IR Print Interview: David S. Goyer For “Krypton” [SyFy – NBC TCA Winter Press Tour 2018]

Very few Hollywood writers have had the kind of interaction with both comics lore and top tier filmmakers in honing the craft. David Goyer is one of the elite few. He worked on The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan Trilogy but also on Man Of Steel & Batman Versus Superman. On top of that, he is actively working on “Fantastic Voyage” for Jim Cameron as well as being in the writers room for the new Terminator trilogy as soon as the right reverted back to the legendary director. His TV work is also very accomplished. Most recently he created “Constantine for NBC and “DaVinci’s Demons” for Starz. Next might be the most high stakes challeng”e for him via TV: “Krypton” on SyFy which follows the exploits of Seg-El, Superman’s grandfather. After completely a panel for “Krypton” at the NBC TCA Winter Press Day, Goyer spoke with The Inside Reel about texture, family and responsibility within his new series.

Can you talk about integrating Adam Strange as a sort of perceptor point for “Krypton” as a series?

David Goyer: Jeff [Goyer] and I always have a soft spot for him. As Jeff said, he’s a guy who ping-pongs around the world. I think he’s got an interesting backstory in and of himself, so maybe there was a possibility for an interesting spin-off or something like that. And we just thought we needed an audience proxy for the show. We needed somebody to represent people that aren’t comic book fans, that maybe don’t know anything about the Superman mythology. It seemed like a good match, and as Jeff alluded to, in terms of some of the other comic book arcs– there’s just some interesting things that we can do with him, particularly looking forward to season two and season three.

Can you talk about casting Seg-El and what compelled you about Cameron Cuffe as the character?

DG: It’s funny because I saw his early audition in the UK, and I called Jeff and I said, “I think he’s the guy. Check him out.” I don’t know. He’s calm and he’s heroic. He’s instantly likable as a person when I met him. I was joking about the talk, but that was a very real talk that we had in London. I said [to him], “You’re going to be under a tremendous amount of pressure, and it doesn’t mean you have to be a choir boy, but it does mean that you are an ambassador on a different plane than most comic book worlds.” And he got it. And he’s a genuine fan. He genuinely wanted to be there, which is also really important, because when you cast someone like that, you are thinking about, “Okay, this has to go hopefully for eight, nine years, and [we’re] at the beginning of it.” But he’s going to be front and center, doing all this press, meeting all these people in real life, and he will be an ambassador for us as a show. So he’s a great actor and he’s mature for his age, or it just doesn’t happen.

Now how did the whole idea, when casting, how far along were you in the writing process, and how did that sort of inset to the psychology of Seg-El as a character?

DG: I mean we were — if we hadn’t cast Cam, we would’ve had to push filming. We were right up against start. We’d already seen over 500 people and we cast sort of everyone but him.

And all 10 episodes of Season One were written at this point?

DG: No. Not all 10 were written. We’d written the first three. So we were literally talking about pushing production because we hadn’t found him, the guy. We’d already cast Georgina, who plays Lyta Zod, and the only reason she’s not out here, too, is because they’re both in so many scenes– we’re still filming — It was impossible to get them both here at the same time.

Did you ever worry, I mean chemistry-wise, that you hired the most important guy last? What if he doesn’t match up?

DG: Well, that’s why we had a screen test with Georgina. I mean, because they have to work together, because there’s a Romeo-and-Juliet aspect to the show, which I shouldn’t talk about. And so their relationship is the central relationship in the show.

This must be an intense production…

DG: It’s definitely intense. In terms of Warner Horizon, it’s by far the biggest budget — or Syfy. In terms of science fiction, it is the biggest budget show we’ve ever been on.

Could you talk about the family aspect? The whole thing with Zods. You can’t give too much away, but can you talk about the intersection of that?

DG: It’s a big, big aspect of the show, and the show is — it is as much about the House of Zod as it is about the House of El, and so family lineage, and what families stand for, and the family name, is an enormous part of the show.

