CW at the Paley Center/ Q&A..
~I never watched “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” but I read interviews with Andy Whitfield after his first diagnosis. I’m so sad to hear of his passing. It really knocked the wind out of me when I read it.
CW
Their night was a mixed panel (as well as a night of cheap beer: the other nights have been hosted by Stella Artois and the CW is the only one that had Budweiser) featuring the Eps and cast of “Ringer”, “Hart of Dixie” and “The Secret Circle”. Repping “Ringer” were actors Nestor Carbonell, Mike Colter and EP Eric Charmleo (who is really charming), EP Nicole Snyder; “Hart of Dixie”s EP Leila Gerstein, actors Cress Williams (still hot!), Wilson Bethel, Scott Porter and James King and “The Secret Circle”s EP Andrew Miller and actor Adam Harrington. The moderator was Denise Martin of TV Guide.
Mod: I’m going to start with “Ringer”. Eric and Nicole, I’m sure the most important question on everyone’s mind is what is your favorite episode of “Buffy” and what did you do to lure Sarah Michelle Gellar back to TV?
Nicole:That’s a loaded question. I don’t think I can pick a favorite episode of Buffy; it was one of our favorite shows. What did we do to convince her to return to TV?
Eric: We promised her short days and weekends off so she’s playing twins! She fell for it.
Nicole: Lots of hot men. (gestures to Mike and Nestor) Hello. And lots of time off with her daughter, like Eric said. And we promised her we’ll generate really strong material. We have wonderful writers who are working hard and we try to do that each week.
Mod: This audience hasn’t seen the episode yet. Can you set up the show?
Eric: It’s a premise pilot and the whole conceit is Sarah plays twins: Bridget Kelly and Siobhan Martin and they’ve been estranged for the past six years. And Bridget finds herself between a rock and a hard place because the night before she’s to testify in a murder trial where she is the key witness to implicate a mob boss, she runs because she’s afraid for her life. She really has nowhere to go and the only place she can go is to her sister whose living in New York City and she’s lives this a really wealthy, privileged fairy tale lifestyle. When she gets to New York she finds out that something has happened to her sister and this may be a lucky happenstance and she decides to step into her sister’s shoes and figures out the best place to hide is in plain sight. Lo and behold rather than settling into these cushy pair of Manolos that she had anticipated, she finds out that her sister’s life is more complicated than her own and now she can’t go back to being Bridget.
(Everyone’s hushed like “oooh.that’s a lot of exposition”)
Nestor: That’s amazing. (everyone applauds)
Eric: That was totally all off the cuff.
Nestor: Do you want to do “Hart of Dixie” too?
Eric: Yes. Rachel Bilson plays a….
Mod: Nestor, your character is an FBI agent charged with watching over Bridget because she’s a witness in a crime. Your character sort of becomes obsessed with this case. Can you tell us a little bit more about why?
Nestor: I can tell you anything but why. This is sort of familiar territory for me: not knowing what’s going to happen. What I love about what Nicole, Eric and the writers have done is that the premise is a great premise; they set it up so well in the pilot. Then they sort of take it and address some mysteries and reveals more. My character..I don’t know much about his backstory and I’m kinda good with that, but I like learning about him. Clearly he won’t stop at nothing to get what he wants and I don’t mind that.
Mod: And just because you’re here: Why didn’t Richard Alpert get to be in the church… (everyone laughs)
Nestor: I know! I was excluded from the church or purgatory. I had some contact with Jack. Sometimes I might have been in one draft and others…
Scott: That was so rude (Richard being left out).
Mod: Mike, you play Bridget’s AA sponsor.
Mod: NA for Narcotics. NA, it’s stronger.
Mod: It’s hinted that there may be something else to that relationship? Have you had a chance to make out with Sarah Michelle Gellar?
(Jamie mouths “whoo whoo” with the “pop pop” hand gesture)
Mike: All I can say is loose lips sink ship. You have to tune in. I can’t tell you that.
(Scott reaches back and gives him daps)
Mod: So you can’t answer if she’s a good kisser.
Mike: I’m sure she is if I were to kiss her, but I never kissed her so…
Mod: Are you to look her in the eye? We’re joking about Sarah, I know that’s obvious, by the way.
Mike: I don’t look her in the eye.
Mod: Nicole and Eric, what was the inspiration for the show.
Nicole: We wanted writenoir for feature films and we never got around to it because two hours is too long and we needed a new TV script two years ago and we thought maybe because of shows like “Damages” and “Breaking Bad” and others that are so inventive and intelligent and different , we said, “Let’s try it as a TV show, it’s only 60 pages, right? Let’s do it.”. We never thought it would see the light of day. We never thought we’d be sitting here and celebrating this and getting to be lucky as we are. We started getting it to people and they were really responding to it, saying it’s a page turner and it got to be made. And thankfully it got into the hands of Sarah Michelle Gellar. And I thought of my favorite Buffy episode.
Mod: It can’t be the musical episode and it can’t be “Hush”, everyone picks those.
Nicole: It’s the one where she died. That affected me a lot.
Mod:What can you say about the trajectory of Season One? What kinds of things would we see? I know we’ll see different eras. What can you tease about the season?
