It’s the last day for the Prison Break: Season 4 DVD giveaway.  Have you entered yet?  It’s so easy so why not?  You must know some tough guy (or gal) who wants to own this kick-ass series.  And it couldn’t be easier…just email me at jim@progressivepulse.com.  Done.  Easy!  Deadline is tonight at midnight EST.  Winners to be announced on Friday and then your favorite TV blogger is taking a week off!  Woo hoo!

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If you saw my review last week of A&E’s The Cleaner you read that I had to reverse my negative opinion on the show from when it first premiered last year.  Now, the stories are more compelling with smart use of amazing guest stars and, of course, the impressive actor that is Benjamin Bratt.  He ain’t bad to look at either, right? 

I do a lot of interviews and press calls in my line of work but only a few actually get me excited and talking to Bratt (and the inspiration for his character in real life cleaner, Warren Boyd) was one of those times.  Here are some excerpts from the press call.   

Asked about how much of Warren Boyd’s life is used in “The Cleaner,??? both Boyd and Bratt responded:

Warren Boyd:  I think the mechanics of the show are very close to my real life, which sets me back about 13 or 14 years ago.  That’s where I was.  What you see on the show is where I was about that long ago in the process and everything that you see.  It’s pretty close and there’s a lot of influence in the writers room and with Benjamin to keep things as authentic as we can. 

Benjamin Bratt:  It’s funny because it didn’t really take too much researching to play the guy.  As soon as you meet him, and I don’t know if you’ve seen a picture of him, it gives you an immediate insight into how to play him. He’s a motor head, he’s buff, he wears black t-shirt and jeans, black boots and he rides a Harley. He’ll knock you out as much as smile at ya.  With that first impression, it gave me a fine starting point which, combined with the script and the fine words by Robert Munic in the pilot, it gave me a really clear approach into how to play him. 

All kidding aside, there’s also a lot of subtlety to Warren as to what he does and not a little mystery.  As well as I’ve gotten to know him now after two seasons of doing this show and doing press and just hanging out in general, he is still one of those guys whether it’s cultivated or not.  I kinda think it’s not because it’s a pretty organic thing.  There’s an aura of gravitas to him and a little bit of mystery that you can’t really penetrate and I think that’s part of what made it appealing to me because I don’t have any of that.  It was nice to put on someone’s clothes. 

Bratt was asked if he personally is able to relate to his character of William Banks and he explained that he can sometimes relate a little too well.

BB:  The subject matter is all too close in my own personal life.  I have extended family and a wide circle of friends from various communities within and around San Francisco so I have very tragic stories in my own personal experience so, of course, they were present in my mind but what really drew me to the project was how it was rendered. I’ve never seen a one-hour fictional drama that had a central focus in the exploration of a second chance when you’re fixing a substance abuse problem. The shows that remain popular on television today are procedurals – cop dramas or medical shows.  To me it just felt like the right fit where you have a show that has a little bit of that structural element in there.  It’s a procedural in terms of its structure but the subject matter that it explores, which is equally life and death stakes, is something that is heretofore been taboo.  An open discussion about substance abuse was not something people were really willing to talk about 10 years ago so the timing was right and what I found in participating in this project and hearing the response by the people who watch it is that it really resonates with folks who happened to tune in because of the prevalence of substance abuse and how it really effects most of us whether we’ve had direct contact with it or not. 

And what is coming up this season for his character especially since William and his wife (played by Amy Price-Francis) are estranged.

 

BB:  I will say that just like all relationships that have at its core real love between two individuals there’s always going to be the effort to try.  At the end of the first season, William Banks was kicked out of the house by his wife because he was spending more time on the job and not doing the things that a good husband should do.  So, in the opening of season two he’s sleeping in a dilapidated backroom of the motorcycle building.  Over the course of the second season, they will still relate as they need to since they’re co-parenting, then my son takes a job at the shop during summer vacation and hopefully by the end of the season you’ll have a much clearer hint as to his journey. 

 

We have a really impressive roster of guest stars who have come to play with us on the show.  Everyone from Christine Lahti, Joe Don Baker, Michael Beach, Shirley Jones (above from the 7/14 episode), Rebecca Gayheart.  A lot of actors who are very familiar to audiences everywhere but who really just want an opportunity, like most good actors, to do good work.  But what that translates to is that the writing is strong enough to draw this kind of talent to a television series, which I think, up until a short while ago, was considered a disastrous career move but I think the good news for everyone, actors and viewers alike, is the level of the game, of work being done on television is oftentimes far superior to what you’ll find in a movie house and, as a result, you only have to look through your local TV listings to find a lot of movie actors now populating the television landscape as a series regular.  I think that says a lot about the quality of work that’s being done in television so we’re hopefully falling into step with that.

Finally…my turn!! 

Jim Halterman:  I want to ask about William’s one-sided relationship with God, who he talks to often in the show.  Did that device come from Warren’s experience and, Benjamin, how do you play those scenes without them coming off as hokey?

WB:  I think that’s carried off really well by Ben in the series and, of course, honestly I do a lot of praying and I do a lot of what I call contact with God and I think that the way that comes off in the series is very honest.  It’s a very honest way for him to let that out there.  No, I don’t stop and exercise my voice talking to God everyday out loud.  It’s not quite like that but it is the same thing. 

BB:  What we’ve taken from Warren’s life and now are actually utilizing as a thematic structuring for the show is this one-sided with God so that’s part of the reformatting of the second season how we’re both focusing more on the story of the guest star and their particular dilemma and using that opening monologue to God as the theme of what will follow.  You’re right, it is one sided. That’s part of the fun in doing it and it’s part of the fun for the writers in writing it.  Like with most of us who feel that we do have a relationship with the creator it remains, as far as we know, it’s one sided.  We’re not necessarily certain that he’s up there listening.  What’s funny is that sometimes we’ll have directors come in, the guest director of the week, and they’ll want to put a camera at the corner of the room and Jonathan Prince, the exec producer and show runner of the show often says, “We can’t do that because we’re not sure that God is listening.  We can’t have God’s perspective because otherwise it means that he’s listening.???  That’s part of the fun is poking fun at that in that way.  I think his relationship with God is not so heavy. There’s levity there and he’s not necessarily sure he’s there. 

Check out “The Cleaner??? on Tuesdays at 10/9c on A&E or you can catch up with episodes online or A&E On Demand on your cable provider.

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Photos courtesy of A&E.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 2:53 pm and is filed under PROGRESSIVE TELEVISION by Jim Halterman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.