By Tim Wassberg

IR Exclusive Print Interview: Ian Gomez For “Living Biblically” [CBS – CBS TCA Winter Press Tour 2018]

Comedy can be a fickle beast and knowing how to play the beats plus moving in rhythm with your fellow actors is essential. Whether attacking single camera on “Cougar Town” and “Felicity” or multi-cam with “The Drew Carey Show”, Ian Gomez has an inherent intention for getting it right. After conducting a panel with his fellow actors at the CBS TCA Press Day for the new series: “Living Biblically”, he spoke exclusively with The Inside Reel about process, texture of character and the sometimes trickiness of tone.

Being on the set of ”Cougar Town”, I still remember there was so much energy. Could you talk about sort of the approach with this kind of material? Because it’s very tonal.

Ian Gomez: It’s a fine line that the writers had to walk because ultimately, it has to be a funny show, and it’s about religion. So they didn’t want to make fun of religion, nor did they want to be preachy. So it’s how do you do that, make it funny, make it watchable, and make the characters likable? That’s a really hard thing to do as opposed to on Cougar town, where they’ll be drinking and jokes about dating and kids and stuff like that. So the task here is much harder.

As Father Gene, you’re sort of the interpreter of rules in this one. That’s what sort of defines how you play on set.

IG: Right. Yeah. So my role on the show is kind of the voice of reason. But yet I have to be funny and yet not be too preachy. The biggest hurdle I found was having to put out all of these religious beliefs and be funny and have a backbone and be a real person. So not just a talking Bible…this is right, that’s wrong. And it’s not written that way. [It is how] to find a place where the character can live, where he’s a real person…a very religious person, with a strong faith but also with a great sense of humor. And not dark, but he can be sarcastic, like a regular person. He’s in a bar. Most of the scenes I’m in takes place in a bar so…

That sounds like Drew Carey’s show a little.

IG: Yes, it is. (laughing)

Is this the first time you’ve done a multi-cam show since Drew?

IG: No. I was on “The Norm Show”, with Norm MacDonald.

Can you talk how the format has sort of translated? Because now everything’s like, everybody wants these little bits.

IG: Right. There’s no room for building anything. It seems like a lot of sitcoms are set-up, punch, set-up, punch, set-up, punch. On this show, there’s a lot of jokes but not a lot of exposition where you’re setting up the joke or setting up the backstory. It seems more of an old-school kind of sitcom where the characters grow. You get to learn the characters, then the humor comes from character humor. Based on how, if this person says it, it’s funny. If another character says it, it wouldn’t be funny because these characters are different. It seems like, on a lot of sitcoms, it’s like, “Here are a bunch of jokes, and you pick them.” Just like, everybody gets five, and it doesn’t matter which ones.

How much research did you want to have in the back of your mind for this? I mean, obviously, you’ve had experiences with different religions over the course of your life and career.

IG: Yeah. I didn’t trail a priest or anything like that. I felt that I knew enough about what people thought of priests and rabbis and religion, and the fear that maybe keeps some people away from them. Some people would not just go up to a religious leader and have a conversation for fear of being judged or something like that. I wanted to be a relateable priest. I wanted to be someone that people would say like, “Oh, I wish my priest was like that.” I wanted to be someone who you could sit down and talk to. And there was a difference there. There are some scenes that would take place in church and some scenes that take place in the bar for me. In the confessional scenes, it’s more priestly. But in the bar — so there’s a separation between those two times. Not that he loses his sense of humor in the confessional.

Is there a difference in truth in the two space or how he looks at truth?

IG: No, no, no. But when you’re in the house of God, there’s a certain amount of respect in how you hold and behave yourself within that, but within those boundaries, still be yourself and be a human, and you’re there for other people to help them. I also found that it was being able to help the lead character Chip, who’s going through this thing in the pilot. My character thinks this is the craziest thing he’s ever heard.

The God Squad aspect?

IG: No. Just the trying to live by the Bible, the way it’s written, literally. It’s insane and also dangerous. [So my character] tries to convince them to just use it as a guideline. Like one line in the show is that “BIBLE” stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. So it’s like be a good person, golden rule kind of stuff, love God, love your neighbors, and anything like that, but you don’t have to go [like] stone adulterers and do all those other stuff. So being practical yet religious in the modern day.

There’s a very specific look to Father Gene. Could you talk about physicality informing the character?

