QUESTIONER: [Something about the airing schedule]
PAUL: They’re gonna air all thirteen or fourteen of these that we just did and then there’s gonna be a month, I think they’re gonna start rerunning stuff and then they’re going to air the new nine that we’re gonna do through… November? December? (to Vince) You don’t know this, do you?
VINCE: No.
PAUL: Because you don’t know this stuff. You’re just invisible. And then we find out around October or November if we go for a second season. It’s up to you guys! Are you guys watching the show? <applause> How many have seen the show? <applause> That’s so cool!
QUESTIONER: Could each of you tell something about him or herself?
EDDIE: Uh… what can I really tell you about me?
FAN: What about “Lois and Clark”?
<applause>
VINCE: All right!
EDDIE: “Lois and Clark” was very enjoyable. I enjoyed being on that show and I liked the cast very much. I can’t tell you much more than that. It was a good experience.
PAUL: How long did you do it for Eddie?
EDDIE: Four years.
PAUL: Did you have fun?
<laughter>
PAUL: How much money did you make?
<laughter>
EDDIE: Not enough… never enough!
PAUL: Did you ever make out with Lois Lane in your dressing room?
<laughter>
EDDIE: Yes I did. Problem is she doesn’t know it.
<laughter>
PAUL: He was invisible!
NEW QUESTIONER: What other shows…
FIRST QUESTIONER: No, no, wait. My question was…
VINCE: You’re not done?
QUESTIONER: I was hoping each of you could tell me about himself or herself.
PAUL: Well, you gotta be specific.
VINCE: I’m Vincent Ventresca.
<laughter>
QUESTIONER (laughingly): Well, I know that. Maybe a little about your acting backgrounds.
VINCE: Oh, okay. This is like the fourth television series I’ve done. I did another show called “Prey” for ABC. <applause> I did a show called “Boston Common” for NBC. <applause> Then I did a show called “Medicine Ball” for FOX which came on the same year that “ER” and “Chicago Hope” did. <applause>
PAUL: And he was Fun Bobby on “Friends”.
<applause>
VINCE: And I was Fun Bobby on “Friends”. But that’s like what I’ve been doing as an actor… that’s what you mean, right?
QUESTIONER: Yeah, yeah.
VINCE: Go Paul.
PAUL: What do you wanna know? <laughter> Gimme a break.
QUESTIONER: They typecast you as such a nice guy.
PAUL: Yeah?
<lots of audience murmuring and general confusion>
PAUL: Anybody… questions?
VINCE: Tell them what you’ve done. Paul’s been on a lot of movies.
PAUL: Recently, I was Moe in “The Three Stooges”, if anybody saw that. <applause> Um…oh…um… did anyone see “Drowning Mona” this year with Danny DeVito? I was in that. <applause> Uh… uh… “A Civil Action” last year, I was in that. A movie called “True Romance”. <applause>
[My tape stopped at this point for some reason, so I don’t have Shannon’s part (if she even gave her credits… Paul kept trying to get a new question :)]
The QUESTIONER Asked a question regarding the direction of the relationships in the show.
VINCE: Do we know?
PAUL: She wants to know where the sexual tension of the show is going to go.
SHANNON: I think it’s an interesting relationship, the concept of a keeper and the kept. In my opinion it’s pretty sexually charged anyway. So, I don’t know, I think it’ll be really fascinating to see where they take it. I have no idea.
VINCE: No, we really don’t know yet. I mean we’re shooting episode number twelve and I don’t think that’s really been decided yet.
QUESTIONER: My first question is about the pilot. I must confess, I haven’t seen them all.
VINCE: S’okay.
PAUL: Flog him!
<laughter>
QUESTIONER: I saw the pilot, then a couple episodes later and I noticed the ex-fiance sort of disappeared.
VINCE: Casey, yeah.
QUESTIONER: And there’s no mention of the brother, like in the preview…
PAUL: Stay tuned!
VINCE: Yeah well that… you’ll hear about that. Yeah, that comes around.
QUESTIONER: Is the brother abandoned?
VINCE: No, the brother is definitely not abandoned. But I think… I… (at this point he and Paul whispered to each other, nodded and then Vince shushed Paul)
SHANNON: There was a small mention of the fiancé in the first episode. Just briefly, I mention to Darien that if he goes quicksilver mad that he’ll drive everybody away like he drove her away. But it was pretty fleeting, so you could’ve missed it.
VINCE: I think they cut that, actually.
SHANNON: Oh.
VINCE: I don’t think that was in the final…
SHANNON (laughingly): I must not have delivered it very well.
