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Buzz Interview With the Cast of Precious, Part 3: Gabourey Sidibe

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Precious begins rolling out in theaters this Friday, and we'll finally see if it lives up to its Oscar hype. One performance that the Academy will definitely be talking about comes from newcomer Gabby Sidibe, who carries the film as the title character.

Playing an abused, pregnant teen is the sort of responsibility and heavy subject matter that could make even pros crack under pressure - so how is she coping with her big screen debut? I've already showed you my interviews with Paula Patton and director Lee Daniels, but for this third installment in my Precious series, check out my chat with the actress who already has Oprah and the rest of Hollywood buzzing.

On landing the role: "When I got hired, I was pretty sure it was just a joke. I wasn't an actress - I was a receptionist before this. I was like, there's no way they're interested in me. Since then, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but this joke has gone pretty far!"
On how she handled the first-time pressure: "I was sure I would look like a complete novice, like I didn't belong there, or that I didn't fit in, but once I got there and saw all the people involved - grips, electric, camera operators - I thought, okay, there are a lot of people whose paychecks are on my back, so I can't spaz out. So immediately all of my nervousness fell away from me, and I had a job to do."

To hear more from Gabby (including her thoughts on Mariah Carey and the Best Actress gossip), read more.

On the award buzz: "It's weird, because I have no idea what it is to be a part of an Oscar-winning film or any kind of accolade-winning film, because this is my first go-around. So I just take every day as a gift! I'm thankful that anyone sees the film and feels something - and if the awards come, they come, or if they don't, they don't. But what I've done so far, I'm absolutely proud of myself."
On working with Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz: "It was insane. They're all people that I absolutely idolize. The first time Lenny Kravitz came on set, I was standing very, very still, and I knew he was around, and I couldn't wait for him to come upstairs. Then he did, and it was like, well, there is Lenny Kravitz. There was nothing to be scared about, because he was very cool. And Mariah, I met her the night before we started shooting. She was like the last to be hired, so we had done most of the movie. I kind of felt like a veteran - Mariah is stepping on to my turf. [laughs]"

On her next project: "It's a Sundance Lab Film [Yelling to the Sky], and it stars Zoe Kravitz. I play a girl who is really loud and obnoxious, the queen of the school. It's really fun because it's so far from Precious - I like playing the bad girl! And the film has a first-time director, Victoria Mahoney, who's a lady. The DP is a female, the camera operator is female, so it's all females. It's empowering in a weird way. I've never been all super feminist, but it's really cool."
On her new career: "It's so weird to have a 'Hollywood career.' I just want to do things that make me happy. There are so many people that I look up to as far as actresses go, but I just want to go as far as I can."

Love her! I'll be keeping a close eye on Gabby when the film opens, especially once award nominations start flowing in. Will you be checking out Precious?

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate and Source

Buzz Interview With the Cast of Precious, Part 2: Lee Daniels

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:30:17 -0700

Last week I shared with you my interview with Precious actress Paula Patton, but now it's time to hear from the director himself, Lee Daniels. I asked the Sundance-award winner - the film took home the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize - how it feels to hear Oscar buzz, and what it's like when Oprah is on your speed dial. Plus, he opened up to me about how the movie helped him overcome from his own dark past. Ready for his incredibly candid responses?

On all the hype surrounding Mo'Nique's performance: I'm not the least bit surprised. It's magic onset. People are talking about this buzz, but she and I laugh it off, because we got a movie made, and there were no arrests! Seriously, the cops came, but they didn't shut us down. They said, 'OK, we'll give you five minutes.' There were no arrests, and no one got in any trouble, so for us, the win was finishing the film.

To hear more from Daniels, read more.

On how he felt when Oprah and Tyler Perry jumped on as producers: Tyler calls and says, "Hey, it's Tyler." Huh?! Oprah calls, "Heeeey." It's crazy! It gave me hope that people would see the film.
On the Oscar buzz: Why do people say that? What happens if you don't?! Then your feelings are so hurt. You teeter on wanting so desperately for it, but dare not dreaming for it, because your feelings are so crushed if it doesn't happen.

