Post by I Adore Ronnie on Aug 15, 2006 16:49:51 GMT -5
*edit* I forgot to mention that a friend, Jenna, let me post this, her friend attended.
TCA - FX - THE SHIELD - 7/20/06
SHAWN RYAN: [recording begun as he intros screening of episode 1, season six, in progress]: And in my opinion, it’s probably one of the three or four best episodes in the entire series. That will be the sixth one of the ten. It turned out really fantastic.
You’ll see at the end of this episode, the episode is dedicated to Scott Brazil, who we lost tragically to ALS during the filming of this episode. He was employee number two on this show, the first person I hired. He was our executive producer and, you know, our best director for four seasons. And when you eventually write about the season, I hope that you’ll remember to mention him, because he had such a huge creative impact on the show, and was really involved in the early episodes of this season before he passed away.
That’s about it. There’s a couple of gruesome things near the end, so I’d eat quickly. [laughter]
SHAWN RYAN: And, just thank you for – thank you for being here. Thank you for your support throughout the years. And we really have a blast – oh, and one other thing: we have an interesting piece of casting for the final three episodes of this season of “The Shield.” We have Franka Potente, from “Run, Lola, Run” and “Bourne Identity” fame, who is doing the final three episodes for us. And the stuff I’ve seen so far with her, I’ve been extraordinarily pleased with. So that’s a piece of news.
And I guess we’ll have a chance to talk afterwards. But, enjoy your lunch and thanks for coming.
[EPISODE SHOWN: “THE SHIELD” EPISODE ONE, SEASON SIX]
SOLBERG: Hello? Can you get the lights up, please?...Well, that was quite a treat. I want to thank Shawn for allowing us to screen that. It’s just a shame that we’re going to have wait another six months or more to see it.
Before we get started, I just want to recognize one person who is here with us today. And he’s – he’s moved on to another show, but I just want to recognize that Kenny Johnson, who has been fantastic for this show and this network [applause] for five seasons – stand up, Kenny – he was terrific last year, and we’re grateful to have him. He’ll be available to talk to you afterwards, as will John Landgraf, who is the President and General Manager of the network.
At this time, I want to introduce our panel. They are in production right now, so some people are going to join us in progress. But Cathy Cahlin Ryan, David Rees Snell, if you guys can come on up and take a seat on the dais. David Rees Snell, Michael Jace, Catherine Dent, Benito Martinez, Walton Goggins, CCH Pounder, Michael Chiklis, Shawn Ryan. Did I forget anybody here? Jay Karnes is not going to be here today. Unfortunately, he had a previous engagement. But, again, this will be transcribed, and we’ll get these out to you very shortly. We’re going to go ahead and open it up for Q&A.
QUESTION: Question for Mr. Ryan.
SOLBERG: Back here on your left.
QUESTION: Mr. Ryan, as you know, the FCC is cracking down on language – I’ll start again – the FCC is cracking down on language lately, to the extent where the networks have to – the networks have to bleep the President of the United States. And they’re talking about cracking down on basic cable as well. Are you concerned? Are you going to make any changes in the show? How is this going to affect you?
SHAWN RYAN: I guess there’s a – I guess there’s a little bit of a danger in making a show six months before it airs, but we haven’t been asked to change anything differently. And Mr. Landgraf, I believe, is somewhere around here – might be able to better answer that question later on.
My personal opinion has been that all that action in D.C. is unfortunate. I’ve always felt that FX has been extraordinarily responsible in how it markets its shows, certainly ours. The fact that it airs it at 10 p.m. We have an extraordinarily low percentage of people 18 and under who watch our show. And there doesn’t seem to be any kind of credit given to networks that are responsibly handling things like that.
I, you know, as someone with two children, I understand, maybe you don’t want MTV showing, you know, bikini-jiggling boobs at 3:30 in the afternoon when kids are home from school. That’s a whole different issue. We haven’t been asked to change anything.
My opinion has been that it’s going to affect – maybe not on FX but other shows – it’s going to affect newer shows. The fact that we’ve been established and that people know what kind of show we are and what kind of – what they can expect when they tune in, I think, allows us to maintain that. The chilling effect, I think, comes in the creation of new shows.
