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Blu-ray Champion
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Interview with Hugh Dillon last year when Durham County debuted in America (two years after it premiered in Canada)
*** just the stuff on Durham County/Flashpoint. And LOTS of cursing. lol ***
Quote:
Bullz-Eye: Hello, Hugh!
Hugh Dillon: Hey, man, how are you?
BE: I’m very good. So I have to think that it’s got to be a little surreal for you to be sitting here, promoting the US premiere of “Durham County” two years after the series made its debut on Canadian television.
HD: It is and it isn’t, y’know? It’s like…well, actually, it isn’t, really. It’s part of my life, you know?
BE: So how did you first come on board to the series? The idea of a show based around a cop chasing a serial killer might not be all that unique, but “Durham County” certainly feels unique.
HD: You know, for me, it was just a question of…I got these scripts, and I couldn’t believe just how well-written they were and how compelling they were. And, quite frankly, I found it pretty addictive. I remember picking up the first one when I was at a cottage, and I thought, “Ah, I’ll just start reading this, I’ll get to it.” And I read the first one, and it was like reading a ****ing Stephen King novel. I read all six scripts, and I thought, “This is ****ing awesome.” (Laughs) And then I kept flipping back to the cover, because I thought, “****, this is a woman that wrote this? This is pretty brutal!” And then I met the lady…well, the three producers, really (Janis Lundman, Adrienne Mitchell, and Laurie Finstad Knizhnik), and they’re incredibly intelligent , they’ve got integrity, and…well, you know, they’re just very smart women. It was like meeting the witches of Eastwick. (Laughs) I realized, “****, I’ve just got to be honest around them, or I’m gonna **** this up.” And they were great! And then we got to be friends, and I passed the audition, and the network said I was in, then we cast the rest of the shit, and the rest is history. And Adrienne, the director / producer, is, like, a…she’s got a great vision, she’s got a great aesthetic, and they’re people who really don’t compromise, you know? And that’s why I think this show is so successful: because they really know what they want.
BE: Were you surprised when you found that it was finally going to make it across the border?
HD: Surprised…? (Considers the question)
BE: I guess you’d had some experience with that kind of thing, though, with “Flashpoint” turning up on CBS.
HD: Yeah, I mean, so I wasn’t surprised, but…you know what it is? When you’ve seen somebody else work so very hard, and you know that the work is good, you’re just happy for them and proud of them. So I’m just excited that we’re getting this shot, because I love this show. I don’t know how many you’ve seen…
BE: Just the first two.
HD: Oh, okay, well, it really goes someplace. Hopefully they can get you the rest, because it continues on, these first twelve episodes, into… (Hesitates) It’s like…do you remember all of the independent films in the ‘90s? That’s what it reminds me of. And we’ve got Michelle Forbes who comes along, and it just unfolds beautifully. It’s really something. There’s something hypnotic about it that I love.
BE: It’s funny that you say that, because I watched those first two episodes with my wife, and after the first one, she said, “Well, it’s good, but it’s a little slow.” But after the second one, she said, “Was that one shorter? Because it just flew past!”
HD: Yeah, once you get into it, it’s addictive. And it’s so haunting that…like I said, there’s something hypnotic about it, because if you just sit down and watch, the time just flies by. You’re in, and you’re a fan. There’s just something about the way they’ve captured this hyper piece of the human condition. It’s unique.
BE: It very much reminds me of a David Lynch production.
HD: Yeah!
BE: Are there any other points of comparison that you’d offer?
HD: Someone else said, “It’s like ‘Twin Peaks’ meets ‘The Sopranos.’” And I thought, “You know, I can live with that.”
BE: So how quickly did the family relationship develop between you and Helene Joy, Laurence Leboeuf, and Cicely Austin?
HD: I think…you know, so much of it comes down to the great producers, these women again, because the casting was just right on the money. I mean, the funny thing is, with us, we shoot that in Montreal, and so, for me, there’s a disconnect right out of the gate, because I don’t speak French. So all of a sudden, we’re in Montreal, we shoot in the fall, and everything’s kind of dying. The days are getting shorter. And for me, when I walked in, I met Laurence, who plays my daughter, and we had that natural chemistry. We just hit off. We had a lot in common. Even in real life, I’m a little protective with her. So there were a lot of things in real life that helped when you see the show. It translates, the whole “art imitates life” thing, or whatever.
BE: I’m glad you responded that way, because I’d been thinking about retiring that question from my repertoire. Everybody generally tends to give me a variation on, “When it’s on the page, it’s on the stage.”
HD: Yeah, and it’s that, too. (Laughs)
BE: You made a comment about the changes in the landscape as a result of shooting in the fall. I’ve interviewed some folks from the cast of “Harper’s Island,” and many of them spoke of how, while shooting in Vancouver, it got progressively colder and darker as they filmed the series, but it worked in the show’s favor. Do you think it helped “Durham County” as well?
HD: I think it did. And does, because now we’re going into Season 3. I start shooting that next month. And, like I said, the first two seasons worked like a charm. When Michelle Forbes came on board last year, it was just fun to watch the whole progression with her, because she showed up, and she’s amazing in the show. She just got it, you know? She got it. She went, “Wow, this is weird.”
BE: And she should know weird, given her “True Blood” stuff.
HD: Yeah, I know! (Laughs) She said, “I’m on these dark shows, and this is ****ing darker than any of them!”
BE: But, of course, she made it through “Kalifornia,” too.
HD: Yeah, and that’s what I first knew her from.
BE: I mentioned earlier about “Flashpoint” getting its US screening through CBS, but to talk of surprises again, did you expect it to take off here the way it did?
HD: You know, from my personal point of view, I’m not surprised, because it comes back to the writers again. I read that pilot, and I thought, “These people really know what they’re doing.” And it’s because Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morganstern, who wrote it, talked to the real guys. And they got us, the actors, hooked up with the real guys. So I wasn’t surprised. I just thought they had such integrity, and they were such decent people, that they just did their due diligence, so to speak, and they covered it so beautifully in terms of…I mean, it’s an action show, but it’s got such an emotional core, and they were able to hit that, so much so that the real SWAT guys are very proud of the show. So I just had a good feeling about it, so I guess it wasn’t that much of a surprise.
BE: When “Flashpoint” premiered here in the States, I guess the show’s matinee name was Enrico Colantoni, because of his work on “Just Shoot Me” and “Veronica Mars.”
HD: Of course.
BE: I didn’t realize at first that you were the star of “Hard Core Logo.” In fact, for a minute, when I saw the name of the film, I was, like, “Wait, that sounds familiar, I think I’ve seen that.” But almost as quickly, it was followed by a horrifed, “Omigod, the ending…!” It all came back in a rush.
HD: Too funny. But that’s good! And, yeah, that was really a huge moment for us when (Quentin) Tarantino picked that up and released the movie.
BE: It’s really phenomenal. I mean, I’m a fan of…well, technically, it’s a mockumentary, but it’s certainly not a comedy in the traditional sense. Not the ending, that’s for sure.
HD: Yeah, that movie was really what got me into the whole acting thing, ‘cause I just got to work with such a great director and a great cast. And, y’know, he allowed me to do a lot of stuff. I wrote the ending to that movie. So that movie was really…I just thought, “You know, I ****ing like acting!” (Laughs)
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