PTR Senior Staff Writer
Every once in a while, a girl just needs to make a little time for herself.
Take a breath.
Have a moment.
Put saving the world on hold.
Stop fighting the aliens.
Meet up with the the dark lords of the underworld at a later date.
Darling of all-things alien and sci-fi, Kari Matchett, needed just that when she signed on for the Hallmark channel original movie, The National Tree.
"I’ve done a lot of aliens and sci-fi stuff," she says with a laugh, "and I just felt like I was in the mood for doing something sweet and light - something that didn’t hurt anybody, didn’t have any violence in it, didn't have any heaviness to it."
That would be standard Hallmark fare, which we here at PTR do actually appreciate given family dramatic programming has become a dying art, and light, bright and airy sitcoms have all but vanished from the television landscape.
So it was refreshing to catch up with
"It was a story that I thought would have a nice energy to be in for a while - and it was," says Kari.
Dreamworks and TNT both said to me, “Hey, what do you think about a wedding show?” And my first reaction was, “A wedding show?!? I don’t know if I understand how to make that.” But once I started looking at the stories that could be told, I got more inspired than ever. And, I realized there could be an Extreme Makeover vibe to the show - where you find people who are really deserving. You know, people have done stuff for others their entire life – beit on the job, like they’re a cop, a firefighter, a lifeguard, charity workers or they’re in the military. But when it comes down to falling in love and getting married, they’ve spent so much time doing for others they can’t even afford a beautiful wedding. It seems ironic that the people who give the most get the least. So, I wanted to make this show along those themes. The first act is always about what’s the story of this couple, and why are they so deserving. Once you’ve bought into Why Them, now we’re going to get their families involved. Those families roll up their sleeves and participate - and not just in the sense that they come, drink wine and eat food at the wedding. They’re actually going to do the work. So when [the couple is] there celebrating – [the family] built that. So, I love it. It’s an uplifting show. It’s in the raise you up category. I don’t want to be making shows that have anything to do with tearing people down.
Yeah, well, it was very hard because the show’s not been on the air. You can use my name, which gives credibility, but it wasn’t easy. It took a lot of months to find the couples. There’s a number of factors. First, who are these people and why are they deserving? Are their families going to participate in building the environment? Because without that, you don’t have that whole middle act. And then, lastly, when do they want to get married and does that fit into the shooting schedule? There’s a lot to think about. Remember, all these people … they’re really interested in their love, their life and their marriage. We’re an extra. So, to make it all work together wasn’t easy, but it was really valuable. I think, if we’re fortunate enough that this show gets celebrated and we get a second season, it’ll be a lot easier because of being on television and the notoriety that comes with it. More people would know about it and be nominating people they knew … like, hey, I have a friend who has done so much for others – is so deserving – they deserve a great wedding. I think that’s what you’re going to start getting.
You’ve done so much, what is it that still inspires you about this genre of television – where is it you pull your inspirations from?
They also appreciate the show's fresh look at courtroom drama from both sides of the aisle. That is, from the public defender's (PDs) point of view as well as the district attorney (DAs) - which, let's face it, is predominantly how we've all grown up understanding the television version of the legal system. There are the cops and the DAs, and there are the bad guys repped by the PDs.
Says Teddy: "I grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I went to an all boys school for 10 years. My parents were members of a country club. So, growing up in that environment, I soaked up things along the way that I think made it easier for me to want to play a character like this. I remember getting the audition, and I thought, 'Oh, I know this guy – I went to school with these guys.' Even though [Rich's backstory wasn't exactly the same as] my upbringing, there were elements to it that I was around, and [the role] innately felt right. I read twice with [creator and executive producer] Steven Bochco and his wife Dayna, and Jesse Bochco. It was a family affair. I remember walking in and feeling instantly at ease. I’m one of four kids - my dad’s got three siblings, my mom’s got four siblings - and I just sort of felt that family energy – for lack of a better term. It sort of went from there. Steven gave me the nod, and very luckily, here we are a couple years later."