IG: Well, I wanted the kind of — you see the old movies where the priest is a little old bald man, with glasses, spectacles, and kind of a thing? I was thinking of that. So the little old Irish priest. I kind of wanted to have that look. If I had hair, it would be the long-haired, hippie priest. I wanted to be the priest you might recognize. And I’m from New York.

So you probably saw a lot of this kind of guys growing up?

IG: Yeah. But I was terrified of priests as a child. My mom’s Jewish. My father was a Fundamentalist. His mom is a Fundamentalist. He wasn’t, but I always considered, whenever I saw someone in a religious wear, I was almost afraid of them. There was this I didn’t know how to handle, how to approach, how to talk to somebody like that, and what do I say and how respectful and all those other stuff. So I wanted to play a more approachable person.

And my last question to you is, with comedy, it’s easier on single camera. Can you talk about technique versus instinct and how that works? Not to give away your process, but about the balance between those two, especially in comedy.

IG: Right. Well, working on a multi-cam, you rehearse all week, not in front of an audience, and then you get the audience there. And they laugh in different places, and that kind of throws you off. And the wonderful thing about this is that you know it is TV, so you can do multiple takes, as opposed to the theater that says, “Oh, that, okay,” and then you just have to go with the flow.

But you guys always did multiple takes on Cougar Town. Do you find that made it better, or did it take away the spontaniety?

IG: But you don’t know how it’s going. You don’t know. Although you’re doing different takes and everything, you don’t know what the reactions are going to be. With multi-cam, you kind of get it right away like, “Oh, that worked there. That didn’t work.” And then you get into the rhythm of it more. Working on single cam, you’re kind of working in the vacuum. You really don’t know. And then it’s up to the editor to put all that stuff together, the different takes and cameras and camera angles and the sizes. So it’s more reactive right now with the actors to see what they’re doing.

By Tim Wassberg

Network Equation & Special Challenges: The TCA CBS/CW/Showtime Summer 2013 Press Tour – Feature

Equating the ideas of major networks as well as their cable spinoffs and genre casings poses special challenges as creating edgy fare comes with its own contrivances about how to make things but economically and creatively viable. CBS though seems up to the task.

“The Arsenio Hall Show”, which brings back the once stalwart cool man of late night who abruptly fell off the scene, comes with an interesting delight: how to make this older man who epitomized the 90s into the fold two decades later. He told us two years ago at a cable function in a small group that he was planning this. What is interesting is that he is doing it with the same people as before and by extension the same company with a couple extras. Arsenio himself notes the change in times with the technology saying “Debbie Gibson [back in the day] sent me a FAX that she wanted to sing on my show. That was my text”. Another example he gives is “I remember Barbara Streisand calling me with a Bill Clinton question. Now she can tweet”. Sounding a little too much in the play, he speaks that “with a joke, you are able to Google now”. One of the things that he thinks gave him the confidence to return to this specific fray was his win on “Celebrity Apprentice” because “I have been Number Two at anything I have ever done” so “it was nice to win”. The aspect that also promoted it was the enticement of his son. He relates that he left the late night show he had at the top of his game but it was to spend more time raising his son. He explains “I needed balance in my life” and “the compliment from me to Paramount was that they don’t want you on the air if you know you’re going” which was the reason for the show’s abrupt end. Now that his son is older, when the finale of “Apprentice” came along, his son told him “we could win it!” This showed to him that his son had some investment in what he was doing. Arsenio was known in breaking music acts back in the day but the actuality is that “the stats point that music doesn’t get as good numbers as the talk”. He points that someone who has been supportive is Jay Leno, whom he says many people think as combative but he explains that this is true only when they are in direct competition with him. Jay, Arsenio explains, just wants to win, making the comparison that “Ali & Frazier didn’t get along initially”. His end game is that “at the end of the day, I am a stand up comic and I am there to get laughs” but “I just need to be funny in the way that I do it”.

“The Good Wife”, continuing its much ballyhooed run on CBS, recently received a watercooler boost with the campaigning of the infamous Anthony Weiner back into the New York mayoral race. Robert King, who exec produces the show with his wife Michelle, says that “there is a certain demand in telling the story” but “sometimes the audience is [only] inches ahead of us [and] sometimes yards ahead of us”. In comparison to the real life reflections with the recent Weiner situation, he says “we are the happiest people since we have so much to write about” saying “the Weiner thing hit it right on the head” though “Julianna [Maguiles] creates a good temperature on set”.