QUESTION: Question for the actors, here in the back. After five-plus seasons of doing this, have you become desensitized to all this graphic imagery, or does it still sometimes get to you? And do you ever sort of look at the writers, like Shawn, a little suspiciously?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I’ll take that one. You know, as far as the desensitization of it, every day I go home and I look at my wife and my two children and I realize how incredibly lucky I am. So, no, I don’t think that we’ve become desensitized at all. Every week, we run to our trailers or our homes to read the scripts. And I’m constantly saying to Shawn and to the guys who write the show that they really need to lay down on a couch for a while and have some conversations. [he laughs]
SHAWN RYAN: The show is our couch. [Chiklis laughs again.]
SOLBERG: Walton Goggins is now here, joining us on the dais.
CHIKLIS: [greeting, sounds like:] Rahde Vahde.
WALTON GOGGINS: Starbucks, sorry.
QUESTION: Shawn, straight back here. When the show started off five years ago, you told us that what it was about, in your eyes at least, was just how far we were willing to go to deal with bad guys, which was a particularly relevant topic in the days right after 9/11. It seems to me the show has changed into something quite different after all this time. And we just watched this episode, and there’s not anybody up there who could remotely be called a good cop.[laughter] [CCH Pounder stands up.] Sorry, I don’t agree. She’s – she’s, at the very least, a pawn in political machinations. [audience reacts negatively, mixed with laughter] She’s the best of the bunch. Anyway – anyway [Catherine Dent stands up] [laughter] Knocked up. [laughter]
CHIKLIS: Knocked up?! Hey!
CATHERINE DENT: Give me the microphone. [laughter] Bring it on! [laughter]
QUESTION: Anyway, I’ll sit here while everybody screams at me afterwards. But first, if we could get Shawn to say, has the show – has the show evolved into a very different sort of examination?
SHAWN RYAN: I think it has. I don’t think you can ask the same question and answer it interestingly over five, six, seven seasons. So I think the show was a bigger picture, in many ways, in its first season. And as we got to know the characters on the show better, I think, we had one of two ways of going: we could try to outdo ourselves, out-“big” ourselves; you know, create even more outrageous things, or we could focus the stories more on the characters.
I would just say that the show is a more character-based show in season five and six than it was in season one.
QUESTION: How – of this next batch that’s going to air in 2007 – how has that arc changed from what you were thinking about, say, a year ago, because you know you’re going to be going on and doing more after that? Because – and even in this one we saw today – it really looks as if you’re sort of heading toward an end.
SHAWN RYAN: Yeah, I think doing these ten episodes has allowed us to really focus on Lem’s death. Focus on the effects it has on the strike team – Shane, who committed the murder; Vic, who doesn’t know who committed it; you know, Ronnie, who is caught in the middle of it; everything, everyone else in The Barn. It’s allowed us to focus and not rush past that crime, while wrapping up everyone else. So I think what we’re going to do is, these ten episodes will really allow us to focus on the aftermath of that, and the final 13 episodes will really allow us to focus on the entire group and wrap all of them up in what, hopefully, will be a satisfying way.
QUESTION: I noticed in the credits – over here in the back toward your left – there was an Autumn Chiklis listed. Are there other Chiklises with acting aspirations?
CHIKLIS: Well, I can’t – I don’t know about how my seven-year-old is going to turn out yet, but certainly my oldest, Autumn, has been playing my daughter since the pilot, or several – like three shows in, something like that. So she’s been in the show a long time. But, you know, as she’s grown, she’s really shown an interest in it. And, you know, we – I don’t push her into the business. You know, this is an opportunity for her to be in the cocoon and learn the professional ins and outs of this business, and work with the likes of Glenn Close, and see how it’s done right.
QUESTION: Have you ever had any worries that the nature of the material in this show might be a little difficult?
CHIKLIS: Well, no, I – my daughter doesn’t watch the show. She’s not allowed to watch the show. And she knows why, because it’s inappropriate for her. She’s 12 years old; she’s going to be 13 in October. You have to talk to your children, and I talk at length with my little girl about this stuff.
And she saw a trailer on television – broadcast network television – of the “Chucky” movies, when she was, like, six years old, by mistake. It was you know, it was on network television, primetime. And it scared the lights out of her, and she had trouble sleeping that night. And I remember very clearly saying to her one day, “Autumn, you know, I don’t let you watch this show because it can scare you and disturb you in the same way that that did.” And she’s, like, “Oh, I don’t want to see it.”
So, and with regard to the content of the scenes she’s actually in, I discuss at length, the dynamics. You know, she’s in school. She knows kids who come from divorced families. That, she can deal with. She’s getting old enough to understand that that dynamic exists between people. But as far as the ugliness and the real hard stuff, she never sees any of that, has no interest in it. And I’m just – you just have to be an active parent as far as that’s concerned.
