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Monday, 08 June 2009
HARPERS ISLAND Interview with Dean Chekvala
Written by Christina Radish
Harpers Island is about a group of family and friends who travel for
a destination wedding to a secluded island off the coast of Seattle,
that is famous for a streak of unsolved murders from seven years
ago.
As the wedding
festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a
murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week
of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival.
J.D. Dunn (played by Dean Chekvala) is brother to Henry (Christopher
Gorham), the groom marrying his true love, Trish Wellington (Katie
Cassidy). J.D. is a dark, brooding loner with tattoos all over his
body that speak more to his true nature than he ever lets on in
conversation. Being the only brother of the groom should have made
him a lock for best man, but his childish antics make Henrys life
more difficult, and sometimes there's a malevolence in them that
makes everyone wonder if J.D. has some secret endgame. That is,
until he turned up as one of the victims on the latest episode.
In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect,
from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13
episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be
revealed and only a few will survive.
Dean Chekvala spoke to IESB in this exclusive interview .......
How did you get interested in acting?
I grew up in Michigan, outside of Detroit, in Clinton
Township. I was always interested in acting, but I didn't really get
into it until I started college cause we didn't really have a drama
program in my high school. It wasn't until the last year of high
school that they brought in some dude to put on a play. And then, I
went to college and was like, Well, Ill take these classes and see
if I like it. I just started doing theatre and completed the degree.
I went to Chicago and did theatre there, and then came out to L.A. I
just started watching television and movies, in lieu of a
babysitter, and came to it that way.
How did you originally get involved with Harpers
Island? Was it just through a regular audition?
Yeah. It was just a great, lucky opportunity. I was
auditioning for some other stuff the same day, and got called in for
it at the last minute. I went in and read and had no idea, either
way. And then, I got called in for a meeting after that, and had no
idea what I was getting into. After about a week, they called me and
said, You got it and you leave Saturday, and that was Wednesday. And
then, they called back and said, No, you leave Friday. And then,
they called back again and said, No, you leave tomorrow. And, it
wasn't until I got to Vancouver that they were like, Well, this is
what it is. No one knows how long they're going to be here. This is
the show, and this is who you're playing. This is the set-up, and
you start Monday. So, I was like, Great! It was very exciting and
completely different than anything else. I went in excitedly blind.
Is it tormenting to get a role on a show and not know
how long you're actually going to get to be on the show?
It was, except that I thought I was only there for two
weeks. When they initially hired me, they were like, Oh, you're
going in to do this pilot. And then, I got there and it wasn't
actually just a pilot because the show was going to be airing. For
me, it was just a blessing in disguise, where every week, after the
first two, was great. It was an unexpected surprise.
Was J.D. the only character that you auditioned for?
Yeah, that's the only character that I read for. I was
one of the last people that they saw for it, and that's why it
happened so quickly. Some of the producers were already in
Vancouver, prepping the show, so they just saw the tape. Then, I met
with the show runner and one of the other producers, here in L.A.,
right before I got hired and then sent off.
Were you involved at all with J.D.s look? How much did
his look help you get into character?
It helps me tremendously. I don't want to say that I
rely on it, but I really enjoy that idea of stepping into someone
else's world. If you give me a different haircut or tattoos, I just
live for that stuff. But, I didn't have much to say. They kind of
already knew what they wanted to do with it. My hair actually isn't
that dark. Its dirty blonde. Its getting a little bit more brown,
these days. They already knew that they were going to take it a few
shades down. And, the tattoos were in the script. They already had
the whole dark ensemble of the clothing in mind. So, I didn't have
much to say. I got to choose some stuff, but they already had most
of it in the works.
How much were you told about J.D. when you were cast?
