SciFiAndTvTalk

The Doc Is In: Interview with Wynonna Earp's Tim Rozon

Tim Rozon as Doc Holliday in Wynonna Earp. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Gunfighter, gambler and former U.S. Deputy Marshal, John Henry “Doc” Holliday led quite the colorful life back in the America’s Wild West. At the age of 21, he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, having graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. His dental practice, however, soon took a backseat to his other more adventurous pursuits, including the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  In the new Syfy supernatural series Wynonna Earp, Holliday’s life has had a bit of a makeover. Having been cursed and banished to the bottom of a well, he emerges decades later into a much-changed world, where technology is one of many “demons” he must confront. Having been cast as Holliday, actor Tim Rozon wanted to learn as much as possible about the man before stepping foot in front of the cameras.

“Almost everyone knows who Doc Holliday is, so I did some research on him and found out some interesting things,” says Rozon. “He was a professional poker player, which at the time was a very noble profession. He was also a knife fighter and very good with a blade. It’s not been confirmed how many people actually died at his hands in gunfights, but he was also a quick draw. Doc used a Colt Thunder; it has a shorter barrel than most other pistols, which would make sense given his quick draw.

“As soon as I received the phone call letting me know I got the part, I ordered a replica of a Colt Thunder from a place in Alberta [Calgary, Canada], which, just coincidentally, is where we filmed Wynonna Earp. When I received it, I spent some time walking around my house with the Colt, trying to practice the quick draw as well as a couple of spins with the gun. Holliday is one of the most proficient gunfighters in history, so I made sure I was as ready as possible. Once I got to the set, the guys there were great. Whenever we wanted to, they’d take us out shooting, so I got plenty of practice in even once filming began, which was terrific.”

Way back when, Doc Holliday faced off against your traditional square-jawed, tough-talking gun-toting hombres. Nowadays, however, his adversaries are far more “unusual” and along the lines of hillbilly gremlins, zombie mailmen and red-neck vampires. Holliday is teamed up with Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), the great granddaughter of his old friend Wyatt Earp, who works for a special branch of the U.S. Marshals that deal with dispatching all things demonic and otherwise a supernatural threat to humankind. Although this connection to his past helps him adjust to this modern day world, it takes Doc some time to get used to being around all these new faces.

“My character’s relationships are a tricky area because he’s very much a loner,” notes Rozon. “He has a lot to deal with after being cursed and stuck in a well for all those years, and is now coming into a world he knows nothing about. Because of his prior relationship with Wyatt, the only person who Doc really trusts or opens up to is Wynonna. Mind you, I got to do some terrific stuff involving him and the other characters, including Waverly Earp [Dominique Provost-Chalkley], because there’s such a nice contrast between the two. It’s the same with Shamier Anderson’s character of Agent Dolls. I really enjoy the interaction between Dolls and Doc, again, because they are such polar opposites and think as well as react to situations completely differently. What’s really fun to watch, though, are the scene when Wynonna, Waverly, Dolls and Doc are all together.

“Of course, there are also the bad guys. Doc is driven by revenge, which kind of helps keep him motivated and moving forward. There are some amazing scenes with him and Bobo, one of our main villains, who’s played by the freaking amazing Michael Eklund, who might just be my new favorite actor. This guy is the real deal. Michael was100% into the work, and I looked forward to the days that I had scenes with him, because I knew Michael was going to really bring his best to the table, and he always did.”

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Rozon gained an appreciation for the written as well as spoken word long before deciding to pursue an acting career. In fact, he originally considered wandering down a somewhat different creative path. “I think I was the only kid I knew who wanted to be a poet,” the actor recalls with a chuckle. “I just remember always being drawn to poets and wanting to be one. That eventually led me to the arts in school, and when I got to high school I joined the theatre department. Once I began doing plays, I caught the acting bug and that was that.