VINCE: No,no. There was a line that alluded to it in the first episode but then it just said that… it said… I can’t remember what the words were but essentially she left me because she couldn’t deal with my invisibility. <laughter> I think that’s why they cut it out.
And then actually I’m shooting a scene on Monday that talks of or references Casey.
But then in “Ralph” there’s the line that all the women in my life leave me and I think that Casey was, in a sense, just another one of those women.
QUESTIONER: So far, all we’ve seen is [something I can’t make out] the good side. I was wondering if, down the line, there will be some stories… maybe this would be too parallel with “Hollow Man” or whatever… are you going to be exploiting that as it goes along, more of that personality coming on?
VINCE: You mean like a darker personality?
QUESTIONER: Yeah, cause right now that side of you doesn’t have much personality, it’s just kind of a raving lunatic.
VINCE: Right. No, I agree with that and yeah, we are gonna start dealing with that a little more. Because that’s, for me personally, I think that’s what’s really interesting about the show is that, you know, Darien… if you were invisible, you could do a lot of good stuff and you could do a lot of bad stuff and we see him ultimately make the right decision a lot and I’m not sure he’s always gonna be making those right decisions because, you know, he’s a human being. So, I think we will see that.
SHANNON: There’s that great line in… I just saw the preview for “Hollow Man” where they say it’s amazing what you can do when you don’t see yourself in the mirror.
PAUL: Yes, young lady.
QUESTIONER: In regards to some of the special effects, how long or what type of make-up do you have to endure when they do any of the special effects?
VINCE: It’s just… it’s mostly humiliating because you just…
PAUL: He had to walk around in this red leotard, running around the streets of San Diego.
VINCE: Yeah, and they had a big red wig on me. You never know how big your hair is until they make a red wig to match it. And then I put it on and I look like, you know, the old Ronald McDonald guy walkin’ around <laughter>. Then the only other part that’s a little bit hard is the… I have to wear contacts sometimes and that gets a little tricky like dust getting in there and stuff. But the special effects are sort of challenging and it’s hard but it’s kind of exciting because we’re sort of a new show and we’re kind of trying to figure out… that’s one thing we want to do on a weekly basis is try to explore some new way to be invisible. And Gerard and I and whoever’s the guest director and whoever’s in the scene… we’re there and we kind of know what we’re going to do, but not til you get on the set do you really figure out how you’re gonna exactly do it. So, that’s one of the things that I really like about the show is like we’ve got a game plan but it’s not like solid with the invisibility. So, we get there and Gerard’s like… he usually gives us some parameters like “don’t do this, don’t do that” and then you can do whatever you want within that. And then we just shoot it and then they take it away and so far it’s come out pretty well.
The QUESTIONER asked something about syndication.
PAUL: We’re on UPN on Sundays down here and I think around the country on other stations.
QUESTIONER: So, you’ve got other markets aside from cable?
VINCE: Yeah. That’s one thing that’s… I’d never heard of that before, a cable television show that was being syndicated simultaneously. And, you know, obviously one of the benefits of that is if you don’t have a cable box then hopefully you get it at a local affiliate. But yeah, I heard it’s in 53% of the markets currently and they’re hoping to get it to like 78% of the markets within the next three months.
PAUL: Yes sir?
QUESTIONER: This is for Eddie Jones. Your character is starting to loosen up a little bit and actually has a first name. Are you going to explore that with your colleagues there or…
EDDIE: Yeah, I think that will develop. As far as the name that was named… as far as I’m concerned, that was an alias too. <laughter> Definitely an alias and I think he has…
PAUL: We didn’t know.
VINCE (laughingly): I didn’t know that, I thought he was Charlie.
EDDIE: Now you know. I’m sure he has at least 7 or 8 social security cards <laughter> and various and sundry bank accounts. As far as being loose, I’m not quite sure what you mean.
QUESTIONER: Well he seems…
EDDIE: He’s not so stiff?
QUESTIONER: Yeah. The character seems to be a little bit more reflective. I’m talking about the last episode I saw. You seem a little bit more reflective then you come back and boom, you get really stiff and manipulative again. I like that in a character. <laughter>
EDDIE: Yeah, thank you. Though I think, as previously mentioned, we’ll get to know these characters, all of us, even more and, as you say, loosening up. I think we’ve already learned some of that as far as my character is concerned. Probably we will have many other situations coming down the pipe that we, as actors, will be able to explore and some of that will be much looser, I’m sure.
QUESTIONER: When do we find out more about Hobbes’ character [something I can’t make out] past with other agencies?
PAUL: When do you?
QUESTIONER: Yes.
PAUL: (pauses) I’m terrible at these questions. I don’t know. (To Vince) Do we find out anything? Oh wait.
