An Exclusive Q&A With David Marciano.
May. 17th, 2007 02:33 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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ds_noticeboardDavid Marciano answered his fans' questions about Due South.
Link to the questions and answers: - http://duesouthlives.site.io/askvecchio.htm.
Link to the questions and answers: - http://duesouthlives.site.io/askvecchio.htm.
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Date: 2007-05-17 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-17 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-17 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-17 03:59 pm (UTC)http://duesouthlives.site.io/
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Date: 2007-05-19 01:11 am (UTC)Maybe you could copy and paste it? Sounds interesting, and I've never heard of it before.
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Date: 2007-05-19 10:31 am (UTC)But you can download the doc. file with the interview here - http://s25.quicksharing.com/v/3181486/David_Marciano_Answers.doc.html
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Date: 2007-05-20 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 05:54 pm (UTC)Time for us to shut up now, and let David Marciano take over! Many thanks for all your questions, please keep sending them in and we will send the best ones to David periodically! Finally a HUGE thank you to David himself for taking the time out of his busy schedule to give us this EXCLUSIVE insight into Due South, and David himself (please note there may be the occasional swear word), over to you David!
Part 1.
David Marciano: Hello. What a beautiful day! That's how I leave my home each morning as I present myself to the world. Most mornings I have my daughter with me who replies, "What a caa, caa, poo, poo day." And off we go on this journey called life.
I hope everyone is well. All is well here and I am very excited about our new prospect, so here we go. Let's get to it, shall we?
Kate, Bristol, UK.
Hi David.
if there was ever to be another series, or movie of due south, what would you like the storyline to be that reunites fraser and Ray and also the rest of the cast?
The Queen would be in need of our help. It seems the Prince has married a nasty commoner who has defiled and disgraced the Royal Family, by exposing the Royals dirty laundry... The paparazzi accidentally... No, no, no.
Ray has retired to his cabin in the woods, where he is enjoying himself fly fishing and hunting, when Benny shows up and asks if he'd join him to head up a task force to help the good people of Toronto, who, for some odd reason, are behaving like nasty Americans. The mix of cultures has caused a race relations nightmare and the city is falling prey to riots and discontentment and we must find a way for them to all get along. I start packing my ammunition, when Benny reminds me there are no guns, grenades or plastic explosives allowed in the country and we'll have to find a peaceful means to solving the violent uprising in the city. I ask him if Dief will be joining us and he informs me he's dead. Upon hearing this, I celebrate this news by opening a bottle of champagne. Benny can't believe my lack of care for his best friend and tries to poke me in the eye. I block his intent by putting my hand to my nose sideways ala the three stooges. He, yuk, yuk, yuk, yuks me and hits me in the forehead. I plant my left foot firmly and stomp my right foot like a bull running myself in circles (a metaphor for my cop style) and off we go to fight the good fight of solving crime on the mean streets of Toronto.
I have no idea, but that was fun.
Do you think having stanley thrown into the equation as an 'official' partner for ray would make ray's and frasers friendship more dianamic, or do ray and fraser work better as a duo?
We work much better as a duo. Stanley and I would just get into each others way and cause more problems and less comedy. Due South at its heart is a buddy cop show that is really more about friendship than solving crime.
I can just see ray and stanley fighting over anything and everything.
Exactly. Stanley is way too serious for this type of show.
Mel Bulut
As a fan of Vecchio's slightly loud wardrobe (the bright orange trousers, oversized powder blue jackets, etc) I was wondering if you could ask Mr Marciano how he felt about Ray's clothes - especially those seen in early first season?
I was so fond of them, I bought the whole lot of them from the production and gave them to my mother. She looks lovely in them.
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Date: 2007-05-21 05:56 pm (UTC)Hi David
We have a very strong DS Forum going on (William and Elyse's DS Forum)... Are you, or any of the cast of DS aware of the forum, and if so,do any of you ever drop by?
Thanks for getting involved in trying to get DS on our screens again. Best Wishes
I'm sorry to say I am not aware of the Forum, but I am glad to see, ten years later, there are still some die hard fans who think DS is a worthwhile endeavor.
Helen W.
Hi David
Did any of the wolves playing Dief ever bite you?
No, but they did everything else to me and I hated every minute of it. As a child, I was allergic to animals, so I never grew fond of them. As an adult they just annoy me, which worked well for my character and the show. Sorry, I hope I didn't offend anyone. It's not my fault. So please, don't hurt me. I was born that way.
Did you ever get frostbite when in Canadia?
Emotionally, yes. It was freaking freezing up there.
Beth Fairweather
Hi David,
Firstly, I think its fantastic that you have agreed to do this question session with anyone who wants to ask you, I think you have made a lot of fans very happy! Like me! Here are a few questions I wanted to ask you:
Did you have any warm up or getting into character routines that you did before each shoot?
In season one Paul Haggis and I would get into one creative fight after another. I guess it was his way of getting me frustrated, because as a character Ray is constantly enraged by Benny's method of law enforcement.
Here's an excerpt from a book I never completed entitled: Due South: An American's Perspective...Shot from the Hip, which is now part of a solo show I'm writing and hoping to perform this coming winter.
