Charles Shaughnessy (ex-Shane, Days of Our Lives): The streets of Hollywood are littered with people shattered by broken dreams. If you hadn’t been so set on some point in the future and had just been there in the present and seen what opportunities are in front of you — if you could see what was there right then and there, I think you’d have a lot less disappointment and frustration.
Peter Bergman (Jack, The Young and the Restless): For the first time, Jack is realizing that he is now head of the family. It’s going to be the longer story-line arc over the next couple of years — Jack taking his seat as head of the family.
Rena Sofer (ex-Lois, General Hospital): I intend to understand that you really can’t change your children’s mind on who they are going to choose (as a love interest). If you try to get involved in those choices, you might get kicked out of their life. Unless that choice is truly a dangerous choice, even then, you want to be there in case your child falls down. You don’t want to be so disconnected that he or she can’t come to you because there is too much water under the bridge. As a parent, it’s my job to guide and not my job to control. But it’s hard because I like to be in control.”
Robert Newman (ex-Josh, Guiding Light): Ellen Wheeler really understood this need for me to go away and do theater. It’s very easy to write a character out for a month: Josh went away on a business trip. And then you come back very refreshed having been challenged in a different way. It would give me more energy to move forward with Joshua. Other producers didn’t like the idea of me going away, but Ellen was very good with that, I think because she had been an actress for so long.
I rehearsed Sessions almost exclusively on my own, because the cast wasn’t really available, and the times they were available, I was doing Guiding Light. Once the show opened, I had this commute from hell. I live about 50 miles north of Manhattan; Peapack, New Jersey, where we shot all the location stuff for GL, is about 100 miles west of where I live. So I would do that drive at 5 a.m., shoot GL all day, and then drive another 45 miles or so into the city from there, and either shoot more stuff in the studio for GL or do Sessions, and then come back home around midnight, and then repeat the next day and the next day.
Sherri Shepherd (The View): My cast (of Sherri) is a dream come true. They cast Malcolm Jamal Warner as my husband, and he’s gorgeous. Initially, when they first said Malcolm Jamal Warner, all I could think was, this is Theo from The Cosby Show. Then he walked in the room and his voice is deep and he’s been lifting weights, and I realized, this isn’t Theo from The Cosby Show anymore. He is absolutely gorgeous. Michael Boatman from Spin City plays my son’s pediatrician, and we kind of have been dating a little bit. They keep bringing me these gorgeous guys on the set, and they have my character playing the field.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Interview Outtakes, Part 5
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Interview: Catching Up With Charles Shaughnessy, Part 2
Charles Shaughnessy hasn’t been resting on his laurels since leaving his popular roles on “Days of Our Lives” (as Shane Donovan) and “The Nanny” (as Maxwell Sheffield). He is just as busy as ever, and he took the time to talk with me about his life in show business so far, along with all the surprising journeys and side roads he has taken along the way.
Many of Charles’ fans were thrilled when he popped up in the Season Two finale of AMC’s hit drama “Mad Men” as Saint John Powell (he stuck around for much of Season Three as well). Charles was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on the award-winning show. He tells me: “When I got cast in the second season of ‘Mad Men’ as Saint John Powell, an English businessman who ends up buying the ad agency, it was not a lot of air time for me, but it was a really interesting character.
“The first scene I had was in a restaurant with one of the guys from the agency. Behind the lines, you got a whole sense of who this guy is, this kind of steely predator behind this charming, bon vivant exterior. It was really fun going in and doing very short scenes while painting an interesting character. It was fantastic to act on the very cream of TV drama, working with the most incredible people in the most creative environment.”
And to think, Charles didn’t even start out with the goal of becoming an actor. “My goal when I was a kid in college was to be a lawyer — I was studying law — and I think I probably would have been miserable. So I’m glad I didn’t pursue that goal as hard as I could. Then the goal of acting popped up, and it’s been really good to me. Sure, one can say that one wants to be a big, successful movie star, but if that were the case, I wonder if I’d have the family that I have.”