“One day a man stopped me on the street and said I had an interesting look. He gave me his card but, of course, it took me six months or so to call him because the whole thing kind of freaked me out a bit. It was my girlfriend who finally convinced me to call. So I did and ended up going to an agent’s office where they sent me to an audition that afternoon. It was two lines in [the 2000 A&E made-for-TV movie] The Great Gatsby. I was super nervous, but somehow I said those two lines, which they made me do twice, and left. The next day, this agency called me and told me, ‘You have the job, and we want to represent you.’ I couldn’t believe it. So I got incredibly lucky and started out in TV playing The Dandy Man in The Great Gatsby.”

In addition to a number of other TV movies, the actor has also guest-starred on such shows as Wild Roses, Rookie Blue, Heartland, 19-2, The Listener and Flashpoint as well as played regular roles in Instant Star and Schitt’s Creek. Besides Wynonna Earp, Rozon’s other TV genre work include recurring roles on Being Human and Lost Girl.

“Being Human was super fun, first off because we filmed in my hometown of Montreal, which I never get to work in, plus my character was a member of a werewolf pack,” says the actor. “So if there was ever a question of Team Vampires or Team Werewolves, you know where my loyalties lie. It was a great group of people to work with on that show, and Sam Huntington, who played the main werewolf [John Levison] was a pleasure to work with.

“As for Lost Girl, that will always have a special place in my heart. Emily Andras, who was a writer/executive producer/showrunner on that show, is also an executive producer on and developed [for TV] Wynonna Earp, so we have a little bit of history together, which is awesome. She killed off my Lost Girl character [of Massimo] four times, and he just kept coming back stronger and stronger. That made me appreciate that Sci-Fi is also the best genre to work in, because if your character dies, it doesn’t necessarily mean you lose your job. As with Being Human, everyone on Lost Girl was incredible, and Ksenia Solo [Kenzi], in particular, just blew me away. She’s a big talent and a pretty terrific person as well.”

As much as acting is all about making believe, Rozon has no such illusions when it comes to actually making a living in this industry. “I feel really lucky right now,” he says. “A lot of the time, acting is about heartbreak, hearing ‘no,’ and coming close to getting a gig, but then not getting it. However, when you book a job, you’re catapulted into the stratosphere,” enthuses Rozon. “So you always need be aware of when things are good in your life, and I truly appreciate every second of my life right now because I know what it’s like on the other side.”

Steve Eramo

Wynonna Earp premieres April 1st @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy (US). As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Outcast - New Promo! (CINEMAX)

Patrick Fugit as Kyle Barnes in Outcast. Photo by Niko Tavernise and copyright of FOX International Studios. 

Check out the brand new promo below for the Cinemax drama series Outcast, premiering Friday, June 3rd @ 10:00 p.m. EST. Based on the Skybound/Image comic title by creator Robert Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta, and produced for CINEMAX by FOX International Studios (FIS). Outcast  follows Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit), a young man who has been plagued by demonic possession all his life. Now, with the help of the Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister), a preacher with personal demons of his own, Kyle embarks on a journey to find answers and regain the normal life he lost.

 

This Week on Banshee - "Something Out of the Bible" (CINEMAX)

Lucas Hood (Antony Starr) in Banshee. Photo by Gregory Shummon and copyright of Cinemax.

In the season four premiere of CINEMAX's Banshee, Lucas (Antony Starr) becomes immersed in a new Banshee crisis involving a vicious serial murderer. Written by Jonathan Tropper; directed by Ole Christian Madsen, Something Out of the Bible premieres Friday, April 1st @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST. Check out the clip below!

 

Anthony Stewart Head Cast in Freeform's Guilt

Actor Anthony Stewart Head (Dominion, Merlin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has been cast on Freeform’s new original series Guilt in a recurring role as James Lahue, Grace and Natalie Atwood’s wealthy, charming stepfather with ties to murder victim Molly Ryan. He has begun work in London alongside his daughter, Daisy Head (The Syndicate), who stars as Grace, the prime suspect in the murder. The series is a co-production of Sea to Sky Entertainment, the joint venture between Lionsgate Television and Thunderbird Films and BV Family Productions, and stars Billy Zane (Titanic), Emily Tremaine (Vinyl), Cristian Solimeno (Rush), Naomi Ryan (Guardians of the Galaxy), Kevin Ryan (Copper), Zachary Fall (Crossing Lines), Simona Brown (The Casual Vacancy) and newcomer Sam Cassidy.

