Tracker

By starrymag | February 11, 2024

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Justin: Well, thank you for joining us, and for those of you who watched the show, or several of the shows that were provided. Thank you very much for that. I know everyone’s so busy. Ken [Olin] and I worked together, as you know, on “This is Us” and we had this really great culture and great experience together, and developed such a tight friendship, sort of like a family that we sort of looked at each other, and we said, “We gotta keep doing this. We wanna do another show.” And so we were on the lookout for something really great to do together, and we found this book, and we were able to luckily get our hands on it and develop it, and from there find this extraordinary cast to fill out our show. We’re so lucky. And we have. I think, continued that culture that we found on this is us in this really wonderful environment.

 

Q) Ken, can you tell first just what you saw in the book cause? Justin told me you’re the one that gave him the book. What was it in the book that you saw as a series? And for Justin to kind of take on?

 

Ken: I had been, I think both Justin and I, after six years of babies and dogs, and we wanted to do something that would be fun for us to do. Probably we were looking for something that was a little more story driven plot driven. Justin wanted to carry a gun and get in fights. So, I was in the mood to try to find something that maybe harken back to the old PI shows that I grew up with, which was before most of these people were born, I think. But shows like “The Rockford Files” and “Maniac” and things like that. But I didn’t want to reboot a show. I wanted to find something that was based on a character who had a more contemporary psychological background. And then I read The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver whose work I always have loved, and I mean the character is described it’s like Justin. It’s a character who I mean…This is a stretch but looks like a movie star and is tall and is underestimated. It’s always underestimated. And I’ve always felt Justin is, I love working with him. I think he’s incredibly talented, and I think often he surprises people with all of his skills, and I took it to Justin, I said, “Hey, man, I think this would be fun to do. I think we can do a real contemporary version of a PI show and let’s do it together.” And Justin read it and said, “Good, I’m in. Let’s do it.” And then yeah, I think they like the idea of us working together and doing this kind of show. So, that was how I came about.

 

Q) Justin or Ken, or anybody that wants to answer actually, you know you. Of course you mentioned you come off of six amazing years on “This is Us.”{ What’s the back story on this show with us? Supposedly this fractured family? What is this family? And why is it fractured?

 

Justin: Yeah, I think I have one more in me. That’s a really good question, actually, and it’s sort of a driver for all of the stuff that you see this character do in his adult life. There’s an element I think, to most, if not all, of the jobs that he takes that and his ability to solve, to find these people and to get these positive outcomes that comes from the way that he was raised, and the way that he was raised is not necessarily always easy to easy on the palate, I mean. His father was very, very difficult. He had a rough childhood, really unique, strange kind of childhood. But all of those things that he went through when he was younger are things that he was taught, and that he uses in his, in his current life. And I think a lot of the things a lot of the stories that we tell. Open up and correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like they open up Colter a little bit in a sense that he then kind of can reflect on his childhood. And oftentimes I think the way that you remember things might not be actually the way they actually happened right. And I think Colter’s kind of figuring that out as well. So, but that’s a major part of our show is the backstory in the family, and he’s got a lot of questions about his childhood and what he ends up, I guess, realizing our assumptions. That might not be true.

 

Ken: With all of these shows there is some kind of a family created in most of the procedurals. It’s called a team, and one of the things I found really appealing about this story was he’s created a family. It’s just that. It’s a family that is, in some ways, I think, representative of a contemporary way of life. Now, where we communicate with our family on Zoom, on phone text he has a family. It’s just that they’re not all in the same room, I mean, and they can’t all fit in the airstream. I mean he grew up with a very fractured family. There are secrets, mistrust. So, you have a character at the center of the show. Who is he? He mistrusts intimacy. He mistrusts those bonds. And yet at the same time, he’s created those bonds with all of these people that you see here, but they’re kept in some ways at a distance, and yet they all interact, and they interact the way a family does. But not in the way that we’re used to seeing, I think.

 

Q) Justin, how difficult is this workload. I’m assuming that “This is Us” was a lot different.