"In fact," he continues, "I was priming for a Wall Street existence. I went to the University of Virginia, and I got into this really select two-year undergraduate business program - sort of that Type A businessman route. But, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after college, and [somewhere inside] I knew I didn’t want to go work for a big company. I was just restless. I thought I wanted something by the water, something very quiet. So, I lived in Hawaii for about six months after graduation - worked on a snorkeling boat on the Big Island, lived in Kona. But, it just wasn’t working for me. So, I moved back East, and I went to New York City to visit some friends and thought ‘THIS is where I have to be!’ It was the total opposite of Hawaii, but the pace, the excitement and the energy of New York City really matched what was going on in my head. It was apparent that’s where I needed to be. So, I moved.
"For me, it starts with the writing," says Teddy. "It’s the story. It’s the world that’s created by these scripts - the little world I can occupy within the story. I know it when I’m reading it; I just get excited. I start to itch to do it. It captivates and grabs me in a way, and it’s something that when I put it down, I keep thinking about. But, it would be disingenuous to say that the people involved have nothing to do with it. It matters hugely who’s directing it, who’s interested, who’s putting together, what they’ve done in the past. I think, for me, I’d like to continue to be in league with great writers, great directors, great actors. If the story is there, then it’ll attract all the right elements."
Call it one heck of a carpool schlep.
Cue soft warm angel glow light.
For real.
But let it be said right now that her acting skills are nowhere near rusty. She still fires on all those magical Roma-esque cylinders in the film, and when I ask whether the protective mother in Laura is what she could identify with the most in the character, she agrees.
“The dance studio,” says Roma “became a metaphor for the heart – that it brought out the best in people, where everybody felt safe. In that feeling safe – in that loving space – everybody grew and became connected. So, if I felt moved by the script, it was in that which connects us, and the little dance studio became sort of the glue. And so, then, the fight to save the studio was really as much about saving that which joins us together as opposed to the metaphor of something new coming in and breaking us apart. So, [the film really is about] community, connection, oneness – and that love is the glue. I think the whole dancing thing, too, gives it a great energy. I learned how to line dance. I had never tried that before, and it was great fun. I think you could speak to anybody who participated, and it was hard not to laugh while doing it. I’m very proud and pleased to be part of the movie.
“I think that the reminder of spirit – and spirit presence in our lives – was central [to the show],” says Roma. “And it ties back into what we were discussing earlier, which is that feeling of connectedness. I think the show touched that in people. I think it reminded people that God is ever present, and we always have a choice to make. And, it reminded us to reach for the higher road. There was always that beautiful moment in each episode where as the angel, I would be right there at the crossroads. Usually, the drama was set up each week that the person being helped was at some crises or other and had a choice to make. And, I think one of the healthiest aspects of the show was that I didn’t make the choice for them – I just showed them the better option. The choice was always up to the individual, in such as it is, too, in our own lives. We had so many letters from teachers, and parents and people in positions of influence where they would usually stop the episode at that point and ask for feedback from their classrooms – you know, what should the person do, what will the person do. Our writers were always so good at pulling from very pertinent, current situations in people’s lives of all the things that we all deal with all the time within family and death, adolescence, addiction and so on. And so there’s always a very relatable – and timeless – kind of quality to it.
Ironic, then, that a few weeks later, when I had the opportunity to speak with her husband, Mark Burnett, he confirmed for me this very fact as we joked Roma’s commencement speech for the Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management seemed like one of those beautiful closing monologues from a Touched By an Angel episode – to which he had to follow with his own speech.
So, as a mother of two, what did she identify with the most in Robbie - a woman who didn't have any children? Ironically enough, it was actually the mothering quality in Robbie that the Safe Harbor boys seemed to be able to bring out of her.
"All of it was [filmed] pretty much made outside," says Nancy. "So, we were definitely dealing with the elements - with the light, or just trying to get a shot in of a walk on the beach before the sun goes down. It ended up almost being renegade filmmaking. That said, surprisingly given the budget, the scenes that really worked in a very professional way were the storm scenes - I was really impressed with that. We were lucky, too, in that Treat Williams [who portrays husband Doug Smith] is a nautical guy – spent his life sailing, knew things about boats and sailing and the sea – and he was able to bring a lot to it."