Eric: By the end of the pilot there’s a central mystery that’s revealed and the entire season we’re building to what that mystery is. With each episode we’re going to reveal a different layer of the onion Hopefully there will be satisfying twists and turns and answering questions but setting up new mysteries and hopefully building up to an end game.
Mod: Moving on to “Hart of Dixie”, What made you think of Rachel Bilson for this role in “Hart of Dixie”.
Leila(she has the most mousy voice.: Well I know Rachel because I worked with her on “The O.C” so I know what she can do. The script was already written before we talked about casting, without ever guessing it was ever going to happen. When we realized it was going to happen and we’d have fantasy conversations on who could play this part and Rachel came up and she was perfect. She does the emotion, she’s fantastic with humor and she’s someone that you adore. I connected to her onscreen. Although this character has issues, you can relate to her.
Mod: I love Rachel Bilson and she looks very young and she’s playing a doctor. Did that ever come up?
Leila: Well I , A) look very young. Rachel Bilson is a very smart girl and if she went to medical school and became a doctor, she could be your doctor. She is the age that they (real doctors) are. She could be a doctor. She’s not Doogie Howswer, she is 30 years old. I think she’s older than the characters started on “Grey’s Anatomy”.
Wilson: So there!
(Cress says “Boom”, like Leila just killed the moderator’s argument and Jaime does her hands like “Now what??”)
Mod: How will the South be a character on the show? What makes the South so cool.
Leila: I think our town is very specific-it’s Blue Belle. It’s an idealized small town. I created Blue Belle because I was a busy, harried working mother and Blue Belle was the happy place I wanted to go to in my brain every night. The characters are quirky and funny and nice to each other community takes care of each other and there are really hot guys walking around.
Wilson: As a really hot guy in a small town, I want to add to that. I think there is something amazing about small towns, they’re just special places. What I think is really cool about it is that the charms of small town life whether idealized or not, they do exist. They are real parts of America and anywhere, I guess. Being able to see them in very specific glimpses as we do this show is a real delight. And episode by episode as we see more of those elements whether in characters or in events or local traditions..our local tradition holder here (James)
James (Affecting a Southern accent) I have so many traditions in store for ya’ll.
Wilson: It’s pretty cool. It reminds us of things that are special about small towns whether we’ve experienced them first hand or not.
James: Scott and I are both from Nebraska so I think it’s really awesome.to be able to see this. So many shows are focused on bigger cities I think for a lot of people who didn’t grow up in big cities it’s really great to turn on your television and see something you can relate to. But you have this perfect dichotomy of Rachel Bilson’s character who is from the city and our characters who are from a small town clashing and how ironically similar we all are. You get the best of both worlds.
Mod: Can you us about who you play on the show?
Cress: I play Lavon Hayes the mayor of the town whose a local boy who went off to play NFL for 10 years, came back, always dreamt of being mayor, ran for mayor, won. I’m the owner of the plantation where a couple of white people live.
Wilson (does Black Power fist) We will be free.
Cress: Keep hope alive! I have a pet alligator named Burt Reynolds and I’m the only person in town that Zoe Hart (Rachel’s character) doesn’t want to get with. I’m in love with this one here (points to James).
Wilson: I play Wade who is the town’s scalawag…
Scott: Scalawag?!
Wilson: Lone wolf, scalawag…
Cress: Ragamuffin.
Wilson: He’s dancing to the beat a little bit. He’s a guy very comfortable living the way he lives until Zoe Hart arrives and shakes it up a bit for him. It’s interesting to see that develop from a character that could’ve just been a archetypal, swaggering bad boy..he has that but also as his relationship with both Zoe and other characters develop you’ll see other sides of him. That’s the scalwag side.
James: I play Lemon, and as you’ll see in the pilot she’s a a classic Southern belle. What I love about Lemon most is that she’s a complex character. The writing for her and for everyone is so amazing. She has to carry this exterior that everything has to be perfect all the time and she has to be the best at everything: best fiancee, the best sister best daughter, all the best of everything. But you start to realize as you see her most vulnerable moments that maybe this is not who she wants to be or who she is and she can’t express her true self. You find out that her mother left her and she’s dealing with some abandonment issues It’s really fun to see a character played out that people can relate to. I think a lot of people live lives that aren’t necessarily their own. You get to see the complexities of struggling with what you really want and who you truly are and what’s expected of you. and she really goes from high funny and really high drama and zero to ten really quick and she’s really fun to watch.
Scott: I play George Tucker. George’s is a very intelligent guy and has a soft spot for the underdog, a soft spot for his hometown. He left, became a big city lawyer in New York and for reasons yet explained he comes back to Blue Belle with a bit of a mission, I think. He sets up an office in town, he really fights for the little guy. You see entry points of his life outside of Blue Bell through the window that is Zoe Hart to a couple of years in New York City that nobody else in Blue Belle can understand, there in lies the curiosity of Zoe Hart though he truly, deeply loves Lemon, his childhood sweetheart. He came back for her, he came back to find his ground again. I hesitate to use the word “golden boy” because he has a bit of a sarcastic edge to him. He’s a little bit cocky, but I think that comes with the territory of being a young, successful (guy) who has forged his own way and returns home. It’s been a blast to play.
