(October 3, 2008) - PCM's Kristyn Clarke spoke with actor David Alan Basche, currently starring with Deborah Messing in the hit USA television show, The Starter Wife.

Check out our Q & A with David below and be sure to watch him on The Starter Wife on The USA Network:


K: Clark Hi, David. Thank you for speaking with us today.

D. Basche: Sure. I better say something incredibly cutting-edge and witty with a blog named like that.

K: I notice you use a lot of choice adjectives to describe your character on the show. How do you personally find a way to relate to the character? Do you share any similar character traits at all? How do you get yourself into the role?

D. Basche: That's a good question. I ask myself that sometimes, because I really like to think I'm a nice guy. I hope that most of my friends would tell you that I am actually in real life a nice guy. So how do you relate to a guy who's not? I think there are two layers to that answer. One is as an actor, it's fun to just make stuff up, and it's fun to say if I were this big of a jerk how would I behave? If I didn't care about this person, then what would I say? What's the most outrageous thing that I could add to this situation to make it even more misogynistic? So asking yourself those questions just opens everything up and you just go with the flow.

The other half of it is, honestly, I just turned 40 and I'm still working on trying not to be self-centered. I'm still working on trying to listen and pay attention to people and not get caught up in my own little world. That happens a lot, particularly in Hollywood. We all get caught up in our own little worlds, here, and take ourselves too seriously. So sometimes, I'm sorry to say, I just sort of look back into my past and I go back to my 20's, and there's that self-centered guy who wants what he wants and doesn't really take anybody's feelings into consideration.

Growing up, thank God, I had a strong family unit. Even though I'm from a single parent family-my dad died when I was a kid-but thank God my older brother, Steven, and my older sister, Fran, kept me in line. They would tell me, "You're just not listening. You're just not thinking before you speak." I remember once my older sister sat me down-I think I was a teenager-and she said, "We're all not just characters in the movie of your life, David." I thought, oh, okay, I have to work on this. So obviously that stuck with me.

I think I've come a long way since then, but sometimes I think actors just have to admit that, you know what, they have a part of everyone in them. If they go back and dig around a little bit, they'll find it.

K: Great. Thank you. Also, congratulations on expecting your first child.

D. Basche: Thank you.

K: I've read your wife also has a role in the series. So what is it like working with your wife on set?

D. Basche: It was spectacular working with Alysia on The Starter Wife. She's in the first few episodes, and then she had to go back east to do some theater and some other work so she wasn't available after that. But we hope the producers will bring her back. They've indicated that they might, so now we've said it in print. So hopefully they'll read it.

It was great being on the same set with her. We met doing theater, and we've since done a lot of theater together. We've done some film work together. We've never been on the same television set. So for us, it was really a treat. It was just very, very exciting to be able to do that together. We had a ball, and she and Debra got along great. I actually know Debra's husband a little bit from back in the day. We've since seen each other, and we're kind of planning a dinner, the four of us, in New York. So it's been a wonderful thing to have both artists in the same house working and involved on the same project.