Category
📺
TVTranscription
00:00 - Hi everyone, I'm Tim Cash. This is the IMDB show and this is Sarah Wayne Calley. You can stop smiling now because I've just seen the pilot of Council of Dads and I have a bone to pick with you. This show should come with a box of tissues.
00:16 - It should. - It really should. It's an emotional roller coaster. Let me get right into this. What was it about this role, about this story that felt so perfect for you to take on?
00:25 - A couple of things. One, I feel like I put enough violence into the world to last a lifetime. Like I actually had a lay down arms moment at a certain point about six months before this pilot came along and I sort of thought I will fight no more forever. It was one thing when we had a safer world and a safer president to explore bleakness and human depravity. I don't want that anymore.
00:45 Number two, I needed... - And of course, by the way, you're talking about not just Prison Break but The Walking Dead as well. - The Walking Dead, Colony, like all very, very violent shows. Also very focused on family in their own way and shows I'm really proud of.
00:59 But I wanted to tell a story that didn't come down to who's the strongest person in this fight. And I personally, I was like I need content that's going to make me feel like we can do this. Like we can be good to each other. Like we can face down the bad parts of ourselves in order to be better to children. I need to feel like we can make it.
01:25 And so I want to tell that story. And I just lost Scott Wilson to leukemia. And my father-in-law was dying of brain cancer. He passed away in between the pilot and the series. Actually the last thing I did with him is I crawled up in bed with him in his hospice room and I showed him the pilot. And so it hit a lot of personal notes that I really was looking for.
01:53 - He wants to ask a group of men to help raise the kids. - If I died there'd be this group of guys to help the kids if they need guidance. The Council of Dads. - Well you gave it a name. Do you have jerseys and a secret handshake?
02:05 - I constantly feel for actors so much sympathy and empathy especially in roles like this where you have to, I mean your character, we see highs and lows in the pilot alone. The highest and highest and lowest and lowest and then all at the same time. I feel sorry for you having to go through that. - We ask for it. It's the job.
02:24 - So where do you go in your headspace to tackle and to tap into a genuine emotion like that? - You know honestly for this one I flew by the seat of my pants more for this job than I have ever before because it was... - What do you mean?
02:39 - I mean I did less of the like this is my technique preparation work because it was right here. It was so close to my life. There was a scene in a bathroom between my character Robin and her husband Scott and I have a big piece of news to tell him. There's a lot of emotion underpinning that news but the point of the scene really is that I feel like a failure for not being able to save him and not being able to cure him.
03:07 We got to the scene and I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. It wasn't there at all. Like I couldn't even fake it and I saw the look on the director and the crew and the actors faces just going, "Well pilot doesn't work without this scene." I was like, "I need a minute." And I went around the corner and I started talking to Scott Wilson and I was like, "I can't do this because I feel like I couldn't save you and I can't touch it. I just can't touch it."
03:35 And Scott and I had a whole conversation, him dead, me in that weird actor rabbit hole and the crew just sort of waited patiently and I came around the corner and the director took one look at me and he went, "Let's roll." And they cross shot it which was really smart and we were out of there in seven minutes.
03:56 - Wow.
03:57 - Sorry love. I'm sorry that I didn't catch your cancer.
04:02 - I cannot have you here without talking about The Walking Dead purely because I'm a die hard fan.
04:08 - Oh cool.
04:09 - What is one memory you have when I say The Walking Dead?
04:15 - Filming my very last scene which was the character's last scene. I'd been stuck to the floor. I came because of all the prosthetics and stuff.
04:25 - What a scene by the way.
04:27 - It was a lot and my only concern in that scene was that Chandler would be okay.
04:31 - Baby I don't want you to be scared okay? This is what I want.
04:35 - And he killed it.
04:36 - Yeah.
04:37 - He was an amazing actor and I walked off the set and sitting right behind the set that we'd been shooting on was the entire cast and they had all come on a day off an hour from Atlanta just to be there and just to be supportive and show love and nobody told me until the day was over and it was, to work for a group of people who are willing to do that for one another is...
05:06 - Really beautiful.
05:07 - We never actually see your body lying there.
05:24 - That's what I hear. No I don't watch the show, I never watch the show but I have heard from fans that like...
05:29 - I'll tell you the truth, there's never a body...
05:31 - I was eaten from head to toe apparently.
05:33 - Not really.
05:34 - First of all a zombie can't consume the entire thing, there's always a little bit left, there was nothing left. They find the bullet, there's nothing left. So like where did you go? It's open for... they left it open on purpose.
05:45 - I think if they did it wasn't intentional, I really do. There is no spoiler hidden anywhere in my heart which is like season 15, do you know what I mean? It's Laurie's time.
05:57 - Don't never say never. If you ever got the call would you be willing to go back and how would you like to make the return?
06:03 - If I ever got the call the show would have jumped the shark so thoroughly, do you know what I mean? It would be like Gimple, Angela, I love you guys, it's time to hang up the zombies. Like come on.
06:15 - Would you be down?
06:16 - I mean look I love those people, but the only people I know involved right now are some of the writers and some of the directors and Norman. Like everybody I know on that show is dead.
06:26 - I don't want you to worry, your mom's not going anywhere, okay?
06:30 - Sarah thank you so much for being here, it's been an absolute pleasure having you. Thanks for all the insights and congratulations on the brand new show. You can see Sarah in Council of Dads on NBC.
06:39 And in the meantime, for something that hopefully won't make you cry as much as her show, you can watch more interviews like this one over on imdb.com/show.
06:47 (outro)