(May 2009) - In January, PCM's Joe
had the opportunity to sit in on a great roundtable interview
with actress and star of TNT's 'Saving Grace', Holly Hunter!
Pretty big, right? PCM thinks she's awesome!
In May, PCM's Rebekah had the opportunity
to sit in on a great roundtable interview with actress and
star of TNT's 'Saving Grace', Holly Hunter! Pretty big,
right? PCM thinks she's awesome!
Hunter discussed her role on the show, what
challenges her as an actress and much more! Read below some
of the great Q&A and learn from it! Season 3 of Saving
Grace that airs on Tuesday, June 16 at 10/9 Central!
Rebekah: What is
it about the role of Grace that continues to challenge you?
Holly Hunter: Well, there are so many. You
know I think that the captivating thing for me that really
made me want to do this series is I feel that Grace is capable
of everything you know. And I think that she - that you
know in that if you're capable of everything then you understand
something about what it means to be alive.
Because people are capable of greatness
and people are capable of murder, and everything in between.
You know they cause death and they cause greatness, and
they cause - Grace knows that there is something sacred
within her, and she also knows that there is a killer inside
her. Even though she has never killed, and she knows that
there is something sacred in her, even though she is not
a religious person. And I think that alone is an incredible
world for me personally to - for me as Holly to explore.
Q: Do you think
that Grace can love anyone as much as she loves her dog?
Holly Hunter: Oh yes, oh yes. You know we've
just never been faced with Grace losing, losing anyone.
You know she - but Grace I think, one of the wonderful things
about her is that she feels things tremendously. She has
incredible ability. She has incredible access to her feelings.
Her feelings are alive in her. They're not something that
has been subdued or that is deadened. She is an extraordinarily
alive human.
Q: Was there an
important pivotal moment in your life that compelled you
to become an actor that initially turned you on to the career?
Holly Hunter: Yes, I don't know I mean I
just you know I started doing high school plays you know
I started doing high school plays and I just found a you
know a real home. It was something I felt you know it was
incredibly familiar to me to be in front of an audience
telling a story that was made up. I loved it.
Q: What about your role
continues to challenge you?
Holly Hunter: Well, I think you know the
humanity, and I know that sounds kind of like a broad answer,
but the humanity of the character you know is something
that the writers, and Nancy Miller the creator, they just
don't - they don't shy away from exploring you know what
the shows about. And the show is really about the heart
of a woman and everything that that entails. So that has
continued to keep me really, really interested.
Q: We know that Christina
Ricci is going to be guest starring this season. Is there
anyone else you'd like to see come on the show?
Holly Hunter: Well, F. Murray
Abraham comes on also later on and he's just fantastic,
just fantastic. He comes on as kind of an adversarial angel
to Earl and that's a great match.
Q: When you look at broadcast
television, outside of "Cold Case," you don't
see women taking that kind of strong role and the main role
in these procedurals. Procedurals are so popular right now.
Do you have any thoughts on that? Why is cable willing to
go ahead and do these things and broadcast not so much?
Holly Hunter: Well, I think you know cable
really got a big entrée. I mean they got a big yes
to anti-heroic characters, with - you know with the success
of "The Shield," with Michael Chiklis playing
a dirty cop. And then you know with HBOs tremendous success
of "The Sopranos," with people really wanting
to watch somebody who was you know involved in killing people,
with James Gandolfini. And then they realized that hey there's
an audience. It's just that the audience is a smaller crab
that they were gearing towards.
So you know with network television you
know you've got to please a lot of people in order to get
your you know 18-million people per week, or your 13, or
your 20 million you know however many millions of viewers
they need to get. Whereas in cable it's a much smaller crowd
and therefore the risk can be increased, so then you have
- you have anti-heroic female characters who head up shows,
such as "Saving Grace" and Glen Close on "Damages,"
and this is - you know women are interesting and cable is
having that validated for them by the numbers of people
who tune in.
Q: In which ways
do you consider yourself to be like Grace?
Holly Hunter: In which ways
do I consider myself - well you know Grace is all me. I
mean Grace is my imagination, my experience you know kind
of a combination of it all. It's great to have the life
experience that I've had to be able to put into Grace, because
I think Grace is so many different ages you know as one
woman, and I think we all feel this way in our own lives
is - you know sometimes I feel like you know I'm a 13-year-old
girl, and sometimes I feel like I'm 50, and so it depends
on what situation I'm in, or how tired I am, or how great
I feel you know or if I'm - you know oh wow, I'm spending
the weekend with my parents you know I feel like I'm 10.
You know this is a very common kind of experience that people
have and this is something that I get to explore with Grace
is that.
Q: So, then maybe
let's rephrase, how do you find that you're completely different
from her?
Holly Hunter: Well, I think you know that
one of the things that I love about Grace is her - you know
her impetuousness, which you know as I've gotten older you
know and as many people experience being impetuous is something
that you have to really kind of think about. Well - and
Grace - that means it's not impetuous anymore.
Q: How would you
like to see Grace grow as a woman over the course of this
season?
Holly Hunter: Well, I'm not sure. You know
it's all - this is what's exciting about doing episodic
is that you know the destiny of Grace is not just in my
hands. I mean it's in the hands of a roomful of writers
who are hanging around right this minute talking about like
what Grace could do and that's kind of cool.
Q: What would you like to say to everyone who's a fan and
a supporter of you and your show?
Holly Hunter: Thank you. I'm grateful. I
mean you know what's really cool, is that you know over
the course of my career I've done things that I've really
believed in, but the fact is that every movie, every television
movie, every television series that people - it's a huge
collaboration, and so what your hopes are for something
and what the reality is can be two different things. And
what's so great about "Saving Grace" and about
in the show is that there is an audience. There's recognition
of it you know. There's identification with it and I'm thankful
for that because sometimes you can work really hard on something
and it just - like it doesn't rise. You know the soufflé
doesn't rise, and in this case it did and I'm truly grateful
for that.