Category Archives: Film Fodder

Not even Brodus Clay survives the extreme horror of “No One Lives”

Though he has become the fun-loving Funkasaurus in WWE, Brodus Clay has exhibited a more ruthless side over the course of his career. And in WWE Studios‘ latest film No One Lives, he plays the most intimidating member of a nomadic gang of killers and thieves who make an unexpected discovery in their latest victim’s contents. Though Clay does have a chance to display his physical prowess in this film, his character meets a gruesome fate that couldn’t have been predicted going into the movie. With the movie now in theaters, and Extreme Rules just a few days away, Clay talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about how he got the role of Ethan, seeing his violent demise on the big screen and who he hopes to face at this Sunday’s pay-per-view.

So, your first WWE Studios film is out. What did you think of the movie?

Brodus Clay (right) is surprisingly not the biggest threat in "No One Lives". Photo courtesy Anchor Bay Films.

I thought it was a lot of fun. It’s different. I like the fact that it’s a non-typical story where there’s not a definite hero and villain. It’s definitely a different style. I like the fact that it was done in a classic style with actual special effects, not a bunch of computer enhancement and stuff. So it takes you where you need to go.

I was surprised to see the direction the movie takes at a certain point, especially involving your character. You’re probably the most intimidating presence in the movie, so I didn’t expect to see you be one of the first victims.

It was important to show how extreme the so-called victim is. You have no idea what he’s capable of until you see what he does to Ethan.

In WWE it’s often said that one superstar gets under the skin or inside the head of his opponent. But in No One Lives those phrases are taken quite literally.

Yeah. To have a Caesarean section birth go down in the middle of the movie with two guys is something that’s never been done before. So it’s definitely extreme. The reaction of the people in the audience at the red carpet showings I’ve been to was, they were completely freaked out. Sometimes they clapped.

Well, they were probably clapping at how well done the special effects were.

The Funkadactyl harkens back to the thug persona he portrayed early in his WWE career in "No One Lives". Photo courtesy Anchor Bay Films.

I think that’s because it’s the traditional stuff. It can be refreshing to see that stuff because you don’t see it that much anymore. I don’t think computer graphics would have had the same effect.

What was it like for you to see yourself going through these torturous moments on the screen?

The whole process of making the body double was strange. I’d be sitting in a chair getting makeup or something and look over and see myself with a dead expression on my face. That kind of bothered me so I was always like, “Hey, can we throw a blanket over him or something? It’s weird.” I didn’t see any of it until I actually saw the movie, so when I saw how it all came together it was really disturbing. But I think that’s the reaction the director was going for.

The Brodus Clay we see in WWE these days is a fun-loving giant, but we have seen a more aggressive side from you going all the way back to your days in the developmental system. Did you revert back to some of those traits when you were playing this character?

A little bit. But I was never as violent of a character as Ethan is. He’s that classic bully and is very sadistic to the point that he’s pretty much untouchable. I tried to think of what other ruthless bad guys would be like, so I did draw from my previous personalities a little bit.

How were you chosen for this part? Were they looking specifically to cast someone from WWE?

I’m not sure of the specifics of it because I didn’t give them a chance to explain it to me. It was right after Extreme Rules 2011 and I had 13 staples in my head from being hit by a ladder while trying to stop Christian in his match against Alberto Del Rio. John Laurinaitis, who was the head of talent relations at the time, came down and was like, “Hey, Brodus. There’s this movie…” and I just said, “Yes!” He was like, “You didn’t let me finish.” And I was like, “No, I’ll do it.” Then he was like, “Do you want to know about it?” And I was like, “No, no, no. I’ll do it. I’m in.” Then they flew me out to California to get casted, which I thought was reading lines and stuff, then I realized it was getting dipped in chemicals, rubber and plastic and stuff.

Speaking of Extreme Rules, that event is coming up again this weekend. Do you know yet if you will be competing?

Not yet. We’ve had a few run-ins with the Rhodes Scholars and have been battling back and forth with them for the last couple of months. I’d like to see the end of that at Extreme Rules, but I’m not 100 percent sure yet.

Having now done a WWE Studios film, do you foresee yourself doing more acting in the future?

