Lance Gross and Rachael Taylor – Crisis

By starrymag | March 21, 2014

Q) Obviously for us the viewers, it’s very interesting to see all the twists and the turns and we know obviously the show is being touted for the fact that you don’t really know who to trust – whose good – whose bad. I’m wondering for you guys as actors – this sort of level uncertainty is that exciting to play – does it just fit in – is it challenging or how do you sort of look at it?

Rachael: for me I look at it like – that we just accept the information and the given circumstance that we have in any particular scene. And I’m kind of excited by the idea that Rand Ravich who is the creator of the show and really kind of a mastermind — in my opinion — at this particular kind of genre. I’m excited by the kind of possibilities of all the shifting kind of thrown in the air, but I will say we worked with Phil Noyce on the pilot – who is a great director who knows this genre really, really well. So what I feel like we really tried to create both on the pilot and then the first episode — maybe Lance would agree — is this kind of really solid in his foundation of who are characters were and how they kind of behaved. So then we had that kind of solid basis to offer it from. But I have to say – just as a – number 1 as an actor, but as a kind of a fan of the show in my own kind of weird way – it’s kind of exciting to feel like things could change on a dime at any minute – both while watching it and reading it and also while working on the show.

Lance: Yes – so it’s a piggy back off that – I mean its super exciting for me. I mean as the cast members were kind of reading these scripts – we get the scripts and we’re reading them and they’re page turners. And we as the cast number 1 to know what’s next – because we don’t know. So I like that element of surprise – of course – Rand gives us enough information because if there something too important that’s coming on – coming along down the line – of course – he wants to prepare us for that. But yes – it keeps us intrigued as actors and its fun and you just never know who to trust and it’s always exciting for us.

Q) Did you do any particular research into like FBI – Secret Service type thing before you started?

Lance: I talked to anyone that I could that was a retired – Secret Service agent because in – I got a lot of good information but – of course – with their job there’s certain things that they can’t reveal. Also we had on site training – we had gun training so – yes – we definitely prepared for these roles in advance. Rand Ravich actually gave me a great book that became my Bible along the way – it’s called Standing Next To History by Joseph Petro. I might be wrong on that, but yes – this was about a Secret Service Agent who – a retired Secret Service Agent who worked Ronald Regan’s detail. So I got a lot of good information from that. But yes, that was the fun stuff – training for this role.

Rachael: I spoke to a couple of – one FBI Agent – former FBI Agent – retired guy who was so valuable and interesting – here in Los Angeles and a former female FBI Agent, which was super, super valuable. Just given the kind of personal sort of conflicts that my character is kind of carries throughout the series. So it was cool talking to her about the culture of being a woman in the FBI and I infused a lot of our conversation that I had with her into my performance. We spoke less about kind of the technical aspects of being FBI and more about a kind of sophistication of what being an agent does to your inner person. It’s intriguing really because all of our jobs. I’m sure yourself included – affect us on a kind of deeper level in some way they affect our families and our relationships and our (anti) personal relationships – so I’m intrigued. Being a Federal Agent is a fairly important task. So I was kind of intrigued just to how – like what you do at the end of the night? Do you come home and you take a shower and you just leave your work at the office? And we spoke a lot about that kind of psychological cross over – if you will. So it was a very valuable conversation.

Q) Can you talk for a second just about getting to work with Gillian Anderson? Did you ask her anything that’d be about playing an FBI Agent or?

Rachael: I didn’t specifically, but I will say just in general she’s a very valuable presence to have on the set – she’s an incredibly elegant actress and very thoughtful and intelligent one. She really kind of doesn’t miss a trick so I just really watched and learned – truly from observation of her actually. She has a very intelligent presence on a set. So while I didn’t speak to her about playing an FBI Agent specifically because I think that’s one of the important things really – you don’t want to do like a generalized impression of an FBI Agent. You want to kind of find the things that specifically make the character who they are – in the case it’s Susie Dunn. I really feel like she’s very kind of cold in a way – cold and kind of fractured. So I try to lean mostly on my own personal insight and feelings about the character, but in general Gillian Anderson is incredibly elegant as an actress and very valuable for me to watch her. And I do feel very fortunate to work with all of this cast – it’s been a really great learning curve for me.

Q) Now that you’ve both are filming the entire season was there one piece of cake moment that we should view with your characters that really stands out that you can give a sneak peak to viewers about?

Rachael: This is a tough one. I don’t know. I think Rand will be mad at me if I give too many specifics away, but Lance we had a scene recently in a car that was a – you know – I think what you guys probably didn’t get to see in the pilot or what audiences really wanted to see in the pilot is that Agent Marcus Finley and Susie Dunn – Rent Cashman – my character ends up – we really kind of together for the whole season really and we really have a very interesting relationship and very interesting friendship and professional partnership – the characters that is on this show. And I remember recently – it wasn’t that long ago – we’re shooting a scene in the car where our characters were just kind of talking about their pasts and I felt like that. There was a real water shed in terms of our characters relationship together. And I think both Lance and myself probably feel like one of the most exciting things to share with you all – for the second episode – is where the relationship goes. Because really, on set they called us “Rance” – as in Rachael and Lance because we really were not apart for 13 episodes of television. So that’s going to be cool to share that with you guys.

Lance: Yes and I agree with Rachael on that because the thing about this is we’re from two different agencies. I’m Secret Service and she’s FBI and with this situation that’s happened we kind of join forces. In the beginning we bump heads a lot just because it’s like this whole FBI – Secret Service thing like we each have our pride, but just along the course of this season it’s fun to actually bond with each of our characters and by the end of it we’re definitely partners so that was the fun stuff for me.