On why he wanted to make Precious: To heal. Some horrific things have happened to me [in my past], not only at home, but outside of my home life, [like] being openly gay. Being gay is nothing like it was when i was a kid - back in my day, you were literally stoned, a dislocated arm, teeth knocked out. So I try to see the light often. It's hard, because we all have hard lives, and some of us have it harder. What I like to find is people who have had lives just a little harder than mine [like Precious] so I can feel that mine wasn't as bad as it was.
On what he learned from making the film: I look at [the film] as a process. This was not a beautiful journey, because I learned so much about myself. I had been holding on to so much anger from the past, and it was making me an ugly person. It was making me judge people like Precious, because of who I was. How sad was that to find out at 50, that I would've lived such a better life if I had just let go of the hostility. [But once I let go] it felt beeautiful! Liberating!

I was so moved to hear Daniels talk about his own healing through the film - hopefully, it will have the same effect on others when it arrives in theaters next week.

Before the release, I'll be running my interview with Gabourey Sidibe, the newcomer that's making headlines for her Precious performance. Be sure to check back for that later - you're going to love her.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate and Source

Buzz Interview: Sonya Walger Talks Pulling Double Duty For FlashForward and Lost

BuzzSugar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

I've been hooked on FlashForward since I saw the pilot back at the TCA, thanks to the intriguing premise and action-packed episodes. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to chat with Sonya Walger, who stars as Olivia and also plays Penny on Lost. While she made sure not to reveal any spoilers, Sonya talked about her character, the comparisons between shows, and more.

On how her friends and family have responded to the show: They've been completely thrilled. It was fun, I was in London just last week. I had a few days off so nipped home to see my mom. It's so fun to have the show airing simultaneously there, in a real time experience. Everyone's excited about it. It's really exciting.
On having a new TV family: It's lovely. It's lovely to have a place to belong to and come to every week. The scripts are so fun to get. They're really exciting. Week after week it's just a treat to come home and find them on your doorstep.
On her hopes for Olivia and Mark's relationship: You hope for Olivia's sake and for their little girl's sake that they can stay together; but at the same time I wouldn't wish Olivia to stay in a relationship that was miserable and making her and the three of them unhappy. You just want the best for your character, really.

To see what else Sonya had to say about Lost, Halloween, and her other favorite show of the Fall, just read more.

Would she take an opportunity to see a flashforward of her own? No, I'd hate it. I would turn it down, I wouldn't want anything to do with it.
On the comparisons between Lost and FlashForward: I feel the comparisons are inevitable, to be honest. Any time you've got a big show with an ensemble cast and they're all reacting to the same big event, then of course you're going to get Lost comparisons - particularly when you've got two cast members who are from the old show. I think and hope that quite quickly the comparisons will turn off. I think the shows are radically different; I think the way they unfold, the story lines, the scope of them, there's not that deep embedded mythology of Lost, we don't have that. We have big payoffs that happen in every single episode so you're not forced to wait for six seasons to find out what's going on. There are reveals that happen constantly. I think FlashForward will prove a much less daunting show to join. I think that one of the things about Lost is that the last season is starting and I can't imagine viewers will want to be joining it now when they've never seen it before, whereas I think that FlashForward is much more accessible. If you haven't seen the first five episodes you could easily join in and know exactly what's going on.
Other favorite shows of the Fall season?: I love Modern Family, I think it's a really smart, clever show.
On her Halloween plans: I'm going to be on a plane flying to Melbourne. So short of spooking the pilot, I don't have any plans.

Seth Rogen Talks Monsters, Aliens, and Halloween

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Tonight, NBC is airing a Halloween-themed follow up to last Summer's animated hit Monsters Vs. Aliens, Monsters Vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space. Seth Rogen, who voices the gelatinous jokester B.O.B. in the half-hour special, chatted on the phone with a few reporters about reprising his role. He talked animated films, Halloween, and even a little bit of the upcoming adaptation of The Green Hornet that he's currently filming with Michel Gondry.

