Jonathan Silverman and Warren Leight – Law and Order: SVU

By starrymag | March 20, 2014

Q) Since Benson’s attack by Lewis this season she seemed to be overly eager at arresting men and her professional judgment seems at stake. Will her decline continue throughout this season or can we expect her to gain some stability?

Warren: I think that she’s suffering from PTSD and I think she’s working through it. I think in the next few episodes we see her comfortably in command of her squad. Although in this current episode Comic Perversion, I think you see some anger still leaching through. But I feel like unless Lewis returns maybe the worst is over for her. That’s a big unless.

Q) Can we expect Lewis to return?

Warren: You never know with a character like that and an actor like Pablo [Schrieber]. I think that there’s one last stance that they might need to have. I don’t have that episode written at the moment. I think he still has a need for closure and he’s a pretty stubborn guy.

Q) Warren, during an interview you said that sometimes it’s hard to get actors to be willing to play less than sympathetic characters. And I’m just wondering, Jonathan, did you have any qualms about playing this guy?

Jonathan: That’s a great question. First of all, Warren Leight is a God in my eyes and he knows I would do anything to work with him again. I was lucky enough to be in the – at least the West Coast Premiere of his wonderful play, Glimmer, Glimmer & Shine at the Mark Taper Forum probably. When was that Warren, 12 years ago?

Warren: 1904 I think something like that.

Jonathan: Yes, 1904. It was done in black and white even live on stage. Honestly he knows. I would do anything to work with him. So when he presented me with this script I was blown away by how powerful it was and a little scared about just the workload involved. And then of course my next reaction was, “Oh, can I do this?” It’s obviously a subject matter that is very delicate and to me, to my wife, to some of our dear friends. And I was somewhat hesitant and even I had to discuss it with my reps, with my manager, with my agents. And we ultimately decided this is what I do for a living. And you don’t always get to play reputable characters. Sometimes you get your hands a little dirty literally and play the bad guy. And I’m so glad I did. Obviously I hope people don’t respond to my character’s inclinations on and off stage. But it was a wonderful opportunity to portray and to get this message out so I’m thrilled I did it.

Warren: I will say it was very brave with Jonathan. I will tell you now, there’s probably not a standup comic in the country who would have dared to do the part because and I am very comfortable with Jonathan because we had done this play together. And I knew he could land every beat of this thing. And it has worked out well for Pablo Schreiber playing one of our villains. And I think it should work out well for Jonathan. But it is interesting to me how many people tell me how much they want to be on SVU but they don’t want to play a pedophile or a bad guy. And really that’s what we have to offer. Our good guys are already on the squad. And I’m very glad that Jonathan stepped up. And like Pablo, he didn’t flinch for a moment. You have to drive into the skate of these characters and man did he drive into this good.

Q) Warren, I follow you on Twitter and in this day and age of social media exploding and not that long of a time, how has it been as a creator of a show, show-runner, affected you and your process and how you deal with the show and deal with the fans through such a more personal interaction?

Warren: I like it. I like Twitter. It’s great because you can just – if you have two minutes of downtime you can go on, see what’s going on. Drop a couple of bombs and get out. And I like doing that. I feel it does get a dialogue going with the fans. And of course with the haters which is also fun. We’re 15 years in so it’s not – we have to figure out ways to reach our fans directly. There’s not going to be a ton of promo for us or a ton of ads for us. What I like about Twitter is we get to speak directly to the fans and kind of – it’s also good when there’s about 30 rumors a week that go out and trying to shut those down as fast as I can. So I enjoy it. Most of the time I enjoy it a lot and we have the entire writing staff now tweeting. We have an SVU writers of account, the entire cast tweets. And it’s also a way of just since none of us actually talk to each other in real life, it’s a way of finding out what each other’s doing all the time. So I enjoy it. And on occasion I saw Sherri Saum on Twitter. She said she wanted to play a bad guy. I had done In Treatment with her and I just tweeted her immediately and said, can I hold you to that? And we just booked her for episode 17 which she just finished shooting. So it’s actually been interesting.

Q) Jonathan why aren’t you on Twitter? So you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything by avoiding that side of technology?

Jonathan: I’m amazed by it. And my wife is on Twitter. And actually she just got me on Instagram so I’m going to start playing around with that. I’m just always a couple of years late to the party on all this stuff. So I’ll join soon. I promise.

Warren: My understanding is in advance of the – Jonathan plays Josh Galloway on the show. And my understanding is in advance of the episode airing there are already two or three Josh Galloway accounts that have been opened so.

Jonathan: Really.

Warren: . I smell spinoff. If this leads to a sitcom for Jonathan about rape comic Josh Galloway, I think that’ll be exactly what we didn’t want to have happen.

Q) I want to know a little more about this episode Comic Perversion, what can you tell us about it. How you came up with the idea?