The definition of guilt is being responsible for wrongdoing or a crime. In the murder of Molly Ryan, many are guilty in different ways, but only one is truly guilty of her murder. When Natalie’s sister Grace (Daisy Head) becomes the prime suspect in her roommate Molly’s murder and popular target for the press and in social media, Natalie (Tremaine) leaves her life in Boston and heads to London to defend her. With the help of an ethically questionable ex-pat lawyer Stan Gutterie (Zane), Natalie starts to question how innocent her sister may really be as more ugly truths start to emerge. In this one-hour soapy drama, the mystery will twist through all layers of London society – from a posh but depraved sex club and all the way up to the Royal Family itself.

Grace and Natalie Atwood’s stepfather James Lahue (Stewart Head) is a wealthy businessman whose business isn’t all above board. He has a close relationship with Grace, but Natalie has always seen through his charming facade. Natalie questions whether the attorney he’s hired to represent Grace, Stan Gutterie, is really defending her, or actually using Grace to hide any connection that James might have to Molly’s murder.

Originally from Camden Town, north London, England, Anthony Stewart Head is an English actor and musician. He is internationally known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Uther Pendragon in Merlin, and for his role as Geoffrey Howe in the Oscar Award-winning film, The Iron Lady. His other television and film work includes starring roles in Dominion, Little Britain, Dancing on the Edge, You, Me and Them and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

In theatre, Stewart Head has appeared in Yonadab at the National, Rope at Chichester and Wyndham’s, and more recently, Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic and Ticking at The Trafalgar Studios, directed by Paul Andrew Williams. Head has also performed in a number of musicals, including Godspell, Chess and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and has released his own original music as well.

Stewart Head’s long-term partner is well-known animal behavior counselor, Sarah Fisher, whom he met at the National Theatre, when he was performing in Danton’s Death. They are parents to actresses Emily and Daisy Head.

Guilt is written, created and executive-produced by Kathryn Price (The Game Plan) and Nichole Millard (The Game Plan). Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer (Dominion, Defiance, Smallville) serve as writing executive producers, with Gary Fleder (Kingdom, Scorpion) and Larry Shaw (Desperate Housewives) as executive producer directors. Stephen McPherson serves as executive producer. Guilt is a co-production of Sea to Sky Entertainment and BV Family Productions, in association with Freeform. Gary Fleder directed the pilot.

Samuel Barnett Cast in Dirk Gently - Robert Cooper (Stargate) Named Showrunner (BBC America)

Actor Samuel Barnett.

BBC AMERICA announced today that stage, television and film actor Samuel Barnett (Twelfth Night, The History Boys, Penny Dreadful) has been cast in the title role of the network’s new original scripted series  Dirk Gently, set to premiere in Fall 2016. The announcement comes on the heels of Elijah Wood (The Trust, Cooties,Wilfred) being cast in the role of “Todd”.

The network has announced that Robert Cooper (Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe) has been named series’ showrunner and Oscar-winning director Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Justified, Masters of Sex) has signed on to direct the series’ first two episodes. 

Penned by Max Landis – the mind behind cult classic  Chronicle – Dirk Gently is an eight-part co-production of AMC Studios, IDEATE MEDIA and IDW Entertainment with Circle of Confusion producing.

“Dirk Gently’s characters are complete originals,” said Sarah Barnett, President and General Manager of BBC AMERICA.  “Sam Barnett and Elijah Wood – who represent genius talent from both sides of the Atlantic – will brilliantly play these unique roles.   Plus, with Robert Cooper and Dean Parisot joining Max Landis, the Dirk Gently creative team is now tremendously interconnected through great experience and thrilling vision.”