On why he enjoys voicing B.O.B.: I enjoy it because, I mean, this is the stupidest answer - I enjoy it because it's fun. The character is funny and the directors are cool and the story is funny; to me it's like a very fun format to kind of improvise, and try to discover a character in a different way than physically doing it, you know. You've got to do it all with your voice, and I really enjoy that.
On dressing up for Halloween: I have a girlfriend now and I've entered the unfortunate world of paired costuming. It's not fun. I don’t recommend it. I always end up being the lamer half - it's like she's a dog and I'm a fire hydrant or something like that. It's never fun. So maybe I'm dodging a bullet this year.

To hear what Rogen said about The Green Hornet and what he loves about Halloween TV, just read more.

On his Halloween TV faves: I always liked The Simpsons' Halloween specials, personally. They were always amazing. I always looked forward to that on Halloween. And I watched TGIF sitcoms growing up because I was a nerd and had nothing to do on Friday nights, and whenever the sitcoms would do their Halloween episode, I always enjoyed that for some reason. That always spawned some good comedy.
On the pressure of making The Green Hornet: I will blame Gondry if it sucks. No, I'm just joking. No, we are all in it, you know. I will say, I take a huge amount of the pressure. I understand that. I understand that. I understand that it's my face on it, you know, when it literally comes out even if it sucks for another reason, people will blame me and that's why I have to be so involved - to try to make sure that it doesn't suck. But there's a lot of pressure. I understand that. I've been talking about this movie for years, and if it sucks, then no one will be more disappointed than me, believe me.
On improvising as a voice actor: You can actually improvise a lot as a voice actor. I mean, real people I think don't - and I didn't - understand how animation works really. The time consuming part is really creating the characters and the sets and the worlds. And aside from that it's not that entirely different than shooting a live action movie; the characters mouths are quite easy to manipulate once all the information is built into the computer. So you can improvise a lot and it doesn't matter really how far along they are in the process; they can just make the character say something different. Almost more than in a live action movie because of how slow the process is.
On whether he'll do more voice acting in the future: I really enjoy it and I mean, I've always been a fan of animation - yes, I would like to.

Buzz Interview With the Cast of Precious, Part 1: Paula Patton

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:30:27 -0700

The buzz about Precious has been building ever since it swept awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival. (I even put it on my list of Fall movie picks.) Now with its release around the corner and Oscar whispers beginning, I sat down with some of the stars and the director himself. The film is based on the novel, Push, which follows a pregnant sixteen-year old living with her abusive mother. Despite the film's dark subject matter, every cast member I spoke to brought up the story's healing and feel-good power.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be bringing you their interviews. First up: Paula Patton, who plays Precious's teacher and mentor, Ms. Rain.

On the film's unexpected success: "We thought it’d maybe be on Netflix or in my mother’s living room! And then Lee called me in the beginning of the year and said, 'We’re going to Sundance.' That was it for me. That was an award to be able to go and be part of the selection, and then it just steam-rolled.”

For more of what Patton had to say, read more.

On her response to those who think the film is going to be depressing: "I understand saying, 'I want to see it, but I don’t want to see it right now, because I don’t want to go there.' It’s not like that. I say it’s like buying a ticket to a roller coaster ride. You laugh, you cry, you scream, and at the end of the ride, you’re left shaken, but with your heart more open. What’s beautiful about this film is that it breeds love."
On what she learned from Precious: “I think we’ve all judged a Precious. What this movie tells you is, don’t judge, because you don’t know their story. I think when we made this film we all had to admit our own racist feelings, our own prejudices, and deal with them head on.”

