[IMG:L]When Jenji Kohan, the creator of Weeds, digs a hole for herself, she goes all out. As the last season of the controversial comedy came to an end, pot dealing soccer mom Nancy had five guns pointed at her head, Shane was on his way to South America with Andy’s loopy ex-girlfriend, Silas was about to get arrested with all his mother’s MILF weed in the trunk of his car, Doug and Dean were beating each other up at a graduation party, and before we knew it, DEA Peter Scottson turned up DOA.
Returning with 15 new episodes this fall, Weeds will continue to prove that Showtime is the network to beat. And while leaving a TV character dangling can be shorthand for “You’re fired,” Kohan has no such intentions: Not only does she rescue every last one of her characters, but as Season 3 rolls on, her cast will grow to include Matthew Modine and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Olsen joins the cast as a “good Christian girl with a twist”–a character who is very comfortable in her Christianity as well as in her recreational drug use. “She wants to tell them all about the Bible,” says Olsen. “Maybe she’s stoned while doing so, but she wants to tell them about it.”
Kohan said Olsen was a natural for the role. “It was really a situation where she took the part in the room. Hunter came up from stage and they read a scene. It was so natural and so delightful to watch. It was really great. We were very excited.”
[IMG:R]As expected, Olsen’s fame makes her future employers initially reluctant to audition her–a challenge she faces head on. “I’ve really spent the past year or so going to auditions,” one half of the world’s most famous set of multiples said. “I’m really passionate about acting and working hard. I do a lot of other stuff in my life. I do fashion, and I’m very passionate about that, and [there] will always be that celebrity, I guess, but hopefully my work speaks for itself.”
This will also be the first time Olsen acts without her sister Ashley, but as weird as splitting up the Olsen Twins may seem to her fan base, acting solo doesn’t faze her. “It doesn’t feel that weird. I’m doing what I love. And I go on auditions by myself, so I guess I’m used to doing the parts by myself.”
Matthew Modine has also been cast as the show’s other Christian force. “Yeah, I’m the good Christian girl. That’s the one thing that the two of us have in common. I’m actually the other Olsen twin,” jokes Modine. “I haven’t quite adjusted to it either. I’ve just grown a penis.” Modine will play Sullivan Groff, who is profiting from biblical ideals by selling communities that are faith-based. Modine calls his character a “religious pretender.” “I think that Sullivan Groff probably wouldn’t put much stock in any book that was written when the world was flat. He’ll use something in order to achieve a goal, but I don’t know that Sullivan Groff really is a truly spiritual man.”
For Emmy nominee Mary-Louise Parker, this will be the season Nancy Botwin finally embraces her career choice. “I think it’s the evolution of a gangster,” says Kohan. “She’s sort of owning what she does and getting comfortable in her skin in that role. I think, by nature, Nancy will always dig herself into holes. She’s something of a danger junkie, but I think she’s learning the ropes a little better and learning more about what to do and how to handle situations.”
[IMG:L]Parker, meanwhile, is looking forward to expressing the mobster in Nancy. “I think she has an underlying volcanic personality that’s not maybe immediately evident. Because she’s grieving, she’s stifled a lot, and I think it comes out in little spurts. But I like all of those scenes. I like them a lot. I like them because it’s so incongruous to see this woman that looks this particular way functioning with the gangsters. I find it really interesting.”
Fans of the show will be thrilled to hear that Kohan sees no end in sight for the denizens of Agresctic, happy or otherwise. “Who is talking about an ending? Can it have a happy ending? I guess some people will be happy and some people won’t. I don’t think there will ever be the happy ending or the tragic ending with Weeds. There’s always something in the middle.” And in the middle we are happy to remain for many seasons to come.