Mod: You had a scene, I believe, with Burt Reynolds the alligator. Was he really scary?
Scott: So…when you rent an alligator the trainer will tell you he will perform certain activities for you such as go away when you ask him to politely go away. Then the trainer will get to the night that you’re shooting at 3 o’clock in the morning in 50 degrees weather in the woods of Wilmington, North Carolina and he will tell you (adopting a cajun accent) “Oh, that gator ain’t gonna do nothing you want him to do” We’ll be hearing a lot about Burt Reynolds but I don’t think we’ll be seeing him anytime soon.
(The moderator asked about Rachel kissing a pig)
Leila: It wasn’t on the show, it was behind the scenes.
Cress: That’s not better. That was hot; like CW hot.
Leila: We’ve had an alligator, bull frog, snakes, pigs and tomorrow’s the big turtle race.
Scott: Racing turtles.
James: Turtle race!
Cress: Holla!
James: Bring it!
Scott: I didn’t speak earlier about the show, but I think there’s something so nice about a show that takes its time.And that’s what Blue Belle’s all about. You’re not going to see a lot of crazy stories that go from 0 to 60 in a crazy manner. You’ll see a lot of animals, but it’s nice and comfortable and something TV needs right now, actually.
Mod: I’m going to move on to “The Secret Circle”. Kevin Williamson and Julie couldn’t make it tonight so I want you to speak very openly.
Andrew: Please turn off your cameras.
Mod: We’ll just tweet this. Tell us why witches are so much better than vampires. Let it all out. We’re all friends here.
Andrew: Vampires are 150 years old and none of us are vampires. But there could be people in this room who are witches. Which is why I won’t speak bad about witches for that exact reason. I think for me, I love vampires and I love “The Vampire Diaries” but what I like about witches is that they feel more relatable. Our characters are experiencing this stuff for the first time and they’re becoming empowered as they grow into their powers and it’s fun to watch. And it’s a bit more relatable than watching 150 year old guys hitting on 16-year old girls.
Mod:and they’re also very attractive witches. Super attractive. Is there something in the water?
Andrew: We’re shooting in a beautiful place in Vancouver and it’s a really beautiful setting and it just felt like you can’t put any ugly people behind that.
Mod That’s very detailed.
Andrew: I think if you had magical abilities one of the first thing you would address is your looks.
Mod: That’s very logical. Good answer. How faithful will the show be to the books?
Andrew: It’s written by LJ Smith who also wrote “The Vampire Diaries” book series. She has an incredible talent for writing, not only rich characters, but dynamics and relationship. There’s a central love triangle books. It’s really fun: there’s a girl and her best friend and then this guy and as she’s drawn into this triangle, it makes her question her own goodness and that was just a fun road to me to go down. When you start looking at your best friend’s boyfriend you start feeling bad about yourself and that’s the gateway emotion to darkness that the show explores. That’s what we took from the book and it’s an exciting place to start. And the mythology is the witch stuff. We had to expand the mythology more.
Mod: Can you set it up so that people can know what the show is about?
Andrew: Well it’s about twins…I’m just trying to remember what you (Eric) said.
Eric: There was a show about twin witches on the Disney Channel called “Twitches” and it starred Tia and Tamera.
Andrew: I can see there us exploring a twin spell in our future. It’s about a girl played by Britt Robertson from ..I was going to say “My So-Called Life”..”Life UnXpected”. Her mom dies and she comes back to her hometown and gets involved with these group of people that are very different from each other but all share this legacy. She joins this circle and she begins to explore what it means, both good and bad inside the circle and out.
Mod: The parents are hiding something.
Andrew: The parents are hiding a lot. They’re witches as are the grandparents are witches too. And on the CW the grandparents are only like 45. What are young cast is experiencing with the audience is what the parents experienced 16 years earlier. And they have some hard tales of what they went through and some diabolical agenda now and they’re carrying out a plan that Cassie, Britt’s character and the rest of the circle. Matter of fact I brought one of those parents.
Mod:Adam you’re one of the parents.
Adam: Age wise I’m the great great great grandparent.
Mod: Tell us about Ethan.
Adam: Ethan is Adam’s dad, played by Thomas Dekker and I am the town drunk. When the series kicks off Cassie comes back to town and form this kind of family with these kids and a dastardy, diabolical thing happened 16 years ago that everyone moved on from except my character and whatever happened was such a traumatic shock that it kinda broke him who is still limbo of alcohol and pain of what happened 16 years ago.
Andrew: In a fun way!
Adam: In a fun way. In a sexy good looking way. So he’s the only one in the adult generation who hasn’t been able to move on. He’s struggling with that and trying to be a father. Gale Harold plays my nemesis. And Cassie’s mom was the love of my life and it was written in the stars that we’d be together and that didn’t happen and…he’s the town drunk.
Mod: What’s the best thing about playing a drunk witch?
Adam: Well ignorance is bliss. The note I kept getting was “less boozy, more tired”.
Scott: You can’t really get hangovers right? (since he’s a warlock)
Andrew: There’s a spell for that.
