The cast of Six Feet Under may constantly have to deal with death on the set of their hit series, but they proved to be quite a lively bunch when HBO threw a fourth season premiere party June 2 at Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theater.
Trading tombstones for cement sidewalks, virtually every member of the Fisher clan and their extended family attended, with Peter Krause the only glaring exception (he’s rehearsing with Carla Gugino in New York for a production of Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, so he’s excused). And from what the cast told us, it sounds like the women will be ruling the funeral home this season.
Rachel Griffiths–who just shed enough post-baby weight to slip into a size smaller jeans and an elegant Richard Tyler top (“I’m pretty proud of myself!”)–thinks her troubled
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character Brenda may have finally found some peace…for now. “This is the season where a lot of her internal issues are worked out, so she’s actually dealing with the world,” she said.
“The struggle is not so much in the mind–she’s left a lot of the past behind, she’s living in the present and just dealing with difficulties as they arise. She confronts life in a really good way,” she said. Will she be one of the more stable characters this year? “She probably will be this year. She has a great journey, where she’s kind of working out what she wants.”
Ravishing redhead Lauren Graham–perfectly pretty in a pink outfit chosen by Zac Posen–played coy on rumors that her character Claire might do some interesting experimenting with a new character: fellow art student Edie, played by Mena Suvari. “I keep reading in articles that we’re exploring Claire’s sexuality,” said Lauren. “I have a hard time saying that out loud.”
All she would say out loud about getting more than friendly with Mena‘s character was, “Well, we start out with a very intense relationship. Her character is very inspiring to Claire’s character as an artist.”
Not exactly confirmation, so we asked Mena herself. “Ooo, I don’t know. Maybe,” she said with a coquettish wink and giving us a twirl in her hot-pink, plunging-neckline BCBG dress. “Edie’s really strong and opinionated but feminine at the same time. She’s a performance artist and she’s friends with Claire Fisher.”
Working on the show was a family reunion of sorts for Suvari—Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball wrote the screenplay for her 1998 breakout film, the Oscar–winning American Beauty, and called Mena to take on the character of Edie. “We’ve seen each other off and on [since]–I was so touched when he thought of me. Right away I did as much research as I could It’s been great. I was only upset because they did 12 episodes this season–they usually do 13–and Alan always directs the last episode, and I was on until the 10th episode, so I missed working with him as a director and I really would have loved that!”
We asked Golden Globe winner Frances Conroy, who plays Ruth Fisher, if she felt a little like a sports figure coming back after a championship season. “I just came in happy to be part of this again and happy to be back with people I love so much,” she demurred, promising that even more new dimensions to Ruth will be explored this season. “You see her in this marriage that’s very much alive, whereas earlier you saw her in a marriage that had ended with her husband’s death, and the marriage needed help. Now you see her in a living marriage, in all the good and bad moments.”
Justina Machado, who has long been in the background as Federico’s wife Vanessa Diaz, will also see her character emerge prominently, and with a whole new attitude. “I can say that her depression is gone, but there’s other things that she’s dealing with, and instead of seeing the wife and the mom, you’re going to see the woman,” revealed Justina. “You’re going to get to know her better, I can say that.”
Still, all those curveballs aside, is she as shocked by what she sees in the scripts as the audience is when it finally airs? “No, nothing shocks me,” she laughed. “I’m so jaded.”
The ladies aren’t the only ones getting the juicy stuff. Matthew St. Patrick, who plays David Fisher’s angry ex-cop lover Keith, says change is in the wind. “Keith is more understanding, more patient, more kind, more forgiving, and he listens. His temper isn’t at the forefront this year,” said Matthew. “He’s on a new job track and seeming to enjoy that. He’s at a place where he’s taking life one day at a time.”
Given the current social discourse over gay partnerships, Matthew says he’s received overwhelming support for Keith and David’s rocky relationship by fans who recognize him off the set. “We try to be as honest as we can with those portrayals, and we couldn’t ask for more support. There’s been an overwhelming amount of support for Keith and David by not just the gay community but the heterosexual community. People are fighting for David and Keith to stay alive, to stay in each other’s lives, and they really want to see them together.”
Also on hand to celebrate the new season: the rest of the revelers included Michael C. Hall and his wife Amy Spangler, Freddy Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Ben Foster, Joanna Cassidy, Jeremy Sisto, Rainn Wilson, new castmate Peter Facinelli and his wife Jennie Garth, and Sex and the City‘s Willie Garson.