I would like to, given the opportunity. I’d like to try a different type of movie. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to do this one and see how it’s received. Hopefully there will be more projects for me down the line.

www.noonelivesthemovie.com

As “The Office” closes, “Peeples” offers Craig Robinson a new beginning

Leave a reply

After working his way up from secondary warehouse worker to a more prominent role on The Office, Craig Robinson has become one of the funniest guys in film with roles in Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Hot Tub Time Machine. And with the final episode of The Office airing next week, Robinson puts one part of his career behind him while another one begins. In the Tyler Perry-produced Peeples, Robinson has his first big-screen starring role as an aspiring musician named Wade, who finds out the hard way that his girlfriend (Kerry Washington) has yet to tell her parents about Wade. Co-starring David Alan Grier, Diahann Carroll and Tyler James Williams, Peeples provides plenty of comedic talent for Robinson to play off of. As the movie hits theaters, Robinson talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about The Office, his first starring role and his burgeoning musical career.

Now that The Office is wrapping up after nine years, how does it feel to see that coming to an end?

Craig Robinson as Wade in "Peeples". Photo by Nicole Rivelli.

It got put into perspective for me [recently]. I was at Jazz Fest and some girls were like, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I’ve been watching you from high school through college.” I was like, “Wow! That’s right. Somebody started high school and finished college watching The Office.” It’s an amazing and huge part of my life. It launched my career and opened unknown doors that I couldn’t have opened without it. I made some great friends and some great memories. I’m not sad about it because it’s like closing a chapter. I just shot a new sitcom and turned it in to NBC to see if they pick it up. I will miss a lot of things about The Office, but we had time to deal with it and be ready to move on. It’s taking us out very classy, too. The final episode is everything you expect from The Office: a lot of humor, a lot of heart, a lot of awkwardness. So I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.

How did you get this role in Peeples and how did you initially get your role in The Office?

With The Office I was called in to audition and I read one of those talking heads. It was actually one for Jim. I’m a huge fan of deadpan. That’s always been my thing, so The Office really just made sense. You got one paragraph to read and you just had to go with it. When I walked in, Greg Daniels was at the head of the room with about nine or ten other people. He said he had seen a video I did with Jerry Minor called “Somebody’s Fucking My Lady” and he was like, “It doesn’t get any funnier than that.” It was weird to hear that because now you’re thinking, “Oh, my God. This is mine to lose” as opposed to, “Let me go get it.”

When Craig Robinson found out he'd get to kiss Kerry Washington, he was ready to star in "Peeples". Photo by Nicole Rivelli.

Peeples was brought to me to meet with the director, Tina Gordon Chism. She’ll tell you that I fell asleep in the meeting, I say it was just a little catnap. We met again and she was so passionate and so cool. She’s a great person, and smart, and she painted a picture of what this movie was going to be. Then she said, “You get to kiss Kerry Washington,” and I was like, “Where do I sign?” Kerry is brilliant and naturally funny. This is not just my first leading role, it’s also Kerry’s first foray into comedy and Tina’s first time directing. We all, collectively, pushed this boulder of Peeples up a mountain and Kerry is so talented. She’s like this ultimate woman: she can act, she can sing, she can dance, she speaks different languages, she’s political. I can’t say enough good things about her.

With this being a first for so many people, do you think it made everyone work a little harder on the film?

I think it put everybody on the same page. David said it best when he said he wanted to be there for Tina because she was getting a thousand calls a day. Whatever we needed, we were there for each other. It was definitely an ensemble effort. If David Alan Grier throws out a line, you’re going to go, “Yeah. Let’s try that.” There was a lot of that and Tina was open for playing and we got some fun stuff out of that. For example, in the grocery store scene where I make all those references to old black people, I don’t even remember if there were references to start with. So once we started going with that we just listed them all until it overlapped into the next scene.

What was it like working with an icon like David Alan Grier?

Wade (Craig Robinson) looks for the acceptance of Virgil Peeples (David Alan Grier) in "Peeples". Photo by Nicole Rivelli.

He’s amazing. He was the father of the set, he owns every room he goes in and he was hysterical on cue. It’s one of the most amazing things you could witness and he’s one of the funniest dude on the planet. I was pushing for him to be the office manager when Steve Carell was leaving [The Office] because once we shot Peeples, I was like, “This would be amazing.” He’s absolutely great. He’s a great person and it’s hard to out silly me. I think he out sillies me.

Based on this film, or perhaps from personal experience, what advice would you give guys who are meeting their girlfriend’s parents for the first time?