But I wanted to speak real quickly to one thing. You know, the show deals with – it started at the beginning --- and still does deal with what we’re willing to accept from our law enforcement, you know, to handle crime. But it also deals with a lot of other themes.
And, you know, one of them is crime and punishment, and this original sin of Vic Mackey coming back, and the idea of how, you know, that whether a person actually gets caught, physically caught doing something, does that really matter. Do they go through punishments? And that’s also dealing with Lem’s death. You know, that kind of punishment for his actions.
QUESTION: Shawn, following up on Rich’s question, I think, it has felt in some ways as if it was sort of winding down, because Vic has escaped so many times, you know, you just thought, oh, this time they’re going to get him. Is the idea of wrapping up the show after, I guess you’re now calling it seven seasons, partly that there’s only a limit to what people will accept in terms of his getting away with¦
SHAWN RYAN: Yeah, there’s a limit to what I’ll accept, which has been the only gauge I’ve gone by in the years making this show: what feels real. And I would say that the episodes that started airing last year, and certainly with what happened with Lem, what’s going on this year is that we’re seeing Vic hasn’t escaped. He may not be in custody; he may not be behind bars like Michael is talking about, but he is beginning to pay a very serious price. And the first one is the loss of his friends.
I don’t think that ever would have happened if he hadn’t given Shane the blueprint for how to take care of a situation like that, as he did in the pilot with Terry. So this is beginning to feel a little bit like the end because we’re starting to see that the roadrunner doesn’t always escape from the coyote.
You know, the first captor may be himself in his own mind and in his own heart. But it’s beginning to feel like an end because he’s starting to face and deal with some real consequences, I think.
QUESTION: I’m wondering – I’m sorry, over here – if any of the actors came into this season’s episodes with any different feelings; that, you know, like if we did this again sometime, you could be sitting out here at one of the tables [referring to Kenny Johnson] instead of up on the – I mean, are any of you afraid that you might not make it to the last group of episodes?
BENITO MARTINEZ: Yes. [laughter]
QUESTION: Do you have discussions? And I guess maybe we could ask our friend out here if he was warned.
MARTINEZ: Well, one of the – yeah, I mean, I’m sure that the dead guy talking – Kenny – can let us know about that.
KENNETH JOHNSON [in audience]: I didn’t – no, I didn’t expect it. I – I didn’t know, but I think we all kind of had that fear, like, who is the first one that possibly could get offed off the show. And we all joked, I think, because I was kind of low on the totem pole, that if it was going to be anybody, it could be me. You know, but then I thought, well, they hadn’t really built my character up enough to maybe affect people. So when the fifth season came around and I thought, oh, my God, you know, I’ve got so much more to do – I was really excited [laughter] – I had no idea. I just thought, oh, they’re really giving me a chance now.
So when that came up, I’m like, No, no, that can’t be – But it made sense. It made sense storytelling-wise, and I just thought it made sense for the whole thing to have that kind of effect on where it was going to go after that was a really brilliant idea. So I didn’t know, and I was kind of bummed to go, but, you know – because these guys are, like, my best friends. And that was hard. And it still is. But, you know, it made sense, and I think – yeah, I didn’t expect it.
DENT: It’s going to be a dream sequence anyway, so – [laughter]
GOGGINS: I also think that we do have these conversations. And, you know – and Kenny, kind of, you know, being one of our best friends – certainly one of my best friends – we had a conversation this morning, Dave and I did, about, well, we still don’t have the season closer yet. You know, what can happen?
And I don’t know. I think that that’s kind of smart on the writers’ part, on Shawn’s part. Because you have to show up every day with your “A” game. You have to bring it every single day. And if – and if you don’t, then the people know that it’s false, it’s not coming from a true place. And if you’re secure, then you’re – you know, you’re comfortable. And I think we’ve lived in a world that’s uncomfortable. And that’s a good thing for actors, and for us being actors on this show. So –
DAVID REES SNELL: Walton is not saying that Kenny didn’t bring it. [laughter]
GOGGINS: No, no, no, no.
CHIKLIS: No.
GOGGINS: No, it’s –
CHIKLIS: He’s talking about being on edge.
GOGGINS: I’m saying that that’s exactly right. That’s a good thing.
