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SciFi Weekly 11/13/06: Victoria Pratt
It's déjà vu for actress Victoria Pratt and executive producer Jeff Bell as they relive the same day over and over again in the ABC series Day Break
By Kathie Huddleston
Actress Victoria Pratt and executive producer Jeff Bell can't seem to get away from science fiction. From Pratt's Mutant X to Bell's Angel (not to mention throwing in a bit of Adam Baldwin's Firefly), the new ABC series Day Break offers up a pretty strong sci-fi pedigree. Even star Kevin Hill's Taye Diggs seems right at home living the same day over and over again where Groundhog Day meets 24.
Day Break explores what happens when undercover detective Brett Hopper (played by Diggs) has to relive the worst day of his life again and again. The series premieres Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 9 p.m. ET with a two-hour premiere taking over Lost's timeslot for three months.
Pratt plays Detective Andrea Battle, Hopper's partner. The Canadian actress has a deep background in science-fiction television that includes the SCI FI series First Wave and a pivotal guest shot on Xena: Warrior Princess. She played Sarge on Cleopatra 2525 and Shalimar Fox on Mutant X. She also stars in the upcoming vampire film Brotherhood of Blood.
Bell, a writer turned executive producer, cut his teeth writing The X-Files before moving on to Angel, Alias and now Day Break.
SCI FI Weekly chatted with Pratt and Bell about moving into Lost's timeslot, Taye Diggs' lack of wardrobe in the pilot and what happens when Hopper finally gets through his terrible day.
Day Break is taking over Lost's timeslot for three months. How do you feel about this type of timeslot-sharing schedule?
Bell: We're the grand experiment.
Pratt: I think it's really interesting. I'm exciting about our timeslot. I hope we can convince all the Lost lovers to sample our show. ... Probably the hardest thing about Day Break is, you know, you get this amazing pilot. You read this incredible script, and you're lucky enough to get role, and then you make it. And the chances of a show actually getting picked up are so slim, and then your show gets picked up and just you thank God. But now you have worry. Shows are given so little opportunity to last. We've kind of got everything working for us, but, you know, we just sit on pins and needles hoping that it takes off. I hope we're breaking new ground ... for a long time [laughs].
How do you do a series about the same day over and over again for 13 episodes?
Bell: The thing about Groundhog Day was Bill Murray does the same nine things every day in the movie, and that would be boring to do as series. So it was like, "OK, how can we demonstrate right out of the box that you're not going to see the pilot again? You know, you're not going to see [the] pilot for 13 episodes in a row?" I think 24 had some of the same challenges out of the box. One day.
Tell me about Day Break.
Bell: Day Break is about a guy named Jack Bauer, who ... Naw! [Laughs.] What I loved about Day Break was just the opportunity for the metaphor of "We all kind of live versions of the same day over and over again." And the wish fulfillment quality of "Boy, if I could do that over, I'd say this instead" or "I'd do that differently." And as a writer that's really fun to do. So the way we tend to tell our stories is, Hopper goes and does something, and he makes a decision. There's a consequence to that and the way that ripples through his day.
Day Break is being called Groundhog Day meets a gritty cop show. It's got an intensity to it.
Pratt: It really does. I mean, we get these new scripts and it feels like they take five minutes to read, because they're so exciting that you can't put them down.
But how do you plan to distinguish your show from something like Groundhog Day?
Bell: One of the things we tried to do is each episode starts and ends differently. It won't always begin with him waking up. We don't always end with him in the same place. We don't always do the same number of days. We may do an episode that has two days. We do another episode that covers seven days. ... And our challenge, because the premise every day is just exactly the same, is to never tell the story the same way twice [laughs] ... which is killing us, in the best way. It's really forcing us to tell stories in a lot of different ways.
In Ground Day there's a place Bill Murray is trying to pick up Andie MacDowell in the bar. And you end up cutting through days to the point where it's just slap, slap, slap, slap until he figures out how to move past that point. He tries toasting all these different things. So finally he says, "To world peace," and she says, "To world peace," and it's like, "Oh." But you know they quick-cut through maybe 30 days right there. And they just show that one snippet of the day. We're working to educate the audience in how we tell our story so we can start to quick-cut through the day.
Everyone is zero sum, except Hopper. One can think, "Oh well, then this person is always going to be the same." For instance, Adam Baldwin's character, Chad. Wonderful actor, great guy, and you know Chad is such a dick in the best snarky, foil sense. ... I love the way Adam plays Chad as the hero of the story. And he's a really fun character to write. And so, as a foil to Hopper, we're having a lot of fun with him.
Chad has a good reason to be ticked off, considering Chad's ex-partner Hopper is making time with Chad's ex-wife, Rita.
