems very easily distracted. I don’t know if it’s nervousness or….actually I think it’s nervousness. I was too chicken to talk to him. He’s Turk 182---that’s just like flying too close to the sun.
The show is really good. And I’m sure I’ll watch it, but when the writers said that they go around the world helping people, I kinda lost my excitement. I don’t know why that doesn’t seem keen to me when that’s what Sam and Dean do, it’s what Jared did on “The Pretender”, but as soon as they said, “The group goes to Serbia, Miami, New York”---I was ready to give up on the show.
I’m interested in how they can pull this show off for thirteen weeks (and hopefully beyond for a S2) because it is like an hourlong “Ocean’s Eleven”. I don’t know if that premise can keep from going stale.