Warren: I’d say, we were aware last year there were – there’s a spate of comics getting a lot of attention for rape-jokes. And obviously there was the Tosh incident, was I think one of the more public and egregious incidents in which he decided wouldn’t it be funny if he – someone was heckling him and he got into it with her. And said wouldn’t it be funny if these guys gang raped you right here?And at SVU we don’t think that’s funny. And then there was Dane Cook had certain jokes. And then we also saw a lot of network sitcoms. It’s almost like rape-jokes became the sort of the go to. And I was a comedy writer years ago. And we used to call joke like material. If you didn’t have a joke you would reach for joke like material. And you would just try and end the sentence with the word (Kay) or something like that so it felt like all of a sudden a lot of sitcoms were also thinking it was really funny to make a rape-joke if they didn’t have something funny to say. And doing this show we deal with the real life part of rape, not the funny part. And so we wanted to do an episode about rape culture and what we call rape comics. There’s a giant defense to these guys. A lot of comics stood up and said you got to let people say what they want and they’re shedding light on the dark areas. And are they or are they just going for shock or are they just being pure out. To me shock comedy or the point of good standup comedy is to take on the people in power, not to take on people who’ve been disempowered by something as horrible as rape. So we thought this is a good ground to shape an episode around and we wanted a comic who was charming and funny and in some ways despicable. And so I thought of Jonathan pretty quickly there.

Jonathan: Warren and his staff wrote an absolutely fascinating character. And I was a bit terrified to tackle it. And in all honesty reading it for the first time and working on it before we started shooting it, I didn’t have much positive things to say about him. I really felt I was playing a very nebulous, a vulgar character. But something interesting happened while we were shooting it. In trying to dissect and attack the role, I found a way for me myself to sympathize with the character I was playing and to try and make him human.

Warren: Well let’s mention that Brianna Yellen it’s her first episode for this show.

Jonathan: She’s just brilliant. And I’ve actually known Brianna for a number of years because she was the Assistant to Mr. Ted Kotcheff who also was a major part of SVU and directed a little movie I was in called Weekend at Bernie’s so I’ve known this young lady and I’m so proud of her. And again Warren and Brianna and his staff created truly a despicable and uncomfortable human being. But Mariska and I, Mariska Hargitay and I had a lengthy discussion at one point. And we both found reason to sympathize with this gentleman’s plight. He looks at himself as a social satirist who wants to hold a mirror up to society and its pitfalls. And he actually discusses how it’s important to look at society’s evils. And if you can’t laugh at it then all you really can do is cry. So it’s his opportunity to put it out there. The other interesting thing about this character is at times we find out he practices what he preaches on stage. And I tried to figure out a way to make him a little more sympathetic as well. And as a guy who is a performer and for whatever reason he seems to be adored by his young crowd that he seems to attract as a lot of these standup comics do, a very hip young college crowd.

Warren: And Julie and I co-wrote the story with her. And she penned the episode. And it’s her first time out. She’s been working on staff in a lot of capacities. And she was as disturbed and fascinated by this as anybody here. So she was the real impetus. She helped shape this horrible person that Jonathan played (even). And of many women as well.

Jonathan: Yes (like me). And these girls are approaching him. He doesn’t seem to be the one who is targeting them. They’re coming after him and they’re showing up in his space and going to his hotel room. And we just tried to figure out a way to play it from the other perspective just to give the audience a chance to see for themselves who they might side with and live for a minute or two in someone else’s world and perhaps understand it better.

Q) I was wondering just like what can we expect to see for the end of this season, can we expect to see any more guest stars?

Warren: Well I think word is out that we have Alec Baldwin will be coming up. I think everyone – he’s shooting today in a story. I hope the paparazzi are leaving him alone. And he’s shooting in an episode directed by Mariska that will air March 19th. We also have Donal Logue and Sherri Saum airing the week before that. The guest stars will keep coming. It depends on how much money’s left in our budget. But I think that they’re going to keep coming. We’re hoping to get Pablo back as well, Pablo Schreiber. But in terms of storyline for the fans who’ve been following it, this has been a pretty dark winter for the squad. Amaro, I think there was an episode called Amaro’s One-Eighty in which he shot a 14 year-old kid, whom he thought was armed. Rollins has gone on a horrible gambling slide and that will reach its climax in the Donal Logue episode. Obviously Olivia is still recovering from not just the assault but the trial. Fin is fine so far. But it’s been a real – as it has been in New York, it’s been a real long winter for our characters. And the question for the last third of this season is, how are they going to come out of it and what will be the after effects or the ripple effects of everything they’ve gone through individually and interpersonally? So we got a lot of spinning plates that we have to try to figure out how to – or whatever it is. Whatever it is you’re supposed to do with spinning plates, we have to figure out what to do with them because we have a lot of plates spinning right now. And there’s going to be a few pretty big surprises as the season goes on.

