Patrick Stewart: Starz’s ‘Blunt Talk’ Is a “Liberating Experience”

August 29, 2015 8:00am PT by Marisa Roffman

"A lot of people have been saying, 'Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn't seem right,'" Stewart tells THR. He shares why the show has been a "delightful and very creative experience." 

“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn’t seem right,'” Stewart tells THR. He shares why the show has been a “delightful and very creative experience.”

Patrick Stewart has spent much of his 50-year-plus career as a dramatic actor. So when he opted to return to television in his first full-time, live-action leading role since Star Trek: The Next Generation ended in 1994, and wound up in Starz’s half-hour Blunt Talk, he understands why people seem thrown by the shift.

“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn’t seem right,’ ” Stewart tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But the fact is, thanks to people like [frequent collaborator] Seth MacFarlane, [Extras co-creator] Ricky Gervais and Jon Stewart, I have been dipping my toe into comedy more and more over the last few years, and finding it just makes me very happy. There is the famous quote, [that Edmund Kean] apparently on his deathbed said, ‘Dying is easy; comedy is hard.’ What I’ve found is despite our long hours, comedy was not just not hard, but as a performer, [it’s] a liberating experience.”

“I now agree with Laurence Olivier, who years ago dismayed me by, in an interview, saying no matter how wonderful it was to make people gasp, sob, cry, scream or weep, it had nothing to compare with making an audience laugh,” Stewart added. “I thought at first, ‘Oh, come on, Sir Laurence, you’re a dramatic, tragic actor; I don’t want to hear about you making people laugh.’ And then I read something else about him — he was a great hero of mine — which was when he starts to study a character, any character, the first thing he looks for is the humor in it. I can now say I’ve joined the platform of Laurence Olivier, certainly as far as his feelings about comedy are concerned.”

Stewart spoke with THR about playing Walter Blunt, the show’s shifting tone, his joy over introducing Adrian Scarborough to America and more.

Blunt Talk was a different kind of experience because Seth approached you about working together on a comedy before a series was hatched. How does it change how you approach a character when you’ve been a part of the project before it really was formulated?

It’s the first time. It has been a delightful and very creative experience. Seth brought the idea of a half-hour, live-action comedy show to me — he actually brought it to me the morning after he hosted the Academy Awards. (Laughs.) Which I thought was amazing; I told him he would probably more likely be in handcuffs being flown out of the country after the Academy Awards, but nope, he turned up for lunch! Seth asked if I would meet with [Blunt Talk creator] Jonathan Ames. We got on so well. We talked about our own lives, rather than put ideas together about the show. That was a marvelous way for us to get to know one another and make contact — and to get a feel for the things that interested and subject that might arise during the series.

Ames has a personal and idiosyncratic style of writing. He has a vocabulary which seems to be completely different than anybody else’s. Even when Jonathan writes the simplest lines of dialogue, he does it using language that’s odd, startling, unusual, interesting and very often, funny. Given that you look back at my career of over 50 years of doing this job, I’ve been lucky to speak some pretty nice lines by some pretty good writers: ranging from Shakespeare to Arthur Miller to Harold Pinter to Edward Albee. The great thrill for me, was in finding that playing Walter Blunt, I was in exactly the same place. 

Jonathan has one element of Shakespeare: Shakespeare was the first dramatist to create character through language. None of the principal characters in Shakespeare’s plays talk quite like any of the others … MacBeth‘s language is quite different from Hamlet or King Lear’s. And King Lear’s is instantly recognizable. Jonathan does the same. In Blunt Talk, the characters are what they say and how they say it. For me, it’s a very important thing to say about how Jonathan has created at least the first 10 episodes of this show.

How have you found that impacts the way the story is told?

Every episode in the 10 has a different characteristic. Its mood is different. Of course, the subject matter changes. But there are very well-defined characteristics to each episode, so it’s not in any sense, as if there is a format for this show. It has meant that Jonathan and his writers can, in a sense, start all over again with each episode. Episode one and two connect, because that’s important in launching a series. But after that, some are outlandish and outrageous, some of them are wacky, some of them are quiet emotional. There’s one episode where Rosalie (Jacki Weaver) and myself go in search of her husband (Ed Begley Jr.) whose character has Alzheimer’s and has disappeared. The whole panic of looking for a person who doesn’t know where they are or who they are is a desperate search. To suddenly find that Jacki and myself were in the middle of a drama about something very serious, was refreshing. I see no reason why that should not continue on for the [next] 10 episodes.

