Showtime’s original series Out of Order looks at the beauty and brutality of a long-term Hollywood marriage. We talk to cast members Justine Bateman, Felicity Huffman and Kim Dickens.
For more information on the series, visit the Out of Order site on SHO.com. Keep reading for interviews with the female cast!
Created by the husband/wife writing team of Wayne and Donna Powers, Showtime’s new dramedy Out of Order focuses on Mark (Eric Stoltz) and Lorna (Felicity Huffman), a successful husband/wife screenwriting team who live in Los Angeles, have been married for 16 years and have a nine-year-old son.
In Mark’s mind, his life plays out very much like a movie–but he watches it spiral wildly out of control when Lorna is diagnosed with clinical depression. Clinging to whatever shred of a relationship he still has with his wife, Mark watches helplessly as Lorna turns to drugs and alcohol. Although he has always been faithful to Lorna, Mark finds himself increasingly attracted to Danni (Kim Dickens), the mom of one of his son’s soccer teammates–and lurking in the picture is Mark’s neighbor Annie (Justine Bateman), whose blatant come-ons may just wear him down.
Hollywood.com spoke with this trio of ladies in Mark’s life played by Huffman, Dickens and Bateman and asked them about what the show means to them, how they were inspired by its well-written story and how although they all like their jobs a lot–none of them has aspirations to write.
What’s your take on what the show is about?
Kim Dickens: It deals with modern-day contemporary life, as it is in Hollywood, California, at least. It deals with contemporary marriages, long-term marriages. Choices, infidelities. Depression. Things people contend with that don’t really get addressed in storytelling. You see these people sort of struggling through life’s daily challenges. People make choices to alleviate their own suffering. And sometimes they make choices that aren’t really condoned by society.
Felicity Huffman: It’s a good thing you ask me what my perspective is about the show, because I think actors, no matter how objective they are, are really subjective and talk more from the perspectives of their characters. So on that, I think it’s a look at marriage, a modern-day marriage, from the guy’s point of view, in this case Mark, whose played by Eric Stoltz. And how his world gets turned upside down. He is forced to make a new life with all the same old material.
How do your characters fit in?
Justine Bateman: I play sort of the troublemaker in the neighborhood. [Annie] says and does whatever comes to mind, she really doesn’t have a filter–and this often begins “little” problems.
Huffman: Lorna has a very specific voice. I think that’s one of the things Wayne and Donna have done really well, is write three-dimensional characters. What I think makes this project interesting is that all the characters are made to be sympathetic as well as not sympathetic at the same time. There are angles you look at them and say ‘Awww, poor guys’ and then there are angles that you look at them and say ‘Yuck! Who’d want to be with them?’ So, it’s not your typical, he’s the good guy and she’s the bad one. And here’s the funny guy and here’s the stupid person. It’s much more complex than that. It’s kinda like life.
Dickens: You end up having compassion and understanding for all sides of the coin, you know? My character Danni is not really a slutty character, a homewrecker or a malicious character in any way. She’s a homemaker whose husband works really hard and she’s home taking care of her kid. She’s really a cool person, an independent spirit.
What about your roles inspires you?
Bateman: I thought the writing was really good and when the writing is good, I don’t have to work very hard, it all flows together. When something isn’t written well, that’s when I have to work my hardest to try and make it cohesive. When someone says, “I didn’t like your project,” I say, “It wasn’t my project, I didn’t write it. I just tried to make it work.” For me it comes down to that, and the writing is really good on this.
Huffman: I always take everything from the script. If the story is told well and the scene is written well, what the actor has to do is get out of its way and tell the truth. That’s my job. My inspiration came from the script. It had all the information I needed. Do I know what’s it’s like to have a fight with someone? Of course, and [Wayne and Donna] wrote that scene very well. Do I know what it’s like to breakdown and not have your life they way you thought it would turn out? Yes, I do. If the script’s written well, we look good.”
[PAGEBREAK]
Is working in a Hollywood milieu easier? Will we get an inside view?
Dickens: Most of the other times I’ve dealt with subject matter that is more for the everyman. So it’s been fun to do this–“real” life and “reel” life–but then you think, we are really representing a very specific little circle of people. It’s not like that in New York and it’s certainly not like that in Kansas.
Bateman: We do have the advantage of living in Los Angeles. We can say, “Yeah, this is what the women in the Palisades are like.” But I think the “laymen” are pretty savvy now. I think years ago if you did a film which spoke in that Hollywood code, people wouldn’t get what was being said. But I just don’t think that’s the case anymore. There are so many entertainment magazines and Web sites like yourself, I think everybody is an expert on the Hollywood lingo and the way it all works. They may still want see about all the inner workings, but now they’ll understand more what’s going on.
What is the atmosphere on the set like?
Dickens: It is bit family-oriented. Felicity and [husband William H. Macy, who has a small role on the show] have two kids and Justine has a baby but Eric and I are childless. We get go out and have pizza and beer. And Felicity is like, “Oh, that’s not fair” and we’re like, “Oh, but you have a husband and family.
Huffman: [Laughing] It’s heinous! I hate it! Is it rewarding? I’m in a different place now. I have two children. I don’t eat, breathe and sleep work the way I used to. My priorities are split, focus has changed, but it’s a wonderful group to work with. And Eric, when he’s sober, is just great. [Laughs] What’s also really great is Wayne and Donna worked really hard to get all the episodes done, so we know the entire arc of the story. We aren’t waiting around going, “OK, what’s going to happen next? How does the story go?” So we all feel prepared knowing what we are going into.
Any aspirations to write?
Dickens: No, not really. I like my job as an actor, I really do. I like our schedules; I like what we get to focus on. With writers, it’s like you never get to stop working, always absorbing and watching life around you. You do that as an actor too, I guess, but I just like doing the acting part better. Writers have their own vacuum. You got to get your word out there and get it read, hope that people see your vision. It’s just as much a struggle as anything else.
Bateman: I don’t really have any aspirations per se. I mean, I do write, short stories and poems and I enjoy my own writing. [Laughs] Guess everybody does. But I don’t think I have a script in me. I’ve got one of the choicest jobs in the entire world. Look at me. Today, I’ve got the day off, sitting around and tomorrow I’ll go say lines in front of a camera and someone will do my makeup. And then someone will give me a check. It’s really a privileged position. Sure, there’s hard work too, but honestly, it can’t compare to having a real job. I don’t care how many stunts someone did for themselves or whatever. It just can’t compare.
Huffman: I would love to write, but I’m pretty sure I’m talent-free at it. I would like to–in this business, it’s good to have as many balls in the air as you can.
What about having to be glamorous 24/7?
Bateman: I just don’t do it. I don’t have time to do all that. That does seem like it would be a lot of work, to have to look a particular way all the time. I was just saying to my friend the other day, when Jennifer Lopez travels, I can’t fathom the idea of how much luggage she’s got with her. I mean, she’s got a completely new outfit on in each picture, like from the shoes to the hat. That’s got to be a lot of luggage. For me personally, I just don’t have time.
Out of Order airs Mondays, 10 p.m. ET/PT
