Behind the Badge with ‘Southland’s’ Michael Cudlitz (CinemaSpy.com / 14 Feb 2011)

http://www.cinemaspy.com/Interviews/Interview-Behind-the-Badge-with-Southlands-Michael-Cudlitz/5024?q=Interviews/Interview-Behind-the-Badge-with-Southlands-Michael-Cudlitz/5024&p=2

If you had to describe John Cooper to someone, or on a profile form, how would you characterize him?

He’s a dick, but you love him [laughs]. John is someone who takes his job very, very seriously. He does not suffer a fool and he doesn’t judge people unless they have put themselves in a position where they’re asking to be judged. And I would say they are hand delivering their stupidity to him. At which point he absolutely refuses not to comment on it.

One of the things that makes this show so enjoyable is the fact that it’s largely unpredictable, which is how life is…

The show, in a lot of ways is not serialized. You can sit down and watch one episode of our show and pretty much know what’s going on with everybody. There are some subtitles that are built up over the course of the show…but you can still watch an episode of the show and get it, and be satisfied by it. What that tends to do is enhance the real life situations and emotional states that we go through. People die. But when people die the entire world doesn’t stop. A guy died today. Well you know what, tomorrow we still have to go out and police the street.
So we don’t necessarily deal with things in a linear fashion that people have become accustomed to on television…and we don’t tie everything up in a neat little bow.

photo : TNT

By Karen Davidson and facilitated by Deb Craig

When we requested an interview, Allison graciously agreed.  Questions were submitted to her; then she wrote her responses and sent them back.   No changes have been made to her responses.

How did you end up directing an episode of SouthLAnd?

My manager Ragna Nervik knew about “Southland” and suggested me to Andrew Stern in John Wells office.  Andrew and I met and we really got along great.  Then I met with Chris Chulack, and he and I had such a great meeting talking about Los Angeles, and the neighborhoods and the life here that is often portrayed on TV and in movies really wrong.    Southland gets it RIGHT.  I also loved how Chris described the way the production is run and how it shoots.  There is a brilliant philosophy behind the style of Southland, and this is what gives us fans that feeling of being right there with the characters.  It’s the way I also shoot my movies.   In fact, I’ve even said, Chris is even more of a querrilla filmmaker than me!  I knew I was going to learn a lot from him.

So I was over-joyed when they offered me an episode.   Believe it or not I was actually supposed to direct Episode 7 of the first season of Southland on NBC!  But as all you Southies know, there was no episode 7 of the first season!  They were canceled before I could direct my episode which Cheo had written, which would have been awesome. (Cheo and I are homies, we met online from being mutual admirers — haa haa:  I loved “Notorious” and he loved “Mi Vida Loca”.  We finally met in person on Southland!)

As disappointing as it was when the show was canceled, I was so happy to be offered an episode again for season 3, and to finally get my Southland break!  And I absolutely loved Jonathan’s script for “Sideways”.  It was so perfect for me. (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: TNT/Doug Hyun

Our regular Thursday night Live Southland Chat turned out to be a real treat for fans of the show last week, as cast members Kevin Alejandro (Detective Nate Moretta) and Shawn Hatosy (Detective Sammy Bryant) joined us for an impromptu Q&A chat that was successful beyond our wildest dreams!

We quickly switched over to “Moderation Mode” in the chat room, so as not to swamp the poor guys with a million questions coming at them all at once. A million thanks to the very patient fans who sat through the crickets chirping for a long time of silence, while both the moderators and the special guests quickly had to learn a few tricks about how to use the tools, but then things picked up steam and we were off! According to my very able and brilliant moderators, @lvmyjags and @jennnoe13 (who did an OUTSTANDING job!) Kevin and Shawn responded to nearly 100 questions combined during the chat. That’s quite a feat!

Not only did we get this once-in-a-lifetime chance to chat with both of these wonderful men, immediately following the tragic events of Tuesday night’s episode, Code 4, focusing on them and culminating in Nate’s death, but we set a record for the site as well. We actually maxed out the chat room for the first time since we introduced our live chat service. Not once, but consistently several times throughout the evening we had full capacity of 50 chatters in the room! Not bad for an all volunteer, donation-only supported site, wouldn’t you say?
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Photo Credit: TNT (Greg Williams)

I have had a number of people ask me

Where are the original interviews from SouthlandTvfans.com this season?

This is, actually, a very excellent question! The answer, however, is not quite so simple. It never is, is it? (continue reading…)

VIDEO Michael Cudlitz & Ben McKenzie Talk ‘Southland’ Season 3 (TV Squad / 28 Dec 2010)

I hit the set of ‘Southland’ — a.k.a. a random residential neighborhood in L.A. — to catch up with Cudlitz and McKenzie. They talked about their onscreen partnership, who’s the biggest goofball and the show’s tighter focus on their characters, Regina King’s Det. Lydia Adams, and Shawn Hatosy’s Det. Sammy Bryant. They also dished a little about upcoming storylines, pill addictions, nudity and more.

Read more…

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