What kind of feedback have you gotten to the premiere?

Really good responses, universally. At times, it’s a tough show to watch. There are subjects and scenes that can be challenging. But the responses have been so strong. It pleases that people describe the show as being funny and fascinating. They’re responding to what I’ve been talking about — the extraordinary writing. It’s not a show about gags and routines. It’s entirely a character-based show.

What’s Walter’s arc like in season one?

I get an opportunity to express that early in the series. The trauma of what happens to Walter — all of the results of his own actions; he’s not a victim at all — spending a night in prison, being charged with a whole host of ugly crimes and events. He grasps this as an opportunity to change his life. His life as led him into this disaster where we are at the end of episode one, and he wants to turn around, not only his life, but the kind of show he’s presenting on Blunt Talk. He is being reminded that he left the military and went into journalism because he wanted to tell the truth about the world. And his disillusionment with the military where he was a high-flying officer was his experience in the Falklands War, which was such a politically constructed war, that it totally disillusioned him about what good he might do as a member of the military. He wanted to use journalism as a force for good. Having all this mess in his life in the first episode, he’s now turning himself around, and the show around, so he can again bring clarity and passion to nightly news; that he hopes, inch by inch, little by little, will make this a better planet to live on.

One of the lighter sides we see of Walter is when he’s with his friend/manservant, Harry (Adrian Scarborough). Jonathan mentioned that you were the one to suggest

If ever Patrick Stewart did anything good and sensible in his life, it was recommending Adrian Scarborough. Adrian is not well-known as an actor in the U.S. — I don’t think he did film or television here at all. He’s excitingly an unknown quantity. But I had worked with Adrian on a radio drama. In England, actors — all actors, no matter how important or famous they are — they do, from time to time, radio. Because it’s still considered an important part of an actor’s career program. Adrian and I did this hourlong play about Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. I was Raymond Chandler and Adrian was Billy Wilder; they had a relationship, once, when Wilder directed a movie based on one of Chandler’s books. It was only two days, but I had such a wonderful time with Adrian, I liked him so much, and thought his performance was so subtle and truthful.

After Jonathan and I got around to talking about the permanent group of characters, and who they should be, I recommended Adrian. They put him on tape, and everyone fell in love with him, right away. They thought they found Harry, instantly. And they’re right.

For me, it’s one of the most exciting things about this show: it’s bringing Adrian Scarborough to Hollywood, and giving him a platform. I think people are going to love that character. He is a bit of a rogue, but he is, possibly, more lovable than Walter is. Because, really, Walter does make a mess of so many things. I just hope for Adrian Scarborough, it will be a very, very successful experience. I feel it will be.

Blunt Talk airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz.

Marisa Roffman

Marisa Roffman

THRnews@thr.com

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Patrick Stewart: Starz’s ‘Blunt Talk’ Is a “Liberating Experience”

August 29, 2015 8:00am PT by Marisa Roffman

"A lot of people have been saying, 'Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn't seem right,'" Stewart tells THR. He shares why the show has been a "delightful and very creative experience." 

“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn’t seem right,'” Stewart tells THR. He shares why the show has been a “delightful and very creative experience.”

Patrick Stewart has spent much of his 50-year-plus career as a dramatic actor. So when he opted to return to television in his first full-time, live-action leading role since Star Trek: The Next Generation ended in 1994, and wound up in Starz’s half-hour Blunt Talk, he understands why people seem thrown by the shift.

“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Patrick Stewart doing comedy, that doesn’t seem right,’ ” Stewart tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But the fact is, thanks to people like [frequent collaborator] Seth MacFarlane, [Extras co-creator] Ricky Gervais and Jon Stewart, I have been dipping my toe into comedy more and more over the last few years, and finding it just makes me very happy. There is the famous quote, [that Edmund Kean] apparently on his deathbed said, ‘Dying is easy; comedy is hard.’ What I’ve found is despite our long hours, comedy was not just not hard, but as a performer, [it’s] a liberating experience.”