I was told quite a bit. For the most part, I was told
everything that the viewer ends up knowing about him, throughout the
course of the show. Stuff that gets revealed in episode four or
five, I already knew going in. They already had the back-story for
most of these characters. When I had my first meeting with them,
they showed me the presentation and then they chatted about the type
of character he was. And then, I had questions, and we went back and
forth with it. They gave me a great history of the character to work
from, and they basically said, This is where he's at. This is where
he's from. These are the relationships. Can you work with that? Any
questions?
What was it about him that you thought you could
identify with?
The thing that really drew me to it was this idea that
he's seen as an outsider, in this community. But, I found him
extremely smart. The first sides that I read for the audition, I
realized how smart this guy was. I didn't feel he was dumb. Even in
the situation of, People are being killed. Who is it?, I didn't feel
it rattled his cage that much. Not that he got off on it, but just
that idea that, underneath it all, he could keep his cool and be
sensible about it, even if he doesn't seem that way, on the surface,
because of the way he looks. There was that duality of, I look one
way, but really, you have no idea of what's going on inside, and I
found that really interesting. I think people are like that in life.
You think, Oh, these people are actually smart, but you wouldn't
give them that chance when you immediately write them off because of
the way they look and they're a certain type of person. That's what
I liked about him, from the beginning. I think he's the smartest,
most sensitive character on the show, but that's just my point of
view. This is a kid who's willing to harm his own body to feel
something. There's a lot of stuff working in there that he has shut
off because it was too painful or he didn't know how to deal with
it. That usually means those people are really sensitive, as opposed
to not sensitive. There's that weird line of a lot of things going
on, on the inside, but he's not going to show that to you. You've
got to earn that.
You were given a lot of back-story for the personal
side of your character, but how much were you in the dark, as far as
the overall story? How hard is it to develop a back-story to work
from, when you don't know what's going on around him?
I think we were all completely in the dark. We were
getting scripts weekly, and we didn't know what was going to happen
until we got those scripts. It was like getting the Harry Potter
books. Right before we were going to shoot the next episode, we
would get the script and all run home and read it, within an hour.
And then, wed make calls and be like, Oh, my God, can you believe
this happened? Who do you think it is? What do you think is going
on? What does this mean? We were in the same boat as the audience,
as we were getting those stories, which was really cool. Does that
affect the performance? In a sense, it makes you only deal with what
you have in front of you, at that time. As an actor, it almost takes
the pressure of having to worry about any of the other stuff off of
you, because the stuff that does inform you, you either have to
create or they'd already told you about, in your back-story. What
you needed to create the character and let loose and come back with
something, they'd already led you down that path.
Even though you knew what you were getting yourself
into when you signed on to do this show, and that it would be only
13 episodes and you could be gone at any time, was it still hard to
walk away from the character and the other actors, at the end of it?
Oh, definitely. The joy was that we all started the
same day, and so we knew, going in, that people would be leaving, as
opposed to four people starting and then another person being added
on, six weeks in, and then another one is there for two weeks. Its a
different kind of relationship that we built, with each other. We
were literally on the same boat. So, when someone left, we were all
really sad. We were like, Bummer! But, I hope its not me next time.
What was it like to work with Christopher Gorham? Did
you do anything to establish a prior relationship between your
characters, or did it help that these brothers didn't have the best
relationship with each other?
He's a good friend of mine now, but I didn't know him,
when I first got there. We did hang out that first weekend, and I
got to know him, but I didn't work with him much, until the episodes
unfolded. I only had a handful of people that I worked with, up
until the later episodes. But, we would all hang out. After the
first episode, we felt like we'd been there for months. Time stopped
and flew, at the same time. It was like summer camp. By that time,
we were all hanging out, after work or on the weekends. Elaine
Cassidy was really great at getting us all together for dinners
around town. We just got to know each other. And, since we were out
of town, we didn't really have to worry about our normal habits that
we would have in L.A. We could afford the time to just be with one
another. We didn't have anyone else. It was that thing of, I know
you and you know me, so why don't we just hang out? Everyone was
really great.
How was it to work with the kid (Cassandra Sawtell),
who plays Madison? Was she as creepy as she seems on the show?