Don’t show up unannounced and have a wallet that doesn’t fall out your pocket. Be yourself. I think that’s the tone of this whole movie. I like how Wade was true to himself no matter what, then he kept finding out all these secrets about everybody else. So be yourself and maybe tuck your shirt in and clean up before you go meet your (hopefully) wife’s parents.

Have you had any memorable fan moments?

When The Office first started I went to a Comic-Con in San Diego. But I didn’t go for The Office, I went for a movie I was in called Dragon Wars, which none of you know. Dragon Wars was directed by this Korean director named Shim Hyung-rae and he barely spoke English. So we had all these souvenir books with pictures of the cast and pictures of the big snakes from the movie. I was walking with these books and I wanted to put them down somewhere. They were nice, but I didn’t want to walk around Comic-Con with them. Then this girl walked up and you would have thought I was Michael Jackson or something. We took a picture, it was real sweet, then I handed her one of the books and said, “Here, take this.” She broke down and started crying, she was so overwhelmed. I was like, “That must be what Michael Jackson feels like.” It tripped me out. But nothing like that has happened since then.

Do you anticipate anything else like that now that you’re starring in your own film?

Anticipate? No. I don’t know. I always take things a little bit at a time. When I started out L.A., I had to figure out how to get auditions. So I was in that lane, then I got the auditions and scooted over to callbacks, then to getting the part. So just a little bit at a time.

It seems like a lot of these scenes would be hard to shoot because you’d be laughing so much. What were some of the more difficult scenes to shoot?

For me it was the Timex scene. I could not stop laughing. The ridiculousness of them showing me their watches, I got into a little bit of trouble about that. I’ll bet it was seven takes.

What do you do to not laugh at moments like that?

That’s when it’s best to avoid eye contact. Maybe look just above the eyebrows or something like that. You want to stay in character, but you also don’t want to laugh. It’s like being in church and laughing; as soon as somebody else laughs your like, “Augh!” I haven’t mastered that yet. My best thing is to just look at somebody’s forehead instead of directly in the eye.

In addition to your comedic acting, your musical talents were also employed in Peeples. How involved were in that process of this movie?

Robinson's musical talents played a big part in "Peeples". Photo by Nicole Rivelli.

My brother has a song in the movie, but the guy who wrote all the music is Stephen Bray. He wrote “Turn You On,” “Speak It (Don’t Leak It!)” and all that stuff. I just pretty much sang and they were nice enough to put one of my brother’s songs in the movie. It’s in the club scene, underneath, so you’ve got to be paying attention.

A lot of your roles have to do with music and you have a musical background. Do you actively pursue musical roles in films?

It’s just the opposite. Music is my partner, really. In my comedy act I use music and play keyboard and have a band and all that. But several roles, such as Hot Tub Time Machine, the producers came to see me perform and said, “Well, he’s a musician.” With Peeples, Tina was like, “We’re going to make him a musician. He uses music through therapy to help the kids and stuff.” So it’s kind of my partner.

Do you find that to be an asset?

Yeah. I wouldn’t be where I am without having that ability. It’s definitely an asset. One of the first times I ever did comedy without my keyboard, there was this competition. Three people in the audience had rubber chickens and if you got all three rubber chickens you had to get off stage. I got two and was like, “OK, goodnight!” My thought was, “I’m not getting a third one.” The next week I came back with my keyboard and I spun a web or something, I had them hypnotized.”

Will you be putting an album out anytime soon?

I don’t know when that album’s coming out, man. I’m definitely leaning towards that. But I’m tired of hearing myself say, “One of these days I’m going to put an album out.”

www.peeplesmovie.com

Colin Firth and Emily Blunt are living a lie in “Arthur Newman”

Leave a reply

Mike (Emily Blunt) and Arthur (Colin Firth) create new personas in order to feel real connections in "Arthur Newman". Photo courtesy Cinedigm.

You can’t have a midlife crisis without some extreme behavior. But when Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) grows weary of being in an unhappy relationship, looking for work and becoming progressively disconnected from his son and ex-wife, he goes to drastic lengths to leave his former life behind him and start anew. So drastic, in fact, that he creates Arthur Newman, a retired golfer ready to settle into the next phase of his fictitious career as a golf instructor at a Terre Haute country club. So he stages his own death, buys a Mercedes and begins a cross-country trek destined for a truly new life.

