Castle returns with a new
episode on May 3. To tide us over, we phoned Michael Trucco (Battlestar
Galactica), who has the enviable/unenviable job of guest-starring
as robbery detective Tom Demming, Beckett’s new love interest, for the
remainder of the season before he heads to Vancouver to shoot his own
series, USA’s new dramedy Facing Kate with Sarah Shahi (NBC’s Life,
Showtime’s The L Word), in June. Note to future Castle
guest stars: He reveals Nathan Fillion’s prank of choice.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did producers think you were the
right man for the role?

Michael Trucco: I wasn’t totally familiar with the show, but I
know in a situation like this, the dynamic between the two leads is very
important. It’s not unlike the situation when I came in to Battlestar
Galactica. There’s a lot of parallels there because my character
[Anders] also came in to thwart the relationship between the two leads
on that show, much in the same way this one is designed to throw a
wrench in the works. It’s a tightrope for a character to come into a
show, especially one that has such a strong fanbase as Castle,
one that is gaining such traction, one that is based heavily on the
potential relationship between Castle and Beckett. So I tried to make
this character really likable, really believable, so that the audience
can relate to Beckett and her potential attraction. If you come off as
smarmy or sleazy, you end up being the bad guy in the end, then it just
feels like the audience gets cheated. So, I wanted to put a real
challenge in front of the characters and say, “We kinda like this guy.”
At least that’s what I’m hoping for.

I think you succeeded in your first episode, and you’re
right: When a lead falls for someone who’s so clearly not worthy, if
affects how much you like her. It’s too out of character.

Yeah. It’s also on the page. I like the scene where Demming checks with
Castle to make sure there’s nothing going on between them. It’s sort of
the guy code that he check with Castle when he’s starting to express his
feelings for Beckett. That’s a stand-up guy. That’s the right thing to
do.

Have you heard from fans on the street? What’s been the
reaction?

Not necessarily on the street, it’s still early. I have this masochistic
tendency to look online and check reaction when episodes like this air.
You know, there’s something about the anonymity that can be brutal. [Laughs]
Sometimes it is better out of sight, out of mind. There are such
dedicated die-hard fans of the Castle-Beckett dynamic, you come in and
upset that dynamic, and people react. That just speaks to the power of
this show and the writing — people are that into it. But I think it’s
been going both ways. The most important thing is to illicit some
reaction, good or bad. If some people are repellent to me, so be it. If
some people are attracted to me, great. At the end, that’s the object of
entertainment — you want to provoke a reaction. Hopefully, we’ve
achieved that.

Did you know about the sparring scene with Beckett when you
signed on? No one could deny that was fun.

I didn’t. [Laughs] I think on my first day on set, I
was doing a wardrobe fitting, and then this guy comes upstairs and goes,
“Hey man, I’m Dennis, the stunt coordinator.” I went, “Okay, nice to
meet you. What does that have to do with me?” I had no idea that there
was going to be this extensive fight scene, this sparring MMA-style
kicks and punches and blocks and grappling. It turned out to be a lot of
fun. We had two or three days of actual off-set rehearsal, which is
really rare for television, because in television, you’re moving all the
time. That made a huge difference. By the time we shot it, we ramped up
the speed and she was bringin’ it. A lot of what you see is Stana
really tryin’ to knock my block off.

And how did you feel about fighting her?

[Laughs] It’s odd. I’m not accustomed to taking a swing at a
woman’s head. That’s not in my DNA. That was big fear, and I said that
to the stunt coordinator. I go, “Dude, I don’t want to look like I’m
going half-speed here and pulling my punches.” And he said, “She can
take care of herself. Go for it.” He wasn’t saying swing at her, but he
was saying we worked this out really well. You know where to place your
punches. We got more and more comfortable and my speed started to pick
up, and Stana is such a superb athlete that I think we really sold this
fight. But yeah, it’s a little uncomfortable. Are we really trying to
swing at each other here, or what are we doing? The whole purpose of
that scene was that tango, this dance, this kind of chemistry. It was
cool.

Will we see more sparring?
Is that going to be their thing?

No. At least not as far I know.

You’re booked through the
end of the season [May 17]. Is there any chance of you returning in
season 3?

I would say it’s left open. There’s no indication either way. I was
contracted for the four episodes, but you never know. I’m certainly
amenable to the idea. This is one of the most comfortable sets I’ve ever
been on.

Did they do anything special to welcome you, to haze you?

