00:05you also serve as an executive producer on smoke so how did this dual role influence your work i
00:12mean is it difficult to be both the lead of a tv show like this and also have to to
00:17have this
00:18this double duty this double responsibility no not really and i guess you know i think
00:25when you're in that role i it's not kind of uh something that i feel i i want to um
00:33advertise
00:34or or change the way that i would conduct myself on a on a set for example you know i
00:40think it's
00:41it for example if you're in a if you're behaving in a produce like a kind of producer on set
00:48with
00:48other actors then it puts you it somehow feels like you're shifting the status in a way that i
00:54don't think is healthy um so really i think it it's more of a reflection of having um i suppose
01:05some
01:05creative involvement off offset and maybe you know being in a in a conversation and a dialogue with
01:13the other producers about certain directions of course i think this piece is very very very um
01:19altered by dennis lahane and ultimately he makes the creative decisions but uh there's certainly
01:26conversations that we have around um i suppose you know people that end up being involved or certain
01:35directions with character and um i suppose my ep credit is a reflection of of that more than more
01:43than anything that um is who i am on on set so speaking about the the tension and the chemistry
01:50between michelle and dave from the very beginning how did you and taron uh build this dynamic it was
01:58something that you uh rehearse a lot or there was like uh indications also from dennis uh so how did
02:06it go
02:07well thank you for complimenting us on the chemistry i i i love when people say that because it was
02:14not
02:14intentional it was um um um you know taron and i just did so much work individually and when we
02:23showed
02:23up on set there was this magic you know that i don't know that you can really uh be intentional
02:30about because it's about chemistry feeding off of the other person's energy um i approached it knowing
02:37that i was eventually like knowing where we went in the series i approached it in the beginning of like
02:46okay i have to paste this and there's got to be these colors so initially i approach him very much
02:50so
02:50with humility knowing neither one of us want me here and trying to stroke his ego and feed into that
02:57of
02:58complimenting him about his uh his reputation and asking him questions about arson and really
03:04treating him like he's the senior person and the professor to teach me all he knows and you know
03:13knowing eventually my goal was to dominate him you know so um so yeah you just as an actor you
03:22play
03:22with the different colors and we found a brother and sister color one moment we found
03:27a very competitive dominating submission submissive uh color one moment we found this sexual tension
03:35another moment you know so it's kind of like an an orchestral piece you you just wanted to have
03:42different movements and speaking about uh michelle calderone is a fiercely instinctive detective
03:47with her own moral code what was the most challenging part of bringing her contradictions to life
03:53it's a great question because i i'm in love with her contradictions it's my favorite thing to play
03:58right because it's truth it's honest no one is all good or all bad and she might be in the
04:05law
04:05enforcement uh you know she might be a law enforcement agent but honestly she's going to break the law
04:12sometimes you know i mean that's the truth right um and so i think dancing with those elements of
04:23danger is very central to her character um she does believe in justice she does believe in
04:30righteousness and yet doesn't always live up to those very morals and values herself um i i i loved
04:38exploring her inner life her lack of uh of attachment to adults she can attach to her niece because her
04:45niece is safe and non-threatening but attaching to a man or you know to a co-worker is dangerous
04:52don't let them in keep the mask up um so it she's a beautifully rich and complex character
04:59and speaking of personal tastes about stories uh smoke makes it pretty clear almost from the
05:06beginning who's guilty of what uh normally do you prefer stories or trailers with like this huge final
05:14plot twist or stories like this one where the audience knows more than the characters
05:21i really like that in this um i i think it's it's a challenge in some ways i think it
05:27asks uh
05:28maybe it asks a little more of the audience uh it certainly asks a lot of the you know of
05:33the of the
05:34storytellers and the actors to kind of make these characters you know complicated and kind of keep
05:41changing expectations because you're right there is a you know there is a basic fact of a big key fact
05:49that you start to become aware of pretty early on in this show that um kind of bucks the crime
05:56mystery
05:56tradition um but i feel like uh you know really in great hands with a with a novelist uh you
06:05know
06:05first and foremost and dennis lahane and uh i think our writers did a fantastic job of kind of
06:12using that premise and kind of building out uh and keeping you know all of the uh all the people
06:20surrounding the main story fluidly involved in the story and at the same time having their own
06:28versions of things happening i i never found it boring i i was a real page turner for me
06:37yeah i think it's a an interesting observation i think that uh either form of storytelling is valid
06:45i think what's important is character i think actually the character is what keeps you there
06:51what keep you riveted beyond plot beyond what we know as an audience it's how we identify and see
06:58ourselves or in people on screen and uh this this um the story is full of those well-rounded ambiguous
07:10uh flawed people and i think for me as an actor for me as a viewer that's the thing that
07:17i find
07:18the most rewarding compliments for your performance it really is really terrific i really got goosebumps
07:25down my spine with your acting oh wow so yeah yeah i was really like really impressed so speaking of
07:32your extraordinary performance uh how challenges is this for an actor to express so much through a
07:39character who often has almost a catastrophic expression uh was it your choice or was it something
07:46that showrunner that the showrunner guided you forward and through i was at a loss when i got the role
07:53i was like how the hell am i going to pull this off and i said my audition piece was
07:59the scene where
08:00he's in a barber shop cutting his hair i have no hair i was like how am i going to
08:04do a scene where i
08:05have no hair talking about cutting my hair it just seems ridiculous like from the top i was like how
08:10is i even going to watch my audition without thinking this is ridiculous um and when i got a call
08:16back i was shocked when i got the job i was like oh shit how am i going to pull
08:21this off i have no
08:22personal connection in terms of the level of trauma that freddie's lived through i don't know anyone
08:27else who's lived through that sort of trauma i couldn't even even if i did research i couldn't
08:32pretend to even understand the level of trauma that he's gone through and i talked to dennis about this
08:38because of concern i was like how do you write these crazy characters like you seem like a normal
08:43person like how do you and he just said simply the imagination you know use your imagination take
08:51creative license play and i you know i have this old motto that sometimes if you let go of expectations
08:57you can experience the divine and so for me letting go of those expectations of like how incredibly
09:05traumatic a life is led and being able to sort of just play within that world just opened up
09:11uh opened up all these possibilities that surprised me and uh hopefully will surprise the audiences
09:19as well how much of predispain in your view comes from his environment versus who he is inside
09:27that's a great question because i think we often think like sometimes you can carve out your
09:32circumstances but sometimes your circumstances carve you out and some people can thrive under certain
09:38circumstances and some people will crumble um so i think it's a combination of both uh if he had had
09:47different set of circumstances would he have been the same person i don't know but i know certain things
09:52can break you and third certain things can can affect your outlook and if you look at the life that
09:59he's led
09:59and the sort of level of trauma that he's been through i can't help but think that
10:05that that's what's led him to make all these bad choices and not have the ability to sort of
10:12communicate in a way to have intimacy or relationships um uh that's led him to be the loneliest man on
10:23the
10:23planet as dennis lahain once said
10:33so
10:34so
10:34so
10:34so
10:34so
10:34so
10:35so
10:35so
10:35so
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