Q) Jonathan, I know you’ve done comedies in the past like you say Weekend at Bernie’s. I was wondering what it was like to go from that to kind of doing a more serious show like Law and Order SVU?

Jonathan: I relish doing anything that’s a bit out of the norm and out of my wheelhouse. I supposed there’s a certain comfort level for me in doing comedy. But I’ve certainly done my share of dramas and anytime I get a chance to play a somewhat nefarious bad guy I leap at it. What was interesting about this is probably around 70% of what I do in this episode is up on stage being a comic.

Warren: Or in the witness box on trial.

Jonathan: Yes, exactly, yes. Yes, Warren and his staff allowed me the opportunity even when I was on trial to use the jurors as an audience so I was constantly trying to get them to crack up. Granted there’s a number of scenes in this upcoming episode where it was very uncomfortable, very raw, very naked literally. And I got to do things I really don’t get a chance to do thankfully in my own life and, but and certainly on screen as well. And I felt awful actually. I didn’t really think I would but I really felt I needed to scrub and bathe after one particular scene that we shot. So it affected me. It really threw me for a loop actually.

Warren: I’ll just add. I did do a play with Jonathan ten years ago I guess. And I have done that same play with a number of actors. Oh anyway, cutting to it. I think he’s one of the more underrated dramatic actors because comedy comes so naturally and easily to him. But I think Jonathan is ridiculously talented and facile and when you need him to go dark he doesn’t hesitate. And there’s a lot of depth behind it and a lot of – that overused actor term. He’s very brave. And he’ll just go there. And he didn’t hesitate. And there was some really disturbing scenes. And he pulled them off without sweating. It was a little scary at times though how effortless he made the disturbing scenes seem. I can’t say enough about Jonathan’s acting. I hope nobody catches on before I get to create my own scene.

Q) You mentioned that there’s going to be some big surprises this season. But I was wondering is the squad going to get a new captain anytime soon and if so can you give us a hint who will play him or her?

Warren: We’re not sure where we’re going with that. I have liked Olivia in charge a lot. But there is in certain – there are certain circumstances that could cause her to not be allowed to be in charge of the squad room. I think now I’m being kind of vague here. But there’s certain cases she would not be allowed to handle for her own safety. And if one of those comes up she may be in – she may getboot. As we speak, Mariska has been redecorating the Captain’s office by the way. She’s directing our episode now. And she’s been moving in. She moved a plant in. She moved some survivor handbooks and things like that in. So she’s making that office a home. But I think technically she’s only a sergeant and she’s acting commander of the squad. So eventually NYPD may – and we play a lot about – of late we’ve been writing a lot about the politics of NYPD. Usually when something’s going well NYPD likes to muck it up bureaucratically. And so I think the better the job she does as acting commander of the squad, the more likely it is the Peter Principle will apply and they’ll bring somebody else in. I’ve been loving watching her in command. She’s 15 years in. She knows what she’s doing.

Q) And if you do decide to bring someone on, do you think it would be a permanent role or would it be sort of a temporary part?

Warren: It depends on who we bring in and how their pilot season goes.

Q) Jonathan, were you a fan of SVU before coming on the show and what was it like to work with the cast?

Jonathan: Yes, absolutely. Mariska Hargitay is a dear friend and has been for decades. As a matter of fact I had the pleasure of working with her first in a somewhat similar capacity, at least she played a cop. Mariska recurred on another NBC show literally 20 years ago, The Single Guy, that she played the role of the hot mounted cop. She was the policeman who would show up every now and then on a horse. And my character was constantly chasing her. So I certainly have been following her every step of the way. And when she first got cast in SVU, I was her biggest supporter. And watched and screamed and applauded and still do. And she was an absolute dream to work with as was the entire cast. So much of my material was with Raul Esparza who’s just a brilliant, brilliant actor.

Warren: He’s our District Attorney Barba.

Jonathan: And but multi-Tony nominee. And I had never met him before but a massive fan and became an even bigger one after getting the chance to go toe-to-toe with him.

Warren: Yes those (courts). We have some great scenes of a comic on trial, great comedian in the dock courtroom scenes between Raul. Jonathan’s represented by Elizabeth Marvel who’s a returning Defense Attorney for us who’s also just a terrific actress. And those scenes really pop. Nothing like a comic in the courtroom.

Q) Warren, how do you see the future of Law and Order franchise now that Special Victims Unit is the one last? And where do you think the franchise could go after this?