When Nathan, Seamus Dever, and Jon Huertas tried to get me with the
shock pen, I knew I was in the club. They go, “Hey, Trucco, come over
here.” Nathan hands me this pen, he goes, “Write down a number between 1
and 30.” As soon as I clicked it, I knew exactly what it was, but the
batteries were dead, so I foiled them. That’s the initiation on the set.
They do it to everybody else, too. Then Seamus looks at Nathan and
goes, “Dude, did you change the batteries?” “‘Did you change the
batteries?’ Why don’t you just give it away?” It was hilarious.

What’s it like playing a love triangle with Nathan? Does he
play fair? I know that he’s sort of an ad-libber.

Sort of an ad-libber? Nathan’s obviously a sharp wit, right? So he
buttons just about every scene differently every time we shoot it.
That’s a major element to the magic of that show. It’s cool because
Nathan and I kind of come from the same roots. We’ve got that
interstellar rivalry going. He’s got the Firefly thing, I’ve
got the Battlestar thing. I’m like, “My spaceship can beat up
your spaceship.” [Laughs] We kind of bring that element into
it. If anything, I would love to be able to come back and have
more of that kind of verbal play with Nathan’s character. There’s that
moment in my first episode when Michael Ironside taps Castle in the head
with a golf club, and I go, “What was that all about?” And he explains
what it was and he checks his hair. I go, “No, it’s good.” That stuff we
just put in on the spot.

What can you tease about what’s to come?

What I can tell you is that obviously, there’s some decisions to be made
in terms of these relationships. Things start to ramp up, get
heightened, and a major wrench gets thrown into the works… Hearts will
be aching, that’s all I can say.

You’re also a
guitarist in a band in real life. Will Castle see Demming play the
guitar? I could see that killing him.

Great suggestion. Let me get on the phone. That has not been introduced
into the story.

How will these two do battle?

Things get interesting… Demming at the core is a good guy, so I don’t
think there’s anything devious in his intentions. But he likes a good
fight. Demming is competitive and not afraid to go toe-to-toe.

You’re actually the son of a police officer. Did you
incorporate any of that experience into the character?

You know what, my father was a detective for about 38 years out of his
40-year career. I had this revelation a couple of weeks ago on-set. I
was talking on the phone in my trailer, and I looked in the mirror and I
saw the badge clipped to my belt, a gun with a holster, and the suit
and the tie with the jacket off, and it was just déjà vu. I remember
that image so clearly from growing up. My dad would come home for lunch,
take off his jacket, have the gun and the badge. I realized it was the
first time in my career that I got to play a cop. I have a coffee mug
that my dad gave me years ago that has the San Mateo police logo and my
dad’s name on it, so I brought it to set and used it in a scene. I mean,
you don’t see it, it’s not prominently featured, but I just wanted that
connectivity. It’s kinda neat to be able to bring a symbol of his
career into the first time I get to play a detective. It felt really
comfortable. I like walking in the shoes of this character.

Before you go, tell me about Facing Kate.

We shot a 90-minute pilot, and we’re gonna shoot 11 more episodes for a
13-episode season. It’s a one-hour dramedy in the same tone as
Castle and those shows on USA. They don’t take themselves too
seriously, there’s always a little bit of a wink and a nod, which I
like. Sarah Shahi plays Kate, a woman who was formerly an attorney and
has now become a mediator. She’s fed up with the black-and-white world
of law, one winner-one loser. She has that “Can’t we all get along?”
mentality. She just lost her father. I play her ex-husband, Justin. I’m
an assistant district attorney, so I’m very hardcore into law. There’s
quite a dynamic between Kate and Justin because we are exes, but somehow
we always end up in bed together.

That’s a nice twist.

What I like about it is that it’s different than the standard
male-female relationship where they start to get to know each other,
then it’s will-they-or-won’t-they? We pick up the series where they’ve
already been there and done that, and now they have a history instead of
a honeymoon phase. We explore life after the marriage, still dealing
with the feelings and the baggage.

There’s no delicate way to put this, but is this the kind of
series that will show the love scenes or will they just be implied?

I don’t know. I haven’t seen scripts beyond the pilot. That’s yet to be
discovered.

What would be your preference?

[Laughs] That’s a loaded question. “I hope I could be in bed
with every actress.” I’m a married man, come on… I don’t think it’s
gonna be knockdown, drag-out sex scenes every week. I think they’ll
address it very tastefully. I think you’ll see those characters
struggling with their attraction and their relationship. I have a
feeling it will get more complicated, that Justin, my character, might
find himself in precarious situations with other women as well. I think.
I can’t wait to see where they’re gonna go with it.