How does Charles pick his projects? Well, he’s a smart cookie, this one. He explains: “I like to do any sort of work that keeps me engaged. Someone said to me recently, ‘You seem to have had a diverse career and have done a lot of different things.’ And I haven’t really. I’ve done just one thing my entire career, which is to entertain. Doing ‘The Nanny’ was a great job. I really get a kick out of it that to this day people from all over the world loved it. I met a man in New York from New Delhi, India, who told me he and his wife loved the show, and it made them laugh every week. That feels good.”
With all of his different show-biz exploits, Charles doesn’t see himself settling into any single genre — he plans to mix it up a bit. “I’ve had fantastic experiences from the most unlikely of places. Out of the blue, having never been trained in musical-theater comedy, I was doing a triple Tony Award winning Broadway musical called ‘Urinetown: The Musical.’ I had a fantastic experience living in New York for those six months. My family, who were dreading my move to NYC, had the best time. They came out to visit for Thanksgiving and for the holidays, and they still say that was the favorite time of their life so far.
“If you keep yourself open to it, amazing stuff happens. I just got done doing this bizarre show in Northern California for a friend, and it was completely crazy, but I met some great people and got to spend four weeks in Carmel in a beautiful house by the beach. You try to say yes to as much as you can and suck as much experience out of it as you can. I don’t understand anyone saying, ‘I don’t do TV’ or ‘I don’t do theater’ or ‘I don’t do animation.’ I think you have to do as much as you possibly can.”
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Interview: Catching Up With Charles Shaughnessy
This time around, he plays Mr. Bosley, the owner of a magazine company who sends one of his journalists, Cynthia Tamerline (who is played by Jordan Ladd), on a mundane small-town assignment where she discovers her true passion in life. Wishing Well also co-stars Ernest Borgnine, Jason London and Sally Kellerman, and airs on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and 8 p.m. Central. (Check your local listings for encore presentations.)
So, what was the experience of filming Wishing Well like for the ever-busy Charles Shaughnessy? Charles explains: “These kinds of movies are always very fun things to do, playing different kinds of roles. I came in for a couple of days in the office set with Jordan Ladd. There’s sort of a mentor relationship between Mr. Bosley and Cynthia that is slightly antagonistic, but in a paternal way. He sends her to a small, Midwest town to kind of shake her up a bit.”
Charles had fun playing the head honcho and enjoyed finding different facets of his character. “If there is a chance to paint a character into someone who goes just beyond the lines, it’s always fun to do. It’s having that extra dimension that gives you a sense of who this guy is when the cameras stop rolling. Mr. Bosley has a few more dimensions than just a boss: He has a sense of humor, he knows the business, and he has a certain charm and flair.”
Working with Jordan — daughter of actress Cheryl Ladd and a dead ringer for her gorgeous mom — was also a wonderful experience. Charles raves: “Jordan is a delight. We had a lot of fun. She is just fantastic — I have nothing but good things to say about her.”
A main message of the movie is that sometimes you just have to follow your heart, which is something Charles understands, but doesn’t completely subscribe to. “My philosophy in life is to keep tap dancing, keep surfing. You can try to follow your heart, but sometimes it is not always the right thing to do. You’ve got to balance it with your head.
“I think that one of the great dangers is investing too much in plans. I’ve set so many goals that have disappeared during the journey and have been replaced by much more interesting goals that suddenly popped up and put me in a new direction. I’m a believer in being as smart as you can in the moment.”
With Charles’ varied career, would he ever consider coming back to daytime? As he tells me, he wouldn’t rule anything out. “I loved doing Days of Our Lives. I thought that format was a fantastic way to work. You use all the muscles you have; it was exhausting at times and it never got boring. I made some really good friends, and we absolutely had a blast. I wouldn’t say no (if the chance presented itself again).”
Fans of Charles should not say no to catching his co-starring role this weekend and next on the Hallmark Channel’s original movie Wishing Well.