Not long after he sets out on this journey, Arthur meets a troubled younger woman named Michaela (Emily Blunt). Clearly having a very different kind of identity crisis of her own, Mike (as she prefers to be called) inadvertently offers just the type of adventure Arthur didn’t even realize he was looking for. While doing a good deed, Arthur and Mike find themselves breaking into the home of a newlywed couple and taking on two additional personas. This role playing becomes such a thrill for Arthur and Mike that they continue fantasizing about being other people while having sex in the homes of these anonymous couples. As their bizarre methods of finding themselves continue, the two grow emotionally closer to one another as each learns more about the other.

There is some truth to the fantasies in "Arthur Newman". Photo courtesy Cinedigm.

While Arthur’s escape from reality is based on problems that are pretty typical of men of his age, Mike is running from things that are much harder to remedy. Having taken on the persona of hew twin sister, a paranoid schizophrenic currently locked away in a mental hospital, there’s more to Mike than Arthur probably wants to know. But he finds out soon enough when he wakes up one day to find that not only is Mike gone, but so is the bag of cash he’s been using to fund his trip. After Mike turns herself in, however, Arthur bails her out and they continue on their way. Seems like a stupid move on Arthur’s part until you remember that he’s a boring middle-aged man who’d probably like to continue having sex with this beautiful younger women, no matter how twisted the scenario might be. Plus, the fact that Mike, who he now knows is a kleptomaniac, felt some sort of regret after stealing his money indicates that maybe she’s changing for the better.

Just when it seems that Arthur and Mike’s fantasies are about to become reality, all of their lies are exposed, leaving them to sort through the shortcomings they’ve been trying to cover up. But they’ve discovered a good bit about themselves, thanks largely to their paths unexpectedly crossing. Realizing what they really need to do in order to find true happiness, they’re both able to find peace despite what would otherwise have seemed like a frivolous adventure.

www.arthur-newman.com

The Rock and Wahlberg flex their slapstick muscles in “Pain & Gain”

Leave a reply

The Rock gets in a little cardio in "Pain & Gain". Photo by Jaimie Trueblood.

I am not a Michael Bay fan. That being said, I go into most of his movies with very low expectations and am sometimes pleasantly surprised. Though The Rock‘s track record as a Hollywood actor is not dissimilar to Bay’s directorial achievements (both are responsible for large box office draws thanks to a certain charisma, despite the fact that most of their films are amusingly terrible), somehow the idea of seeing the former WWE Champion star alongside Mark Wahlberg as two Miami bodybuilders has a certain appeal to it.

I was surprised to find that Pain & Gain is based on a true story, which has created a bit of controversy due to the fact that the death and dismemberment of real people in the ’90s is turned into a comical crime caper fueled by cocaine, partying and other excesses. While those close to the victims have every right to be offended by Pain & Gain (and not for the reasons that make most of Bay’s movies offensive), that doesn’t make the movie any less entertaining for the rest of us. In fact, from a completely objective point of view, Pain & Gain could be Bay’s best movie yet, with the right balance of absurdist comedy, visual flair and the T&A (and hard-bodied male leads) that have come to define Bay’s films.

Well, there has to be at least one explosion, right? Photo by Jaimie Trueblood.

One of the biggest reasons Pain & Gain seems to make an extra effort to be more than just another Michael Bay movie is the acting muscle being flexed. The Rock and Wahlberg are joined by Anthony Mackie, who has become one of Hollywood’s best supporting actors with recent roles in The Adjustment Bureau, Real Steel, Man on a Ledge and Gangster Squad. And with Ed Harris playing the detective that’s onto their hustle, and Tony Shalhoub as the rich businessman that becomes the target of their extortion tactics, it would have been hard to screw this one up. I don’t even recall very many explosions in Pain & Gain, which must mean Bay took this film pretty seriously.

