Interviews

Paulo Costanzo Interview

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Paulo Costanzo plays the role of Evan Lawson on USA Network’s hit original series Royal Pains, which airs Thursdays at 10:00/9:00 central.
Tonight’s episode is titled, “No Man is an Island.” Be sure to tune in!

Keep reading for Costanzo’s conference call transcript with various media outlets…

What was it about the show Royal Pains that made you originally want to be a part of it?

Well, you know, as an actor in L.A. between projects it’s very competitive right now. So you pretty much, if there’s a role that you like, usually there’s at least 80 other actors who are petitioning for the same role. So I was in audition mode and this is one of the things that came across my desk because I have a giant desk as an actor, full of thousands of scripts. It’s just a room that is a desk that I can also dance on top of if I want. Across that desk came this script and I thought the character was kind of easy for me. It just kind of fit instantly. A lot of roles you read and you’re like okay, I know I have to start the character work and try to get to this place where I can play this guy. This one is just I already had it, kind of, inside me. So yes, I just went in with that in mind. That was a horrible answer to that question.

You have great on-screen chemistry with Mark. Is it something that happened instantly between you guys or did you do something to develop such a great rapport?

Well when I went in for the first audition, I got the callback pretty much the same day. The callback was for a chemistry read, which means that they bring you in to read with other actors who have already been cast to see how you get along with them. So I went in for this chemistry read, and at that time I was reading for the best friend, not the brother. There was no brother in the script. It was just Hank’s best friend, Evan, with some other last name. So I went in and I walked in the door, and I looked at him and he looked at me and I said, “Wait a minute. You look exactly…” and he finished my sentence by saying, “Like me!” And we both went, “What the hell?” And in my head I was like, I lost this role. There’s no way I can play this man’s best friend. I look exactly like him, just younger.

So at that point I said, “It looks like…” At that point I threw caution to the wind. It was just, like, I honestly feel like our Jew-fros, like if they got too close in proximity, they would just magnetize together and be almost impossible to separate, like Velcro. And he went, “Yes, I agree.” And I said, “Let’s try it.” And we got close and we somehow strangely mimed this head mashing, which made the room laugh, which I thought was really funny. And I was like ah, and that’s how we began our relationship.

They showed off some of your amazing dancing skills on the show. Is it something that was choreographed or did you improv?

That was written as a very short thing. Evan dances around the kitchen preparing for the thing passionately. And I came to Don Scardino, who directs a lot of 30 Rocks. I believe he’s the producer of 30 Rock. And I said, “I’m going to go this week and get a choreographer, so I actually have a couple ballet moves I can throw in there.” And he goes, “Aw, don’t worry about it. No, I’ve got this great girl.” And God strike me down I can’t remember her name right now, but she choreographed everything for 30 Rock and everything for Saturday Night Live over the last ten years. So she’s like a pro. And she showed up, and we worked for about an hour, and between the three of us we came up with that strange dance, which still makes me feel slightly uncomfortable to watch, but people seem to like.

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Ronald D. Moore Interview

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Last week SciFiChick.com was able to participate in a conference call with Ronald D. Moore, Writer and Executive Producer of the upcoming Virtuality movie on Fox.

How is Virtuality different from the holodeck on Star Trek? How is this different from that sort of scenario?

R. Moore: Well, it’s a different concept. The holodeck is a physical space that you would go into and three dimensional forms were actually physically created in front of you that you could feel and touch and interact with, etc. The computer would generate them as long as you were in them. This is truly a virtual space, which is much more akin to putting on contemporary, sort of virtual headsets, but sort of taking it to the next level where you do have an experiential sort of ability to touch and sense and taste and smell things in your mind, so it’s different sort of on the mechanical level.

In terms of the story level, we’re not playing the idea that if you die in the virtual space you die in the real space. It’s not … from that sense. It doesn’t have the safety programs like it did in the holodeck where the safety is off and if you get killed in here you get killed.

It’s a very different thing.

So in Virtuality if you die inside the virtual headset you don’t die in reality?

You don’t. No. It’s more like how gaming is now. You go on-line. You play a game and you get killed and you’re kicked out of the program because you’re dead, but you’re not dead in real life.

We’re using these much more psychologically as well. It doesn’t sound like you’ve seen the pilot, but essentially the experience is that the astronauts aboard the Phaeton have, in virtual space, are sort of things that just sort of are psychologically motivated. They go in there and they do things for entertainment and to sort of pass the time of day while they’re on this very, very long-range mission, but you’re learning things about them personally and about where did they want to spend their time and when things go wrong in that space how does it then influence them in the real world. That was the thing I was most interested in.

The concept was how the virtual space impacted the real story that was going on aboard the spacecraft and vice-versa. What’s the sort of interaction between the two?

Does Virtuality allow you to have a little bit more fun with the concept of people in space, as opposed to Battlestar?

Oh, yes. It’s a much less serious situation than Battlestar was dealing with. Battlestar was literally a post-apocalyptic show where the future of humanity rode on their every decision and death was stalking them continuously. So it’s not set up in the same way. The crew aboard Phaeton signed up for what just seemed like a very straight-ahead mission of exploration and they were chosen with that in mind. They were also chosen to participate in this sort of reality show that’s being broadcast back to Earth.

So there was a conscious attempt on the part of the people who put the crew together to sort of have an interesting mix of people. There are debates within the crew themselves who was chosen just for sort of their demographic content and who was legitimately supposed to be there. Now you’ve got a groups of 12 people stuck in a metal tube going in a straight line for a decade or so and that’s going to just sort of produce a lot of tensions and frictions and manipulations and sort of cross problems between the characters. It has a stronger element of fun and suspense and sort of interesting plot terms in terms of what characters will do with one another than did Battlestar. Battlestar was very driven by the internal pressures of the huge weight that was on all of their shoulders from the beginning of the miniseries.

A little more opportunity for humor?

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Roger Stern Interview!

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(Roger Stern and Angela aka “SciFiChick”) — This past winter, I was able to meet author Roger Stern during a signing at Downtown Comics. As a fan of both his novels and comics, I was excited to meet and interview the prolific writer. — SciFiChick.com: I read that you were born and raised here in … Read more