SNELL: No, but I – I echo – the idea that there’s crime and there’s punishment, and we all know that that is hanging over our heads because of what we’ve done. And I know I feel like it could happen at any time to many of us. And the fact that it happened to Lemonhead, to Kenny’s character, the one who, I think, that we would least –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] He’s the conscience.
SNELL: [overlapping] – like it to happen to, you know, makes you feel, as an actor in an ensemble, that even if you are a pretty good guy, that maybe something bad will happen to you, too. [laughter]
DENT: But I think that – I think that I can – I think that, you know, unfortunately, you know, I just hated it when they gave me the call and said that, you know, Kenny or “Lemonhead” was going to be off. But I think that one of the beauties of this show, and something that Shawn has sort of written from the get-go, is he likes it when we’re scared. You know, it gives – there’s a tension to the performance that I think that you all see and we appreciate. Because there’s nothing worse, you know, as a television actor, being bored. And you’ve all met a lot of actors who talk about how bored they are on their TV shows. And I don’t think any of us – you know, we get the scripts –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] “Bored” is not an adjective.
DENT: [overlapping] – and we shake in our boots, you know, what’s going to happen. And I’m always saying to the writers, you know, “Challenge me, scare me. Please, I want to be scared, I want to be challenged.” And that’s one of the greatest gifts we can have anyway. So, as horrible as it is, it’s also changed the show. And this – the following season that you’re going to see, the payoff for that – I was so upset when they killed Lemonhead off – but now when I see the – not only the legal ramifications, but the emotional ramifications of what people are going through because of this loss. You know, it’s –
CHIKLIS: See, you think I need to be caught, but I know some retired guys! [laughter]
MICHAEL JACE: [overlapping] [laughing] Boy, before they go –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] – who obviously went through all the wars. And I do. [he laughs] It could go either way.
JACE: [overlapping] Just one more thing. Before –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] You’ve got to know that.
JACE: [overlapping] Before we go to another topic, just on the world that we’re trying to create, I think it’s inherent that all of the characters understand that there’s a possibility that they could die. I mean, if you’re working with LAPD, every day that you put on a uniform and you go out, and you’re a cop, it’s not like some bad guy is going to go, “Oh, no, no, no. No¦ he’s not high enough yet; well, no, he’s not big enough; no, he’s too low.” It’s wrong place/wrong time, you could die.
And I think as long as we’re trying to mimic that world, that’s always a possibility. It has nothing to do with how tyrannical the writers may be. I mean, I’ve never experienced that, that they’re, you know – [laughter]
CHIKLIS: They’re not tyrannical. That’s not –
JACE: You know, place fear in my heart. But, you know, just the world we’re trying to create, it comes with the territory, I think.
SHAWN RYAN: I’d like to think that we’re not tyrannical.
CHIKLIS: No. No.
SHAWN RYAN: Just real quick. Really, it sounds like we like to keep secrets and stuff. The reality is that they expect really good scripts, and I delay and don’t tell them things because we’re working on them, and we try to give them scripts that we’re really proud of. And sometimes that takes extra time. And it has nothing really to do with, you know, trying to manipulate them, be the puppet master or anything.
But they have – we have high expectations for ourselves; they have expectations. And I don’t want them reading something until we can solidly defend everything.
QUESTION: The first episode you had, you know, Vic shoot another cop. And, to me, maybe, you know, do you think this is a show about whether that kind of person can be redeemed? And now, Shane. I mean, is it really possible? And maybe the actors can address this, and Shawn. Is it really possible for a person to be redeemed? And I’m not even speaking legally. But is that – for you, is that what the show is about? And is that possible for these characters now?
SHAWN RYAN: I don’t really like to talk too much about what I think the show is about, because I think if you make the show effectively, people like you and people in the audience can figure it out. So I don’t like to talk about my goals too much with it. I mean, the actors might talk about whether they think their characters are ultimately redeemable.
CHIKLIS: I’ve always maintained I will never speak to that until this show is over. It’s up to you. That’s part of the linchpin of this show, is its ambiguity. There’s no moralizing here. You need to decide whether or not this guy is up for redemption or not.
GOGGINS: I think what’s interesting, kind of having kind of gone through this grief that I’ve been able to kind of experience, and had the pleasure of experiencing this year, for me it’s not really about how one can redeem himself. It’s just kind of about having clarity on who you are as a person, and kind of being able to live with that. And if that’s redemption in some people’s eyes, well, then I guess that’s a good thing. And I think that I, hopefully, have certainly gotten that by the end of this show. So –
TCA - FX - THE SHIELD - 7/20/06
SHAWN RYAN: [recording begun as he intros screening of episode 1, season six, in progress]: And in my opinion, it’s probably one of the three or four best episodes in the entire series. That will be the sixth one of the ten. It turned out really fantastic.
