Kevin Hanchard – Hudson & Rex

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) Right now, I just started working on a new series for Netflix called “Jenny and Georgia.” I’m going to do a little bit of double duty on that, but it’s very early days. I’m always trying to do theater in between series. I’m always keeping busy between family life and work life. I’m a busy guy.

Q) What is new this season on “Hudson & Rex?”

A) All I can say is it is more. More of what people love, but we push the limits even further. Diesel, our star, is learning all kinds of new behaviors and things that are wowing audiences. I think our familiarity with him and especially his relationship with Johnny is fantastic. It just gets deeper and allows us to take the stories even further. We tackle bigger and broader issues; some that are a little more topical and timelier with things that are happening in the headlines. I think we have an episode coming up on human trafficking. We just had an episode dealing with transgender issues. Now that we have our feet sort of firmly planted, we know what type of show we have and are able to push the envelope even more and reach into peoples’ hearts and tug on their heartstrings a little more. At least that’s the hope.

Q) What keeps challenging you about portraying Supt. Joe Donovan?

A) As an actor, you never want to play a trope or archetype. You sort of understand that my role as the Superintendent is to be the “boss” and chief, but I’m always trying to feather in a layer of humanity in there. There is a mentor/mentee relationship that happens between Donovan and Charlie (John Reardon) and a father and son relationship between him and Jesse (Justin Kelly) as well. Just continuing to have red blood coursing through that character as opposed to being a fist waving with an authoritarian voice is really the challenge. Some days you succeed and some days you succeed a little less, but that’s always the mission – to keep people engaged by having people believe these characters exist and are not just cartoon characters.

Q) Have you had much say in how Donovan developed in Season 2?

A) Yeah. We’re always in contact with the showrunners and the writers. It is a little harder because the writers are in Toronto and not in St. Johns as we are. So, it’s harder to bribe them, literally. That’s what I always liked to do on other shows – show up to the writers room with a bunch of coffee and donuts and say, “How is my character doing?” [laughs] They are sequestered in Toronto, which makes it a little more difficult, but we are in regular communication with the producers and showrunners to sort of see where things are going and sort of say, “Hey! Have you thought about that? Or I feel it might be better if it is said this way. Perhaps, that character might end up in a situation like X, Y or Z.” So, we try our best to be a part of the process within reason.

Q) Was there someone(s) you were looking forward to working with more this season?

A) I think we’ve been really, really lucky with the guest stars we’ve had on the show. We’ve had really great stars on the show. We just had Elvis Stojko on, for crying out loud! We had Aaron Ashmore. There are so many different people. It’s sort of tough, given what Donovan does, that he works out of the police precinct and the bullpen. So, he doesn’t always come in contact with a lot of the guest stars. Well, Kevin doesn’t come in contact with a lot of the guest stars. Donovan doesn’t come in contact with a lot of the perps. I’m hoping that we start to stretch the limits a little bit more and perhaps Donovan takes a little bit more of a hands-on approach and I get to work with some more of these really talented guest stars because it’s really been a who’s who of Canadian talent and global talent as well.

Q) What are some of your favorite moments from filming this season or episodes you are excited for fans to see?

A) I really just enjoy the cast and the crew. And Diesel, of course, is part of that. As someone who is a massive dog lover, but doesn’t own a dog I get to live my dream vicariously through the show getting to play and bond with a four-legged friend. And the crew is just so spectacular. They are tried and tested Newfoundlanders and their hearts are as big as the ocean. It’s wonderful to be a part of that family. The four of us main characters (Myself, Mayko [Ngyuen], Johnny and Justin) we really get along like nobody’s business. That’s not always the case with shows. I’ve been really fortunate that on most of the shows I’ve been on we had a really good cast bond and this is no exception. It is a joy to come to work with these guys each day. I am really grateful and I look forward to more of the same.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive to the episodes?

