Episode Report Card 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT "I Really Appreciate What You Guys Do"
By Couch Baron | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 01.10.2006
CB: Yeah, I read the original pilot script, and Rob told me he originally intended it to be a cable show, so there was a lot of dark stuff in there that didn't make it to the network version. JD: Exactly. So yeah, it was intense. But I loved working with Kristen. Every test that we did, it was just like...just to look at her and bear down...it was great. CB: So what was working on a pilot like, as opposed to doing an episode of an established show? JD: So fucking exciting, man. My acting teacher told me a story about this one guy who couldn't get a job, but every time he would get close to a job, he would tell his friends and family, "I'm up for this thing," and then he wouldn't get it. So this one time my teacher told him not to tell anyone until he had a part, and he came back the next week and he'd booked something. I took that advice with the pilot -- I'd tested for a bunch of things and never done anything. When I got it, then I told everybody, and it was just so fucking cool. And I think about it -- if I had missed that audition, how different my whole life would have been. CB: You had a much longer shooting schedule for the pilot than you do for a normal episode, right? JD: Yeah, totally. But I remember shooting pretty full days, still. I think maybe we took a lot more time on each scene. But I only had three or four scenes in the whole thing, so it wasn't particularly Logan-heavy or anything. CB: Did you hang out on the set when you weren't filming? See what the show was all about? JD: Well, I had a good idea -- but I wound up going back to L.A. in the middle of it to do that Cold Case episode. So I was really working, actually. But I studied Rico -- I love that guy. Working with good actors is so fun -- that's all I want to do. CB: A lot of readers probably aren't totally familiar with what it's like working on a TV show -- the process of filming, doing six or eight takes just to get one scene, stuff like that. Describe your typical workday. JD: It can be anything from one scene, which I did yesterday morning -- I worked from 6:30 in the morning to 8:30 or 9 AM on one scene, and then had the rest of the week off except for tomorrow. So it's a two-day work week, which is very different from Kristen's schedule -- [she] works fourteen hours a day, every day. It depends how many scenes you're in, but I like it when I get a whole day of scenes, because I get into a rhythm, you know? I remember in the episode with Anthony Anderson ["Lord Of The Bling"], I had all these scenes at my house, and it was great -- a couple of days shooting all day, every day, and it was so fucking fun! I really get into it. And you will do several takes, or sometimes you'll do -- that scene where Veronica and I are kissing and we come through the door and talk about my mother, my mother's urn that has sea water in it, that whole scene is one shot.