You’ll see at the end of this episode, the episode is dedicated to Scott Brazil, who we lost tragically to ALS during the filming of this episode. He was employee number two on this show, the first person I hired. He was our executive producer and, you know, our best director for four seasons. And when you eventually write about the season, I hope that you’ll remember to mention him, because he had such a huge creative impact on the show, and was really involved in the early episodes of this season before he passed away.
That’s about it. There’s a couple of gruesome things near the end, so I’d eat quickly. [laughter]
SHAWN RYAN: And, just thank you for – thank you for being here. Thank you for your support throughout the years. And we really have a blast – oh, and one other thing: we have an interesting piece of casting for the final three episodes of this season of “The Shield.” We have Franka Potente, from “Run, Lola, Run” and “Bourne Identity” fame, who is doing the final three episodes for us. And the stuff I’ve seen so far with her, I’ve been extraordinarily pleased with. So that’s a piece of news.
And I guess we’ll have a chance to talk afterwards. But, enjoy your lunch and thanks for coming.
[EPISODE SHOWN: “THE SHIELD” EPISODE ONE, SEASON SIX]
SOLBERG: Hello? Can you get the lights up, please?...Well, that was quite a treat. I want to thank Shawn for allowing us to screen that. It’s just a shame that we’re going to have wait another six months or more to see it.
Before we get started, I just want to recognize one person who is here with us today. And he’s – he’s moved on to another show, but I just want to recognize that Kenny Johnson, who has been fantastic for this show and this network [applause] for five seasons – stand up, Kenny – he was terrific last year, and we’re grateful to have him. He’ll be available to talk to you afterwards, as will John Landgraf, who is the President and General Manager of the network.
At this time, I want to introduce our panel. They are in production right now, so some people are going to join us in progress. But Cathy Cahlin Ryan, David Rees Snell, if you guys can come on up and take a seat on the dais. David Rees Snell, Michael Jace, Catherine Dent, Benito Martinez, Walton Goggins, CCH Pounder, Michael Chiklis, Shawn Ryan. Did I forget anybody here? Jay Karnes is not going to be here today. Unfortunately, he had a previous engagement. But, again, this will be transcribed, and we’ll get these out to you very shortly. We’re going to go ahead and open it up for Q&A.
QUESTION: Question for Mr. Ryan.
SOLBERG: Back here on your left.
QUESTION: Mr. Ryan, as you know, the FCC is cracking down on language – I’ll start again – the FCC is cracking down on language lately, to the extent where the networks have to – the networks have to bleep the President of the United States. And they’re talking about cracking down on basic cable as well. Are you concerned? Are you going to make any changes in the show? How is this going to affect you?
SHAWN RYAN: I guess there’s a – I guess there’s a little bit of a danger in making a show six months before it airs, but we haven’t been asked to change anything differently. And Mr. Landgraf, I believe, is somewhere around here – might be able to better answer that question later on.
My personal opinion has been that all that action in D.C. is unfortunate. I’ve always felt that FX has been extraordinarily responsible in how it markets its shows, certainly ours. The fact that it airs it at 10 p.m. We have an extraordinarily low percentage of people 18 and under who watch our show. And there doesn’t seem to be any kind of credit given to networks that are responsibly handling things like that.
I, you know, as someone with two children, I understand, maybe you don’t want MTV showing, you know, bikini-jiggling boobs at 3:30 in the afternoon when kids are home from school. That’s a whole different issue. We haven’t been asked to change anything.
My opinion has been that it’s going to affect – maybe not on FX but other shows – it’s going to affect newer shows. The fact that we’ve been established and that people know what kind of show we are and what kind of – what they can expect when they tune in, I think, allows us to maintain that. The chilling effect, I think, comes in the creation of new shows.
QUESTION: Question for the actors, here in the back. After five-plus seasons of doing this, have you become desensitized to all this graphic imagery, or does it still sometimes get to you? And do you ever sort of look at the writers, like Shawn, a little suspiciously?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I’ll take that one. You know, as far as the desensitization of it, every day I go home and I look at my wife and my two children and I realize how incredibly lucky I am. So, no, I don’t think that we’ve become desensitized at all. Every week, we run to our trailers or our homes to read the scripts. And I’m constantly saying to Shawn and to the guys who write the show that they really need to lay down on a couch for a while and have some conversations. [he laughs]
SHAWN RYAN: The show is our couch. [Chiklis laughs again.]