“I now agree with Laurence Olivier, who years ago dismayed me by, in an interview, saying no matter how wonderful it was to make people gasp, sob, cry, scream or weep, it had nothing to compare with making an audience laugh,” Stewart added. “I thought at first, ‘Oh, come on, Sir Laurence, you’re a dramatic, tragic actor; I don’t want to hear about you making people laugh.’ And then I read something else about him — he was a great hero of mine — which was when he starts to study a character, any character, the first thing he looks for is the humor in it. I can now say I’ve joined the platform of Laurence Olivier, certainly as far as his feelings about comedy are concerned.”

Stewart spoke with THR about playing Walter Blunt, the show’s shifting tone, his joy over introducing Adrian Scarborough to America and more.

Blunt Talk was a different kind of experience because Seth approached you about working together on a comedy before a series was hatched. How does it change how you approach a character when you’ve been a part of the project before it really was formulated?

It’s the first time. It has been a delightful and very creative experience. Seth brought the idea of a half-hour, live-action comedy show to me — he actually brought it to me the morning after he hosted the Academy Awards. (Laughs.) Which I thought was amazing; I told him he would probably more likely be in handcuffs being flown out of the country after the Academy Awards, but nope, he turned up for lunch! Seth asked if I would meet with [Blunt Talk creator] Jonathan Ames. We got on so well. We talked about our own lives, rather than put ideas together about the show. That was a marvelous way for us to get to know one another and make contact — and to get a feel for the things that interested and subject that might arise during the series.

Ames has a personal and idiosyncratic style of writing. He has a vocabulary which seems to be completely different than anybody else’s. Even when Jonathan writes the simplest lines of dialogue, he does it using language that’s odd, startling, unusual, interesting and very often, funny. Given that you look back at my career of over 50 years of doing this job, I’ve been lucky to speak some pretty nice lines by some pretty good writers: ranging from Shakespeare to Arthur Miller to Harold Pinter to Edward Albee. The great thrill for me, was in finding that playing Walter Blunt, I was in exactly the same place. 

Jonathan has one element of Shakespeare: Shakespeare was the first dramatist to create character through language. None of the principal characters in Shakespeare’s plays talk quite like any of the others … MacBeth‘s language is quite different from Hamlet or King Lear’s. And King Lear’s is instantly recognizable. Jonathan does the same. In Blunt Talk, the characters are what they say and how they say it. For me, it’s a very important thing to say about how Jonathan has created at least the first 10 episodes of this show.

How have you found that impacts the way the story is told?

Every episode in the 10 has a different characteristic. Its mood is different. Of course, the subject matter changes. But there are very well-defined characteristics to each episode, so it’s not in any sense, as if there is a format for this show. It has meant that Jonathan and his writers can, in a sense, start all over again with each episode. Episode one and two connect, because that’s important in launching a series. But after that, some are outlandish and outrageous, some of them are wacky, some of them are quiet emotional. There’s one episode where Rosalie (Jacki Weaver) and myself go in search of her husband (Ed Begley Jr.) whose character has Alzheimer’s and has disappeared. The whole panic of looking for a person who doesn’t know where they are or who they are is a desperate search. To suddenly find that Jacki and myself were in the middle of a drama about something very serious, was refreshing. I see no reason why that should not continue on for the [next] 10 episodes.

What kind of feedback have you gotten to the premiere?

Really good responses, universally. At times, it’s a tough show to watch. There are subjects and scenes that can be challenging. But the responses have been so strong. It pleases that people describe the show as being funny and fascinating. They’re responding to what I’ve been talking about — the extraordinary writing. It’s not a show about gags and routines. It’s entirely a character-based show.

What’s Walter’s arc like in season one?

I get an opportunity to express that early in the series. The trauma of what happens to Walter — all of the results of his own actions; he’s not a victim at all — spending a night in prison, being charged with a whole host of ugly crimes and events. He grasps this as an opportunity to change his life. His life as led him into this disaster where we are at the end of episode one, and he wants to turn around, not only his life, but the kind of show he’s presenting on Blunt Talk. He is being reminded that he left the military and went into journalism because he wanted to tell the truth about the world. And his disillusionment with the military where he was a high-flying officer was his experience in the Falklands War, which was such a politically constructed war, that it totally disillusioned him about what good he might do as a member of the military. He wanted to use journalism as a force for good. Having all this mess in his life in the first episode, he’s now turning himself around, and the show around, so he can again bring clarity and passion to nightly news; that he hopes, inch by inch, little by little, will make this a better planet to live on.