On newcomer Gabourey Sidibe: “So many actors will have worked their whole life and never achieve what [Gabby] achieves in this film. It’s remarkable. She’s not Precious. She’s like, ‘Paula, oh my god, did you see The Hills?' She’s such a girly-girl and loves to be happy. It's a difficult thing when you have a character that’s talked about the way she’s talked about - you're fat, you're ugly, you're stupid - that it took someone as smart and as confident as Gabby to play her and not be affected by it.”
On the inspiration for her character: "[My mother] was a public school teacher for 35 years, and she was one of these teachers that went above and beyond the call of duty. She would bring students back to the house, help them pay for books, and be supportive. When I decided to do this role, I was like, this is for my mother and for all the teachers out there who are like her.”
On what's next for her: “I just finished a comedy with Queen Latifah. I went from [a character] who has dedicated her life to helping others to someone who is the most selfish human being on the planet. I call her a gold-digger with a heart of gold. It was so much fun to explore a different character and flex those comedic chops!”

Are you looking forward to Precious? I'm dying to see it and Patton's film with Queen Latifah now!

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate and Source

Exclusive Buzz Interview: Clive Owen Dishes About His Latest Movie!

BuzzSugar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:30:00 -0700

I had the good fortune of interviewing Clive Owen on the red carpet at the Mill Valley Film Festival last Friday, where he was being honored with the award for excellence in cinema. I know what you're thinking, so let me start by saying that yes, the man is just as good looking in person. (Swoon).

But you know, I'm a professional, so I put away my schoolgirl giddiness and got down to the nitty-gritty of his current film, The Boys Are Back. I reviewed the movie last week and told you what a huge departure it is for the actor, so I asked Clive to explain himself (and a few other things).

On why he wanted to do such a sweet and sensitive film: It was a beautifully written script, really lovely script, very touching, very moving. It was a subject I hadn't really explored before in films. You know, parenting is a very big part of my life - I have two girls - but I've always considered it separate from making movies. I make movies and then I go home and I'm a dad. It was a script that beautifully explored parenting.

To see what else Clive had to say about his parenting style and what's next, just read more.

On if his parenting style is the same as his character's: [The character has] a very radical way of parenting. It never gets that bad with me, but it's based on a real memoir. [Author] Simon Carr, I think at the time he felt that he needed a radical approach, because him and his young six-year-old boy had just lost his mother, and it was kind of a reaction to that. It was like a drastic bonding exercise in a way, and he still says today that however irresponsible some of the parenting might have looked, the kid had some of the most joyful times of his life during that period.
On the challenges of working with kids for a change: The young Nicholas who is only six is a huge part of the film, and he's really good in the film. When you're working with a kid at that age, you can't be too prepared, because they're so immediate and raw and natural, you've got to go with them really.
On what's up for him next: I'm not 100% sure. There are a few things floating around, but I haven't confirmed anything really!

Come on, Clive, nothing lined up yet?! Please come back to the big screen soon!

Five Minutes With Accidentally on Purpose's Ashley Jensen

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:00:41 -0700

New sitcom Accidentally on Purpose premieres tonight on CBS, with Jenna Elfman in the lead role as a San Francisco movie critic who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand (Elfman went totally Method: she just announced her real-life pregnancy). Playing her best friend? British actress Ashley Jensen. Jensen has struck comedy gold on both sides of the Atlantic, earning an Emmy nomination for her work alongside Ricky Gervais in Extras and making a splash as Betty's best friend (and Wilhelmina's surrogate) in Ugly Betty. Jensen and I chatted at the CBS/CW party at the TCA press tour about how she landed the role (after getting horribly lost on the way to her audition) and how she'll play a party girl despite being pregnant in real life. Here are highlights:

On her character, Olivia: "She's a party animal girl, sort of the cheeky, sassy, witty one who kind of is independent and doesn't need to be tied down. She seems to have a boyfriend in every place that she works . . . which is good fun to play!"
On playing pregnant on Ugly Betty and now being pregnant: "I've been pregnant for over two years! This [belly]'s a little bit more difficult because I can't remove it at lunchtime. I said to someone earlier, 'If I'd realized what it was like to be pregnant and wearing four-inch heels, I may have walked a little bit different in the last season of Ugly Betty.' I was just strutting about!"

To hear her Ugly Betty highlights, how she stumbled into meeting Ted Danson and how she feels about using her own accent on TV, just read more.