SOLBERG: Walton Goggins is now here, joining us on the dais.
CHIKLIS: [greeting, sounds like:] Rahde Vahde.
WALTON GOGGINS: Starbucks, sorry.
QUESTION: Shawn, straight back here. When the show started off five years ago, you told us that what it was about, in your eyes at least, was just how far we were willing to go to deal with bad guys, which was a particularly relevant topic in the days right after 9/11. It seems to me the show has changed into something quite different after all this time. And we just watched this episode, and there’s not anybody up there who could remotely be called a good cop.[laughter] [CCH Pounder stands up.] Sorry, I don’t agree. She’s – she’s, at the very least, a pawn in political machinations. [audience reacts negatively, mixed with laughter] She’s the best of the bunch. Anyway – anyway [Catherine Dent stands up] [laughter] Knocked up. [laughter]
CHIKLIS: Knocked up?! Hey!
CATHERINE DENT: Give me the microphone. [laughter] Bring it on! [laughter]
QUESTION: Anyway, I’ll sit here while everybody screams at me afterwards. But first, if we could get Shawn to say, has the show – has the show evolved into a very different sort of examination?
SHAWN RYAN: I think it has. I don’t think you can ask the same question and answer it interestingly over five, six, seven seasons. So I think the show was a bigger picture, in many ways, in its first season. And as we got to know the characters on the show better, I think, we had one of two ways of going: we could try to outdo ourselves, out-“big” ourselves; you know, create even more outrageous things, or we could focus the stories more on the characters.
I would just say that the show is a more character-based show in season five and six than it was in season one.
QUESTION: How – of this next batch that’s going to air in 2007 – how has that arc changed from what you were thinking about, say, a year ago, because you know you’re going to be going on and doing more after that? Because – and even in this one we saw today – it really looks as if you’re sort of heading toward an end.
SHAWN RYAN: Yeah, I think doing these ten episodes has allowed us to really focus on Lem’s death. Focus on the effects it has on the strike team – Shane, who committed the murder; Vic, who doesn’t know who committed it; you know, Ronnie, who is caught in the middle of it; everything, everyone else in The Barn. It’s allowed us to focus and not rush past that crime, while wrapping up everyone else. So I think what we’re going to do is, these ten episodes will really allow us to focus on the aftermath of that, and the final 13 episodes will really allow us to focus on the entire group and wrap all of them up in what, hopefully, will be a satisfying way.
QUESTION: I noticed in the credits – over here in the back toward your left – there was an Autumn Chiklis listed. Are there other Chiklises with acting aspirations?
CHIKLIS: Well, I can’t – I don’t know about how my seven-year-old is going to turn out yet, but certainly my oldest, Autumn, has been playing my daughter since the pilot, or several – like three shows in, something like that. So she’s been in the show a long time. But, you know, as she’s grown, she’s really shown an interest in it. And, you know, we – I don’t push her into the business. You know, this is an opportunity for her to be in the cocoon and learn the professional ins and outs of this business, and work with the likes of Glenn Close, and see how it’s done right.
QUESTION: Have you ever had any worries that the nature of the material in this show might be a little difficult?
CHIKLIS: Well, no, I – my daughter doesn’t watch the show. She’s not allowed to watch the show. And she knows why, because it’s inappropriate for her. She’s 12 years old; she’s going to be 13 in October. You have to talk to your children, and I talk at length with my little girl about this stuff.
And she saw a trailer on television – broadcast network television – of the “Chucky” movies, when she was, like, six years old, by mistake. It was you know, it was on network television, primetime. And it scared the lights out of her, and she had trouble sleeping that night. And I remember very clearly saying to her one day, “Autumn, you know, I don’t let you watch this show because it can scare you and disturb you in the same way that that did.” And she’s, like, “Oh, I don’t want to see it.”
So, and with regard to the content of the scenes she’s actually in, I discuss at length, the dynamics. You know, she’s in school. She knows kids who come from divorced families. That, she can deal with. She’s getting old enough to understand that that dynamic exists between people. But as far as the ugliness and the real hard stuff, she never sees any of that, has no interest in it. And I’m just – you just have to be an active parent as far as that’s concerned.
