Liev Schreiber is set for his first series regular role as a professional troubleshooter for the well-to-do in Hollywood in Showtime's upcoming original drama, Ray Donovan.
Set against contemporary Los Angeles, the family drama centers on Ray (Schreiber), L.A.'s best professional "fixer." He's the one called in to solve the complicated, confidential and controversial problems of the city's elite. He can make anyone's problems disappear...except the ones he can't escape created by his own damaged Boston "Southie" family. The series' cast includes Jon Voight as the ex-con Donovan clan patriarch and Elliot Gould as Ray's long-time client and mentor, along with Eddie Marsan and Dash Mihok, who will play Ray's brothers, and Paula Malcomson (Caprica, The Hunger Games) in the role of Ray's wife, Abby.
Creator/executive producer Ann Biderman (Southland) was on hand with her cast at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour to talk about the series, which she describes as "novelistic."
"One of the great things about telling a story in this form is that you can serialize it, it's like writing a novel," Biderman said. "Certain things are resolved, but it unfolds over this huge canvas. I don't think many of them [the episodes] will stand alone. Having said that, certain episodes of The Sopranos.are so satisfying even if there are dangling stories or threads. They are just in and of themselves. So I think that's what you reach for."
As with any series, this Ray Donovan is ripe for comparisons to those that have come before it (see my title). Additionally, the idea that Ray is a man who can take care of anyone's problems save his own, is something we have likely seen explored before. When Biderman was asked why she didn't choose to create a character who is amazing at his job, and is also together in his personal life, she said simply, and truthfully, "that just isn't an interesting character."
"I think a trope is a trope, it's how it's done," she added. "Hopefully, we've done it well. But things are popular for a reason. I think to have a character who can excel at something and yet has a fatal flaw isn't gratuitous."
"There aren't many ways to do things that haven't already been done on television.," Schreiber continued. "It's like what Ann said, 'it's not what, it's how.' Pretty early on, when I met with Ann, was fortunate enough to be able to talk about casting, and I guess the first 'how' was Ann's writing, was writing that is deeply investigative spiritually, emotionally, physically, in every way. And then putting together a group of actors that we felt maybe the television audience hadn't seen anything quite like this before. Everything is a cliche. It's just about how you execute."
"I've always been fascinated with Southies, because it's an incredibly interesting, colorful, complex neighborhood," Schreiber said of his character's origins and personality. From what we saw in the pilot, in addition to being one of the more compelling bad-asses that we have seen in recent television history, Ray is, without question, a man of few words.
"The older I get, the more I look for less lines," the actor reflected. "I think that's probably one of the things that drew me to Ray as a character is that he didn't talk much. It's a nice quality. I think, for me, as someone who feels compelled to talk more than I should in many situations, it's very healthy for me to play a character like this."
In addition to being a family caught up in a world of crime and the temptations of Tinseltown, the Donovan's are also grappling with the long-term repercussions of sexual abuse.
"I've played both abusers and people who have been abused before," Marsan said of his preparation for the role. "I've spoken to psychologists and psychiatrists about the seductive nature of it and false sense of falling in love with the abuser. But Terry deals with the abuse differently from his brothers."
The central antagonist in the show is Ray's volatile and violent father.
"I've played some pretty, you know, strange characters, and people come up to me constantly and say, 'You know, you play such a great villain,'" Voight laughingly said of his character, the not-likely-to-receive-a-father-of-the-year-mug patriarch of the Donovan clan. "So probably some of that work landed me this part, but it's a very complex character, Mickey, and there's a quite a lot to come from him. He's a dangerous fellow to himself and to others, but he's got a lot of dimension."
Marsan's character, a boxing trainer with Parkinson's, naturally inspires comparisons to real-life boxing legend Freddie Roach, a man who suffers from the disease. The actor drew inspiration from a source far closer to home, though.
"My best friend who died two years ago had Parkinson's," Marsan said. "I got a job with him when I was 16, and I served an apprenticeship as a printer, and when I finished my apprenticeship, I was still working for him on weekends because I wasn't earning much money. And he knew I wasn't happy. He said, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'I want to be an actor.' So he said, 'I'll pay for you to go to drama school.' One day, he got robbed in his shop, and somebody hit him over the head with a brick, and subsequently 16-years later, he developed Parkinson's disease. We think it came from the hit on the head. He was my best friend and changed my life, so I was with somebody who suffered from the disease. The only thing I will say about Freddie Roach is, what's fascinating about Freddie and informs the character of Terry, is he coordination and how adept he is when he gets into the ring to how the difference between when he's in the ring and the running condition of being a Parkinson's sufferer. But it wasn't based just on Freddie Roach. There was a whole spectrum of people that I studied."
Biderman, for her part, was thinking of the Roach family some when she created the show. But had also researched detectives and spent time with them following people through the streets of Los Angeles. She was primarily interested in exploring this dynastic Boston family, making their way (sometimes punching it) through the shark infested waters of Hollywood and celebrity.
Ray Donovan will premiere on Showtime on Sunday June 30, at 10 pm.
Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at@RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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