VINCE: Yeah, we find out something…
PAUL: You tell ‘em. You tell ‘em.
VINCE: Well, I’m not positive…
SHANNON: [something about it being secret]
VINCE: Oh that’s right, in one that’s coming up like in three episodes I think you learn a little bit more about it.
NETWORK WOMAN: You’ll just have to tune in and watch. <laughter>
VINCE: Yeah, I don’t think there’s been an episode that’s dealt with that subject exactly but there’s usually a couple of lines that sort of leave a little bit of information. It sort of has remained that way but they get a little more specific as we go.
PAUL: I don’t really know my character at all. <laughter>
VINCE: I mean I think I said something last night that you’ve been kicked out of every agency…
PAUL: Right!
VINCE: there is Hobbes, right? Let’s face it, this is it for you.
PAUL & VINCE simultaneously:
PAUL: I… I… VINCE: I don’t know how…
VINCE: Go ahead.
PAUL: No, you’re right. I don’t know how specific they get, you know. I think in the pilot I say I was in Kuwait and… uh… FBI… in the “Ralph” episode the guy said I got kicked out of the FBI for pill poppin’ or something, I don’t know what <laughter>. I just show up. <laughter>. I just show up and talk to these guys <laughter>.
SHANNON: But I think gradually all the characters, the underbelly of all our pasts which I think is kind of light and dark as well, is in every episode… you learn a little bit more and more. And then, as the episodes go on, we all start to interact in different ways which reveals our pasts, which I think is great.
EDDIE: Yeah, if ever there was a dysfunctional family, I think this is it! <laughter> We’re clinging together by our finger nails.
QUESTIONER: I have a question about the government agency you guys are working for. It seems that you haven’t defined really what it is. Like in the trailer you said, “from monsters to Canadian Nationals”, where is that going?
VINCE: I think the ambiguity is, in a sense, specific. That’s the way it’s supposed to be in a way. Do you mean specifically Canadian Nationals?
QUESTIONER: No, I’m saying, are you guys gonna define…
PAUL: Are you Canadian?
<laughter>
QUESTIONER: No… uh…
VINCE: Okay, what were you saying?
QUESTIONER: I was just wondering if you’re going more toward the X-File-ish monsters or one side or the other of the two things or are you gonna flip-flop?
VINCE: Do you mean as far as the tone of the show?
QUESTIONER: Yeah.
VINCE: And subject matter? I think the way it was originally conceived, and I think we’re sort of sticking to this plan, is the idea of… maybe this is what “X-Files” is, I’m not sure… it’s the truth being stranger than fiction in a way. That they’re all sort of maybe possible which, from what I understand, the invisibility is that way.
QUESTIONER: Two parts. So now you’re with supposedly Game and Fish.
VINCE: Fish and Game.
QUESTIONER (laughingly): Fish and Game, okay. So, is there gonna be like… uh… maybe next season it’s gonna be a completely different company or, you know, agency that you’re under and that way you can change, you know…
EDDIE: Well, I think it was mentioned recently in one of the scripts that we were under the Education Department at one time.
<laughter>
VINCE: And it was in the Parks Department.
EDDIE: But basically I think Fish and Game is the final destination of the agency. Here to stay!
QUESTIONER: The second part was, I was wondering, each one of you, what your favorite, all five, what your favorite shows were so far. I’d have to say mine was, not the one last night, but the one last week where you finally get to see The Keeper… doing her little dance.
SHANNON: Oh yeah.
VINCE: I’ll agree with you, that was my favorite!
EDDIE: I haven’t seen it and it’s still my favorite one!
<laughter>
VINCE: No, but seriously that’s my favorite one as far as the science fiction element of it, the reality of it, the human part of it. I just thought it was the best sort of embodiment of what I thought the show should be. I thought it was kind of cool and hip and yet old fashioned in a way, if that makes any sense. What was your favorite, Paul?
PAUL: Uh… what?
QUESTIONER: What I was going to ask is… the character of Darien, later on down the line is he still going to be beholden to the agency or is he going to have a chance to have a choice, is he going to stay or go, it’s up to him type thing, because right now he’s just like a lab rat?
VINCE: (pointing to Eddie) He’s the boss.
EDDIE: I think The Official will hang onto Darien forever and ever, or as long as he can. I don’t see any way out for that relationship. I can’t even think of any possibilities.
VINCE: The idea of Darien… the guy who made him, Matt Greenberg, he sort of saw Darien as the star quarterback, the guy drafted by a losing team, in a sense. And I think The Official thinks they’ve got this guy that can put them on the map. And I think, will he ultimately have a choice whether he goes or stays? I don’t know. It’s a tricky thing because if they’re too lenient with Darien then he would go away and then the ramifications of that are that he may not get the shot.