June, 1992 Civil Wars got canceled. That show opened the flood gates for me in terms of work. It was an industry watched show and everyone wanted to work with me. I was going from job, to job, to job, when my agent called with an audition for a two-hour back door pilot called Due South.
HARRY
It’s a Buddy Cop show about a Canadian Mountie and a Chicago Detective. They are very interested in you for this. The creator is Paul Haggis. He won an Emmy for Thirty Something.
DAVID
I heard he’s a nightmare.
HARRY
He's an extremely talented writer director.
DAVID
Who has an ego the size of Lake Ontario.
HARRY
And yours is smaller.
DAVID
Harry, this is a recipe for disaster.
HARRY
Just get the job. It’ll be fine. If this goes to series you’ll be a millionaire, how bad could it get.
How bad could it get? At one point during the shooting of the pilot I called the network and had him banned from the set. I was being micro-managed. The whole production was. I started to constrict and my creativity was being compromised. I couldn’t take it, no one could. I was so out of my mind with this guy, I actually thought about quitting just to save my sanity. The only thing that kept me going were my agents words, ‘if this goes to series, you’ll be a millionaire.’
When the pilot got picked up Haggis and I had a sit down. We both agreed if this was going to work we were going to have to place nice.
Two episodes in I realized what was pitched to me as a buddy cop show was slowly turning into a Mountie show and that’s not what I agreed to. I went to Haggis with my concerns. He verbally appeased me, but continued to write the show he misrepresented. Episode after episode we went at it face to face, toe to toe nearly escalating to blows.
I remember towards the end of season one, Haggis was pushing the production schedule to the limit and I was exhausted. We were putting nineteen and twenty-one hour days back to back with ten hour turn-around. We got into one of our biggest fights the night, now morning, before I was to leave for what was to become the last fishing trip I would ever go on with my father.
You see after my dad and I had grown apart I chose blue fishing as something we would do together, once a year. It was the one place where I knew we would get along.
Now the line Haggis was demanding we shoot over and over again was, ‘He shot your hat.’ That was it. We must’ve done twenty takes of, ‘He shot your hat.’
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Date: 2007-05-21 05:57 pm (UTC)WORRY-SMITH
That was great. We got it. Good job.
Then Haggis comes sauntering over.
HAGGIS
What the fuck are you doing?
DAVID
Saying the line the way you asked me to say it.
HAGGIS
No you’re not. You’re deliberately defying me.
DAVID
I am not. I’m just trying to give you what you want.
HAGGIS
That’s not what I asked you to do. Why aren’t you doing it the way I asked you to do it?
DAVID
Why don’t you ask the director what he thinks?
We both look to Worry-Smith, who looks befuddled.
DAVID
Go ahead. Tell him what you just said.
He was too scared to tell him. I couldn’t believe it. A blatant lie of omission, but I understood. He wanted to keep his job.
DAVID
I’ll tell what he said, he said, that was great. Now let’s move on. I’ve got to catch a plane in two hours, so I can go fishing with my dad.
HAGGIS
I need you to do it one more time.
DAVID
Paul, it’s five-thirty in the fucking morning. We’ve been doing this for twenty-one hours.
HAGGIS
I need one more.
DAVID
Fine, I’ll do one more, then I’m going to the airport.
I phone it in.
HAGGIS
Cut! Okay everybody, five minute smoke and coke break.
DAVID
Thank God.
HAGGIS
Not you. I want to talk to you.
DAVID
Fuck. I’m going to kill this fucking guy.
We went at it for five minutes exchanging epithets. I did the line, I don’t know, four or five more times and we called it a day. My sister, my daughter. My daughter, my sister. Haggis, my father. My father, Haggis.
Haggis and I were cut from the same cloth. Neither one of us was willing to back down. We were crazy like that. The truth is we were scared...and our fear manifested itself through our ego maniacal behavior in an attempt to get what we wanted.
As you know Ray better than anyone, do you think that Bennie and Francesca did get together that night that she turned up at Bennies flat? Were there many discussions on set as to what each character thought had happened?
There was. We came to the conclusion, now this is my recollection. The other actors may remember it differently. We came to the conclusion, that Benny did not have sexual relations with Franny, because he's a good and honorable man, and too virtuous a person.
If the film that all the fans are pushing for happens (which I’m REALLY hoping for) where do you see the characters picking up from? Did things with Ray (you ) and new Ray’s x wife work out?
I would hope so. She was a lovely gal and I would like the chance to work with her again. We didn't get much to do in that last episode.
What was your favourite and worst episode or scene to shoot?
My favorite episodes are Juliet is Bleeding, North, and The Deal to name a few. My least favorite were Diefenbaker's Day Off, They Shoot Horses Don't They... I'm trying to remember. So many episodes, so many years ago. The Santa Clause show.
Scenes? I love to act. I love my job. The only scenes I didn't like were the ones where Haggis was riding me to explosion.
Did you do any police shadowing or research for playing the part of Ray?
I didn't. Ray was a comedy cop. Maybe I should have. Haggis wanted me to. That's probably why I didn't.