Adam: There’s a spell for it. Ethan’s a very ineffective witch because if there’s a spell for it he’s not using it. But I’m sure he can turn water into booze at this point.
Mod Have you shot anything..does he have any fun or weird powers?
Adam: When it kicks off witchcraft has been abolished (dawnybee: it’s like “Footloose” but with magic) due to this thing that has happened and the kids are figuring it out on their own. So as far as we know the adults don’t have any witchcraft powers. As far as we know.
Mod: What are they going to be up against? Is it the same villain in the book? What are they going to be up against?
Andrew: Each other a lot in all kinds of way. It’s hard to get six teenagers to agree on what movie they want to see let alone what to use their collective powers for so there’ll be a lot of problems that’ll happen within the circle with power struggles, jealousy and betrayal. The more and understand and learn to do magic, the more they open up into that world and start to confront dark and dangerous forces that they’re in part responsible for creating and are coming after them. The six of them represent this pretty amazing thing and they’ll discover that there are people who’d want to exploit that and manipulate it and destroy it. In a fun way!
Mod: How scary will it get?
Andrew: Pretty scary. We’re on after “The Vampire Diaries” so we have a certain responsibility to maintain a level of scariness and we’re trying real hard to make that happen. They have to confront a lot of darkness. For all of this there’s this balance between dark and light within themselves and in the circle and what they confront. You can do these seemingly light spells but there’s always a price to be paid and they pay that price.
Mod Thank you all for being here.
“Ringer” EP, actor, Nestor Carbonell, and “Hart of Dixie”s Scott Porter and “The Secret Circle”s Adam Harrington
Adam and Nestor
Cress and Wilson
I was just in love with Cress’ outfit. He’s always been gorgeous, but when he bulked up for “Prison Break” I was in the meh camp. Now he’s full on fit again. I love it.
Scott talking about “Burt Reynolds”
I didn’t take this picture obviously
Nor this one
My terrible picture of Cress. I was just snapping pictures, not really caring if I got it or not but he saw me and smiled in my direction so I could get it.
Hart of Dixie
*New York doctor Zoe needs to complete a residency as a general practitioner. Knowing that she wouldn’t find one in NY, she takes up an unsolicited offer from a man in a small Southern town. There she’s taken back by the town’s quaint ways but is intrigued by two men: George, a fellow émigré from New York (Scott Porter) and Wade (Wilson Bethel) who she shares a residence with.
I liked it. I didn’t want to because I hate Josh Schwartz’s work overall (“The OC”, “Gossip Girl”) but it’s a sweet show. Very simple. I think it fancies itself another “Northern Exposure” but the characters aren’t as unique and interesting. It comes on Monday nights following “Gossip Girl”, but is up against “The Sing-Off”, “House”, “Two and a Half Men’ and “Mike and Molly”. But ratings barely mean anything on The CW so it’ll be fine.
The Secret Circle
*After Cassie’s (Britt Robertson) mother is killed she is sent to live with her grandmother (Ashley Crow). She quickly falls in with a group of pouty teens and they divulge that she, like the rest of them, come from a line of witches and they need Cassie to complete their circle to strengthen their power. Unbeknownst to the teens their parents have their own secret.
I am disappoint. Maybe this show will improve. But while “The Vampire Diaries” wasn’t a slam dunk with me, I knew that there were elements that I liked and it was only a matter of time before it clicked. TSC doesn’t have TVD’s writing going for them. Also the show is about the teens but to me the interesting parts are the ones surrounding the parents. And it’s not just because Gale Harold plays one of the parents. Their story is way more intriguing and the adults acting is actually good. The same can’t be same for a number of the teen characters. I’m just hoping that TSC has TVD’s body count because there are two leads who I want dead right now.
Ringer
Just what Eric Charmelo said. Eric: It’s a premise pilot and the whole conceit is Sarah plays twins: Bridget Kelly and Siobhan Martin and they’ve been estranged for the past six years. And Bridget finds herself between a rock and a hard place because the night before she’s to testify in a murder trial where she is the key witness to implicate a mob boss, she runs because she’s afraid for her life. She really has nowhere to go and the only place she can go is to her sister whose living in New York City and she’s lives this a really wealthy, privileged fairy tale lifestyle. When she gets to New York she finds out that something has happened to her sister and this may be a lucky happenstance and she decides to step into her sister’s shoes and figures out the best place to hide is in plain sight. Lo and behold rather than settling into these cushy pair of Manolos that she had anticipated, she finds out that her sister’s life is more complicated than her own and now she can’t go back to being Bridget.
Hmmm. I don’t think I’ll be watching this. It’s too soapy and the transition into Siobhan’s life is just too quick. Plus it’s so much déjà vu as even though she’s old enough, Sarah just seems ill suited for this adult role. It’s her playing Kendall Hart on “All My Children” all over again. It’s like she’s playing dress up, especially opposite Ioan Gruffund (why are you on TV?) and Nestor Carbonell. One of these days CW will find an actually damn great vehicle for Kristofer Paloha because I don’t this show plays to his strength as a comedic charmer a’la Ryan Reynolds.
~The Creative Arts Emmys were held and winners include that punk Justin Timberlake, Loretta Devine, Gwyneth Paltrow, “Community” for their highly inventive claymation Christmas episode, “Game of Thrones” for opening titles and “Glee” for casting. For some reaon.