Bell: Right. So you here have two guys with a really good reason not to like each other. If he were just that snarky guy you'd be bored with him. But I can give him a day where he ends up having to spend it with Rita and you go, "Oh, that's why she loved him." Or, "Oh, look, there's the softer side of Chad," without being sentimental. ... I believe any person in the right circumstance can behave in a dozen different ways. You put anybody in a situation, there's maybe a situation where they would not feel bad about killing somebody else. You put that same person in another situation and they'd say, "I would never hurt a fly." We're trying to put our people in as many unique and interesting situations, so we can explore their characters in ways that I think the audience is really going to get caught up in.
One of the things Day Break does is make it very clear that Hopper is not indestructible. He carries his injuries from day to day, and he gets beat up a lot in the pilot.
Bell: Wait till [you] see what happens to him in episode two [laughs]. That doesn't end well for him at all. ... One of the challenges, when people hear Groundhog Day they think, "Oh, so he kind of does the same stuff every day and he can't be hurt." Because that's just two of the big conceits of that show. And so two of the things we try and illustrate very clearly in our second episode is he can go anywhere he can drive to in the course of a day. He's not stuck in L.A. He could hop a plane and fly somewhere. ... And the second thing is we want to demonstrate that he can be hurt. He can die.
Victoria, do you feel this character, Andrea Battle, is a departure for you?
Pratt: You know what, it really is. I just got so lucky, I landed my dream role. And on my dream network [laughs]. So I'm a very happy girl.
Andrea Battle is quite a name for the character.
Bell: You feel like Andrea's had a very hard life. There's something damaged about Andrea. She's the kind of woman the guys want to hang out with. She can banter. That's true of both Victoria and Andrea, I think. Kind of a bawdy laugh and a good sense of humor.
Andrea is under suspicion of wrongdoing at the start of the series. Is she a good guy or a bad guy?
Pratt: I think that you'll watch the series and kind of gradually fall in love with every character, or at least fall in understanding with every character. And I think that's the litmus test for a really good character. Whether it's a villain or a good guy, you understand them and you can sympathize with them. And I'm not saying that my character is a villain, because I don't think she is. But I think the perfect villain is the one who you can sympathize with and who you can understand. And I think you will begin to understand why every character is the way that they are.
Shalimar Fox, Sarge and now Andrea Battle. She does seem to be another edgy character.
Pratt: Which I love. You know, I don't think I'll ever be cast as the waif, the abused and the downtrodden. It's just not something that's in me. I think there are those roles out there for women, and I don't think it's the easiest thing to play. Like I don't think everybody would buy every woman as an undercover cop.
Since it's reliving the same day over and over again, are you going to get tired of wearing the same clothes by episode 13?
Pratt: You might be interested to see what happens with the wardrobe [laughs]. ... Having said that, I love this so much that I would go and wear [a] garbage bag to work every day and be perfectly happy.
Speaking of wardrobe or lack thereof, how did the writers manage to get Taye Diggs into the shower in the first five minutes of the pilot?
Pratt: Bless their hearts [laughs].
Bell: I had no idea [laughs]. I had no idea. People say he's a good-looking guy...
Pratt: He is adorable [laughs].
Not that women will complain.
Pratt: I know. We're eternally grateful for this fact. But, you know, the poor guy at lunch line. He's got to take his shirt off all the time, and you have to be pretty virtuous with your food when you're taking your shirt off every day.
Bell: We're not fools. ... There are so many things that are great about Taye. Taye to date has played almost exclusively romantic leads, musical theater. There's a humor and warmth to him, and all that translates into him in our show playing a guy who's a little bit broken, who's not good at communication, who doesn't always behave with social graces. But because it's Taye Diggs you let him get away with it. I think women just like him because he's Taye, and I think Taye's got this movie-star thing where women want to be with him and guys want to be him.
Pratt: He has a real intensity about him. You know, there's just something where he can be so subtle and so strong, and I think that's a real important thing. Like, you know, you compared the show to 24. Jack Bauer has that, just that intensity, just by looking at him. You'd want to put your safety in his hands. And Taye has that same real strong quality about him. It doesn't come from the tone of his voice, although that does help. It's just something about him that makes you want to trust him completely. And I think that's really important for that role. ... And I mean, he's really hot! [Laughs.] And he's probably one of the nicest guys on the planet. He's a type of guy who you want to work with and then, you know, go out on the weekend and have cocktails with. He's just so sweet.
You did manage to get an attractive cast, Jeff Bell. I'm sure behind the scenes you have a very attractive crew as well.
Bell: Oh yeah. We have some of the best-looking grips in the business [laughs]. Most of them have more teeth than fingers. We have a very high standard.
Hopper is such a vital character to the story, it seems like he's in every scene.
Bell: He is in every scene of the pilot. We have found a way to tell stories where he's not in every scene of every episode, because, well, what's today? Monday? He'd be dead [laughs]. We couldn't allow that. So we found a way to tell stories that are still about him and Hopper-centric but actually to give Taye a few minutes off here and there.
Is there a reason this is all happening to Hopper?
Bell: Yeah, but what I want to avoid is the whole "chosen" thing, since I've been on three other shows with the chosen people (The X-Files, Angel and Alias). ... Having said that, there is a larger element to the whole show that is part of it. And we would be missing half the fun if we didn't dance around that as well.