“Mom”, a new series starring ever blonde Anna Faris and Alison Janney, seems like an interesting mix especially with its addiction background of the story thrown in the comedy mix. After having her baby with husband Chris Pratt (from “Parks & Recreation”), Faris says “I wasn’t ready to get back to work” but he read it and pushed her to do it. Of her character, Faris admits “She’s so dimensional and a mess…basically like me”. Addressing her longevity in the business and getting that first job, she explains “I slowly came to realize that getting your first job is hard but not as hard as the second one” because “you have to peddle yourself around town”. At this point in her career, she says “there is a difference in that you graduate as a woman into a different element in your 30s”. Asked to what her mom might think of her portrayal on-screen in this series, Faris jokes that “my mom is a prude but half the time she doesn’t know what the vocabulary means” adding that “she says she’s never seen a condom”. Chuck Lorre, who continues to build his empire here after the successes of “Two &A Half Men”, “Big Bang Theory” and recently “Mike & Molly”, concludes with the admission that “I once asked Norman Lear what he did [with all his shows] and he said you go where the fire is burning the brightest and where you are most needed”.

Showtime swoops with interest into the battle with the return of “Homeland” and the texture of how you change up the show with two red hot Emmy winners on the roll. Claire Danes, whose lead character is always on the verge of exploding, says that “Carrie is always sitting on her own personal ticking bomb” adding that “it is an impossible dilemma”. In terms of the recent progression, she continues that Carrie “is not great on the meds and she is even worse off them” posing that “it is pretty bleak”. When asked about her recent quotes about having trouble finding work after her lauded performance as “Temple Gradin” for HBO before she started “Homeland”, she explains that after the former, “I think I emerged energized and emboldened” and “I wanted a similar type of challenge” but “there wasn’t any roles like that” adding that “I didn’t have patience for the regular old stuff”. She says that she guesses “there was a dirth of material in general at that moment” but, for her, “to do a job for the sake of it is a really bad idea”. She postulates that ”we are freelance, dare I say, artists”. Despite the bent of this series, she says “I have not become a political creature” though, for this season, “I have returned to my bipolar books” admitting “they are right near the bed” because “it is our job to interpret the heavy lifting the writers do”. Damian Lewis, for his part as Brody, is not seen for the first two episodes of the new season, which is unusual for the most recent Emmy winning Best Actor – Drama, but he says “it is a function of the story that we have to see Brody”. He explains with a little chicanery that “he disappeared into a tunnel system” because “he is the most wanted criminal in the world so he has to lay low”. Asked whether he sees his character’s bleak end coming in droves, he jokes that “these guys [the creators] have been trying to kill me since Episode One”.

“Masters Of Sex” continues the predilection with an piercing view into taboo and science in the late 40s with a kind of voyeurism that apparently pushes the boundary. Michael Sheen, who plays the lead character Bill who is studying the science of human sexuality in a conservative time, says that, with the series, it is about seeing the time as “prudish” but more about seeing it as a journey about “a sense of control in this man’s life” since “he is a mystery to himself”. The idea for him of this man is that “he has a locked-down desire to keep control”. In comparing the sense of sexuality to our perception of sex today, he explains “the same problem of intimacy applies now”. The key is “with the sexuality of the piece, it has to be realistic” but “your have to find a way to set the tone with all the right things” adding that “you discover through experimentation”. In terms of his relationship with his study partner Jane (played by Lizzy Caplan), he says “you find your way with the chemistry” because “the humor comes out of the situation” because (let’s face it), “it is interesting how sex is done on-screen” but “there is an awkwardness”. From his perspective, in “Masters Of Sex”, “there are a lot risks, not just the nudity”. What he likes about this character and the challenge is that “in the multiple episodic format, you can get to the complexity of a novel”. The disconnect for Bill, he says, is that “he tries to keep sex and attraction separate”. As for his view on sex after doing the series, he says “I found myself talking about relationships more” because “the more you are doing [or watching] a show about sex, you are finding more how you connect with human beings”. The take-away is that “sex is a conduit for any area you feel shame about”.

