Raising Hope premieres tonight at 9 on Fox. Four new interviews showed up this week. The pics in this post (click for full size) are from episode 1×03, “Dream Hoarders.” Here is the synopsis (interviews are below):
RAISING HOPE “Dream Hoarders” Season 1 Episode 3 -When Jimmy “teaches” Hope to crawl, the family must baby-proof the house and find new places to store their belongings. It’s soon revealed that Virginia is a hoarder and has been saving junk in the storage shed, which becomes Hope’s favorite new hiding place. This leads Virginia to realize that she may have to change her ways. Meanwhile, Jimmy makes frequent unnecessary trips to the grocery store to see Sabrina in the all-new “Dream Hoarders” episode of RAISING HOPE airing Tuesday, Oct. 5 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
Cast: Lucas Neff as Jimmy; Martha Plimpton as Virginia; Garret Dillahunt as Burt; Shannon Woodward as Sabrina. Guest Cast: Cloris Leachman as Maw Maw; Kelly Heyer as Teenage Virginia; Cameron Moulene as Teenage Burt; Trace Garcia as 3-Year-Old Jimmy; Ryan Doom as Wyatt; Mason Cook as 8-Year-Old Jimmy; Al Jones as Stunt Driver.
First off, a really great interview with Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix.com:
You were a regular on “A Minute with Stan Hooper,” but how much comedy have you done in the interim?
Well, I did a lot of comedy pilots and another one that went beside “Stan Hooper” was “Maximum Bob.” Which is a different kind of comedy. It’s funny; I was talking to someone else about this, because they’re like, “Oh, you’re always the bad guy,” but it didn’t used to be that way at all. You know, memories are so short in this business because I used to be the sitcom guy and I couldn’t get an audition for drama and now you’re like the drama guy and they go, “Oh, he can’t do comedy.” It’s just amazing. You‘re constantly reproving yourself.
How did you change that? What was the part that you felt that gave you entrée into drama?
I don’t know. I come from theater, where we did all kinds of different things all the time and different styles. You know, one day you’re the prince, the next day you’re the pauper. But I’m sure “Deadwood” changed a lot of things for me, playing two different parts. Kind of made people think, rightfully or not, that I could do anything. And I kind of feel like that’s what we’re all supposed to do, so I just go lucky there.
Another one with Al Norton at 411mania.com:
Al Norton: Are there shows that you watch that you’d love to appear on?
Garret Dillahunt: I’ve been really digging what I’m seeing for Boardwalk Empire. I’d love to be on that thing. It’s just a monster cast. David Milch talked to me about playing a part on Luck but I’d already signed for Raising Hope so I’m hoping maybe to guest on it. There are a lot of great shows out there. It’d be nice to play a role where I get a girl legitimately, not by force.
Al Norton: Can you name a couple of actors who have been an influence on you and your style?
Garret Dillahunt: It always changes and is frequently about a particular performance than a body of work. Being from theater I came in under the impression that we were all supposed to be able to do everything, or at least to try, so I was always drawn to real chameleon types. When I was a young drama sprout that was people like Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, who does it effortlessly, and Daniel Day Lewis, who I liked because he was the same height as me. Jason Patrick’s performance in After Dark, My Sweet, was really fantastic and I was really jealous of that. I like guys like Viggo Mortensen. I remember seeing him in The Indian Runner on VHS and thinking, “I want to be that guy.” I was thrilled to get to work with him on The Road.
Al Norton: Can you give the readers the quick pitch on Raising Hope.
Garret Dillahunt: Raising Hope is a very funny look at a young single father. It’s more complicated than that because none of the characters were good parents so in a way this baby is another way for all of us to be good parents. It’s a chance for Burt, my character, to be a Dad instead of a best friend, and for Jimmy (the lead character) to find some direction in his life. The scripts just get better and better, too. Martha is so great and she just cracks me up. I don’t know why we never worked together before. I killed her Dad on Deadwood so I would see her on set sometimes. It’s so fun to work with her after all these years.
One that just showed up at TV Overmind:
There’s a story from Homicide: Life on the Street, where actor Erik Todd Dellums said that because he played drug kingpin Luther Mahoney, people actually started avoiding him in public. Has your history of villainy followed you around at all? Does it wear on you after awhile?
There’s been a few like fiancees and girlfriends of friends who don’t want to meet me because they’re scared. They’re kind of smirking when they say it. It’s usually the guys that play the bad guys who are the nice guys. And when you’re a guest star, you’re usually the bad guy. I’m not one of those guys that takes it home too badly. The saving grace for me is I’m such a fan of writers and I’m so interested in doing justice to their work that I get involved in the story as a whole and not just my role.
Do you have a favorite bad guy that you’ve played? I know a lot of people who still remember you from playing Roman Nevikov on NBC’s amazing series Life.
Deadwood remains a high point for me, and [The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford]. I guess [Ed] is kind of a bad guy although he’s kind of an innocent. They’ve all been really complex.
There’s a hilarity here in that you’re one of two actors to legitimately scare the hell out of me, and yet you’ve also played Jesus Christ (in “The Book of Daniel”).
I was, at the same time I was doing Jesse James. I had to go back and forth.
And an article at the Yakima Herald:
People who remember him as the bloodthirsty Wolcott from “Deadwood” may be surprised to hear that Dillahunt will be on television this fall as a young grandfather in a sitcom. But, he has played good guys before, and he’s done sitcoms before. For Dillahunt, who says, “Variety is life; stagnation is death,” disappearing into vastly different characters is the fun part.
“It’s a nice return,” he says. “I like to change it up. I really like to — probably to my detriment — take 90-degree turns.”
Plus, he says, “Raising Hope” has been a fun show to work on, reuniting him with old friend Martha Plimpton in a cast that also includes Cloris Leachman, Lucas Neff and Shannon Woodward. And, though the shows are completely different, Dillahunt says his experience with Milch on the “Deadwood” set taught him lessons he still uses, lessons about creating a dynamic between actors and carving out space from which to be creative.