Nathan talks about Castle
Posted on March 8, 2009 | No Comments
TWoP: I should have known. So who’s the bigger jerk, Rick Castle from Castle or Captain Hammer from Dr. Horrible?
NF: Captain Hammer is a bigger jerk. He’s a super jerk! He’s a super-powered jerk — being a jerk is one of his powers.
TWoP: Is it more fun to play someone who’s a bit of a jerk? You seem like you’re having a great time on Castle.
NF: Yeah, you know, a long time ago, I was playing a character on a sitcom called Two Guys and a Girl and he was perfect. I was the character of Johnny, he was so perfect, he was really cool and everything. He was very nice, he was the only person who was centered and relaxed on the whole show, and then they say “…okay, and he’s a fix-it guy, but he doesn’t fix anything right, and he’s cheap.” And I thought, [high-pitched] “No, don’t! My guy’s so cool, why would you — ! I don’t wanna do — ! Aw, man!” I was so disappointed, and then I realized how much funny there is in flaws, and when you just don’t know what to do in a moment, play to your faults, your flaws. When I learned that, I became obsessed with flaws, I embraced flaws. No one wants to see a person on TV who’s super-ultra-cool. That’s Superman, that’s a thing of the past. Heroes are now flawed, and have terrible tempers, you know? They’re real people.
TWoP: Were there any shows or movies you looked to for inspiration going into Castle? A lot of people are comparing it to Murder, She Wrote, but the premise reminds me of that movie The Hard Way.
NF: I remember that movie! Yeah! I’m the one who often makes the Murder, She Wrote reference, and ABC hates that, they don’t want me to do that. And I say that having never actually watched Murder, She Wrote. I think people have been trying to compare it to crime shows that are on right now, and all I can do is listen. I don’t watch a lot of TV.
TWoP: Is there anything you do watch?
NF: I watch The Office. I watch 30 Rock. I watch Dirty Jobs. Those are three of my favorite shows ever. And I watch a lot of movies.
TWoP: You play a crime novelist on the show, and in the first episode you play poker with some of your real-life contemporaries, Stephen J. Cannell and James Patterson. Did you pick their brains at all about the life of a writer?
NF: You know what, I was a little nervous meeting those guys! They had a lot of stories, and I was just sitting there and chatting with them and talking about stuff that they’ve done. Steve made most of the television that I grew up with. That’s really quite something. So he would tell me little side notes about how certain shows would run, and how different actors were, and how he came into different ideas, and that was kind of cool. But we didn’t really speak specifically about books and writing. That would have been a really good idea to do that, in retrospect.
TWoP: Now, do you film in New York?
NF: We filmed the pilot in New York, and right now we’re filming the series here in L.A. It’s actually quite interesting. There’s a lot of places in downtown Los Angeles that we use for New York City. I lived in New York City for three years, I know what New York is like, and I’m going to downtown L.A, and I’m looking around and going, [high-pitched] “I didn’t know this was here! I didn’t know you could live in a loft this size! Look at this whole street, this whole street looks just like– !” I’m really surprised — listen to how high my voice is going — but I was very surprised how “New York” sections of downtown L.A. actually do look. I was very surprised.
TWoP: How is this show different from working on a show like Desperate Housewives or Drive?
NF: Desperate Housewives is an ensemble cast, where I played a tertiary character. I made a lot of great friends, but that show didn’t keep me very busy. I worked a few days a week, right here, close to my house. Castle is every day of the week, about 14 hours a day, and sometimes we work Saturdays, which is tough. We just heard that something happened with one of our reels that we sent in; some of the scenes we shot spent too long in the “soup,” where they pull it through at the lab, when they’re developing it, and it ruined it, so we’ve got to go back and re-shoot some stuff. Now we’re trying to squeeze it all into our regular schedule. Nobody wanted to come in on a Saturday again. It’s an intense schedule. I really don’t have time for much of anything else, save for weekends.
Full Interview available at: www.televisionwithoutpity.com
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