QUESTIONER: Actually, I have another question. The guy that was in the episode last night…
VINCE: Luke Lawson.
QUESTIONER: Is he gonna come back and wreak a little havoc with you guys maybe?
EDDIE: I don’t know.
PAUL: He hasn’t yet.
VINCE: Yeah, you guys gotta understand, we know about as much as you guys. We get scripts and then we’ll go ‘oh, that’s interesting’. <laughter> But I watched last night’s episode, I just caught the end of it and I thought the same thing, that I really liked that character. I thought it was interesting, the dilemma and how complex the character was. And I’ll tell you my opinion, and this may not be the truth at all, we talk a lot about the show “Batman” when we’re shooting the show. Not so much exactly stylistically, but not exactly not. There were elements of that show that I loved and one of the things that I really loved about it was that a lot of the villains would come back occasionally and you liked hanging out with those guys, like the Riddler and the Joker. I sort of saw Luke Lawson as potentially one of our guys that… I think he went to jail last night, is that right?
QUESTIONER: No, one of his bosses said you’re finished, you’re out of the agency.
VINCE: Right. But he’s not dead and if you’re not dead in the show, you can come back.
<laughter>
QUESTIONER: I can’t remember, is the Catevari dead or not?
VINCE: The Catevari, is he dead…
PAUL: I shot him.
VINCE: Yeah, he blew him away.
QUESTIONER: In that episode with the little girl, I thought you did a tremendous job.
VINCE: Thank you.
QUESTIONER: But for you as an actor I had in my mind, because I’ve worked with child actors before, how much does it depend on you? Do you sweat more because you’re dependent so much on her?
VINCE: No… I depended on her. She was such a good actress and acting is just like sports to me in that you play as well as who you’re playing with. And what was really great is… the child actresses that I’ve worked with, they don’t act. They just sort of play the scene. You can’t tell they’re acting. That’s how I felt about Landry. And whenever you’re acting with some one who’s really good, it makes your job so much easier. I mean, when she would talk to me, it was easy to respond. All you ad to do was like… I’m not really answering you but… <laughter>
QUESTIONER: No, I didn’t know if it was a tougher shoot for you… did it take longer?
VINCE: No. I mean, she had to go to school, you know they have these rules where they can’t be on the set all the time. But I don’t mind if we have to wait a little bit. Like, she’d go to school and I’d go take a nap <laughter> So, that was fine with me.
QUESTIONER: She carried it off well.
VINCE: I thought she was amazing. It’s… uh… (indicating the panel) these are literally the best actors that I’ve worked with. It’s really hard though because the guest stars come on and it’s so important because the story in a way revolves around them and we’re sort of reacting to that. So, it’s so important to have good actors as guest stars. And then when you show up and it’s some one like Landry, you’re just like ‘hey, I think this could be a pretty good episode.
QUESTIONER: [Something about “casting stories”] Did any of you have to show up a second, third, or fourth time before you finally got the part?
VINCE: Oh yeah, oh boy. I think it was a two and a half month process for me.
PAUL: Took me ten minutes. <laughter>
VINCE (not missing a beat): That’s not true. But the best… (to Paul) Tell them the story about…
PAUL: You tell them.
VINCE: No…
PAUL: I don’t remember. <laughter>
VINCE: So, you go on an audition and then you go on another audition and then they call you and they say they need to see you again, you know, because they want to be sure who they’re getting in business with. In a sense, it’s sort of like a marriage and the audition is sort of like a blind date after a blind date after a blind date for me because you walk into a room and it’s like… (indicating the audience) well it’s not this many people but maybe like five people and you don’t know them but you gotta play the scene. Then it gets to this final day where they call it the test day and that’s where it’s you against like three other guys and you show up and you do the scene in front of a bunch of guys in suits. So, I showed up and, you know, you get nervous for this sort of thing and usually you’re way over-prepared because you’ve been working on the scene way too much and…
PAUL: I didn’t work on it at all.