One of the lighter sides we see of Walter is when he’s with his friend/manservant, Harry (Adrian Scarborough). Jonathan mentioned that you were the one to suggest

If ever Patrick Stewart did anything good and sensible in his life, it was recommending Adrian Scarborough. Adrian is not well-known as an actor in the U.S. — I don’t think he did film or television here at all. He’s excitingly an unknown quantity. But I had worked with Adrian on a radio drama. In England, actors — all actors, no matter how important or famous they are — they do, from time to time, radio. Because it’s still considered an important part of an actor’s career program. Adrian and I did this hourlong play about Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. I was Raymond Chandler and Adrian was Billy Wilder; they had a relationship, once, when Wilder directed a movie based on one of Chandler’s books. It was only two days, but I had such a wonderful time with Adrian, I liked him so much, and thought his performance was so subtle and truthful.

After Jonathan and I got around to talking about the permanent group of characters, and who they should be, I recommended Adrian. They put him on tape, and everyone fell in love with him, right away. They thought they found Harry, instantly. And they’re right.

For me, it’s one of the most exciting things about this show: it’s bringing Adrian Scarborough to Hollywood, and giving him a platform. I think people are going to love that character. He is a bit of a rogue, but he is, possibly, more lovable than Walter is. Because, really, Walter does make a mess of so many things. I just hope for Adrian Scarborough, it will be a very, very successful experience. I feel it will be.

Blunt Talk airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz.

Marisa Roffman

Marisa Roffman

THRnews@thr.com

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‘Vampire Diaries’ Boss Talks “Grim” Season 7, “Complicated” Salvatore Family Bond

August 27, 2015 9:00am PT by Marisa Roffman

Showrunner Caroline Dries shares teases about the show's new triangle, the "heart and soul of the conflict" and moving past Elena. Annette Brown/The CW

Showrunner Caroline Dries shares teases about the show’s new triangle, the “heart and soul of the conflict” and moving past Elena.

The Vampire Diaries is about to officially enter its next phase of the series.

The CW drama closed a significant chapter of its run in May when Elena (Nina Dobrev), the show’s female lead, was hit with an unbreakable spell which would keep her unconscious as long as one of her best friends, Bonnie (Kat Graham), was alive… and Elena opted to not fight it, saying a tearful goodbye (for now) to the people she loved the most. (The move was made to accommodate Dobrev’s real-life exit from the series.)

When the series returns this fall, life will move on for Elena’s loved ones.

“Obviously the big thing for us is we lost the main character of the show,” The Vampire Diaries executive producer Caroline Dries tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We had the privilege of Nina gifting us with the knowledge that we’d be losing her midway through season six. And so, once we knew we were losing a main character, we could build the main infrastructure for a show that could exist without her. Not just Elena Gilbert, but Katherine Pierce — who had already left. … We had been looking at this for a while, ever since Katherine left: how do we fill that voice of the very confident, sultry, sexy woman who is a villain? How do we keep the love and heart and soul that is Elena? And that’s what our task was as employed writers [was] to go, ‘Let’s pull this off.'”

Dries spoke with THR to share a bit more about what’s to come in season seven:

The series will dive deeper into the characters it already established.

Though a whole group of new faces have joined the show in light of Dobrev’s exit, Dries shared the plan is to explore the characters fans already know and love in season seven.

“Our show has 500,000 cast members on it, so we have gotten to know them, watch them mature as characters for 130 episodes,” she says. “So to fill the void of a main character, it just means seeing people we already know very well a little bit more. This season, the guts of the show is really the Salvatore brothers. And it’s really Stefan’s relationship with Caroline. … The show feels like it’s still Vampire Diaries, but there’s this level of maturity to it now. Especially with the presence of Lily and Caroline’s character now. She just feels like she’s getting more mature and more self-assured of herself. Damon and Stefan are dealing with way more adult problems. The show feels the same, but feels new.”

The season starts off “a little grim.”

Following a season that saw the deaths of Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) and Alaric’s (Matt Davis) pregnant fiancée, Jo (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) — as well as the exits of Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and Tyler (Michael Trevino) — things won’t be entirely pleasant when season seven kicks off.