 

Ken: Nothing, are you kidding? It was like “Come on, please come to work. Please come to work.” Now it’s like every day in the rain. The kid is 26 years old. Look at him.

Justin: The workload is great. Look, here’s the thing. I love it. I’ve always wanted this, and it’s not work. It’s a labor of love. I mean, you have a call time, and you show up. And gosh! People have written stuff for you, and people are lighting you. And I’ve got this amazing support group around me. These guys, I mean, it’s a team effort for sure. And whether you’re on stage or out in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night, on a Saturday morning. Yeah, in four scenes by yourself, or whether it’s you or whether it’s you guys on stage or wherever you are. It’s the story that matters. And when you watch the finished product it all becomes worth it. So, I don’t really feel the workload. That’s I mean, that’s bullshit. I do. It’s hard, it’s really hard. No, it’s not. Look, I mean, I’m not in the renegotiation. I’m not complaining. It’s great when you get an opportunity to do something that you love and spend a lot of time doing it with people that you love. It’s a joy.

 

Q) Justin, I like the fact that Ken said your character is underestimated, and I think actors are always underestimated in some point. Can you think of a point in your life when you are underestimated?

 

Justin: Yeah, I sort of gosh! Can I think of a point when I wasn’t. I like being underestimated. I think it’s a good place to be in a place where people expect perfection, and then you don’t deliver is a worse place to be than if you’re underestimated. I don’t mind being underestimated. It’s fine. I mean, I don’t know. Do you mind being underestimated? I never mind that. I like low expectations, I guess, is what I know underestimate. Yeah, I think that it’s Ok. Though I thrive on that. I don’t mind that at all. I get it, too.

 

Q) Justin, how much did the author influence the character you created? Were you close to what he created? Did he talk to you a little bit about fleshing out your version of this individual.

 

Justin: Yeah, I would say quite a bit good question. I would say quite a bit.  Ken, and I talk about it all the time. It’s actually you could probably answer that better than me. We worked on this character together. Obviously, Jeffrey wrote it and then you have to figure out a way. What is it that’s so interesting about this character? First of all, what drew you to it? And then from there how do you adapt it to the screen? Because it doesn’t. There are certain things in the book where this characte does a lot of calculations and sort of talking to himself in his head. You just can’t do that on screen. It would be very hard to watch. You’d be reading a lot, and it would be very hard to watch. So, you have to figure out a way to show this guy and what’s going on in his head without just him talking to himself all the time, which sort of is not the character. He’s not a weirdo. He’s not constantly talking to himself like Ken, and he’s not haunted. But, yeah, we talked a lot about that. Actually, how do you get all of that stuff that we love about the character in the book translated to the screen without losing it, but also without kind of making it look like something. It’s not, I think, one of the things.

 

Ken: I mean, his skill set is very much his skill set, his physicality, his relationship to women. Those things are very similar to the book. I think probably the biggest adjustment that we made was to try to used Justin’s sense of humor and his ability. So, he’s so good with humor. The character in the book isn’t the same that way. He’s a much more silent kind of character. So, we wanted to use Justin’s facility. And also, I think it translates well in television, it’s something that’s really appealing. And it’s very appealing about Justin. So, that would be, I think, the biggest difference between the character in the book and the character on the show.

 

Q) Justin, when they talk about the scare being not as silent as the book. He’s still really silent. He doesn’t talk much, very much. A strong and silent kind of guy. What’s it like to play that kind of thing after you played one for six years?