VINCE (without missing a beat): That’s not true. <laughter> So, then I showed up and nobody was there and then Breck Eisner, the guy who directed it, came up to me and…
PAUL: (indicating his sunglasses which he’s been putting on and taking off throughout the panel) I’m putting these on because they’re prescription, not because I’m some weird, freaky Hollywood actor. <laughter>
VINCE: (without missing a beat) Yes he is. <laughter> So, before I even did the test, the director Breck Eisner comes up to me and starts telling me about the locations that we’re going to be shooting at. I’m like, “Dude, I don’t even have the job yet. I’m not so interested about where you’re going to shoot this really great show”. He goes, “Yeah, yeah you do. You have the job, you have the job”. So I’m like, “okay” and I went in and did the scene. Nobody told me that I had the job yet. Then after I did my scene, they brought in three guys… (to Paul) Was that that day? That was that day. There were three other Hobbes’s there! <laughter>
PAUL: I didn’t see anybody. <laughter>
VINCE: And I didn’t know really what I was getting into. I was nervous about the show too. I mean I read the script and I thought it was really funny but you never know how it’s going to be once you actually start making it. The first three Hobbes’s were really nice guys but just not great actors and I was like, “Oh, man”, I was so depressed. And then Paul walked in and…
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You got really depressed! <laughter>
PAUL: So, what happened, what happened?
VINCE: So, basically, Paul walked in…
PAUL: This is what happened.
(Paul and Vince stand up)
PAUL: This is what happened, I went like this.
(Paul stands chest to chest, or more like chest to stomach against Vince, neck craned so he’s staring him in the eyes, as best he can, trying to look tough. The audience and Vince are cracking up)
PAUL (tough guy voice): So what?! <laughter>
VINCE: (bending to the microphone) So, Paul keeps doing this scene and I’m laughing my ass off.
(Paul gets in Vince’s face again, as best he can, like before)
PAUL (tough guy voice): I said what?! No invisible! No! <laughter>
(As Vince starts to sit back down, Paul remains in character and smacks him on the back of the head)
VINCE (cracking up): Literally, he said none of the lines from the script.
PAUL (tough guy voice): No invisible!
(He smacks Vince on the back of the head again) <laughter>
VINCE: I just started…
PAUL (tough guy voice): Did I see you go invisible? <laughter>
VINCE: And neither of us knew we had the job at this point, right?
PAUL (back in his seat): They told me I had it a week ago. <laughter>
VINCE: All right. Shannon, tell them how you got the job.
SHANNON: Well, Vince’s wife is my tennis partner! <laughter> The funniest thing though, a side bar to this, is that my fiancé is always trying to teach me how to beat his wife at tennis because she beats me every time. So, she got pregnant, she couldn’t play tennis, blah blah blah. Vince said, “there’s this show I’m doing and we’re looking for a new girl”. I mentioned it to my agents and I went through the whole process of casting agent, producers, executive producers, bigger executive producers, testing and it was just a coincidence and then I got to come down here and be with friends who are like family so it was really sweet. It’s great.
PAUL (sincerely - I felt that needed saying since most of his answers are of the funny smart-ass variety): Isn’t that nice.
VINCE: And then Eddie… I said who’s playing The Official and they said, “oh we got this great guy, you’re gonna love him” and then they showed me his head shot and I had known him from a bunch of stuff. But (to Eddie) did you have to go through a bunch of…
EDDIE: Uh… I’m not sure I can get this chronologically exactly right, but my wife and I were going to Scotland. She was directing a one woman show and it was like a vacation for six weeks or so. And, or course, I auditioned for this, the audition went well and then I didn’t hear anything for a while. Then they called me back and, of course, they called me on the day we’re to leave to Scotland. So, I went in and auditioned a second time and I had heard in the mean time a rumor or something or had the idea that they had somebody else in mind to begin with and was told after that it’s not true. So anyhow, I go over to Scotland and they call me over there and of course I have to come back a week early. So, I come back, audition a second time and then I didn’t hear anything for quite a while and, uh…
PAUL: You went back to Scotland.
EDDIE (laughing): No, I didn’t go back to Scotland. Let’s see, then I got a call for the pilot, we came and did the pilot, then I didn’t hear anything again as to whether we were continuing or not at least for three months or so. And that’s pretty much as straight forward a process as ever.
SHANNON: The worst thing that you have to do as an actor though is when you test. You go to the network and the agents have done your deal before you go. So, you’re actually signing a contract, like all three girls or all three guys. So it’s like, “ka-ching ka-ching, I need the money” and you don’t necessarily have the job. So you sign on for so many years before they actually cast you and I guess the other two contracts are shredded or something. But it’s a lot of pressure when you see that contract and you’re signing it and you don’t have the job yet.
PAUL: Yeah, those network people!
NETWORK WOMAN: Hey, hey!
PAUL: Are you network? You work for the network? No, they’re cool but they just… when you get in that room it’s like you’re in front of the supreme court, you know what I mean? It’s really scary. (pauses) I don’t get scared at all but… <laughter> but for most actors
VINCE (laughing): It’s hard.
PAUL: I read about it and for most actors it’s really hard.