Lizzy Caplan, from her point of view playing a period woman after she had played many outspoken modern women, says “when you are telling a story in present day, you can [show the modern woman] with clothes and a strategically placed tattoo”. With all the sex and nudity floating throughout the series, she says “some of the situations were ridiculous but accurate” but “there are moments of levity”. She says “the idea of Jane is that every step of the way she is a contradiction” using the comparisons that “she is a secretary but she is also a partner” and that “she is sexually adventurous but she is a mother of two” and most specifically “she becomes close with Liddy [Bill’s wife] but she is also the other woman”. What throws her is that people were told different underlying falsehoods about sex (like masturbation) and, as she puts it, “you just needed to tell people that what you were doing was normal but people weren’t doing that…and that is some bullshit!”

CW closes out with the consideration of “The Tomorrow People” which is based upon a series that Greg Berlanti (who also produces the CW’s “Arrow”) saw as a kid. He speaks of it with glee saying “Julie [Line, the exec producer] and I have been talking about this show since we were in college” adding that “the originals played in reruns on Nickelodeon”. Mark Pellegrino, recently of “Lost” as Jacob, returns to genre here with a multi-facade character teasing that “I don’t consider myself the hero of the story right now” but explaining that “I am protecting the human race and you have to do dirty things”.

The triumvirate in CBS, Showtime & CW continues to show that the separation of brand and knowing the angle at which to engage the audience is decidedly important in facilitating bigger and bigger ratings.

IR Exclusive Print Interview: Drew Carey For “The Price Is Right” [CBS Daytime TCA Set Visit 2012]

Connecting with the psyche of America, especially in its vast middle section, has always been a great talent of Drew Carey from his days on his own highly rated sitcom to the bombastic fun of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” When “The Price Is Right” came along, allowing him to take over the legendary shoes of Bob Barker, Carey did not waiver, understanding the power of this specific game show. After seeing the people lined up for a day of taping at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, IR’s Tim Wassberg talked to Drew Carey upon the famous stage of “The Price Is Right”, wheel in walking distance and colors abounding, about the key to the game show’s demo, its slice of Americana and the surrealism of it all.

Tim Wassberg: How does “The Price Is Right” appeal to the college audience, because it seemingly does in droves.

Drew Carey: Tons of college kids are fans of “The Price Is Right”. [Some of it is] breaking from classes. There are  [also] “Price Is Right” watching clubs all over the place. We don’t do anything special to appeal to college students. Well…maybe the models (laughing).

TW: At what moment does it become surrealistic for you?

DC: It’s always like that. [In terms of prep], I get here about a half hour before the show starts. I go to my dressing room. I put my bag down. Put on my suit. Do hair and make-up. And walk on-stage. I don’t even know what the games are going to be half the time. They leave me a list of games to play on my desk but I never even look at them anymore. I just walk out. There is a stagehand that points me to go over here and over there. I know if we do a car, we do them every act. If we have done two games and we haven’t done a car yet, the car is coming up. I am just as surprised as everyone else when I see the games.

TW: The energy is great but it is so fast paced to the point that there is no room for improv. Does it just become instinct?

DC: It is instinct. My whole job out here is to be nice and have fun with everybody. [It is to] make sure they have fun, and guide everybody through the game and hope they win.

TW: When you look out at these audiences for “The Price Is Right”, what do you see?

DC: Man…when I look out there, I just see America. It is all workers of America. I ask people what they do all time and I never get “I’m a CEO” or “I’m the president of a company”. It’s all “I’m [some kind of] a worker”. It’s the like the “working class” of an audience every single day.

“The Price Is Right” airs on CBS weekdays at 11am.