 

Justin: So, where there was a lot of talk about everything. That’s a great question. Well, in some sense it’s a relief. And in some sense, it’s a daunting task when you’re still and you’re on camera, and you’re still and you’re not talking. You’re telling the story through your look and your what’s going on with your body? You’re not. It’s interesting. It’s a bit scary, in a way, because you’re sitting there going. Ok? I’ve been still in silent for a good solid 40 seconds. Is that boring? Is that going to be interesting? I mean, is that going to make people think that I’m asleep or something? But it’s really not. I mean, the writing is good, and the storytelling is great, and if Colter’s listening to something, and I firmly believe that if you actually, as far as acting goes, if you actually do what you say you’re doing sounds like actually firing a gun or actually stabbing someone or actually punching someone. If you’re emotionally doing what you say that you’re doing. I think that’s very hard to deny or to say that that’s not true or honest. So, I love it. I think it’s really cool, too. I love those characters, too. I love watching a character not necessarily talk all the time but think as an audience member just sitting here watching what Bruce Willis might be thinking, and then you sit at the edge of your seat wondering what he’s going to say next. So, I’ve always been a fan of those kinds of characters. So, for me it’s sort of a dream come true.

 

Q) There was a pivotal episode of “This Is Us” that aired after a Super Bowl. And you guys are premiering after a Super Bowl. Is there any extra pressure both because of those two things to see how it goes? And also I wanted to talk to Ken also about the decision to change the name. You said you didn’t want to do a reboot or anything like that. But also you’re working with an IP that has a known property and why you went from calling it “The Never Game” to calling it “Tracker.”

 

Ken: One of the great things for us was when Amy Rice, in fact, from CBS gave us this time slot early on with an impending strike and everything else. It was an incredible vote of confidence because there was a much better chance that we were going to have an incredible launch than there was that there was going to be a false schedule to begin with. So, that was a huge thing. And, yeah, there was pressure. A lot of the pressure became simply practical in that we had to create scripts, generate scripts, and be able to produce a certain number of shows, so we could stay on the air after the Super Bowl, in the weeks coming up because there was no point in launching a show after the super bowl, and then having nothing. So, there’s that pressure. It’s better to have this pressure than not have this pressure. It’s an incredible opportunity, and there’s a tremendous amount of support. So, that’s been great as far as changing the name goes. The biggest issue was that there’s IP with game involved where there are games and I think what we didn’t want was to come. You know people watch the show and see this guy rescuing somebody in the desert and wonder when the game would start. What’s the game, fix the bone or whatever it was. I think that was the basis of the decision was, look, there is no game involved it. It has to do with also one of the books and one of the stories. It’s not actually pertinent to what he does or anything else. It was just the title of one of the book is about Colter Shaw. And so the title we did some research on the titles, and this title really stuck with people. So, it was a practical decision, and I think a really smart one. Also, I don’t know how many games you wanted to play monopoly, not thrilling. That was why we changed the title.

 

Q) How would you describe Teddy and Velma’s relationship to Colter and with each other?

 

Abby: Oh, sure I think our relationship my relationship with Velma and Teddy is based on comfort and love and respect, and they’re very different.  But they work off each other their differences. They work off each other, and then and I think it’s quite lovely. It’s very lived in to me. It’s very like intimate in how small it can be if that makes sense. And then our relationship with culture, I think, originally, was like that. Velma was very motherly, and I think it’s come off that more. I think. I’m always excited for, like Colter, to find out like who you’re sleeping with and like, are you always? Did you not get that? Okay? Maybe that’s something to talk about later. And I just think, like, I’m always very worried, because, like he’s just I’m also Abby herself is very worried worry for anyways.

 

Robin: And I’m always looking for the job. That will give us the most money for the least risk for our boy and it’s always it’s never going to be as simple as I think it is, either because if it’s too simple of a job he’s not going to remain as excited by it. He’s just not going to be as excited by it. If I’m sending him to look for a car, it’s a safe, easy job, great reward. He may very well find a want ad and be uninterested in that car, and so I have to keep slicing it that way. And I’m also I have an eye to her, because if he gets into a lot of danger, then it wreaks havoc on our relationship because she’s really then gets concerned and is tempted to want to go and help him. And you know I’m trying to keep our home intact as well. So, I kind of have a bit of that relationship to the whole thing. We both love him a lot, and I’m just trying to keep this train on the tracks.  I’m not allowed to leave the house we’re not playing. He’s gonna try to leap into. I don’t know a burning building to keep our home intact. So yeah. So we had a little bit of a different approach. But we have the same goal, and we both don’t tell him. But we both love this guy a lot.

