That Peter Facinelli
became a movie star is not surprising; he has classic good looks with
those piercing blue eyes, that easygoing charm, and the natural talent
of an uncompromising, NYU-educated actor.
Facinelli’s extensive catalog grows more
impressive by the year. He was first brought to the attention of
audiences in 1998 as Mike Dexter in CAN’T HARDLY WAIT, then popularized
among the public consciousness with his role in the series FASTLANE and then – almost decade later- become a megastar from his role in the monolithic TWILIGHT saga, playing vampire patriarch Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Facinelli plays a vastly different doctor on the edgy Showtime series NURSE JACKIE,
playing the idiosyncratic Dr. Fitch Cooper opposite Edie Falco.
Facinelli’s longstanding career has been far from garden variety and NURSE JACKIE is far from the regular “medical drama” fare.
Tell a teenage girl you’re going to interview Peter Facinelli and the first thing they’re likely to say is, “Ask him about TWILIGHT! Instead we caught up with him to discuss his fifth season on Nurse Jackie, his versatile production company, his writing, and, okay, maybe one TWILIGHT reference.
Nurse Jackie’s
still struggling with her life, drugs, and her divorce. You root for her
character and you want her to make the good moral choices and stay
sober. She’s always riding that fine line. If I had to sum up this
season, I think it’s new relationships. Nurse Jackie is involved in a
new relationship and my character is also involved in a new
relationship. The girl he falls for, who’s another doctor, is kind of
like a female version of him in a way.
LG: Interesting. I’m sure she doesn’t have a “boob grab” going on but…
[Laughs] No,
but she has a lot of irresponsible tendencies and I think when you fall
in love, sometimes there’s a mirror of the things about you that you
like or dislike. There are things in this new character that Coop sees a
lot of himself in.
LG: So after four seasons playing the same character, have you developed a particular blueprint for playing Coop?
LG: So after four seasons playing the same character, have you developed a particular blueprint for playing Coop?
Well, it’s
kinda like life: you think your character’s going in one direction, then
life takes you in different directions. So that’s the interesting thing
about doing a series: you never know where its gonna go because you get
these scripts week to week and only the writers know what’s about to
happen. I always thought that Coop is like a man-child, he’s kind of
this kid trapped in a grown man’s body. It was fun for me to play that
because he has a child-like innocence and he doesn’t have a social
filter. He says whatever he thinks, even though he doesn’t mean anything
by it. It gets him into trouble a lot. But this season, because of his
new relationship, he starts to grow up a little bit. After four seasons
of playing him a certain way, it’s kind of fun to have to have him be
responsible and be responsible for somebody else.
LG: Lately a lot of big actors have crossed over from film into
television or vice versa. You’ve done a lot of both. For you, how do you
bridge that gap when you go back from a film to a TV series?
There
used to be a stigma of TV actors versus film actors, but that’s only
because the TV show quality wasn’t as rich as the film world. But I feel
like now there’s a lot of television that has really good
writing–sometimes even better writing than some of the films. Whether
I’m doing film or television, I’m still doing the same job. I’m playing a
character whatever the medium. In television, you’re playing that
character out a little bit longer and getting to explore a little bit
longer. Where in film, you have two hours to tell the little slice of
that character’s life. But sometimes you’ll get an opportunity like with
the TWILIGHT films, where I got to explore that. I was doing NURSE
JACKIE for five years and did
TWILIGHT for five years. I was able to explore these characters over
longer periods of time, which is rare in film unless you’re doing
sequels. With film you generally have a shorter amount of time to get
that character right.
LG: After
the five TWILIGHT movies, do you form an attachment to the character and
go through a mourning period after it’s all said and done, since that
character was such a huge part of your life?
I think with
every character I play, I go through that. You build a character and it
becomes a part of you, an extension of you, almost like a best friend in
a way. I would say it’s like losing a best friend, when you finish
playing that character. So there is a sadness, and it wasn’t just with
TWILIGHT, it’s been with everything I’ve done. There’s a 30-day mourning
period where you kind of feel like a sense of loss. But that’s part of
what we do, you gotta give it over to the audience at that point and
they get to enjoy that character.
LG: How your production company is going? Do you have any scripts you’re developing right now?
We have three
films in development, one of them is based on a documentary that I have
the rights to. I can’t announce it right now, but we have three offers
from studios to make it, so we’re closing off a deal with one of them
and hopefully it’ll get done this year. I have another script that I
wrote in the works as well. I’ve written four scripts, we’ve made two of
them. I don’t want to have to write everything, it’s not a vanity
company. I want to be able to have different writers, directors, etc
making the movies. Some of the things I’ll write, some I’ll be in and
some of them I won’t. I’m working on the third script I wrote, we’re
making it right now, called RV PARK. It’s a thriller/horror film.
LG: Having acted for so long, does that experience help cultivate and inform your writing process?
Yeah, it
definitely helps. I’ve read so many scripts that I kind of know what
works and what doesn’t. I think that’s why it takes me a shorter amount
of time sometimes to write a script. I’ve read too many scripts that
don’t work and I can pinpoint why. So when I write my own, I try to make
sure to fill those holes.
What’s your favorite thing about life right now?
You know, right
now life is really freeing. I like to travel a lot, I just went to
Belize. I’m really enjoying some time off and just playing with the
kids. It’s busy because I have my kids, meetings with my production
company, and actor meetings. As I look at my schedule, I’m very
overwhelmed, so I just take it one day at a time. But it feels really
good right now to be in a place where there’s a lot of opportunities.
Before, when I was locked into TWILIGHT, I was shooting it and NURSE
JACKIE at the same time and it was a great experience. I mean was
literally shooting both at the same time for 3 years in a row. I’d go
from one set and get on an airplane and on another set while shooting
and get on a plane in Vancouver and land in New York and go straight to
set again. But with the TWILIGHT series behind me, I’m looking forward
to what’s next and being very picky in what I want to do. There are a
lot of opportunities a lot of doors in front of me, now I get to select
which one I want to go through.
LG: What’s something people would be surprised to find out about you?
I don’t know,
at this point I feel like everyone knows everything about me. I don’t
know if there’s anything left. When I get interviews, I feel like
there’s nothing left to say since everybody knows everything about me.
[Laughs].
Source: LadyGunn Via: Facinelli Latino
Source: LadyGunn Via: Facinelli Latino
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