Interview with the Cast of Something to Be Desired

I interviewed three of the cast of Something to Be Desired, a great web show about love and ambition at a Pittsburgh radio station. As you might recall, I interviewed writer and director Justin Kownacki back in April. This time, I set my sites on Will Guffey, Jr, Shaun Cameron Hall, and Ann Turiano.
Will: Hello My name is Will Guffey I play Leo Straub, A self serving, egotistical, music critic.
Shaun:I’m Shaun Cameron Hall Born and raised in Pittsburgh I got into STBD through a friend of mine. Will and I auditioned at the same time and I ended up getting Dean. He’s chauvinistic, egotistical, asshole (at times) trying to be better.
Ann: I play Caroline, who is a frustrated intellectual, cynical nymphomaniac. Justin writes us pretty close to home.
(pause)
Chris: Tell me about how the show has changed in 3 seasons.
Will: The quality for one. We’ve gone through changes along with the characters and it shows because you can see the characters wise up here and there.
Ann: Well, I think we’re all sort of maturing, on and off camera. Being 20-something has a big influence on how we work and what we put into it, I think. The storyline has expanded to include a bigger core, with a lot more issues and quirks.
Shaun: I think the writing, acting, editing all have improved. In season one he got his come-uppance. In season two Dean starts to change his life around to be more copasetic towards his friends and make his life better. Season three finds Dean starting to live his own life and accept his role.
Chris: So then Season 4, Dean’s pretty much got it all figured out, and we’ll see lots of clips of him on the sofa with a pipe?
Shaun:He still doesn’t take a lot of shit, but realizes that he has to do what he’s told. He conforms a little more. He loves Caroline very much, but still feels the pull of single life and the luxuries that come from that. Dean also still gets himself into trouble with his mouth. He has to put up with getting a cohost which in the beginning goes hellishly wrong, but from the experiences Dean has been through, he tries to make things better. In short (haha) Dean is getting better at apologizing for himself.
Chris: Do you think the show expanding is helping? i.e. building a “world” or context? Or do you see that expansion as maybe thinning out the main product, from a story perspective?
Ann: I think that we’re still trying to find our voice, so to speak. What we’re trying to say can change pretty often. So the expansion presents a challenge to cohesive plot and development.
Chris: What kinds of “tricks” have you picked up after three seasons?
Will: The only “Trick” I can possibly think of is when you’re done with the script on camera you can always add at the end and if it isn’t good it’s cut.
Will: Well a normal process of a filming day is Justin comes to me with a script he wrote, and I learn the lines as fast as I can (ex: 5 minutes cram for a 3 page script). The lines tend to fluctuate, meaning the same thing, and along with that new bits come up that turn out being very funny. Justin (god bless him) likes to give me some liberties with the script from time to time.
Chris: Ann- could you talk about how 20-something actors differ from 30-something actors? What is your generation doing different on screen?
Ann Turiano: We’re working ourselves out. It’s nice to have an outlet to experiment, and this particular show doesn’t divorce our personal conflicts from the acting necessarily. The connection to the script is very close, as most of the issues are familiar to us. And we’re a fairly close group, and usually our personal relationships come through one way or another. I’d like to think that our generation is being honest about subjects that are usually ignored or glossed over in mainstream tv. Boredom, frustration, the unsayable things, the banal.
Chris: Hmm… so in a way, you’re shooting even harder for cinema verite, by keeping it close to your own personal emotional situation, etc. Would you say then that your acting is a kind of modified role-playing, more than it is separating yourself from your character and just absorbing yourself in the script?
Ann: No, I think that Caroline has become (and is continuing to become) a differentiated character, but she is a really familiar girl to me. That’s what lets me become absorbed in whatever script lands on the table.
Will Guffey : If I may jump in on this one. We DO try and seperate ourselves from our characters as much as possible however the characters just happen to be going through things we’ve experienced from time to time and it’s just easier to act remembering our own experiences.
Will (cont):The best thing about STBD for me (and I hope Ann, Lacey, and Shaun as well) is that we started out with this from it’s beginning. With the full knowledge that this is Justin’s baby, I feel a personal attachment to it that I don’t think I’ve had with any project before it. Don’t get me wrong if I got an offer to do a $15,000 show I’d take it. But I’m almost certain that STBD would still gladly be my free time.
Chris: So, we know Will’s price. What’s keeping the rest of you hanging on? Can you sense the momentum of this new media revolution?
Shaun: I kept coming back not only for the on camera experience, but because I find Dean very interesting and fun to play.
Ann:I think we’d all like to see it get a chance. But the sense of ownership, the idea that we have all put so much into it together makes it different than other acting gigs for me.
We’ll pick up the rest of the interview later. In the mean time, you can check out some episodes of Something To Be Desired. Season Four starts in September.
[email]
Subscribe to [chrisbrogan.com]