Warren: It’s interesting. I think, you know, when I came in I felt a little bit like I was the last one and everyone was leaving the party. And I got there too late. This is when I got SVU three years ago. I was just there as a caretaker a little bit and the network was probably ready to move on. Dick obviously has launched his new franchise which is he’s got the concept of Chicago. I think he now owns the word Chicago. I’m not sure. I think he actually has a trademark and just you cannot say Chicago without giving Dick money now I think. But so he’s moved onto a new franchise. But we held the fort the first year. This year SVU I think for the first time since 2005 our ratings are up compared to the previous year. That hadn’t happened to the show in nine years or so. So we’re doing – where something’s working right now. Mariska is directing her episode now and is more – I don’t know. I can’t imagine how she could – where her energy comes from but she’s completely engaged. So this show will – I’m hoping NBC will, you know, usually they do this at the last minute. But at some point we’ll get the phone call saying go for another season I hope. I don’t know that Dick is focused on other Law and Orders at the moment. I think his focus is he’s got a lot of other things going on. And yet he relies on us in many ways to be – we – to be the anchor. We were the show that Chicago Fire followed last year when Chicago Fire was introduced. And this year Chicago PD follows us. And the pairing of Law – of SVU and Chicago PD I think has gone very well. It seems like our audience stays to watch Chicago PD and there’s a nice crossover. On Wednesday night there’s an actual mini crossover between the two shows. Two of our detectives, Fin and Rollins go to Chicago to help track down a bad guy. But I think we’ll hold the fort and Dick will build 12 more forts while we’re waiting. I think that’s how it works.

Q) Jonathan, what’s next for you after this? What can we look forward to seeing you do?

Jonathan: I’m still doing the same old stuff. Just a ton of movies. I had a movie that came out a few weeks ago called GBF which I know was mentioned briefly a bit ago. And a movie currently out called The Hungover Games from Sony which is a spoof movie based on ripping off The Hangover and the Home Games. And I’m directing now which is so much fun and exhausting. I have one film, a National Lampoon comedy which ironically stars Dann Florek formerly of SVU and originally won me an award. I didn’t even know about it. They just FedEx it to me. I won a Best Director Award at the LA Comedy Festival a few months ago. And then my wife, my beautiful talented wife, Jennifer Finnigan and I directed a movie together with Geoff Stults and Mena Suvari and Kristin Chenoweth and Keenan Thompson and that’s called A Bet’s a Bet, romantic comedy that we filmed up in Providence, Rhode Island. And yes, just trying to stay busy and finishing that and my wife if I could brag again, leaves in a few days. Jen is off to The Promise Land. She’s going to be spending the next five months living in Israel doing a new series for FX by the “Homeland” creators and producers. It’s called “Tyrant.” So I imagine when I can, when I’m not working I will be spending a lot of time on LA Airlines going back and forth for conjugal visits and support so that’s what’s in my most immediate future and certainly hers.

Q) Warren you mentioned earlier that, you know, the NYPD kind of mucked things up. Do you ever hear from them or anyone in government?

Warren: Well we hear from a lot of cops. And the NYPD bureaucracy. There’s different ways of managing people and NYPD bureaucracy is legendary for not wanting people to get too comfortable and for wanting to remind them of hierarchy and for wanting to remind them that they are soldiers in an outfit that is bigger than them and can move them around like pieces on a board. And it’s a certain kind of bureaucracy and we’ve been writing to that a bit lately. And also and realize in New York there’s a new Police Commissioner, a new Mayor and we’ve been having some fun with that as well. But yes, we’re in pretty constant touch with a lot of detectives, District Attorneys, politicians, medical examiners, psychiatric evaluators, CSU people so we have a – and people when they talk to us they tend to vent a little bit. And it’s pretty consistent feeling that it’s NYPD is – it’s not run the way Google or Apple are run. Well maybe not Apple. But it’s not one of those open plan, feel good kind of places. It’s still – forms are tight and quintuplicate. It’s a little bit of old school management process over there.

Q) So is there’s sort of a fine line that you get respect from them but they also sort of nudge you a little bit if they think you’re getting it wrong?

Warren: They let us know either way. But mostly they’ve been – not to – well look, I think they feel that this show has been accurately depicting how difficult the work of the real live Sex Crimes Unit is. But that in real life as in this case that Jonathan stars in, in real life getting convictions is very difficult. This is the only crime where you have to prove you didn’t want to be victimized. Nobody ever says you sure you didn’t want your car broken in or what were you doing driving in that neighborhood. But rape victims, the first line of defense for someone accused of rape is consent. And it really makes the job of a sex crime detective much more stressful and demanding than that of other jobs. Our sense of it is they see where depicting how difficult it is to get a conviction, how hard the justice system is on victims of sexual assault which by the way is one of the reasons rape jokes maybe aren’t so funny because the truth is the process victims go through first in the assault and then as they enter the legal system, is pretty difficult. I guess it’s an easy laugh but it is always an appropriate one is what we’re wondering about this week.

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*