In place of explosions, however, is a moderate dose of blood and gore. But even the exaggerated blood spatter comes across more as slapstick than Dexter-like gruesomeness. Pain & Gain‘s strongest point is probably the dialogue (something Bay, The Rock and Wahlberg are all good at), with almost every line being delivered as if it’s the most important one-liner in the film. Sure, it’s all a bit excessive and ridiculous. But it is a Michael Bay movie (starring The Rock) after all, so that is to be expected. But without complicated stories about alien robots fighting for control of the planet or an asteroid on a collision course with the planet (ie, things that go “boom!”), Bay manages to focus on his other flashy extravagances, which makes for a film that’s entertaining without being completely contemptible.

www.painandgainmovie.com

Ray McKinnon offers stark and quirky look at New South with “Rectify” and “Mud”

Leave a reply

Aden Young stars in Ray McKinnon’s “Rectify”. Photo by James Minchin III

Whether it was his Academy Award-winning 2001 short film The Accountant, his ominous performance as Reverend Smith on HBO‘s violent Western series Deadwood or his more recent appearances on Sons of Anarchy and in the Footloose remake, Ray McKinnon has a simple Southern charm that adds depth to anything he works on. This week sees his range of talents being utilized on screens big and small as his New Southern Gothic series Rectify premieres on the Sundance Channel April 22, followed by the theatrical release of Jeff Nichols‘ Mud on April 26. Though McKinnon plays a different role in each project (he’s the creator and writer for Rectify and plays the father of a Huckleberry Finn-like adolescent in Mud), the parallels between the two are hard to ignore.

Rectify revolves around Daniel Holden (Aden Young), a man exonerated of a rape and murder for which he has spent 19 years on death row. Like a cross between Twin Peaks and the West Memphis Three story, Rectify shows Daniel’s struggles to adjust to the modern world after spending most of his life in a cinder block cell that offers no concept of time or reality as most of us know it. (At one point, another character in Rectify even refers to Daniel as Starman, referring to the 1984 John Carpenter film about an alien who crashes to Earth and has a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings.)

“In some ways Being There is an archetypal story that appeals to me, and Daniel is a little bit like Chance the Gardener at times,” said McKinnon at last month’s Atlanta Film Festival premiere for Rectify. “But Chance never changed, that’s part of his story. I’m interested in a lot of social and psychological issues as a curious human being, so I’m interested in sociopaths, are they born or made, is Daniel one or not? I’m interested in narcissism, family dynamics and how systems can convict people who, when you look at the evidence you wonder how that happened, and the group psychology that’s involved, like how a group of people can convince each other that this is the right thing to do. So I wanted to explore that and there are a lot of elements I’m interested in in the world. Like Mad Men, this is, in some ways, an examination of private lives and sometimes we see things in our story that even the characters aren’t aware they’re showing or doing. I like stories like that.”

Daniel (Aden Young) is fascinated by the simplest things in Ray McKinnon’s “Rectify”. Photo by Blake Tyers.

In Mud, McKinnon portrays an aging Southern man whose stubbornness to accept the changes happening around him creates similar problems to the ones Daniel faces in Rectify.

“Senior is an anachronism,” McKinnon said of his character prior to the Atlanta Film Festival screening of Mud. “He’s kind of of another time, but times have changed and he’s not dealing with it very well. His son, who is changing with the times, helps bring him along. He’s a sad character in some ways, but he changes and I see a good life for him and his son in the future. I know [Jeff] as a friend and he claims he wrote this character for me, so there was a lot of pressure. I didn’t want to disappoint him. He’s a very assured director, he knows what he wants and we had a good time together. I always try to enjoy myself and he made me a better actor.”

Though his role in Mud (which stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) is as a supporting cast member, he represents the mindset of many people along Mud‘s Mississippi River landscape, as well as many of the citizens of Rectify‘s Paulie, Ga.

“[Jeff] claims that he stole the idea [for Mud] from Mark Twain in a very broad way, but it’s a modern film,” says McKinnon. “It’s a story about the 21st century South and the changes that are going on along the Mississippi River and the people who can’t change with it. In some ways it has universal and ageless themes, but it’s also a 21st century story about the South.

Ray McKinnon plays Senior in Jeff Nichols’ “Mud”. Photo by James Bridges.

“We as a bigger society – and certainly the South is a more magnified hyper version sometimes of the bigger society – want order in our world,” he says of Rectify. “We want to believe that if a bad guy does something he’s going to be punished for that. Sometimes the pressure for that from society causes the wrong people to be convicted. It also causes people who believe in that conviction to have a psychological unwillingness to change their belief system, to turn around and say, ‘Maybe I was wrong’ or ‘Maybe I saw this the wrong way.’ You see that throughout both sides of the political aisle where you have a belief system and you’ll be damned if you’re going to believe anything different.”