"I just love performing," Nancy continues. "I love to do theater. I love film. I love even performing at my kids’ school fundraiser. I love all of it. And, I think I mostly look for projects that look like they're going to be interesting and fun, and hopefully [be] the best quality thing I can find. But also, it’s about what’s happening in a moment. I’ve done jobs that I’ve thought, 'Ugh. Wow. I don’t know why I’m doing this. What am I doing here?' But a director once said to me: you never know what the opportunity is going to bring. You just never know what the opportunity is that’s within a project. And that is almost a metaphor for this film, too, in that you just never know what opportunity lurks with what you choose to do."
By LillyKat
I would also say that in Britain, British dog owners have embraced the positive reward training methods more than American dog owners have, and I think that is because the information has been available for longer [in Britain]. They seem to understand that the positive, reward-based training is the better way, now. I was actually quite shocked when I first came over to the states to see how traditional the training still was. And, unfortunately, the dominance-based training is based on highly flawed research that was done in the 1970s and has now been debunked by not just the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) but also top behaviorists and methodologists in the world. So, we’re moving into a new era of training our dogs.
Absolutely. It’s a feeling. When you train to become a trainer, you have to be a really keen observer of human behavior, and I don’t believe you can be a good trainer without loving people as well. So, I’m a keen observer, and I’ve studied human behavior. I feel like a detective when I go in [to some of the homes] because I pickup clues from the environment at all times. On the show, it might just look like I come in and chat [with the family], but I’m actually scanning [the environment]. I get a lot of information very quickly from people’s body language, what they tell me, their attitude, so I pretty much know who is going to work and who is not.
What has been the most rewarding or favorite part of doing the show?
“At the time I went to college, I was just a kid,” says Garret. “I had come straight out of high school, and I was just kind of drifting. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I chose journalism because I was big into the school newspaper in high school, and I worked for the Selah Valley Optimist in my tiny hometown [in Washington state] – you know, where you’re your own photographer for stories. I just thought that was a good life.
“Who wouldn’t want to play a terminator, y’know? I definitely wanted to do it - it just sounded like fun. And, I’m a big fan of the Terminator films. I’m old enough that I saw the first one in the theater. It blew me away. I also thought this was a good idea for a TV series. It’s the kind of thing I want to get home and see. Plus, I get beat up a lot in my career,” he jokes. “I always have to lose a fight, so it’s nice to win one for a change.”
In truth, he does try to distance himself from his characters, but he acknowledges there will always be a little bit of Garret-ness that resonates.
“Yeah, definitely,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m hoping that at some point, she and I actually get to have a throw down. We both just love stage fights and doing as much of our own stunts as they’ll let us.”
On the film and his role as The Gang Member, Garret says: “No one has names in the book or in the movie. Viggo plays The Man, Kodi [Smit-McPhee] plays The Boy. It’s really their story, which is about a man and his son trying to live and get to some place better in a post-Apocalyptic world, and the people they encounter along the way – either friendly or not. You might guess from my pseudonym that I am not friendly. It’s a real departure for Cormac, in a way, because it’s a future story. In this book, there are the guys that don’t give up, the guys that fight, the guys that hope for a better place. There are those who would do anything they could for food or for relief when they live in a world where there is no food or where nothing is growing. It makes you wonder what levels would you stoop to survive or take care of your family. Obviously, The Gang Member [chose] a certain way [to do that]. There’s a great harrowing scene between [Viggo], myself and the kid because I try to take something from him that he values.”