Dirk Gently  is a comedic thriller that follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric “holistic” detective Dirk Gently and his reluctant assistant Todd, as they wend their way through one big, seemingly insane mystery a season, crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and sometimes dangerous characters, each episode landing them a few random steps closer to uncovering the truth. 

Dirk has strange, psychic abilities that enable him to sense invisible tangential connections. He’s taken these strange abilities and has invented a new profession for himself:  that of “holistic detective,” a term that reflects his belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. However, his abilities have condemned him to a life very much alone  – this master of universal interconnectedness has spent a life ironically without human connection. 

The series is an adaptation of Douglas Adams’ (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who) wildly successful comic novels,  Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and is set in the unexpected world of the hyper, absurd, eponymous detective Dirk Gently.

Samuel Barnett is a Tony and Olivier Award nominated English actor who has performed on stage, film, television and radio. His numerous credits include: Twelfth Night; The History Boys (a BBC Films/Fox Searchlight production); and a role in the upcoming season of the television series, Penny Dreadful.

Robert Cooper is an acclaimed writer and producer best known for his work on the Stargate franchise. He was formerly an executive producer of  Stargate SG-1 ,  Stargate Atlantis  and Stargate Universe . He also co-created both  Stargate Atlantis  and  Stargate Universe  with Brad Wright. Cooper has written, produced and directed many episodes of  Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis  and  Stargate Universe.

Dean Parisot is an  Oscar-winning American film and television director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for  The Appointments of Dennis Jennings , which was co-written and starred comedian Steven Wright, with whom he shares the award. Among his television credits are episodes of  Monk (including the two-hour pilot Mr. Monk and the Candidate),  Masters of Sex, Northern Exposure  and  Curb Your Enthusiasm.

In addition to creator, Max Landis, executive producers include Ted Adams and David Ozer for IDW; David Alpert and Rick Jacobs for Circle of Confusion and Zainir Aminullah and Arvind Ethan David for IDEATE MEDIA.

The Week on Vikings - "The Profit and the Loss" (HISTORY)

The Vikings attack Paris this week on "The Profit and the Loss." Photo copyright of HISTORY.

This week on Vikings, in England, King Ecbert’s (Linus Roache) ambitions are revealed as he schemes to gain the crown of Mercia while outside Paris, the Vikings attack with considerable force but can they breach Rollo’s (Clive Standen) defenses? Meanwhile, Harbard (Kevin Durand), the mysterious wanderer, returns and causes a stir amongst the women of Kattegat. Check out the clip below from The Profit and the Loss and then make sure to tune in for the episode on Thursday, March 31st @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on the HISTORY Channel.

 

The Walking Dead - Jeffrey Dean Morgan Season Finale Image Teaser (AMC)

AMC released today a teaser image of The Walking Dead character Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, along with his weapon of choice, "Lucille," a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. The iconic villain from Robert Kirkman's graphic novel is set to make his debut in the show's highly-anticipated season six finale this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.

Above photo copyright of AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Fear The Walking Dead - Season Two Premieres In April (AMC)

Cliff Curtis as Travis and Ruben Blades as Daniel Salazar in Fear the Walking Dead. Photo copyright of AMC.

AMC’s fan favorite original series Fear the Walking Dead, which delivered the highest-rated first season of any series in cable history among total viewers and all key demos in live+3 ratings, debuts its second season on Sunday, April 10th at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. Season one left off with Madison, Travis and their extended family taking temporary shelter in Strand’s gated estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As civil unrest continues to grow and the dead take over Los Angeles, Strand prepares to escape to “Abigail,” his large yacht moored offshore.

On the season two premiere episode entitled, Monster – written by Dave Erickson, and directed by Adam Davidson – our families flee a burning Los Angeles on Strand's yacht, Strand remains mysterious and our group encounters danger at sea.