She is so great. I loved working with her. I felt happy
that I got to have so many scenes with her. We were kindred spirits.
These two characters found one another in this weird place. She is
super-smart. That girl speaks five languages, I kid you not. She was
reading a new 600-page book, every time I'd see her on set. She was
very calm, relaxed, inquisitive and wise beyond her years, and not
creepy at all. I'll watch the show and be like, Oh, she's so sweet,
and people are like, The creepy girl? She's not creepy.
Is it weird to see all these gruesome death scenes for
your cast mates?
Its not weird. In a weird way, its cool. You want them
to be great. You want them to make an impact and be cool. One of the
producers, Karim Zreik, writes this blog about being the assassin on
set. He was the producer that was there and he was given the job of
telling each of the actors when they were going to go, right before
the script would come out. On his blog, he writes that every actor
always wanted to know how they died because they wanted it to be
cool. If you know you've got to go, then you want it to be really
good.
What was the most enjoyable thing about working on the
show, and what was the most challenging aspect of it?
The most enjoyable thing was the cast and crew. Outside
of being able to actually work on this type of show and tell this
type of story, it was pleasant to be away from home with these
particular people. Everyone pretty much gave themselves over to the
story. It was a, 'Whatever benefits the story, I'll do', kind of
thing. Instead of worrying about what they were doing, they were
more like, 'This would be best for the story'. That sense of
camaraderie, that we were all in it to win it, was really cool. You
don't always find that. The most challenging thing was probably the
weather, but that seems like such a cop out. It was a summer show,
but it was filmed in winter, so we were always in shorts and
t-shirts, running around and pretending it was 80 degrees.
Has it been difficult to keep all of the shows secrets?
Yeah. Now that we've wrapped filming, the most
challenging thing, after the fact, is being very cautious about what
comes out of your mouth. I want to just speak freely, but before I
say anything, I say it in my head. I always sound like I'm
stuttering because I cant just talk.
Does the fact that you look so different from your
character help you stay anonymous and keep people from asking you
what's going to happen on the show?
Oh, yeah. I don't get recognized at all. Basically just
people that I know, or that know I'm on the show, ask about it. Once
people learn that I'm on it, they're like, 'I don't wanna know
anything', and I'm like, 'Well, okay, but I wasn't about to tell
you'. I look pretty different from that, so I have no problem. I
think the people who are watching it will be pleased. I think the
end is really good. The way they wrote it and wrapped it up, no one
will feel cheated or upset. I think its really cool. The show raises
a lot of questions, but by the end, you'll have all the answers,
which I think is great. They did a good job of that.
If the attention you get from being a part of Harpers
Island leads to more film or television work for you, are there
types of roles or specific genres that you're looking to do, that
you haven't gotten the chance to do yet?
I look pretty darn good with a gun. I'm not going to
lie. Maybe you shouldn't print that. I'd like to do a good,
old-fashioned action movie. I would love to do films. I've done a
lot of theatre. This show was like a long film, as far as the
structure and style, because it wasn't episodic. It was a serial
that was like this big, long film, and I enjoyed that. We knew the
whole story, and it was about this event or circumstance that was
this monumental breakthrough in someone's life, as opposed to the
weekly, figuring out the crime kind of thing. Anything like that, I
tend to really like. I kind of like the off-beat or underdog
characters. There's always stuff that's overlooked in them that is
interesting to discover and play, and bring to light. Anything like
John Cazale, the guy from Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon, would
have played would be great. Ben Whishaw, the British actor, is doing
some really interesting work. Anything like that. The leading man,
maybe somebody else can do. Not that its not interesting, but I feel
like there's a certain expectation to that, and that's what people
are watching for and commenting on. Whereas, if you bring in
something else they don't know, they're not expecting anything and
you can give them a gift. The other people that you bring into that
world, to support that or create that world around those people,
just have so much room to breathe, for something new, interesting or
challenging.
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