A) Yeah! That’s always a great thing. Sometimes social media is not always a blessing. Sometimes it can be a bit of a curse. But the immediacy of the response sort of takes me back to the response you get from theater. If someone loves you in theater they stand up and clap for you and if they don’t, they will sit down and clap for you or maybe not even clap at all. I think social media, when it comes to television, can echo that a little bit. It lets you know that you’re reaching people when sometimes you have to wait a week or two to get the numbers in to really see where you stand and what is happening. To know that there is a whole lot of people out there who have taken a real invested interest in the show and pulling for its success and to see that in a tangible way and the amount of response we get on social media is really heartening because I think we do have something special and it’s great to see that people feel the same way.

Q) What do you think it is about “Hudson & Rex” that has made it such a fast fan favorite series?

A) Right now, we’re in what I love to call “the golden age of television” where there is so much content out there. There are so many people putting out such great work. But I think part of that is that people are trying to out clever each other and out grip each other and out shock each other as far as TV is concerned. I think “Hudson & Rex” is a real sweet spot of a show that is not a children’s show but at the same time isn’t a show that you have to send your kids to bed for in order to watch. So, whether it is parents with their six-year-old or parents with their fourteen or fifteen-year-old or seventeen-year-old, the whole family can sit down at eight o’clock on Tuesday night and enjoy the show together without worrying about nudity or course language or gratuitous violence. It goes back to a bygone era. It is a murder of the week, but I know that when my wife and kids and I are watching the show my kids are shouting out from the very beginning trying to figure out who did it and why. There is something kind of fun about that. It’s a little interactive in that everyone has theory as to who is the baddy and who is not. It’s fun as a family to sit down and watch. I we’ve really hit on a good formula.

Q) You’ve had quite an incredible career and lucky to have been a part of such incredible projects. What have been some of your favorite projects to work on?

A) I think you hit the nail on the head when you said “lucky.” I really have been lucky over the past six or seven years to work on some really, really great projects with really warm and generous performers. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say “Orphan Black.” It was a huge event in my life. It was such a seminal thing and such a special, special series. All of us as cast members still remain dear friends even though like orphans, we’ve been cast to the four winds and are all separated. But just to be able to work on a story that rich and that fulfilling doesn’t happen all the time. That was definitely one of the highlights of my career. And the fact that Tatiana [Maslany] won the Emmy for it and the fact that I was there when a friend of mine…Someone who I spent so much time with actually won an Emmy on a big stage in Los Angeles and I was there to witness it is something I’ll never forget. I think that’s one of the highlights of my career, but it’s like picking between your kids who is your favorite. You love each and every experience differently for what they are because each of them touches you in a special kind of way.

Q) Is there anything else about this season of “Hudson & Rex” that you want to be sure we share with our readers?

A) I just want to encourage people to continue to watch it. We are a fun show with a great cast and a wonderful dog. I think we’re trying to embody what this country and what television is all about. We’re a diverse cast. We’ve got a strong female lead in a position of power and authority on the show. And we’re in Newfoundland! We’re portraying Newfoundland for what it is. It’s a part of the country that a lot of people haven’t been to or seen, but it’s such a magical place. I encourage people to watch and become as seduced with that province as I have been over the past two seasons and, hopefully, several seasons more.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and the work you do?

A) Give your head a shake! There are so many more important people out there to support than me! [laughs] No! I’m kidding! I’m so grateful. It goes beyond anything I could ever imagine. When I graduated theater school back in the 1920’s…[laughs] I just thought that maybe I’d make a living and maybe see Northern Ontario on a school trip. Fast forward to now and it’s gone well above and beyond my wildest dreams. I’m able to raise a family doing what I love and it’s solely due to the fact that I have support from my family, but also from fans out there I can never thank them enough. It goes back to that social media thing where you get that immediate response and you actually know that…It was Sally Field who said at The Oscars, “You like me. You really, really like me.” [laughs] It gives you that drive to push forward and to keep doing good, honest, solid work.