On the highlights of her time on Ugly Betty: "Going to the Golden Globes at the beginning was quite exciting. We'd done maybe 10 episodes. . . . To find myself suddenly on a red carpet wearing dresses and diamonds and having people doing my hair, I'd never had all that before. So that was all incredibly new, and that was amazing, and for the show to have such an impact so immediately was very exiting. And going back to New York [last season] was exciting - I think that gave it an extra wee bit of like, 'Ooh!' Because I never went to New York [full-time] - I commuted. I found that quite exotic. I was like, 'Oh yes, I have to fly to New York for five and a half hours for my work.'"
On her best New York to LA flight experience: "I got to fly with Ted Danson one day, which was quite exciting. It was the day after the Emmys, actually, after I'd been nominated for Extras. And the [flight attendant] was like, 'Oh, you looked lovely last night!' And I was like, 'Oh, thanks,' and she was like, 'It's such a shame you never won,' and I could see Ted Danson going, 'Who's this?' And then I sat down beside him, and he was like, 'Were you there last night?' and I said 'Yes I was,' and he went, 'Sorry for being really ignorant - what were you in?' and I said it was Extras and he was like, 'Oh my God!' So Ted and I sat down, shared a bit of breakfast, watched a little movie, had a little sleep, exchanged restaurants in New York, and it was fleeting but beautiful. That was a highlight, going to sleep with Ted Danson."
On being one of the few UK actors to use her natural accent here: "The two jobs that I've done, I've gone in and used an American accent, and they go, 'Do it in your own.' And then they go, 'It's funnier. It's funnier in that strange little accent that you have.' I think it adds color to shows, doesn't it, when there's another accent in there. . . . I think comedy is easier in your own accent, as well - I've lived with this accent all my life, and I know the rhythms and the pauses that make it funny, so I think that absolutely helps."

Five Minutes With Jessica Lucas

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:45:13 -0700

Jessica Lucas seems to be the go-to girl for the CW's soapy remakes. After appearing on the big screen in Cloverfield, Lucas turned up on 90210 as an undercover cop posing as a transfer student. Now she's staying in the Aaron Spelling reboot family as newly engaged elementary school teacher Riley in the new Melrose Place. At the TCA press tour, Lucas had a few things to say about her new job:

On whether Riley's relationship with Jonah (Michael Rady) will last: "They're definitely going to be tested a lot. I think the environment they're in is very harsh.They're under a lot of financial stress. So I don't know how long they're going to be able to work things out. And I think, you know, Riley's really at a crossroads. I don't think she really knows if she wants to get married."
On whether her character is as good as she appears: "Like anybody in real life, she has flaws, and those flaws are going to start to come out a lot in the first few episodes. I think the main thing with her is, she is really nervous about getting married, and she doesn't know if she wants to, and that's going to cause her to maybe stray a little bit."
On how this show differs from the original: "I saw a few episodes of the fourth season [of original Melrose] and it was insane - like, people were blowing up the courtyard. I think we're going to try to keep ours a little more grounded. It's heightened reality, but it's very gritty, it's very dark. And I think it shows that really dark side of LA and how it can affect people and define who they are and change who they are."

To find out what Lucas thinks of the show's mystery twist and whether she'd ever do another Cloverfield, just read more.

On how much she knows about the show's murder mystery: "Every time we read a script, we get a little bit more of a piece of a puzzle. But I have no idea who did it. Not too many details are emerging yet. . . . I think the chances of Riley murdering Sydney are slim to none."
On whether she thinks there could be a sequel to Cloverfield: "I think JJ [Abrams] talks about it every once in a while, but I think it's important to him if he wants to do a sequel that it be for a good reason and that it's for a good story, and I don't know if he's thought of something unique enough yet. . . . I think maybe an origin story about how that monster got there would be really cool. It would be so fun to do a sequel to that."

Kevin Williamson on Bringing Vampires to The CW

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:30:06 -0700

Kevin Williamson's Dawson's Creek helped make the WB into a buzzworthy network. Now, can The Vampire Diaries do the same for The CW? Williamson and writing partner Julie Plec will be bringing that other vampire book series to the small screen on the show's premiere tonight, and at the TCA press tour, he talked to me about what it's like to launch a new vampire show in a post-Twilight world.

