David Chokachi as Jake McCartey in Witchblade. Photo copyright of TNT.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, former Baywatch actor David Chokachi talks about playing police detective Jake McCartey on the TNT series Witchblade.
When it comes to performing in front of a camera, David Chokachi is a natural. After all, he’s been doing it ever since he was a kid. “I used to make these home movies with my brother and our friends when I was around twelve,” he recalls. “They were actually pretty good Miami Vice rip-offs,” chuckles the actor. “We even used flour to double as cocaine for our on-screen drug deals gone bad. Come on, you can’t get more professional than that!”
As an adult, the projects Chokachi appears in may be more polished, but he still approaches the work with a child-like enthusiasm. The affable actor rose to international fame as the blond, bronzed and buff lifeguard Cody Madison on the popular TV series Baywatch. Nowadays, he is riding the wave of popularity as Jake McCartey on the action-fantasy show Witchblade. Based on a comic book of the same name, the show stars Yancy Butler as Sara Pezzini, a New York homicide detective whose destiny brings her in contact with an ancient, living weapon called the Witchblade. At one with the bewitching blade, she and her partner Jake McCartey take on all manner of evil.
“After Baywatch I was looking to do another series,” says Chokachi. “I wanted something that really tweaked my interest and Witchblade came along. I loved the script and the cross between the fantasy world and cop world. The character of Jake McCartey fit the bill, too. He’s a small town ex-pro surfer who was making a good living at it until he was involved in a bad accident that totally spooked him. Jake moved to New York to become a police detective and ended up assigned to the city’s homicide unit.
“As soon as I began the whole audition process for the role I went out and bought the Witchblade comic books and started reading them. There’s a huge built-in audience of comic book fans for our show, so it was important to all of us to at least lift part of each character off the page and bring them to life on the TV screen. I think the fans appreciate the fact everyone did their homework and is trying to be as loyal as possible to their comic book personas.”
Witchblade began life on TV as a two-hour movie shown last summer on Turner Network Television (TNT). In it, Sara Pezzini and her then-partner Danny Woo (Will Yun Lee) go after mobster Tommy Gallo (Conrad Dunn), who she suspects killed an old friend and is also responsible for her father’s death. A surprise encounter with one of Gallo’s henchmen brings Sara and the Witchblade together. Unfortunately, even its powers cannot help Sara save Danny from being shot to death by the mobster. She teams up with her new partner Jake McCartey hoping to bring Gallo to justice.
“Shooting the movie was such a positive experience,” enthuses Chokachi. “It was a situation where the cast and crew bonded right from the start. This will probably sound hokey to some people, but you actually felt as though you were involved in something special. Once production wrapped we were praying we’d be picked up as a weekly series because we had so much fun working on it.”
The actor’s prayers along with those of his fellow castmembers and the show’s crew were answered. Witchblade returned this past June for an eleven-episode run. The series picks up where the made-for-TV movie left off with Sara and Jake fighting the bad guys. Jake still knows nothing about the Witchblade or the powers Sara wields as its wearer. Although he is being kept in the dark, Jake remains loyal to his partner. This often puts him at odds with their unscrupulous boss Captain Bruno Dante (Nestor Serrano). However, there are certain things about Jake that Sara, Dante and the viewers have yet to discover.
“Because Jake is a rookie cop he wound up being more or less Sara’s lackey in the movie,” explains Chokachi. “I had absolutely no problem with that. However, I was a bit worried about that carrying over into the series. Was Jake going to stay that way? I was thrilled to find out that, in fact, Ralph Hemecker [executive producer] and the writers, including Rick Okie [consulting producer], had created a really cool kick-ass backstory for my character. The real reason why Jake has been assigned to this particular precinct begins to unfold in story seven, Periculum. In it, it looks as if Jake is starting to drift away from Sara and go over to Dante’s side. They gave me such an exciting place to take my character. When people see episode eleven [Transcendence] they’re going to say, ‘My God, this kid was on the ball all the time.’ I think viewers are going to be blown away.”
How would Chokachi describe the relationship between Jake and Sara? “Tumultuous,” he laughs. “It has its ups and downs in every episode. They butt heads a fair amount of the time but that all feeds into Jake’s story arc of why he’s really there. Again, in Periculum a bit of a rift opens up between them. Jake starts to distrust her and visa versa. Having said that, I think he definitely has a crush on Sara. He looks after her and covers for her when she’s doing her Witchblade thing. I’d almost compare it to Moonlighting in that they’ll give each other crap but underneath it all they really care about one another.”
When asked about his co-star Yancy Butler, the actor has nothing but good things to say. “She’s amazing. Not only is Yancy a talented actress but she’s also a real trouper. This woman works five days a week, usually fifteen hours a day, and she never gets bitchy. She brings a good amount of fun and levity to the set. I’ve never heard her complain once, and as the program’s lead that helps make for a great working environment.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of TNT, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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