What's special about this series for you?
Pratt: You know, it's funny, because I've done so much fantasy and sci-fi. ... This doesn't feel like a genre show to me at all. I think when you watch it you'll understand why. I mean, there's definitely an element of the unknown. Which I think is what sci-fi is, kind of that unknown element that nobody can prove or disprove, really. I think that Day Break isn't necessarily a sci-fi show, but it does deal with an element of unknown and wonder. And I didn't hesitate at all taking the part, because what I wanted to do was establish myself in another light. ... I think there's a niche out there that needs to be filled with strong women, with that strong, sort of kick-ass real woman, as opposed to the strong kick-ass fantasy woman. You know what I mean? And I think this is sort of the perfect role for me. It's very much based in reality. I was trying to put together my demo reel the other day, and I was going through my scenes on Mutant X. I love that show, and I love Shalimar, and I loved every, you know, moment of it. But when you're picking out scenes, everything had some weird phase or some weird word where there was no escaping the fact that you were in a sci-fi show. It's like, "Let's talk about my animal DNA or the neutron defibulizer" and blah blah. So it definitely does feel like a turn toward more of a real character. In this show it's very much reality-based. It's very much on the streets of Los Angeles.
What about you, Jeff Bell? Why take on this series at this time in your life?
Bell: Day Break is the least simple what-if. One reason was I thought, "Okay. This is impossible. We can't do this series." And that alone was like "OK. Well, how can we?" So part of this was there is the puzzle element of it, and the other half of it is I really like these characters, and I felt like there was a lot of opportunity to write really interesting, emotional stuff. Exhilarating and terrifying and painful and funny, and I really love the characters. We never use the word noir, but there are hard-boiled qualities to who these characters are, and I like that. I like the way they talk. I like the way they behave. And to take characters that you're familiar with, but just trying to write them in surprising ways, is always a lot of fun.
And the other thing that's interesting is Rob Bowman directed it. Rob really brought to it a visual style that I think is very unique. In the same way that 24 has a very signature look with the multi frames and that kind of thing. We found our own way to tell a very propulsive story, and just the density of information, the barrage of stuff that comes at you, that on one hand is near overwhelming and at the same time really digestible.
You know, what we are trying to avoid, and this not a flame on the series, but once I sort of knew what Tru Calling was, that's what Tru Calling was. ... "Oh, somebody's in trouble. I have to save them today." And we worked very hard to avoid any sort of simple model where Hopper does something and realizes, "Uh-oh, I have to fix that," and fixes it. On a certain level he has to do that. But structurally and emotionally we try and shake that up as much as possible.
What's your biggest challenge on Day Break?
Bell: The thing that's great is I think it's challenging us as writers to tell stories in a very economic fashion. We don't have "Oh, we come off the mountain to the car, and the car pulls in, and we follow the people up to building." It's like boom! You're into it. And we just upcut deep into scenes, and we cut out as soon as we can. It's a very, I think, unique way of telling stories that really forces us to be efficient.
Pratt: It's really cool to go up into the writers' room. It's the most collaborative place. They all work together, and there doesn't to seem to be a lot of ego drive in the writers' room. It's all brainstorming and all what-ifs. You know, even all the titles are what-ifs. "What if he can change the day?" "What if she runs?" And it's a real interesting process, I think, for writers. They're exhausted [laughs]. They're at the set at 11 o'clock at night. I'm like, "What are you still doing here?" And they're like, "We're working." [Laughs.] That's awful, but good [laughs].
Bell: It's the hardest thing I think any of us have ever done. I think the trickiest part has been to take what is on one hand an intellectual conceit, this puzzle, and try and make it emotional. And really ground it in the character of Hopper and his love for his girlfriend, Rita, and for his other friends and family, and really root it in his character. We feel as long as we put you in his head and make you care about him, you're going to care about the puzzle. Otherwise I think it just gets to be a lot of moves. And so we've labored very hard to balance the emotion and the puzzle. And then also, tonally, we are set here in Los Angeles, and we focused on different characters that are in his life, whether it's his sister, Jennifer, or his partner, Andrea, or his ex-partner, Chad.
Do you have a plan if you get a second season?
Bell: Yes, we do. We're going to steal from 24. The way they wait a year and a half or a couple years between. We'll do something similar, although I'll deny I'd stole it from them [laughs]. I've got friends over there.
How will you approach the challenge of giving the audience enough clues as to what's happening and yet not give away all the secrets of your mythology for future seasons?
Bell: It's like Lost cannot tell you everything about the island at the end of any one of their seasons. The idea is to give you enough that you are satisfied, if not completely sated. So we look at this and there's a bunch of stuff going on. There's the "Why is this happening to me?", which we don't give him a lot of time to discuss because he's wanted for murder and on the run and a fugitive. But we explore some of those ideas. And then there's also really the more pressing question of "How do I make this day stop repeating?"
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