Morris Chestnut & Todd Harthan – Rosewood

By starrymag | September 23, 2015

Q) Maybe you can clear up a mystery for me that I’ve been wondering because I saw the pilot months ago, right, and I noticed Anthony Michael Hall in there and nobody could tell me why he wasn’t listed on the website.  I kept expecting maybe he was going to be the murderer, but then he wasn’t.  Is he going to be a regular on the show?

Todd: We loved Anthony in the pilot and had a blast working with him.  I’m not sure, I think it hit the trades not to long ago, Anthony got a pretty darn good role in a Brad Pitt movie, and we had a little bit of an availability issue.  That’s not to say that Detective Willet [ph] may not be making an appearance in the show down the road, but it just came down to him not being available for us and it was just a conflict of dates.  But there’s a chance you’ll see him again in the show; it just won’t be in this first batch of episodes.

Q) Morris, how did you get into this character’s head especially since he has a medical problem that shortens his life?

Morris: I’m actually still trying to figure that out.  No, you know what it is Todd and our writers, they do great research, so I talk extensively with the writers as well as we have technical advisers on set and doctors, and so they actually help me during those very complex scenes in terms of whether it’s medical procedures or it’s how to pronounce all of the medical jargon.

Q) What was it about the premise of this show in general and about your character in particular that turned you on, made you want to be part of this?

Morris: I would have to say, first and foremost, it was really about the character.  I read the first couple of scenes of the script that Todd wrote, and the character was smart, he was witty, he was empathetic; he had so many characteristics that I respect, and I just wanted to be a part of a particular character in a TV show.  After I read that first scene, I was like, wow, this is really good.  Got a little nervous because sometimes as an actor you read the first couple of pages, the first 10, the first 20, and if it’s good it’s like man, I hope it ends good, and it was consistent all the way through. I had to beg.  I slept outside of Todd’s house and begged him for the role, and I got it.

Q) He describes himself in the pilot as the Beethoven of private pathology.  I guess his confidence and cockiness are two sides of the same coin, aren’t they?

Morris: Well, there’s a very fine line between confidence and cockiness.  I would definitely say he’s confident.  I wouldn’t say his cocky.  I think in large part, most people who are cocky they kind of have a lack of respect for people and it’s all about them.  I think his confidence—he has an extreme amount of confidence, but he’s extremely considerate of people and especially of women.

Q) Todd, what is being depicted in this season that differentiates you from the other shows?

Todd: Well, one of the things that really starts to bloom in this first season especially starting in Episode 2, is this really does develop into a family drama, and that’s also infused with a lot of soap elements.  I think one of the things that will really separate us from other shows will be that you’re not just showing up to see a cop and a pathologist solve a case a week, you’re showing up to watch the ins and outs of this Rosewood family, and then as the season goes on, the sort of depths of the Villa family as well. What we’re doing here is kind of a serialized procedural, if you will, that has a lot of different notes that I don’t know if you’ll find in a lot of other procedurals, and luckily Fox has sort of encouraged us to do that so that it doesn’t feel too familiar.

Q) Morris, my question for you is what do you take away from the role to apply in your daily life?

Todd: I think the one thing about Rosewood is that he really encourages people to live in the moment and enjoy every moment.  I think especially with myself, I mean there are so many things to do, I have this job, and where my family situation is—so many things going on at any given point in time in all of our lives to where we just don’t stop and appreciate the moment, and that’s what I take away.  Sometimes at work when I’m in certain scenes, and he’s encouraging people just to do that, it makes me think about and it makes me reflect on my own life.  Sometimes I just have to stop and just enjoy the moment.

Q) What do you think are the reasons he professionally for now pursues Detective Villa?  What makes her stand out?

Todd: Well I think first—okay, aside from her obvious beauty and sexiness and all of that, I think he definitely respects her because she’s good at her job, and he realizes that professionally both of them together—obviously he feels that he’s very confident, feels that he’s good at his job, but professionally together they both can achieve great things.

Q) Who has the better wardrobe, you or Rosie?

Morris: Well, it depends on where you’re going and what you’re doing.  I mean right now I think Rosie has the better wardrobe, but I’m catching up.  I’m going to try to catch up.

Q) I’m curious, as you continue to delve into this character, is there anything that you’re surprised to learn about yourself as an actor?