Here's the question I'm sure everyone is asking: Why vampires? Why are they so big now?
It's all cyclical. I remember when I was growing up we had those Lost Boys, and then there were a few shows after that. . . . I'm sure there's some psychological ramification to the psyche of America and culture at the moment and politics and the state of the world. I'm sure we could go analyze it till the cows come home. But I think they're cool, they're fun, they're sexy, and they took off. Julie's the one who coined the phrase "They're the new James Dean," and she's got a point. They're the new version of a bad boy, and for a whole new generation.

With so many other vampires out there, what will make this show stand out?
I read the first book and was like, "This is Twilight. This is just like Twilight." . . . I was like, "No way." And then Julie was three books ahead of me and she was going, "Keep reading. Keep reading." And then I kept reading and was like, "Oh, OK, I get it." This is a different show. This is a story about a town. This is a story about a family. . . . The premise is the same but the themes are different. It goes beyond just a love story and really goes into everything that goes bump in the night. It's more sort of a Dark Shadows. This town has a lot going on in it, and we just start with the vampires.

Is it easier or harder to be the new vampire show right now?
It's really tough. We were just saying there's a hundred reasons that are working against us. And one of them is my favorite show, True Blood. . . . Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I personally have room for one more vampire show in my lineup. It's a coming of age story, it's a drama show, I get to have a little fun with the humor of it, I'm trying to put our characters in the real world. They're in the world of it - these are high school girls who actually read Twilight. We just wrote the scene where one of the girls finds out Ian Somerhalder's a vampire, and her first comment is, "Why don't you sparkle?"

To hear about how Williamson cast the roles and how much of the books will turn up on TV, just read more.

You don't have a big main cast at the start - it's really just Elena and the two brothers. So I imagine casting was really key.
It was so hard to cast these roles. We had to play with the ages and stuff. We're getting away with it with the two vampires, cause they're 145 years old. So OK, they don't look 16? But Nina [Dobrev, who plays Elena] - Nina came in for us one day to audition. She was sick, she had the flu, worst audition ever. We didn't even look at her a second time. And she went home, went back to Canada, and she was just miserable. She's like, "I was sick, I was just awful, I can do better than that." So she put herself on videotape and she sent that tape through and we put it in and we were like, "Who's that?" "Oh, she came in and auditioned." "No, she didn't." "Oh, the sick girl?" She was a totally different girl, totally. And so we took it to Warner Bros., to Peter Roth, and we said, "Look, we have all these actresses out in the hallway, or you can watch this." I had such luck with that with Katie Holmes back in the day, with videotapes, and so I said, "Let's see if we can get lucky again."

Have you given your vampires a distinctive look?
They're hot and sexy. We're not doing the pale thing. They look like they look. Paul Wesley comes with that olive skin, so he kind of has that vampire look anyway. Since the pilot he's been getting into vampire mode, which means he's been just working out. He looks great. And Ian is just a rock. They look really, really good. What we're doing differently is when they turn into a vampire . . . we're going with the philosophy that once they get engorged the blood starts racing to their body. They're angry - any sort of hot emotion, anger, love, sex, anything that's really heightened - and so the blood rushes to the eyes. You see the blood rush into the eyes, and then the teeth come out.

It seems like a pro and a con that the books come with a built-in fan base that's very passionate about the work. How are you dealing with that?
We've had to make some hard choices, and we've made some changes. But what I loved so much about what LJ Smith did was she created a world and a mythology that is a writer's dream. That is the hardest thing to do, is come up with the backstory. She's laying that there for me - she's there as a mine that I can just go to every week. We're going to keep the essence of her books, the themes of her books about friendship and betrayal and deception and redemption. All of those themes that were so prevalent in the first three or four books will 100 percent be on there. And yes, some of the plots will change and the Founder's Day ball may not happen exactly where it did [in the books], it may happen in episode three, you know, and the Halloween episode may be sixth and in the book it was reversed. We're plotting it out for longevity and we're plotting out all of the character arcs. If your character doesn't resemble the one that it did in the book, maybe we backed it up and started it somewhere else so maybe they can grow into that character, because we're a series and we have to tell a story every week.