Fear the Walking Dead is executive produced by showrunner Dave Erickson, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert and stars Kim Dickens as Madison, Cliff Curtis as Travis, Frank Dillane as Nick, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia, Ruben Blades as Daniel, Mercedes Mason as Ofelia, Lorenzo James Henrie as Chris and Colman Domingo as Strand.

As noted above, photo copyright of AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Maternal Instincts: Interview with Lucifer's Rebecca De Mornay

Rebecca De Mornay as Penelope in Lucifer. Photo copyright of FOX.

Despite the proclamation of a certain popular black and white TV show back in the 50s and 60s, it is, in fact, mothers who know best. Well, perhaps not all the time, but most moms sure have an uncanny knack for knowing just what their children are up to and the right time to offer parental guidance, no matter how old you happen to be. No doubt Los Angeles Police Department Detective Chloe Decker’s mother Penelope will have one or two pearls of wisdom to pass on to her daughter as well as Lucifer fans this coming Monday night. She makes her debut in the first season episode Pops (airing 9:00 p.m EST/PST on Fox). When the show’s producers were ready to cast Penelope, they looked no further than actress Rebecca De Mornay.

“I was in my home office when my manager called and said, ‘They want you to play this zany, ex-B-movie, Sci-Fi star from the 80s and the mom of Lauren German’s character [Chloe Decker] in Lucifer,” says De Mornay. “I think Lucifer is one of the most intriguing characters, and I’m not talking about the show, but in the entire world. I thought it took incredible guts just to name a TV series Lucifer. Then I found out not only that it’s a dark comedy/detective show, but also that it’s filmed in Vancouver, which is one of my favorite cites. I really couldn’t beat that. So I just said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it,’ right away, and that was the start of what was an amazing experience.”

Regular viewers of Lucifer are already well acquainted with the Prince of Darkness a.k.a. Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), who is on sabbatical from Hell. He and his protector Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt) have relocated to Los Angeles, where Lucifer owns a successful nightclub called Lux. In his free time, he gets his kicks out of using his devilish charm to persuade humans to reveal their deepest, darkest desires. That, in turn, helps LAPD Detective Chloe Decker in her criminal inquiries. Chloe is currently separated from her husband and fellow LAPD detective Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro), and along with their little girl Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) is living in her mother Penelope’s house. Mom has been away for a bit but she’s back in town now thanks to De Mornay, who had a soggy but enjoyable introduction to her character.

“When I flew up to Vancouver to start work on Lucifer, I got off the plane and it was pouring rain, which isn’t uncommon there,” notes the actress. “From the airport, I was driven to the filming location because there was going to be a script read-through of my episode during the cast dinner break. When I arrived, I made my way through this muddy field to a tent where everyone was seated at a table ready to do the read-through. It was the funniest thing, because with all the rain pelting down on the tent, you could hardly hear everyone reading their lines.

“Right away I realized I was surrounded by a great group of people, from executive producer Joe Henderson, who called me personally about the part, to the director, Tara Nicole Weyr, as well as Tom Ellis, who’s absolutely delightful, and the beautiful and talented Lauren German. At one point she said to me, ‘I don’t understand why they cast you in this role. You just look way too young to be playing my mom.’ I asked Lauren how old she was, and when she told me, I said to her, ‘Well, guess what, technically I could be your mother.’ She’s such a lovely person and we immediately hit it off.

“Unfortunately while we were filming, Lauren showed me her favorite little ‘addiction,’ which is this game that you play on your iPhone called Cookie Jam. I couldn’t believe that she was so hooked on something like that. Well, lo and behold, it’s been a couple of months since filming wrapped, and I’m still wasting time playing Cookie Jam on my iPhone,” notes the actress with a laugh.

Early on in Lucifer’s first season, Lucifer noticed a poster from one of Penelope’s less-than-stellar Sci-Fi flicks hanging on a wall in her house. That helped pave the way for her eventual homecoming in the aforementioned episode Pops. Although Penelope is no longer performing in front of the camera, she still imagines herself in the spotlight, as De Mornay explains.