With both of these projects being released within just a few days of one another, audiences have multiple ways to experience McKinnon’s quirky take on a South that he is very much a part of. And McKinnon couldn’t be more satisfied and proud to see these projects (particularly Rectify, his own creation) coming to fruition.

“Getting older and seeing how fortunate I am to be doing what I love to do I really appreciate things more,” he says “I live more in gratitude and a little less in fear. For some reason, these two projects that I care so much about [are coming out] at the same time, so I’m just planning on enjoying and savoring it. I was fortunate enough to be in Jeff’s movie and doing this show has been beyond my wildest imagination of things to explore. So I feel full in the best way.”

www.sundancechannel.com/series/rectify

www.mud-themovie.com

Jayson Warner Smith’s Southern roots blossom in “42,” “Rectify” and more

Leave a reply

Jayson Warner Smith as Wendell Jelks in "Rectify". Photo by Blake Tyers.

You may not recognize his name yet, but if you watch movies or television at all you may have seen Jayson Warner Smith a time or two. He played a police officer in 2011’s Footloose remake and has a small role as a gas station attendant in 42, the new film based on the life of Jackie Robinson. But when the Sundance Channel debuts its first original series Rectify on April 22, Smith’s acting skills will be showcased on almost a weekly basis as he plays an inmate named Wendell Jelks, who resides miserably in the cell next to Daniel Holden (Aden Young), the show’s main character.

While Daniel takes a more meditative approach to serving his prison sentence, Wendell is a bitter man who wants to make sure that everyone around him is just as despondent as he is.

“I wake up every day and decide what I can do to mess with these guys today,” Smith said prior to Rectify‘s red carpet premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival last month. “That’s basically my job. The six episodes basically encompass the first seven days of Daniel’s life after he gets out of prison. He’s locked up for 19 years from the age of 18 to 37 and he’s dealing with all the things that have happened over the last 20 years that you and I would take for granted. My part is all flashbacks from when he was in The Pen – total isolation, death row, every day we could die.”

During several flashbacks that take place during the first few episodes, Wendell is like the devil on one of Daniel’s shoulders while Johnny Ray Gill provides a more positive outlook from Daniel’s other adjacent cell. The show, which was shopped around for several years, is set in a small Georgia town not far from Smith’s hometown of Atlanta. And when show creator Ray McKinnon started holding auditions, Smith knew he wanted to be involved with the show.

Photo by Blake Tyers.

“The nice part was Ray wrote this amazing script three or four years ago,” says Smith. “It got shopped around and was at AMC or a while, then at HBO, then Walton Goggins was going to be the star, then he got on Justified, and now here we are. Ray’s a big believer in doing it real, doing it right and doing it here. I’m an Atlanta native, I’ve lived here all my life, I’ve been acting since I was nine years old. Ray and I have known each other for years and I heard about the audition and called my agent and said, ‘Why am I not reading for this?’ She said, ‘You don’t really fit that part.’ I said, ‘No, I’m going to read for this.’ Ray called me in and spent an hour with me helping me prepare for my final audition for the producers. So I guess he believed in me and I want to kiss him on the lips every time I see him. It’s been a great opportunity.”

You can also see Smith in BET‘s Being Mary Jane, out later this spring, and Anchorman: The Legend Continues, due to hit theaters this December.

www.jaysonsmith.com

Joshua Sasse and Leah Gibson go “Rogue” with new DirecTV series

Leave a reply

As has been proven by HBO, Showtime and AMC, television viewers are more than willing to turn to cable channels rather than network stations for riveting programming. And on April 3, DirecTV takes things one step further with the premiere of Rogue, it’s first original series debuting on its Audience Network. Rogue stars Thandie Newton (ER, Crash) as an undercover cop who gets sucked into the criminal underworld while trying to figure out who is responsible for the drive-by that inadvertently killed her son. While her dedication to this vigilante crusade creates problems in every aspect of her life, Rogue gradually reveals similar nuances within the lives of the other characters, giving the show a depth not often seen in cop dramas. And given the often violent and graphic nature of the crime business, when we see into the lives of these criminals and the dirty cops that are after them, we really see what makes these people who they are.

Joshua Sasse and Leah Gibson are two of the up-and-coming stars of DirecTV's "Rogue".