Morris: I’m surprised to learn about myself.  Wow, that’s a good question.  I think so.  I think the challenge of being the lead of a one-hour drama on television is much more challenging then I could have ever anticipated, and each week—I believe we’re in our sixth episode now going into our seventh next week, and I’m just trying different things to really adjust to the challenges of it.  I’m definitely learning some things.

Q) What do you feel it is about the show that will resonate the most with viewers?

Morris: Actually I think there are a lot of things about the show, but just a couple of things.  I think first and foremost is the characters.  All of our characters are really vivid, real characters, and we’re all completely different, and put together it makes up a beautiful cast.  I’m not saying this just physically, but just everything.  The characters are so deep, and we work well together.  Just in terms of our story, I think that we shift tones so much.  I mean the show is comedic and then the show is dramatic, and it’s heartfelt.  We have so many different elements wrapped up into each hour; hopefully people don’t want to miss that.

Q) What was the decision like for you to set it in Miami?

Morris: Well, it was actually born from the character of Rosewood and because he’s this eternal optimist and has this sort of glass half full look on life.  It was just trying to pair up his attitude with a city that was just as vibrant and sexy and would sort of complement the mood in which he goes through life.  Miami is also a really diverse city, and it seemed like the right fit for the title character.

Q) Morris, now do you live near where the show is being filmed in Manhattan Beach?

Morris: I’m there right now temporarily.  I’m normally in the Valley, but I am there temporarily. Todd cracks the whip.  Todd cracks the whip, so I have to be close.  Whenever he says jump I’m here to say how high. I love Manhattan Beach.  Actually I’ve really never spent much time there, and hopefully the show will have some success, and it can go for a number of seasons.  I might get a place out there because I really love the—it’s very tranquil and all the people are very, very friendly.

Q) Todd or Morris, either one, can you talk about what it feels like to be paired up with Empire starting out?

Todd: It doesn’t suck.  I don’t know if you’ve heard—

Morris: Very eloquent, Todd.  Very eloquent.

Todd: —but Empire’s very—thank you.  Empire’s doing alright for itself.  It’s an amazing timeslot.  We were happy to have it.  The promotional campaign that Fox has put together both for our show and some of the crossover promotion stuff with Empire is incredibly great and helpful in trying to get as many people to come and check out and hopefully fall in love with Rosewood as possible, but it’s amazing.  It’s amazing to be on before a huge juggernaut.

Q) When you named the show after the title character sometimes I think it makes it hard, in my opinion, to have an ensemble feel, though the cast certainly has the chops to do that even based on the pilot.  How are you going to balance that between Rosie’s storylines as the main character and then storylines for other characters?

Todd: I have to say, it has actually happened kind of naturally.  It might just be born from Rosewood has such a connection to other people around him, and that in our writers’ room has kind of just sparked natural stories for other characters that aren’t always solely about him.  It’s either about Lorraine Toussaint’s character Donna who is the matriarch, his sister Pippy.  Obviously we have a very strong female lead in Jaina Lee Ortiz.  It’s just one of those things that our episodes have sort of bread stories that are not always solely about what’s going on in Rosewood’s life, and for the most part, we feel like here, before everybody’s seen it, we feel like it’s really working.

Morris: Let me just elaborate on that really quickly because that’s actually one of the things that I love about the cast and what Todd has assembled because each one of our cast members, not only are they very strong actors, but the characters are so deep and they’re going to be developed so much to where eventually you can see one character, any of these characters having an episode focused completely on them, and it will be carried out seamlessly.  The actors are so adept at what they do that that’s what I love about being part of the show.

Q) With such an amazing cast, how is the chemistry on set, and then what was it like to have Lorraine Toussaint cast as your mother?

Morris: I feel the chemistry on set is incredible.  I think we all genuinely enjoy being around each other, we like each other, and just the way Todd has written these characters, we all just fit together and it’s very seamless.  Lorraine Toussaint—I mean there are not enough good things that I could say about Lorraine Toussaint.  She’s definitely in the top three actresses that I’ve ever worked with in my entire career.  I love doing scenes with Lorraine.  She’s so colorful and emotional.  She’s so rich in talent; it’s just a joy to do scenes with her.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*