Post by Forever Xena on Jan 24, 2006 1:29:05 GMT -6
'Commander In Chief's' Davis in Charge of Own Fate
By Rick Porter
Monday, January 23, 2006
02:53 PM PT
Playing the first female president of the United States hasn't changed Geena Davis.
"Sure, I have the little flags on the front of my Volvo," the actress says. "But you know, who doesn't?"
Kidding aside, Davis is playing one of the more scrutinized roles on television this season in ABC's "Commander In Chief." Although both Davis, who won a Golden Globe last week for her portrayal of President Mackenzie Allen, and the show have been generally well-received, some pundits have speculated that "Chief" is nothing less than a propaganda piece to pave the way for Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton to run for the White House in 2008.
Davis has heard that too, and she smiles at the notion. "I happen to know it's not," she says. "It was definitely not ABC's intent in buying this show or Rod Lurie's in creating it. I know that ABC is interested in ratings and ad sales and things like that, and not secret political agendas."
If "Commander In Chief" is advancing any sort of political notion, she says, she hopes it's that the idea of a female president -- regardless of who that may be -- becomes more accepted.
"That's the only direction this is headed in," she says. We may be incredibly stubborn about it, and it may take a really long time, but I think it's better to view the subject in a broader sense."
After starting the season hot, the show has come down to earth some in recent weeks thanks in part to a competitive timeslot on Tuesday nights (although it's still averaging better than 14 million viewers per week). The series also shut down for a time due to backstage issues that rivaled the comings and goings of real-life White House staffers, and received a similar level of scrutiny in the Hollywood press.
With production well behind schedule, Lurie, who created the series and retains an executive producer title, was ushered out as the day-to-day showrunner in October. He was replaced by Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue"), who brought in a new group of writers and immediately had to hammer out two scripts just to ensure a full complement of episodes for November sweeps.
"We sort of shut the company down for three or four weeks so that, as a writing group, we could take a deep breath and have a little time to think and plan and get some new material working so that when we came back into production, we could come back into a much more normalized kind of production schedule, which I think we did," Bochco says. "And I think the scripts are really good. So given the givens, I think it was as good of a transition as you could have hoped for."
Davis agrees, offering nothing but praise for Bochco and the way he and his team handled the transition.
"From the beginning, [they] were knocking it out of the park," she says. "So it gave us a tremendous feeling of security and comfort going ahead because we obviously all had already fallen in love with doing the show and with our characters and wanted to keep going."
As for the delays that the transition caused, Davis is philosophical. "It's something that had to happen. I mean, the new writers and the new staff had to have time to bring it together," she says. "It's just -- there's nothing you can do about it."
In fact, if Davis has any problem with "Commander In Chief" it's that she's unsure of what future role might measure up to playing the leader of the free world.
"The appeal is playing a female character who can make her own decisions and be in charge of her own fate, and this is on the biggest possible scale you could hope for," she says. "I don't know what I can play after this part."
By Rick Porter
Monday, January 23, 2006
02:53 PM PT
Playing the first female president of the United States hasn't changed Geena Davis.
"Sure, I have the little flags on the front of my Volvo," the actress says. "But you know, who doesn't?"
Kidding aside, Davis is playing one of the more scrutinized roles on television this season in ABC's "Commander In Chief." Although both Davis, who won a Golden Globe last week for her portrayal of President Mackenzie Allen, and the show have been generally well-received, some pundits have speculated that "Chief" is nothing less than a propaganda piece to pave the way for Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton to run for the White House in 2008.
Davis has heard that too, and she smiles at the notion. "I happen to know it's not," she says. "It was definitely not ABC's intent in buying this show or Rod Lurie's in creating it. I know that ABC is interested in ratings and ad sales and things like that, and not secret political agendas."
If "Commander In Chief" is advancing any sort of political notion, she says, she hopes it's that the idea of a female president -- regardless of who that may be -- becomes more accepted.
"That's the only direction this is headed in," she says. We may be incredibly stubborn about it, and it may take a really long time, but I think it's better to view the subject in a broader sense."
After starting the season hot, the show has come down to earth some in recent weeks thanks in part to a competitive timeslot on Tuesday nights (although it's still averaging better than 14 million viewers per week). The series also shut down for a time due to backstage issues that rivaled the comings and goings of real-life White House staffers, and received a similar level of scrutiny in the Hollywood press.
With production well behind schedule, Lurie, who created the series and retains an executive producer title, was ushered out as the day-to-day showrunner in October. He was replaced by Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue"), who brought in a new group of writers and immediately had to hammer out two scripts just to ensure a full complement of episodes for November sweeps.
"We sort of shut the company down for three or four weeks so that, as a writing group, we could take a deep breath and have a little time to think and plan and get some new material working so that when we came back into production, we could come back into a much more normalized kind of production schedule, which I think we did," Bochco says. "And I think the scripts are really good. So given the givens, I think it was as good of a transition as you could have hoped for."
Davis agrees, offering nothing but praise for Bochco and the way he and his team handled the transition.
"From the beginning, [they] were knocking it out of the park," she says. "So it gave us a tremendous feeling of security and comfort going ahead because we obviously all had already fallen in love with doing the show and with our characters and wanted to keep going."
As for the delays that the transition caused, Davis is philosophical. "It's something that had to happen. I mean, the new writers and the new staff had to have time to bring it together," she says. "It's just -- there's nothing you can do about it."
In fact, if Davis has any problem with "Commander In Chief" it's that she's unsure of what future role might measure up to playing the leader of the free world.
"The appeal is playing a female character who can make her own decisions and be in charge of her own fate, and this is on the biggest possible scale you could hope for," she says. "I don't know what I can play after this part."
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