CW
Their night was a mixed panel (as well as a night of cheap beer: the other nights have been hosted by Stella Artois and the CW is the only one that had Budweiser) featuring the Eps and cast of “Ringer”, “Hart of Dixie” and “The Secret Circle”. Repping “Ringer” were actors Nestor Carbonell, Mike Colter and EP Eric Charmleo (who is really charming), EP Nicole Snyder; “Hart of Dixie”s EP Leila Gerstein, actors Cress Williams (still hot!), Wilson Bethel, Scott Porter and James King and “The Secret Circle”s EP Andrew Miller and actor Adam Harrington. The moderator was Denise Martin of TV Guide.
Mod: I’m going to start with “Ringer”. Eric and Nicole, I’m sure the most important question on everyone’s mind is what is your favorite episode of “Buffy” and what did you do to lure Sarah Michelle Gellar back to TV?
Nicole:That’s a loaded question. I don’t think I can pick a favorite episode of Buffy; it was one of our favorite shows. What did we do to convince her to return to TV?
Eric: We promised her short days and weekends off so she’s playing twins! She fell for it.
Nicole: Lots of hot men. (gestures to Mike and Nestor) Hello. And lots of time off with her daughter, like Eric said. And we promised her we’ll generate really strong material. We have wonderful writers who are working hard and we try to do that each week.
Mod: This audience hasn’t seen the episode yet. Can you set up the show?
Eric: It’s a premise pilot and the whole conceit is Sarah plays twins: Bridget Kelly and Siobhan Martin and they’ve been estranged for the past six years. And Bridget finds herself between a rock and a hard place because the night before she’s to testify in a murder trial where she is the key witness to implicate a mob boss, she runs because she’s afraid for her life. She really has nowhere to go and the only place she can go is to her sister whose living in New York City and she’s lives this a really wealthy, privileged fairy tale lifestyle. When she gets to New York she finds out that something has happened to her sister and this may be a lucky happenstance and she decides to step into her sister’s shoes and figures out the best place to hide is in plain sight. Lo and behold rather than settling into these cushy pair of Manolos that she had anticipated, she finds out that her sister’s life is more complicated than her own and now she can’t go back to being Bridget.
(Everyone’s hushed like “oooh.that’s a lot of exposition”)
Nestor: That’s amazing. (everyone applauds)
Eric: That was totally all off the cuff.
Nestor: Do you want to do “Hart of Dixie” too?
Eric: Yes. Rachel Bilson plays a….
Mod: Nestor, your character is an FBI agent charged with watching over Bridget because she’s a witness in a crime. Your character sort of becomes obsessed with this case. Can you tell us a little bit more about why?
Nestor: I can tell you anything but why. This is sort of familiar territory for me: not knowing what’s going to happen. What I love about what Nicole, Eric and the writers have done is that the premise is a great premise; they set it up so well in the pilot. Then they sort of take it and address some mysteries and reveals more. My character..I don’t know much about his backstory and I’m kinda good with that, but I like learning about him. Clearly he won’t stop at nothing to get what he wants and I don’t mind that.
Mod: And just because you’re here: Why didn’t Richard Alpert get to be in the church… (everyone laughs)
Nestor: I know! I was excluded from the church or purgatory. I had some contact with Jack. Sometimes I might have been in one draft and others…
Scott: That was so rude (Richard being left out).
Mod: Mike, you play Bridget’s AA sponsor.
Mod: NA for Narcotics. NA, it’s stronger.
Mod: It’s hinted that there may be something else to that relationship? Have you had a chance to make out with Sarah Michelle Gellar?
(Jamie mouths “whoo whoo” with the “pop pop” hand gesture)
Mike: All I can say is loose lips sink ship. You have to tune in. I can’t tell you that.
(Scott reaches back and gives him daps)
Mod: So you can’t answer if she’s a good kisser.
Mike: I’m sure she is if I were to kiss her, but I never kissed her so…
Mod: Are you to look her in the eye? We’re joking about Sarah, I know that’s obvious, by the way.
Mike: I don’t look her in the eye.
Mod: Nicole and Eric, what was the inspiration for the show.
Nicole: We wanted writenoir for feature films and we never got around to it because two hours is too long and we needed a new TV script two years ago and we thought maybe because of shows like “Damages” and “Breaking Bad” and others that are so inventive and intelligent and different , we said, “Let’s try it as a TV show, it’s only 60 pages, right? Let’s do it.”. We never thought it would see the light of day. We never thought we’d be sitting here and celebrating this and getting to be lucky as we are. We started getting it to people and they were really responding to it, saying it’s a page turner and it got to be made. And thankfully it got into the hands of Sarah Michelle Gellar. And I thought of my favorite Buffy episode.
Mod: It can’t be the musical episode and it can’t be “Hush”, everyone picks those.
Nicole: It’s the one where she died. That affected me a lot.
Mod:What can you say about the trajectory of Season One? What kinds of things would we see? I know we’ll see different eras. What can you tease about the season?