Thanks probable enough from me! I hope you are well and pushing for Due South The Movie!! If the Simpsons can do it so can Due South!
Agreed.
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Date: 2007-05-21 05:57 pm (UTC)Being a true Canadian classic, why has there not been a movie released? The ending in my opinion was not bad, But as far as Detective Ray Vecchio and Fraser, Having the relationship they had, Having Benton, Just go off with Kowalski, Is perplexing. I feel that in the two seasons That Marciano spent with Gross there was a larger relationship growth and the way they ended it was upsetting. In a way I guess they can not ellaborate it in a movie, by the way they ended each character, Which was the only part of it I found lame. I still own the TV guide that stated "This is not the end of these characters, we will be seeing them around again" Were they incorrect?
You make some very good observations. DS is the most highly celebrated series in Canadian Television History. It would make total sense to make a two hour movie. I'm totally up for it. I think it's what the public wants and financially it makes sense for all parties involved. DS is a friendship between two people that can never be broken. I think there was a missed opportunity at the end of season three to really explore that heartfelt moment between Benny and Ray. That's what needs to be explored in the movie. Friends healing their relationship, getting back together, helping one another find what's missing in the lives while finding, the missing whatever it is, revolving around the crime that needs to be solved in the movie.
Lenka
Ray Vecchio has always been presented as a very fashion conscious person. Did you, as the actor portraying him, have any say in what Ray was going to wear?
Thanks
I did in season two. Season one Haggis had an idea and we played with it. You have to remember DS was a folk tale. The Mountie is a lot like a comic book hero. Like Superman. The red suit. The mild mannered man who always gets the bad guy. Remember Dudley Do Right? Haggis was trying to keep it as colorful as possible.
Maria
Dear David,
Have you ever met a Mountie in real life?
Best wishes,
I have. They are nothing like Fraser.
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Date: 2007-05-21 05:58 pm (UTC)Hello Mr. Marciano,
I was just wondering with you being an American going to Canada to shoot Due South, did you feel a bit out of place or out of the loop like Fraser being a Canadian going to America?
I sure did. As close as we are, being on the north American Continent, there are many cultural and attitudinal differences between the two. Canadians are very Nationalistic, and rightly so. We all should be proud of who we are, where we come from and what we represent. Being an American in Canada was like having a little brother. On the one hand, they love you and want to be around and like you. On the other, they despise and want to beat the crap out of you any chance they can get. With that said, please understand, Canada is a country full of great loving and caring people. What I miss most about the show is the people, they made my time there easy and convenient. I would go back there in a second to work, but not live because it's too %&$#@ cold. There's so much to love about Canada. I hope I can get back there soon.
John, Founder & Co-Webmaster
Hi David,
Finally, one from myself:
Leslie Nielsen made some memorable appearances in Due South, but over the years, the show introduced some of Hollywood’s future stars with the likes of Ryan Philippe, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Krakwoski and of course Carrie-Anne Moss, did you have any memorable experiences with any of these future celebrities?
Wasn't that amazing? So many actors got their start on that show. Don't forget Maria Bello. I remember Mark saying how tough it was being an actor starting out. Living in his small apartment with his girlfriend. I ran into him at the grocery store down here. I told him to hang in there and not to worry. He was going to be fine. You have that young Burt Renyolds and Marlon Brondo feel to yourself. You're going to do fine. And he sure did. Carrie Ann was the best. I really enjoyed falling in love with her. She was so intoxicating I almost really fell in love with her. DS turned out some great actors who have gone on to do some wonderful work. I am so proud to be a part of the show. Rino Romano, who played to young kid in the Alien episode, I can't remember the name of it, lives down here now. He's go one to have a huge voice over career. I ran into him a couple of years ago and he helped me out of a jam. What a testament to the great people of Canada, who, when my chips were down, came to my aid. Thank you, Rino. You are a true testament to the kind of people and the reason DS rallied to be the show that it was and will continue to be as it plays on in perpetuity on DVD and the Canadian and European airwaves.
On behalf of all the Due South fans across the world, may I thank you for your time and effort given to this campaign. I hope your huge contributions will bring us luck and success.
Thank you, John. I can only believe, that in the true spirit of DS, which was a show, if you remember, that was canceled and revived twice on American television. A pilot that was almost cast, then pulled because of a lack of snow. Two weeks later I got a call from agent saying they found some snow in the Yukon near Skagway, Alaska and the pilot was on again. We shot it, but by the time it was edited it was too late to air for that fall season, so the network held it until April the following year, upon which, when it aired, it came in twentieth place for the week and was picked up for an order of thirteen episodes.
DS was a show that wouldn't die. No matter how hard they tried to get rid of it, it followed you around like a deifenbaker. I am so grateful to the persistence of Paul Haggis and the good and bad luck that has plagued this show. I know because of it's most difficult journey and devoted fans that have never given up on it, DS will ride again.
So I thank you kindly from the bottom of my heart for all your support and hard work. And I know in my soul, because of all of you, I look forward to filming DS The Movie in the very near future.
Keep fighting the good fight. Your Friend Always, David Marciano