Photos courtesy of Getty and The CW

Michael Rady on Moving From Cyprus Rhodes to Melrose Place

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:45:17 -0700

For a little while, it seems like Michael Rady has been everywhere, turning up on the small screen in Greek, Swingtown, and even Grey's Anatomy while also romancing Alexis Bledel in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies. At the CBS/CW party at the TCA Press Tour, I chatted with Rady about playing a nice guy, whether or not his Melrose engagement is doomed, and those Swingtown sideburns. Here are highlights:

How did you end up working on the new Melrose Place?
The first week of casting for Melrose Place, I went in, I didn't know anything about it, I think I had five auditions that day, and I left and they were like, "They want you." And I was like, "Really? No one wants me!" They were like, "Yeah, we like him." And then I booked it a couple of days later. And I was the first one cast. There was no script. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet - it's a little surreal.

When I saw you were cast in Melrose Place, I was of two minds about it - on the one hand, I was excited, and on the other, I was like, "Well, I guess I know what happens to Max on Greek."
Yeah - stumbling off drunk into the night, alone.

But then suddenly resurfacing here, a little more glamorous. Although Jonah seems pretty down-to-earth.
Yeah, he's the transplant from the East Coast and just comes from a grounded family, a good family situation.

Do you think he'll stay that way?
They swear up and down I would turn out good in the end. I think it's just this den of corruptibility, Melrose Place. So I think we'll get swept up here, and then spit out, and then swept up again, and then spit out.

It seems like there might be a chance on this show to play up the evil side.
It happened to Michael Mancini, right? No matter how much they swear I need to remember that: That this is Melrose Place and nothing is safe.

To hear Rady's thoughts on his Greek romance and those sideburns, just read more.

Were you a fan of the original Melrose Place?
I was only really aware of its existence. My older sister watched it. I was just sitting on the couch, "What are we watching?" "Melrose Place." I remember Heather Locklear and Grant Show, just beautiful people around a pool.

Now you're one of the beautiful people around the pool.
No, I'm around the pool. There's beautiful people around me.

Are there any folks from the original you'd particularly love to work with?
I had the biggest crush on Laura Leighton, oh my gosh. She's just class, class, class and beautiful and amazing. Whenever she gives answers at press junkets we're all like, "She's so good. She says all the right things." I'd love for Heather Locklear to come back. I think that could be a lot of fun for the show.

Maybe you could have an affair, because you know Jonah's engagement isn't going to work out . . .
It's not going to turn into a happy marriage. That's a crashing bore, too.

That relationship was actually one of my favorite parts of the pilot, though.
But you would not watch day in and day out if they were happily married, eating popcorn, watching movies at nighttime and snuggling together. Crashing bore. You wouldn't watch that. So, I mean, troubled waters. Gotta be.

Speaking of nice guys - on Greek, you were coming in and breaking up the Casey/Cappie relationship a lot of fans want to see, but you were also such a good guy.
It was so funny, because they were like, "We can't do anything and not be hated here. Because you're so nice!" Spencer [Grammer] would be like, "All right, how can we do this, because everyone's going to really like him here, and no one is going to like me at all." That was actually a fun game to play with each other, like, "You have to win here. I'm going to be as nice as I possibly can, and you have to beat that."

You were done filming Greek a while ago, right?
Yeah, I think January, I shot my last episode with them. I got Greek while I was doing Swingtown, so that's why Max had long, long sideburns and crazy, long, curly hair. I ended up having really long, ridiculous hair for a long time - it was very frustrating. We took a quarter-inch off the sideburns, like, every month. And meanwhile they're writing jokes about the sideburns into the script.

Can you give us any hints about what's coming up on Melrose to keep us watching after the pilot?
They all die. No. I have no idea!

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