Eric: By the end of the pilot there’s a central mystery that’s revealed and the entire season we’re building to what that mystery is. With each episode we’re going to reveal a different layer of the onion Hopefully there will be satisfying twists and turns and answering questions but setting up new mysteries and hopefully building up to an end game.
Mod: Moving on to “Hart of Dixie”, What made you think of Rachel Bilson for this role in “Hart of Dixie”.
Leila(she has the most mousy voice.: Well I know Rachel because I worked with her on “The O.C” so I know what she can do. The script was already written before we talked about casting, without ever guessing it was ever going to happen. When we realized it was going to happen and we’d have fantasy conversations on who could play this part and Rachel came up and she was perfect. She does the emotion, she’s fantastic with humor and she’s someone that you adore. I connected to her onscreen. Although this character has issues, you can relate to her.
Mod: I love Rachel Bilson and she looks very young and she’s playing a doctor. Did that ever come up?
Leila: Well I , A) look very young. Rachel Bilson is a very smart girl and if she went to medical school and became a doctor, she could be your doctor. She is the age that they (real doctors) are. She could be a doctor. She’s not Doogie Howswer, she is 30 years old. I think she’s older than the characters started on “Grey’s Anatomy”.
Wilson: So there!
(Cress says “Boom”, like Leila just killed the moderator’s argument and Jaime does her hands like “Now what??”)
Mod: How will the South be a character on the show? What makes the South so cool.
Leila: I think our town is very specific-it’s Blue Belle. It’s an idealized small town. I created Blue Belle because I was a busy, harried working mother and Blue Belle was the happy place I wanted to go to in my brain every night. The characters are quirky and funny and nice to each other community takes care of each other and there are really hot guys walking around.
Wilson: As a really hot guy in a small town, I want to add to that. I think there is something amazing about small towns, they’re just special places. What I think is really cool about it is that the charms of small town life whether idealized or not, they do exist. They are real parts of America and anywhere, I guess. Being able to see them in very specific glimpses as we do this show is a real delight. And episode by episode as we see more of those elements whether in characters or in events or local traditions..our local tradition holder here (James)
James (Affecting a Southern accent) I have so many traditions in store for ya’ll.
Wilson: It’s pretty cool. It reminds us of things that are special about small towns whether we’ve experienced them first hand or not.
James: Scott and I are both from Nebraska so I think it’s really awesome.to be able to see this. So many shows are focused on bigger cities I think for a lot of people who didn’t grow up in big cities it’s really great to turn on your television and see something you can relate to. But you have this perfect dichotomy of Rachel Bilson’s character who is from the city and our characters who are from a small town clashing and how ironically similar we all are. You get the best of both worlds.
Mod: Can you us about who you play on the show?
Cress: I play Lavon Hayes the mayor of the town whose a local boy who went off to play NFL for 10 years, came back, always dreamt of being mayor, ran for mayor, won. I’m the owner of the plantation where a couple of white people live.
Wilson (does Black Power fist) We will be free.
Cress: Keep hope alive! I have a pet alligator named Burt Reynolds and I’m the only person in town that Zoe Hart (Rachel’s character) doesn’t want to get with. I’m in love with this one here (points to James).
Wilson: I play Wade who is the town’s scalawag…
Scott: Scalawag?!
Wilson: Lone wolf, scalawag…
Cress: Ragamuffin.
Wilson: He’s dancing to the beat a little bit. He’s a guy very comfortable living the way he lives until Zoe Hart arrives and shakes it up a bit for him. It’s interesting to see that develop from a character that could’ve just been a archetypal, swaggering bad boy..he has that but also as his relationship with both Zoe and other characters develop you’ll see other sides of him. That’s the scalwag side.
James: I play Lemon, and as you’ll see in the pilot she’s a a classic Southern belle. What I love about Lemon most is that she’s a complex character. The writing for her and for everyone is so amazing. She has to carry this exterior that everything has to be perfect all the time and she has to be the best at everything: best fiancee, the best sister best daughter, all the best of everything. But you start to realize as you see her most vulnerable moments that maybe this is not who she wants to be or who she is and she can’t express her true self. You find out that her mother left her and she’s dealing with some abandonment issues It’s really fun to see a character played out that people can relate to. I think a lot of people live lives that aren’t necessarily their own. You get to see the complexities of struggling with what you really want and who you truly are and what’s expected of you. and she really goes from high funny and really high drama and zero to ten really quick and she’s really fun to watch.
Scott: I play George Tucker. George’s is a very intelligent guy and has a soft spot for the underdog, a soft spot for his hometown. He left, became a big city lawyer in New York and for reasons yet explained he comes back to Blue Belle with a bit of a mission, I think. He sets up an office in town, he really fights for the little guy. You see entry points of his life outside of Blue Bell through the window that is Zoe Hart to a couple of years in New York City that nobody else in Blue Belle can understand, there in lies the curiosity of Zoe Hart though he truly, deeply loves Lemon, his childhood sweetheart. He came back for her, he came back to find his ground again. I hesitate to use the word “golden boy” because he has a bit of a sarcastic edge to him. He’s a little bit cocky, but I think that comes with the territory of being a young, successful (guy) who has forged his own way and returns home. It’s been a blast to play.
Mod: You had a scene, I believe, with Burt Reynolds the alligator. Was he really scary?