IR Exclusive Print Interview: Terry O’Quinn For “666 Park Avenue” [ABC Summer 2012 TCA Cocktail Event]

Creating new mythology around the notion of the supernatural is always an odds ratio but the game gets stepped up when the character you are playing against is that of “Locke” in the seminal series “LOST”. Carefully picking his follow up to the infamous and multi-layered castaway is no small feat but Terry O’Quinn has fashioned his approach as the mysterious Gavin Doran in ABC’s new fall series “666 Park Avenue” with pinache. Dressed in tuxedo trim with the same piercing gaze that made Locke’s eventual tendencies so iconic, O’Quinn talked to IR’s Tim Wassberg at ABC’s TCA Summer 2012 Cocktail Mixer about the allure of evil, the intentions of will and physically manifesting his characters.

Tim Wassberg: Can you talk about the allure of such a character as Doran with his temptations, his manifestations of power and what enters into the mindset of playing him.

Terry O’Quinn: If you don’t have that in your life, it is nice to play it. This is a very intransigent man and he is very one minded about where he is going. He is kind of immovable. He is cold, except to his wife, who is even more so. He can’t be warmed to people because he is unscrupulous.

TW: What is the hardest thing about playing the line between approachable and dastardly?

TOQ: The hardest thing is finding out where to start. This guy started at go and was going 100 miles an hour. You couldn’t tiptoe your way into this character. The hardest thing is starting at punching somebody in the face and then being nice and having a normal life after you do that kind of thing; to able to speak softly or have any kind of warmth or charm. And everybody already knows you are capable of that [other end]. It’s easy to introduce a character softly and then have people surprised by the evil. It is very difficult to introduce a character with a punch to the face and then convinced people (chuckling) that he is not a bad guy.

TW: How do you modulate the energy of this guy with that specific kind of tone?

TOQ: That is what I am trying to figure out because everybody knows about the punch in the face so, consequently, whenever he speaks softly or seems to be warm, you all assume he is being manipulative. So the trick is going to be [trying to] display moments when he is not being manipulative and just being warm…if, in fact, that happens.

TW: Can you talk about expectation, both in terms of the audience and yourself, as to what you find intriguing to bring you into this specific world.

TOQ: The funny thing is when the writers and producers asked me to have dinner, they said “We want to pitch this to you” but the truth is I had already read the script. They didn’t need to pitch it to me because I would have taken it anyway. All they risked is by [doing that is] losing me when they pitched it because I could already see what I wanted to see. I might have questions such as “Where is this going to go?” or “What are the colors I can give this guy?” Normally, they [the producers] are listening to what your questions are and trying to guess the answers you want to hear, and give you that answer. So, it is an act of faith to take a part like this. To be quite honest, you look at a bunch of scripts and say “I don’t like this or this” then “This isn’t bad” or “I kind of like the character”. [Then it becomes] “OK…I guess I better take this” because the river keeps moving on by. The next thing that comes by might be total shit.

TW: You spoke about taking things on faith, and with a mythology-based series like “666 Park” as well as with “LOST”, you have to go on the perception that you don’t know where it is going.

TOQ: But I play like I know where it is going so you believe me. Every script really is: You’re in a forest. But I don’t have to show you the forest. I just have to show you the next tree. My job is to get to that tree. If I get to that tree, I get another scene or I get another script. It is like a puzzle. If something comes along and I say “That doesn’t jive with what you have given me” or “I have a question of where that ties into that”, they may have to answer me or they [the writers] say “Trust me” in which case I have to trust them.

TW: Can you talk about the importance of the physical interacting with the emotional within your characters.

TOQ: I think it is important if you can bring it. I am not always comfortable [with it]. You take on a role like this and you go “What if this lasted [for] 5 years?” I think of my friend Michael Emerson [“Benjamin Linus” on “LOST”] who started working with a limp on “Person Of Interest” [on CBS], and now he has to walk with a limp for the next 5 years or so. I haven’t asked him if he regrets making that choice.

TW: But it is all about choice.

TOQ: It is all about choice. I rarely consciously make an effort to sound different or look different because I don’t have a lot of faith in my ability to do it. I hope I can convince an audience that the character is feeling and believing what he’s saying, despite how he looks or sounds. That is my first job: to make sure they [the audience] understands what I want as a character.

TW: And the second part?

TOQ: Colors. The rest of it is painting. But you have to stay within the lines. A scene is written to make this point and you have to make that point. How you decorate that point is where the creativity comes in.

“666 Park Avenue” premieres on ABC Sunday September 30th, 2012 at 10pm.