“Tonally, it’s a little grim at first, because you got a little glimpse of that town [in the flash-forward],” says Dries. “It doesn’t necessarily start that way, but that vibe will be [present] in the show. Personally, I think the show is best when we do a heavy episode and then like a college party episode and then a heavy flashback and then a fun dinner party. I think the show is best when we’re mixing it up. My sensibility is to do things that are a little bit more fun and less really dark and daunting. But every once in a while, I think that works.”

The Salvatore family will form a “love triangle” of sorts.

With Lily’s (Annie Wersching) family — aka the heretics — now loose in Mystic Falls, that only further complicates her relationship with her biological sons, Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder).

“It’s this love triangle, if you will, which we’ve created between Damon, Stefan, and Lily,” teases Dries. “Lily has naturally entered as the third point in the triangle.”

Working to Lily’s advantage is the very complicated feelings the Salvatore brothers have toward their mother. “They love her, and care for her, in different ways,” Dries acknowledged. “They hate her, they have mixed feelings towards her, they have resentment, they love her, because they used to love her and raised them. They feel guilty because she died and they didn’t know she was still alive. There’s just a million emotions.”

And Lily’s complications don’t extend to just her sons. “Right now, she is the heart and soul of the conflict,” Dries shared. “When I talk to directors when we do our tone meetings, I say, ‘Lily Salvatore is the most complicated character on this show. She has a lot going on in her brain; she has different loyalties. She’s made huge mistakes, but you can also root for her.’ She is kind of our villain, because she wants things our characters don’t want to happen. But she’s also very grounded. She can kind of manipulate them differently. Her goal is to turn them against each other.”

But after being a part of more than one triangle which did cause a rift for the brothers, Lily’s plans might not work out the way she hopes. “In turning them against each other, the brothers remember, ‘Hey, you and I have been together 150 years,'” says Dries. “‘Let’s not let this woman come and mess with us.'”

Here(tics) comes trouble.

At Comic-Con, Dries shared the introduction of the heretics is “the first time we’ve seen our characters go against them and they go, ‘Oh, we don’t know what we’re doing.’ It’s very hard.”

One of the things that doesn’t help is the sheer numbers against the characters. “There’s six heretics in total: three men and three women. We meet five of them in the premiere,” says Dries. “The three women are this little posse of bad girls. Valerie, who has this brooding darkness to her. We learn early on in the season she got burned in the past, and it transformed her into this person; she wasn’t always this way. And then there’s Mary Louise and Nora who are very fun and a gallon of pep and fireworks. They’re very different — they’re dating, but they have different desires. One wants to explore the world; Nora, is like, ‘Look, we just got out of prison, let’s stretch our arms and legs a little bit.’ And [Mary] is like, ‘I’m insecure in letting you go.’ They’re fun to watch, because they have this great, normal relationship in an abnormal environment.”

“[And for the boys] there’s one guy named Beau, who is Lily’s henchman-y guy,” continues Dries. “He’s very loyal and mysterious. And so he is very scary and weird. And then there’s this guy, Malcolm, who is the kiss-up, Lily’s pet. And then there’s a mystery guy, Oscar, who is only mentioned in the premiere. We’re wondering where is that guy? But he’s a real trip when you meet him.”

The show will explore Lily further via flashback.

Though Lily and her heretics have a huge amount of unmined backstory, the show won’t use flashbacks more than usual. “It’s shaping out how our normal seasons go,” says Dries. “Episode [three] will be a flashback episode. We have one coming up in a little while. But it’s just little flavors.”

“Lily gives us this great [gateway] into seeing her old-school life,” she continues. “The boys existed in that world as well, we just didn’t realize it. We’re always looking for an excuse to do a flashback story, and the reality is we’ve exhausted the Salvatore boys’ life. We know every year of their life. She does allow us the excuse to tell more stories in the past.”

Wesley and Somerhalder may step behind the camera again.

Both Wesley and Somerhalder each directed hours of The CW drama last season (Wesley’s second time and Somerhalder’s first), and Dries says she’d be open to having them return this season. “We want to keep nurturing them, so if Paul and Ian want to do it again, they did such a good job [last time],” she says.

The Vampire Diaries returns on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. on The CW.

The Vampire Diaries

Marisa Roffman

Marisa Roffman

THRnews@thr.com

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