“Penelope fancies herself as some sort of B-movie star in a Sci-Fi way, which is what her past is,” says the actress. “So they dressed her in this leopard print outfit as well as thigh-high boots and had her puttering around the house not doing that much, something that is quite unlike me. I’m a fulltime single mother of two daughters, one of whom is applying to 16 colleges as we speak. So I definitely do not putter around the house in thigh-high boots,” she jokes, “but it worked perfectly for Penelope, who still sees herself as mini-movie star.

“Relationship-wise, I was especially focused on Chloe, and, again, being a real-life mother, what my maternal instincts would be given the story that was playing out in front of me. Watching Chloe, I began to think, ‘Honey, you don’t have to be so serious about everything,’ which, funnily enough, was one of my lines. So I was looking to see what Penelope would want to do to help her, because mothers always think they’re so helpful. When it came to Lucifer, he was just this extremely good-looking Englishman who was really attractive and appealing to Penelope, but at the same time, she thought Chloe could do worse and that he is someone who might be very good for her daughter. As far as Dan, he seemed to be trouble. There’s this back and forth dinner scene in the episode where I was in-character as soon as I walked onto the set, and as Penelope I just did not see Dan as being very good for Chloe.”

Over the years, De Mornay has played a diverse range of characters, but growing up, she had no desire to pursue a career in this industry. “I wanted to be everything but an actress,” she recalls. “As a child, I wanted to be a professional horseback rider, and then in my teens I wanted to be a movie director as well as singer/songwriter, which I pursued for several years as a teenager. I also wanted to be a psychiatrist; that was going to be my big thing, but then I realized that you had to get a medical degree for that, and I’m very squeamish about blood. So I went from pop singer, to psychiatrist, to actress. I’d never done a single play or anything like that when I enrolled in acting school at the age of 19. However, after I performed my first monologue at school, I thought, ‘Wow, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. This is something I can really dig my heels into,’ and that’s how this all started.”

The actress made her debut in the 1981 feature film One from the Heart, which was co-written as well as directed by Francis Ford Coppola. “One from the Heart was really a ‘gift’ from Francis Coppola,” says De Mornay. “I actually auditioned for the film while in acting school, and Francis Coppola hired me as an understudy, strangely enough, for Nastassja Kinski. I was so excited, He had planned to shoot the movie on video using an understudy cast and then cut it together to see if the movie worked. Then, however, SAG [Screen Actors Guild] came in and said that they’d have to pay everyone the SAG minimum wage.

“So that idea was scrapped, but meanwhile there we were on the lot of American Zoetrope studios, which Francis Coppola had founded with George Lucas.  He had already hired us and didn’t want to get rid of us, so we wound up becoming stand-ins/interns. As such, I was able to talk with people like Dean Tavoularis, the production designer, as well as cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, not to mention the actors, about their respective fields and watch everything as it was happening. Not only did I get an incredible education about filmmaking, but then Francis said to me, ‘I want you to get your SAG card.’ So he put me in the back of a scene where I’m sitting at a table and either Teri Garr is a waitress, or Raúl Juliá is a waiter, I can’t quite remember, and I lift my finger and say, ‘Excuse me, those are my waffles.’ That was my whole onscreen part in One from the Heart and my first line on-camera.”

Risky Business, Feds, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Table for One, Wedding Crashers, Mother’s Day and the upcoming I am Wrath are among De Mornay’s other feature film credits. Along with a number of made-for-TV movies, her other small screen credits include The Outer Limits, ER, The Practice, Hawaii Five-O and Netflix’s Jessica Jones, in which she appeared in the recurring role of Dorothy Walker.