Scott: So…when you rent an alligator the trainer will tell you he will perform certain activities for you such as go away when you ask him to politely go away. Then the trainer will get to the night that you’re shooting at 3 o’clock in the morning in 50 degrees weather in the woods of Wilmington, North Carolina and he will tell you (adopting a cajun accent) “Oh, that gator ain’t gonna do nothing you want him to do” We’ll be hearing a lot about Burt Reynolds but I don’t think we’ll be seeing him anytime soon.
(The moderator asked about Rachel kissing a pig)
Leila: It wasn’t on the show, it was behind the scenes.
Cress: That’s not better. That was hot; like CW hot.
Leila: We’ve had an alligator, bull frog, snakes, pigs and tomorrow’s the big turtle race.
Scott: Racing turtles.
James: Turtle race!
Cress: Holla!
James: Bring it!
Scott: I didn’t speak earlier about the show, but I think there’s something so nice about a show that takes its time.And that’s what Blue Belle’s all about. You’re not going to see a lot of crazy stories that go from 0 to 60 in a crazy manner. You’ll see a lot of animals, but it’s nice and comfortable and something TV needs right now, actually.
Mod: I’m going to move on to “The Secret Circle”. Kevin Williamson and Julie couldn’t make it tonight so I want you to speak very openly.
Andrew: Please turn off your cameras.
Mod: We’ll just tweet this. Tell us why witches are so much better than vampires. Let it all out. We’re all friends here.
Andrew: Vampires are 150 years old and none of us are vampires. But there could be people in this room who are witches. Which is why I won’t speak bad about witches for that exact reason. I think for me, I love vampires and I love “The Vampire Diaries” but what I like about witches is that they feel more relatable. Our characters are experiencing this stuff for the first time and they’re becoming empowered as they grow into their powers and it’s fun to watch. And it’s a bit more relatable than watching 150 year old guys hitting on 16-year old girls.
Mod:and they’re also very attractive witches. Super attractive. Is there something in the water?
Andrew: We’re shooting in a beautiful place in Vancouver and it’s a really beautiful setting and it just felt like you can’t put any ugly people behind that.
Mod That’s very detailed.
Andrew: I think if you had magical abilities one of the first thing you would address is your looks.
Mod: That’s very logical. Good answer. How faithful will the show be to the books?
Andrew: It’s written by LJ Smith who also wrote “The Vampire Diaries” book series. She has an incredible talent for writing, not only rich characters, but dynamics and relationship. There’s a central love triangle books. It’s really fun: there’s a girl and her best friend and then this guy and as she’s drawn into this triangle, it makes her question her own goodness and that was just a fun road to me to go down. When you start looking at your best friend’s boyfriend you start feeling bad about yourself and that’s the gateway emotion to darkness that the show explores. That’s what we took from the book and it’s an exciting place to start. And the mythology is the witch stuff. We had to expand the mythology more.
Mod: Can you set it up so that people can know what the show is about?
Andrew: Well it’s about twins…I’m just trying to remember what you (Eric) said.
Eric: There was a show about twin witches on the Disney Channel called “Twitches” and it starred Tia and Tamera.
Andrew: I can see there us exploring a twin spell in our future. It’s about a girl played by Britt Robertson from ..I was going to say “My So-Called Life”..”Life UnXpected”. Her mom dies and she comes back to her hometown and gets involved with these group of people that are very different from each other but all share this legacy. She joins this circle and she begins to explore what it means, both good and bad inside the circle and out.
Mod: The parents are hiding something.
Andrew: The parents are hiding a lot. They’re witches as are the grandparents are witches too. And on the CW the grandparents are only like 45. What are young cast is experiencing with the audience is what the parents experienced 16 years earlier. And they have some hard tales of what they went through and some diabolical agenda now and they’re carrying out a plan that Cassie, Britt’s character and the rest of the circle. Matter of fact I brought one of those parents.
Mod:Adam you’re one of the parents.
Adam: Age wise I’m the great great great grandparent.
Mod: Tell us about Ethan.
Adam: Ethan is Adam’s dad, played by Thomas Dekker and I am the town drunk. When the series kicks off Cassie comes back to town and form this kind of family with these kids and a dastardy, diabolical thing happened 16 years ago that everyone moved on from except my character and whatever happened was such a traumatic shock that it kinda broke him who is still limbo of alcohol and pain of what happened 16 years ago.
Andrew: In a fun way!
Adam: In a fun way. In a sexy good looking way. So he’s the only one in the adult generation who hasn’t been able to move on. He’s struggling with that and trying to be a father. Gale Harold plays my nemesis. And Cassie’s mom was the love of my life and it was written in the stars that we’d be together and that didn’t happen and…he’s the town drunk.
Mod: What’s the best thing about playing a drunk witch?
Adam: Well ignorance is bliss. The note I kept getting was “less boozy, more tired”.
Scott: You can’t really get hangovers right? (since he’s a warlock)
Andrew: There’s a spell for that.
Adam: There’s a spell for it. Ethan’s a very ineffective witch because if there’s a spell for it he’s not using it. But I’m sure he can turn water into booze at this point.