Q) For Agent Finley, since he was shot by his own partner, I was wondering how much of a role is he going to play with the FBI?.

Lance: Well it’s actually a large role that he plays with the FBI – I mean he pretty much comes on as a honorary FBI Agent because this is the guy who was the only one who was there during this abduction. He’s not seen the kidnapper’s faces, but he has a wealth of information so he’s useful to the FBI to solve this case. So he’s in it.

Q) I’m just wondering, Lance, if you could talk about your background, playing romantic leads and transitioning to an action role.

Lance: Yes, I’m so use to sit-coms and the comedy role and the romantic comedies, but this role – I mean this is something I’ve been wanting to sink my teeth into for a very long time. I mean I’ve always been into action and drama and suspense and all that, but this show is so. It was definitely different, but I have an athletic back round so – I don’t know – I’m a man’s man so this kind of stuff is the stuff that we like. So the transition was a fun one, it had challenges along the way, but I think I tackled them.

Q) Many people will compare this show to others like 24 or Homeland or Hostages ,so do you have anything to say about the similarities or differences?

Rachael: Yes, I think certainly it’s a familiar genre – the espionage – crime genre for sure, but I think that Crisis has this bone kind of peculiarities in a way there’s a strong sentimental (factor) to our show that I really can’t tell how – what regular people – you know – children – the parents of children on the block that are from humble back rounds and all the way up to the President’s child. And we ask the question – how far they would go to save their child’s life. So there is a certain emotionally moving component to our show that I think kind of sets us apart.

Q) How appealing is the position of a Secret Service Agent now that you guys have had a chance to play it? Is that something you see yourself doing if you weren’t actors?

Lance: I’ve always had this weird fascination with the Secret Service. I mean they’re so mysterious. You don’t know too much about them. You just know that they’re there to protect. I feel like I’m a protector naturally so taking on this role I was just so excited about it. Their willingness to step in front of a bullet and to put their life on the line for whoever they’re protecting. I don’t know if I would actually go into that profession as a career because I love what I do so much I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I have tremendous, tremendous respect for what they do and I’m always fascinated by it. I find myself watching news coverage of the President and I’m always drawn to the people that are protecting him – like what they’re doing and I always wonder about their lives so this is the type of role that’s going to keep me intrigued for years. Hopefully, God willing, this show will be on for years because out of all the roles that I’ve played this is my favorite one.

Rachael: Well for me I think I’m practical. I’m not sure as an Australian woman how much success I’d have joining the FBI for real, but I will say I have developed most incredible respect for what men and women who work for Federal Agencies or who spend their lives and their livelihoods protecting and securing this country. I’m very intrigued at how one does that for real on a day to day basis. And they seem to develop the most kind of extraordinary strategic and tact and analytical ways of thinking – they truly do become tacticians. So I’m a girl’s girl and I’m less intrigued by the kind of shooting weapons and fighting and that kind of stuff, but I’m very intrigued by the kind of intellectual aspects of what these people do on a day to day basis. It‘s really kind of extraordinary and Lance and I had the privilege of working with a guy who helped us on set when we were filming in Chicago. And he’s just such a smart dude just incredibly intelligent – that tactical way of thinking which I was like – Man, you’re smart – I’m an actress. It was very impressive to me.

Q) I was wondering if there was anything about these roles that you added to the character that wasn’t maybe originally scripted for you

Rachael: That’s a good question. I read a ton different kind of TV scripts over my time and this is a really good one and Rand Ravich — and all of the writers that work for him — is an incredibly elegant writer who really does sneak in a bunch of really interesting character details that you can – if you’re a detective about it you can kind of see them kind of matriculating over the course of the season. All the clues are on the page, but I guess it’s our job to kind of use our imagination a little bit and I’m very different from my character in real life. Like I’m a very kind of warm feeling person and the character of Susie Dunn is – she’s quite cold I think and quite fractured emotionally in a way. So one of the things I try to do with – try to look for a moments to pry’s her heart open a little bit and that was probably – if I could claim one thing – I think that was the thing that I tried to do was define little moments of humanity and heart for her. I don’t know if there going to end up in the show – I mean it’s possible that I’m off base and they’ll edit it out or whatever. But that was one of my private little goals .

Lance: I mean like Rachael said, Rand did a pretty good job with mapping this all out for us – where everything is on the page. For me I just kept telling myself you’re a Secret Service Agent – you have to remain calm in situations so there’s a calm – relaxed element that I wanted to bring to it even though that this is a huge crisis that we’re going through. I kind of tried to find places to insert that in – like Rachael said – I don’t know if it’s going to be on the cutting room floor. I would think that would be the thing for me – just a calm – relaxed vibe about Marcus Finley.

Q) You both are a part of social networking sites – are you looking forward to the instant feedback you’re going to receive after the episodes?

Rachael: Lance has a very big social presence so maybe I’ll look at like Lance’s feed and see what people are saying. I’ve never had a bad experience on social media – everyone’s always so lovely and I kind of dig it. I’m looking forward to what all my people have to say about it. I think they’ll like it. They seem like just a good bunch of people – we talk back and forth all the time.

Lance: Yes, and I think I’ll definitely pay attention – I’ll interact with my fans – I mean I just kind of like stuff like that. Like I’m big on social media – it’s fun for me. Yes – I’ll address anything that they want to address – I’ll talk about whatever they want to talk about except giving away spoilers, but I’m kind of excited about it. I look forward to stuff like that.

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*