“I was there for about a month. I wish I could’ve been there more. Everyone sort of does the same impersonation of the Coens - and that’s very laid-back. You know, we’d do a scene, and they’d both come up in cowboy hats and sunglasses. They’d sort of kick stones [on the ground] and go, ‘Well, that seemed pretty good to me. Was it OK for you?’ And you’d go, ‘Yeah!’ And then they’d say, ‘You want to do another [take]?’ to which you would say ‘Sure!’ Then, they’d walk off, and we’d do another one,” he says with a laugh. "You know, we got the SAG [Screen Actors Guild] Award for best ensemble [cast in a motion picture], but we all joked that we really never worked with each other – or just barely. Tommy Lee [Jones] and I were in our story, Javier [Bardem] was in his, and Josh [Brolin] was in his. We very rarely crossed paths with each other on screen. But that's a testament, I think, to the Coens in that one of their strongest assets is their casting. They put the right people in the right job."
But when I recently had the chance to chat with Kenny about all-things Ham and Grace, even I was surprised to learn that his limited time on Cold Case actually played a key role in how he came to be a part of Saving Grace, and thus, begin his segue into leading manhood.
“She was also on a TV series called Pensacola Wings of Gold for a year with James Brolin,” Kenny continues. “[Even though] that whole cast got replaced by myself, Sandra Hess and Michael Trucco [for season two], we [still] knew each other from that time. So, when we met for Cold Case, we already had a lot in common, and we just sort of clicked. We played off each other really well. I had no idea how it was going to come out on screen, but I could feel a chemistry with her. I remember [the producers] saying, ‘Look, you know, we’ve had a lot of people with Kathryn that didn’t have that energy, but you do.’ So, they were really happy at first, and they originally had me for about 13 episodes. And, although I had always thought it was a really, really cool show, at the same time I kept thinking, ‘How am I going to fit in there? What are they going to do?’ I didn’t know how far or how deep they were going to take my character, and I didn’t want to just be ‘that guy’ - the guy that, every once in a while, just shows up to have these little scenes together with [Kathryn]. I kind of wanted it to be a little more in depth. And because I don’t think they could commit to that idea given they themselves didn’t know where it was going to go, we kind of cut it short in five episodes.”
“When I left The Shield, I wanted to be smart, and whatever [I was going to do next] had to be equally as powerful to me in some way, shape or form [as it was on The Shield]. It had to really say something. One of the scripts I read was for Saving Grace. I thought the pilot was great and, of course, Holly Hunter was attached to it. I really dug the energy. It spoke to me – kind of like when I read the pilot for The Shield. I thought Saving Grace was different from anything I had seen, and if [a show like that] was willing to take a chance to go down [a certain] road [to] bring up things that will make people think, I wanted to be a part of it,” says Kenny.
Nothing like having an Academy Award® winner instantly become your biggest fan. But, the admiration goes both ways, and the experience of working with Holly Hunter has been a phenomenal one for Kenny – both personally and professionally.
“It’s definitely a huge shift,” says Kenny. “That whole best friend/testosterone thing [on The Shield] is definitely a different bond than the one you build in a male/female partnership [whereby] you are secretly in love with that person. It’s [actually] really hard. There’s a lot of work [put into] the layers and the subtleties – you know, the job, the partner, how you feel about that person, being married yet knowing that person isn’t right for you, not being able to confess your love to the person you’re with every day even though you have sort of that unspoken understanding. For me, all of that has been definitely a huge shift – almost like night and day with the way I approach everything.”
And yet, the challenge for Kenny is portraying someone who is, essentially, opposite from him in a very key area of life: being a happily married man.
“Oh man … I know what happens, and I was there for a couple of those last episodes. It’s going to be a pretty shocking ending in a lot of ways. It’s not going to be what people expect at all. I was pretty blown away when I was told. I mean, I was on the episode where one thing happened, and I thought they were lying to me. I was, like, ‘No?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah!’ and I was like, ‘No way!’ and they were like ‘Yeah way!' It’s pretty unbelievable. And as much as people that [have been] following [the show] got affected by Shane killing [my character] Lem, I think they’re going to feel as much – probably more of an impact – with how The Shield ends. [Creator] Shawn [Ryan] is pretty genius. It’s going to be great. I think people are just going to be blown away by how it unfolds.”