Mod Have you shot anything..does he have any fun or weird powers?
Adam: When it kicks off witchcraft has been abolished (dawnybee: it’s like “Footloose” but with magic) due to this thing that has happened and the kids are figuring it out on their own. So as far as we know the adults don’t have any witchcraft powers. As far as we know.
Mod: What are they going to be up against? Is it the same villain in the book? What are they going to be up against?
Andrew: Each other a lot in all kinds of way. It’s hard to get six teenagers to agree on what movie they want to see let alone what to use their collective powers for so there’ll be a lot of problems that’ll happen within the circle with power struggles, jealousy and betrayal. The more and understand and learn to do magic, the more they open up into that world and start to confront dark and dangerous forces that they’re in part responsible for creating and are coming after them. The six of them represent this pretty amazing thing and they’ll discover that there are people who’d want to exploit that and manipulate it and destroy it. In a fun way!
Mod: How scary will it get?
Andrew: Pretty scary. We’re on after “The Vampire Diaries” so we have a certain responsibility to maintain a level of scariness and we’re trying real hard to make that happen. They have to confront a lot of darkness. For all of this there’s this balance between dark and light within themselves and in the circle and what they confront. You can do these seemingly light spells but there’s always a price to be paid and they pay that price.
Mod Thank you all for being here.
“Ringer” EP, actor, Nestor Carbonell, and “Hart of Dixie”s Scott Porter and “The Secret Circle”s Adam Harrington
Adam and Nestor
Cress and Wilson
I was just in love with Cress’ outfit. He’s always been gorgeous, but when he bulked up for “Prison Break” I was in the meh camp. Now he’s full on fit again. I love it.
Scott talking about “Burt Reynolds”
I didn’t take this picture obviously
Nor this one
My terrible picture of Cress. I was just snapping pictures, not really caring if I got it or not but he saw me and smiled in my direction so I could get it.
Hart of Dixie
*New York doctor Zoe needs to complete a residency as a general practitioner. Knowing that she wouldn’t find one in NY, she takes up an unsolicited offer from a man in a small Southern town. There she’s taken back by the town’s quaint ways but is intrigued by two men: George, a fellow émigré from New York (Scott Porter) and Wade (Wilson Bethel) who she shares a residence with.
I liked it. I didn’t want to because I hate Josh Schwartz’s work overall (“The OC”, “Gossip Girl”) but it’s a sweet show. Very simple. I think it fancies itself another “Northern Exposure” but the characters aren’t as unique and interesting. It comes on Monday nights following “Gossip Girl”, but is up against “The Sing-Off”, “House”, “Two and a Half Men’ and “Mike and Molly”. But ratings barely mean anything on The CW so it’ll be fine.
The Secret Circle
*After Cassie’s (Britt Robertson) mother is killed she is sent to live with her grandmother (Ashley Crow). She quickly falls in with a group of pouty teens and they divulge that she, like the rest of them, come from a line of witches and they need Cassie to complete their circle to strengthen their power. Unbeknownst to the teens their parents have their own secret.
I am disappoint. Maybe this show will improve. But while “The Vampire Diaries” wasn’t a slam dunk with me, I knew that there were elements that I liked and it was only a matter of time before it clicked. TSC doesn’t have TVD’s writing going for them. Also the show is about the teens but to me the interesting parts are the ones surrounding the parents. And it’s not just because Gale Harold plays one of the parents. Their story is way more intriguing and the adults acting is actually good. The same can’t be same for a number of the teen characters. I’m just hoping that TSC has TVD’s body count because there are two leads who I want dead right now.
Ringer
Just what Eric Charmelo said. Eric: It’s a premise pilot and the whole conceit is Sarah plays twins: Bridget Kelly and Siobhan Martin and they’ve been estranged for the past six years. And Bridget finds herself between a rock and a hard place because the night before she’s to testify in a murder trial where she is the key witness to implicate a mob boss, she runs because she’s afraid for her life. She really has nowhere to go and the only place she can go is to her sister whose living in New York City and she’s lives this a really wealthy, privileged fairy tale lifestyle. When she gets to New York she finds out that something has happened to her sister and this may be a lucky happenstance and she decides to step into her sister’s shoes and figures out the best place to hide is in plain sight. Lo and behold rather than settling into these cushy pair of Manolos that she had anticipated, she finds out that her sister’s life is more complicated than her own and now she can’t go back to being Bridget.
Hmmm. I don’t think I’ll be watching this. It’s too soapy and the transition into Siobhan’s life is just too quick. Plus it’s so much déjà vu as even though she’s old enough, Sarah just seems ill suited for this adult role. It’s her playing Kendall Hart on “All My Children” all over again. It’s like she’s playing dress up, especially opposite Ioan Gruffund (why are you on TV?) and Nestor Carbonell. One of these days CW will find an actually damn great vehicle for Kristofer Paloha because I don’t this show plays to his strength as a comedic charmer a’la Ryan Reynolds.
~The Creative Arts Emmys were held and winners include that punk Justin Timberlake, Loretta Devine, Gwyneth Paltrow, “Community” for their highly inventive claymation Christmas episode, “Game of Thrones” for opening titles and “Glee” for casting. For some reaon.