“Jessica Jones was another wacky mother role, which I seem to have been getting a lot of calls to play ever since The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” says the actress with a laugh. “Jessica Jones is a very interesting show. It’s a bit too violent for my tastes – most things usually are – but the whole show seems to be a very valid comic book exploration, something that a lot of folks are into these days. Running within this particular story, though, is a subtext of the ramifications of child abuse. That’s quite a provocative as well as important topic, and one that also seems to be addressed in Daredevil. My character of Dorothy in Jessica Jones turned out to be a really, really bad and abusive stage mother, and it’s a part that I tried my best to play as honestly as I could.”

Having become a familiar face to TV watchers and moviegoers over the past 35 years, what does De Mornay feel makes an acting career rewarding for her? “I think there’s a certain element of luck involved,” she says. “I mean, what are the chances of being picked by Francis Coppola to say, ‘Excuse me, those are my waffles,’ and then you get to keep going from there.

“So luck is very helpful. Also, there’s something very rewarding to hanging in there with the work as opposed to getting carried away or overly interested in the end results of celebrity. It’s what a lot of people tend to point to, but the real satisfaction comes from being on-set and suddenly realizing that you can in a small way help illuminate the human condition from the point of view of the character that you’re playing.

“I see acting as an art form, and in its best version it’s, again, about illuminating the human condition so that you develop an unspoken bond with the viewers and those watching realize that the actor that they’re watching is in some way telling the truth. People say actors are liars, but the best actors are the best truth tellers. So I’m going to do my best to show you, for example, what happens when an abusive mother cuts loose, or I’m going to show you this narcissistic, zany, self-centered TV actress, which is what I’m playing in Lucifer. The latter is, of course, lighter, but there are different ways of showing certain truths. I find that rewarding because I’m very, very interested in people and humanity. I often meet people and they tell me, ‘Oh, I love you.’ They don’t know me, but they do know something that I ‘gave’ them through a character that I’ve played. Life is very scary these days, and giving people something they can light up about is, I think, great.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of FOX, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Wayward Pines - Season Two First Look (FOX)

Wayward Pines, last summer’s No. 1 scripted series on broadcast television, returns for a second season on Wednesday, May 25th (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. From executive producer M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Visit), the 10-episode, psychological thriller is based on the rich world created by author Blake Crouch in his international best-selling series of books.

Starring Jason Patric (Rush, Narc), two-time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America) and Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Hope Davis (American Crime, The Newsroom), the 10-episode, second season will pick up after the shocking events of Season One, with the residents of Wayward Pines battling against the iron-fisted rule of the First Generation. Dr. Theo Yedlin (Patric) – a new resident of Wayward Pines – awakens from suspended animation and finds himself in the middle of this rebellion, as he tries to understand what Wayward Pines really is and help preserve the endangered human race.

Hounsou will portray CJ Mitchum, an original resident of Wayward Pines and a historian for the town with extensive knowledge of its complex origins, and the one person who can provide a unique bridge between the current world of Wayward Pines and the previous world that humans inhabited. Davis returns as Megan Fisher, who is in charge of the scientific research being conducted on the Abbies, and remains deeply involved in the development of the hearts and minds of the future of humanity—Wayward Pines’ “First Generation.” Also joining the second season are cast members Tom Stevens (Cedar Cove), returning from Season One as Jason Higgins, a member of the First Generation and Pilcher’s young acolyte; Nimrat Kaur (Homeland) as Rebecca, who has her own secrets she keeps from Theo, her husband; Josh Helman (Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men: Days of Future Past) as Xander, a resident working to undermine Wayward Pines from within; and Kacey Rohl (Hannibal) as KERRY, one of Jason’s lieutenants in the civil war going on in Wayward Pines. Additionally, several Season One cast members will appear in Season Two, including Terrence Howard (Sheriff Arnold Pope), Carla Gugino (Kate Hewson), Toby Jones (Dr. Jenkins/David Pilcher), Melissa Leo (Nurse Pam), Tim Griffin (Adam Hassler), Shannyn Sossamon (Theresa Burke) and Charlie Tahan (Ben Burke). Check out the "first look" below and then make sure to tune in for the season two premiere on May 25th!