Some of the more polarizing characters are Alec (Joshua Sasse), the eldest son of gang leader Jimmy Laszlo (Marton Csokas), and his wife Cathy (Leah Gibson), who have a home life that is pretty normal considering Alec often goes around killing people in rather brutal fashion. After getting a preview of the first few episodes of Rogue, Wrestling with Pop Culture got to talk to Sasse and Gibson about being part of this innovative new show.

Based on what you’ve seen of the show and the reaction you’ve gotten at promotional screenings, how do you expect viewers to react to Rogue?

Sasse: Based on what we’ve seen already, our expectations are pretty high. The show hasn’t come out yet and we’ve already reached 46 million people, and 2,000 people are liking it a day on Facebook. For a show that hasn’t even aired yet, that’s pretty unprecedented. That combined with the response we’ve had in person at the screenings and from all the reporters who have seen the show, it’s been very, very positive. So our expectations are very high.

Given the fact that there are no huge stars in this show and most of you are relatively unknown, what do you think will attract people to this show initially?

Sasse: It’s much more interesting to an audience to have breakout stars than it is to have established stars rehashing what we’ve seen before. I think Thandie’s decision to move into TV is a really interesting and bold one that is going to pay off.

Gibson: But Thandie is very well loved and very well respected in Hollywood for her past work, so it’s great to see her in a dynamic role like this.

Based on what you’ve done previously, Leah, Rogue seems to cover grittier subject matter than what you might be used to. What attracted you to this role and how did you like being part of something unlike your previous roles?

Leah Gibson plays Cathy, the wife of a high-ranking crime family member, in "Rogue".

Gibson: Oh, yes. This is very different from anything I’ve worked on before. I’m Canadian, so I’ve been working out of Vancouver filming TV for the last six or seven years. I grew as an actor working on indies and that can be a gritty process because there are no real boundaries on indie film. But being that this is DirecTV’s first original scripted show, and being that the medium is cable TV, they were able to take a brilliantly-written script and a great story and express it without the boundaries and limitations that you would see in network television. To be a part of this new front with DirecTV has been an exciting process.

I haven’t really seen much of you previously, Joshua. How did you get involved with Rogue and how does it compare to what you’ve done previously?

Sasse: You haven’t seen much of me because I’ve done mainly theater. I trained classically and worked the last 11 years doing theater in England. I mean, that’s my main love. For me, making the decision to move to TV – especially American TV – was massive because the saturation that you get can be life changing. There’s a seven-story building with my face on it L.A., so it really changes your life. In the theater maybe 150 people see me and now 150,000, or whatever it is, pass by that building every day. So it’s a really big decision and the reason I did it was the writing. To be able to portray the hothead in a crime family on a U.S. TV show isn’t something I wanted to pass up. I’ve got such scope to create something new and original and, hopefully, lasting. That’s what any actor wants. When the script landed on my desk and I read it, I was actually filming a feature in the Czech Republic at the time called Frankenstein’s Army and I thought I had missed the boat and wouldn’t be able to do it. And three months later they still hadn’t cast. They were searching across the whole of Europe and the U.K., the whole of the United States, so I was really lucky that they liked my work and gave me the job.

Do you know why they were searching in Europe for such an American role?

Sasse: Because there’s a lot of talent coming out of Europe – France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Spain. How many Oscar winners have come from Europe in the last few years? Javier Bardem, Jean Dujardin – there’s an incredible lot of talent there and I think that’s a well that anyone would seek to draw from.

Your characters seem secondary during the first episode, but develop a little more as the series goes on. What can you reveal about where these characters go, without giving too much away?

Joshua Sasse (left) plays Alec, the oldest son of a crime boss in "Rogue".

Sasse: The thing that’s interesting is that the four co-leads – Matthew Beard, myself, Marton and Thandie – have a real strong development through all those characters’ plots. Mine and Leah’s dynamic is obviously a very prominent one; I’m the eldest son of this crime family and we represent the future there. We really wanted to grow that and sort of bring the audience along, because we do represent the humanity of the crime family. I think that’s what’s really challenging the audience’s morality. Are we good or are we bad? You see Alec doing these incredibly dark things, then he’s going home and he’s got this loving family, this 4-year-old daughter he’s besotted with and he’s an incredibly caring, loving, loyal man. Seeing the two sides of somebody like that really puts things into question. I think that’s what this show is all about is what’s good and what’s bad.