But I wanted to speak real quickly to one thing. You know, the show deals with – it started at the beginning --- and still does deal with what we’re willing to accept from our law enforcement, you know, to handle crime. But it also deals with a lot of other themes.
And, you know, one of them is crime and punishment, and this original sin of Vic Mackey coming back, and the idea of how, you know, that whether a person actually gets caught, physically caught doing something, does that really matter. Do they go through punishments? And that’s also dealing with Lem’s death. You know, that kind of punishment for his actions.
QUESTION: Shawn, following up on Rich’s question, I think, it has felt in some ways as if it was sort of winding down, because Vic has escaped so many times, you know, you just thought, oh, this time they’re going to get him. Is the idea of wrapping up the show after, I guess you’re now calling it seven seasons, partly that there’s only a limit to what people will accept in terms of his getting away with¦
SHAWN RYAN: Yeah, there’s a limit to what I’ll accept, which has been the only gauge I’ve gone by in the years making this show: what feels real. And I would say that the episodes that started airing last year, and certainly with what happened with Lem, what’s going on this year is that we’re seeing Vic hasn’t escaped. He may not be in custody; he may not be behind bars like Michael is talking about, but he is beginning to pay a very serious price. And the first one is the loss of his friends.
I don’t think that ever would have happened if he hadn’t given Shane the blueprint for how to take care of a situation like that, as he did in the pilot with Terry. So this is beginning to feel a little bit like the end because we’re starting to see that the roadrunner doesn’t always escape from the coyote.
You know, the first captor may be himself in his own mind and in his own heart. But it’s beginning to feel like an end because he’s starting to face and deal with some real consequences, I think.
QUESTION: I’m wondering – I’m sorry, over here – if any of the actors came into this season’s episodes with any different feelings; that, you know, like if we did this again sometime, you could be sitting out here at one of the tables [referring to Kenny Johnson] instead of up on the – I mean, are any of you afraid that you might not make it to the last group of episodes?
BENITO MARTINEZ: Yes. [laughter]
QUESTION: Do you have discussions? And I guess maybe we could ask our friend out here if he was warned.
MARTINEZ: Well, one of the – yeah, I mean, I’m sure that the dead guy talking – Kenny – can let us know about that.
KENNETH JOHNSON [in audience]: I didn’t – no, I didn’t expect it. I – I didn’t know, but I think we all kind of had that fear, like, who is the first one that possibly could get offed off the show. And we all joked, I think, because I was kind of low on the totem pole, that if it was going to be anybody, it could be me. You know, but then I thought, well, they hadn’t really built my character up enough to maybe affect people. So when the fifth season came around and I thought, oh, my God, you know, I’ve got so much more to do – I was really excited [laughter] – I had no idea. I just thought, oh, they’re really giving me a chance now.
So when that came up, I’m like, No, no, that can’t be – But it made sense. It made sense storytelling-wise, and I just thought it made sense for the whole thing to have that kind of effect on where it was going to go after that was a really brilliant idea. So I didn’t know, and I was kind of bummed to go, but, you know – because these guys are, like, my best friends. And that was hard. And it still is. But, you know, it made sense, and I think – yeah, I didn’t expect it.
DENT: It’s going to be a dream sequence anyway, so – [laughter]
GOGGINS: I also think that we do have these conversations. And, you know – and Kenny, kind of, you know, being one of our best friends – certainly one of my best friends – we had a conversation this morning, Dave and I did, about, well, we still don’t have the season closer yet. You know, what can happen?
And I don’t know. I think that that’s kind of smart on the writers’ part, on Shawn’s part. Because you have to show up every day with your “A” game. You have to bring it every single day. And if – and if you don’t, then the people know that it’s false, it’s not coming from a true place. And if you’re secure, then you’re – you know, you’re comfortable. And I think we’ve lived in a world that’s uncomfortable. And that’s a good thing for actors, and for us being actors on this show. So –
DAVID REES SNELL: Walton is not saying that Kenny didn’t bring it. [laughter]
GOGGINS: No, no, no, no.
CHIKLIS: No.
GOGGINS: No, it’s –
CHIKLIS: He’s talking about being on edge.
GOGGINS: I’m saying that that’s exactly right. That’s a good thing.