 

Q) Will we ever get to see Colter in the same room as Velma and Teddy? And will we learn how they know each other, how they came to know each other? And last, what happened to Mary McDonnell and what’s the name of the actress who now plays Colter’s mom?

 

Ken: Yes. Yes, to those questions. The actress who now plays. Colter’s mother is Wendy Crusin. She’s fantastic. There were basically there were certain practical aspects to the character, and what we wanted to do going forward how much we would integrate that character into the storylines versus what we had originally thought when we did the pilot. And so the decision, which was mutual, was just this is a better situation. Economically. It’s a better situation for all of us that look this, the character, and the way we’re going to use her is changing. And so therefore it just made sense to change actors.

 

Q) Eric are you as tech savvy as Bobby is?

 

Eric: Oh, yeah. So, I spend most of my life working on hacking and putting, taking apart computers and stuff. No, Bobby, he’s yeah. He’s way smarter than I am, but I think that different skill set. Yeah, but I think, identify with them more on you know, it’s kind of street level. I like his humor definitely into a sense of fashion. That’s kind of my favorite thing about Bobby. But, yeah, I’m not the guy you call for computer stuff. I’m more of a dungeons and dragons kinda nerd.

 

Ken: I just have to tell you the character that we originally created was about 55 years old. Military guy. This kid came in and did an audition that was so brilliant. We changed everything. And, by the way. we didn’t have anywhere near as clear an idea of who this character was until you know Eric came along. I just love working with lights out. He’s awesome. I don’t like working with anybody else on the show.

 

Q) I know you guys have talked about that you’ve changed things from the book. But at the end of the day, you still have that book as a source material. Do you like that idea, or do you prefer when you’re creating a character to create your own Bible or to create your own backstory?

 

Justin: Good question. I like both. I think there are fun aspects of both. It’s great to have that source material, though, because week to week as we get these new episodes, new story, new guest stars, new set of circumstances, new job, whatever it might be you do have that source material. So, if you have an acting technique in a way I find that you barely ever use it. But the fact that it’s there gives you comfort. Right? So that source material as the stories change week to week. And like I said, new characters come on in new. I don’t want to call them cases, but new jobs, new set of circumstances. You have that source material. You always have that sort of in the back of your head. What would Colter do? And you use that source material? At least I do to decide for yourself. What would Colter do? Well, how would he react in this situation.

 

Q) Hey, Fiona, you have now played a lawyer on two CBS shows back to back. How does Reenie Green compare to Rebecca Lee?

 

Fiona: They’re completely different. They’re both lawyers, and they both are a little hard-headed and smart. But Reenie has a lot more fire. She’s got a lot more fire in her for sure. She’s sassy. She doesn’t take any of his bull. I think she likes to fight, and she doesn’t like to run away. And Rebecca was very much run away from her problems until the end.

 

Q) How would you describe Colter’s personality and his persistence to be a rewardist, since it’s such an odd career choice?

 

Justin: You know what I love about him? I think he’s a good man. He’s a good man, and he wants to do good things for people in need. And I think we talk a lot about how he’s a restless guy. He can go in and sort of help a situation. There’s an outcome, and then he leaves. He has a hard time like you were saying, running away. He has a hard time not running away. I don’t think he intentionally runs away. I just think how he is. He’s afraid of a lot of stuff, oddly enough. I think that’s why he finds he’s trying to fill this void that is probably unfillable. But he’s trying to fill it with these rewards and helping strangers. And, like Ken mentioned, he’s sort of created this family around him. Try to fill all these voids that, like I said, I don’t think he can fill and I also think at a surface level. I think he enjoys the action and the fun and the excitement, and not being tied down, and the freedom. But yeah, I think it’s definitely when you look at his past, his childhood, the way he was brought up, what happened to his father, the questions that he has about his family.  The paranoia that he was surrounded by when he was younger. And then you look at what he does as an adult, it all makes sense, and you go well that he’s a product of his environment, what happened to him as a youth.

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*