Gibson: There’s an interesting profile for all the characters from the beginning to the end of the show. They’re all motivated by different things and they’re all trying to find answers and struggling with certain things. All of them change and grow and stumble along the way, so I think it’s an interesting journey for all of the characters in that they’re all on a very dynamic arc.

Sasse: That’s always the question when you go home with a character, isn’t it? You look at some of the detectives like Mitch and Ian Hart’s character and when you see what’s happening behind closed doors you suddenly feel for them so much more. You want to pull for them and you want them to do well, you want us to do well and it’s hard to figure out who you’re going to root for. I think that really keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.

One thing that strikes me about Rogue is that it’s very macho subject matter, yet the main character is a female and the other female characters have prominent roles in what happens. How do you think that balance was struck while making the show?

Gibson: I just like that it’s an interesting take on the crime world. It’s a cop show in a modern-day mafia mob world, but there’s so much more to it. Thandie’s role typically would be a male’s role, yet she’s a mother that’s lost her son and is grieving, and has a family that is struggling to stay together. It’s rooted in heart. It’s not all action and guns, but it’s a very human story. The female energy in the show kind of grounds it into a softer place that shows a different side of the coin.

This is DirecTV’s first original series and there seems to be a growing trend of non-traditional outlets presenting original material. Where do you think that means things are going for TV, with people now going to these non-traditional venues for entertainment?

Joshua Sasse (left) is one of the co-leads in "Rogue".

Sasse: This tradition that’s built clearly wasn’t working for what the audience really wanted. Content is so important and media is so easily accessible to people – whether it’s computer games or feature films on demand – the graphic content of what we’re watching is so hard that, were it not on TV, which it wasn’t, people would go through a period of chronic dissatisfaction with what they are being supplied. They’re paying for this television and what DirecTV wanted to do was just start breaking new ground and take their gloves off. They had the opportunity to do whatever they wanted and I think they’ve chosen a script that really is an amazing vehicle for them to do it. We want people to be entertained, and art mirrors life in that respect. If the glass is frosty we’re not going to be able to see the clear picture. Whether it’s the sexual content, the violent content or even the dramatic content, we’re able to do whatever we need to do to tell the truth and be honest in that situation. I hate watching shows and seeing people have sex with their clothes on or not swearing or not hitting each other properly. All that stuff is clouding and then I’m not hooked and I don’t believe it and I’m not on the edge of my seat. I think if people are paying for television they deserve that quality and it’s important to deliver that.

Gibson: Given the nature of where some of the writing goes and what was demanded of us as actors, I had my questions and had to make my own decisions as an actor because I had never done things of this nature before. But it really all came down to just wanting to honor the character in the most truthful way and knowing that all of us were in this venture together with DirecTV and we were really breaking new ground with it. So it’s been very exciting to be part of this TV show that there’s been nothing like on TV so far.

Things do get pretty graphic very early on in the series for your characters. Was there anything that was difficult for you to do even though you knew it might be best for the show or the character?

Leah Gibson and Joshua Sasse live well at the expense of others in "Rogue".

Sasse: There are a lot of things in this TV series that the audience is going to see that have never been shown on television before, not just in the U.S., but anywhere. When you’re the first one through the fence, you’ve got to get a little bit dirty sometimes. We were all very aware that what we were doing was very groundbreaking and I think we all just knew that and went into it with our arms open and took that challenge on. We all had an incredible faith in the producers and writers, who were present on the set at all times. DirecTV gave us an incredible amount of freedom and leeway to do what we needed to do, so all that was left was for us to have trust and faith in each other. We’re actors at the end of the day, so we try to not have any limitations and have a bit of fun with it. You try and treat it as any other scene. Whether it’s violence or sex or whatever, it’s all there for a reason. We’re not just putting it there as a tagline for the show. It serves a purpose, it’s telling part of the story and that affects the way the actors view it. It’s not just gratuitous or grotesque.

You mentioned that you were filming a movie when you first heard about Rogue. When will that be out?

Sasse: Frankentstein’s Army is a new horror film that Momentum is releasing and it comes out in a couple of weeks at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It’s really exciting because all the special effects were done by The Lord of the Rings team, so it was a new venture for them, as well.

Leah, do you have any other projects coming out in the near future?

Gibson: Yeah, I do. I have a miniseries that I filmed over the summer called Eve of Destruction that will be out April 15 on Reelz. I just finished filming a movie called Crook with a Canadian filmmaker named Adrian Langley.

www.directv.com/rogue