SNELL: No, but I – I echo – the idea that there’s crime and there’s punishment, and we all know that that is hanging over our heads because of what we’ve done. And I know I feel like it could happen at any time to many of us. And the fact that it happened to Lemonhead, to Kenny’s character, the one who, I think, that we would least –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] He’s the conscience.
SNELL: [overlapping] – like it to happen to, you know, makes you feel, as an actor in an ensemble, that even if you are a pretty good guy, that maybe something bad will happen to you, too. [laughter]
DENT: But I think that – I think that I can – I think that, you know, unfortunately, you know, I just hated it when they gave me the call and said that, you know, Kenny or “Lemonhead” was going to be off. But I think that one of the beauties of this show, and something that Shawn has sort of written from the get-go, is he likes it when we’re scared. You know, it gives – there’s a tension to the performance that I think that you all see and we appreciate. Because there’s nothing worse, you know, as a television actor, being bored. And you’ve all met a lot of actors who talk about how bored they are on their TV shows. And I don’t think any of us – you know, we get the scripts –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] “Bored” is not an adjective.
DENT: [overlapping] – and we shake in our boots, you know, what’s going to happen. And I’m always saying to the writers, you know, “Challenge me, scare me. Please, I want to be scared, I want to be challenged.” And that’s one of the greatest gifts we can have anyway. So, as horrible as it is, it’s also changed the show. And this – the following season that you’re going to see, the payoff for that – I was so upset when they killed Lemonhead off – but now when I see the – not only the legal ramifications, but the emotional ramifications of what people are going through because of this loss. You know, it’s –
CHIKLIS: See, you think I need to be caught, but I know some retired guys! [laughter]
MICHAEL JACE: [overlapping] [laughing] Boy, before they go –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] – who obviously went through all the wars. And I do. [he laughs] It could go either way.
JACE: [overlapping] Just one more thing. Before –
CHIKLIS: [overlapping] You’ve got to know that.
JACE: [overlapping] Before we go to another topic, just on the world that we’re trying to create, I think it’s inherent that all of the characters understand that there’s a possibility that they could die. I mean, if you’re working with LAPD, every day that you put on a uniform and you go out, and you’re a cop, it’s not like some bad guy is going to go, “Oh, no, no, no. No¦ he’s not high enough yet; well, no, he’s not big enough; no, he’s too low.” It’s wrong place/wrong time, you could die.
And I think as long as we’re trying to mimic that world, that’s always a possibility. It has nothing to do with how tyrannical the writers may be. I mean, I’ve never experienced that, that they’re, you know – [laughter]
CHIKLIS: They’re not tyrannical. That’s not –
JACE: You know, place fear in my heart. But, you know, just the world we’re trying to create, it comes with the territory, I think.
SHAWN RYAN: I’d like to think that we’re not tyrannical.
CHIKLIS: No. No.
SHAWN RYAN: Just real quick. Really, it sounds like we like to keep secrets and stuff. The reality is that they expect really good scripts, and I delay and don’t tell them things because we’re working on them, and we try to give them scripts that we’re really proud of. And sometimes that takes extra time. And it has nothing really to do with, you know, trying to manipulate them, be the puppet master or anything.
But they have – we have high expectations for ourselves; they have expectations. And I don’t want them reading something until we can solidly defend everything.
QUESTION: The first episode you had, you know, Vic shoot another cop. And, to me, maybe, you know, do you think this is a show about whether that kind of person can be redeemed? And now, Shane. I mean, is it really possible? And maybe the actors can address this, and Shawn. Is it really possible for a person to be redeemed? And I’m not even speaking legally. But is that – for you, is that what the show is about? And is that possible for these characters now?
SHAWN RYAN: I don’t really like to talk too much about what I think the show is about, because I think if you make the show effectively, people like you and people in the audience can figure it out. So I don’t like to talk about my goals too much with it. I mean, the actors might talk about whether they think their characters are ultimately redeemable.
CHIKLIS: I’ve always maintained I will never speak to that until this show is over. It’s up to you. That’s part of the linchpin of this show, is its ambiguity. There’s no moralizing here. You need to decide whether or not this guy is up for redemption or not.
GOGGINS: I think what’s interesting, kind of having kind of gone through this grief that I’ve been able to kind of experience, and had the pleasure of experiencing this year, for me it’s not really about how one can redeem himself. It’s just kind of about having clarity on who you are as a person, and kind of being able to live with that. And if that’s redemption in some people’s eyes, well, then I guess that’s a good thing. And I think that I, hopefully, have certainly gotten that by the end of this show. So –