Do You Know Who Did It? "Gracepoint" Star David Tennant Talks AboutThe Mysterious New Mini-Series
There is a Killer on The Loose in "Gracepoint!" Actor David Tennant Briefs Us on The Series and More!
*Please note that "Gracepoint" is recommended for our readers 14 and over!*
As the fall shows come back into full swing, don't miss the new miniseries "Gracepoint" staring David Tennant ("Dr. Who"). The Scottish actor takes on a new role as an American cop who is following a string of murders in an effort to solve them before the killer strikes again. Here, we had the chance to listen to David give some feedback on Gracepoint as well as some of his other recent projects.
For people who are completely new to the series, how would you describe it and what can you tease about what's coming up?
It's hard to describe it completely comprehensively, because it's many things I think. On one level, it's a whodunit and the sort of spine of that is something that I think is familiar to us from many TV shows and movies of the past. There's a very strong whodunit in there. There's the procedural element of cops trying to solve a case.
I think what gives it an extra texture and really makes it something rather special is the way that the characters are drawn so beautifully. There's so much texture going on, that we get to understand the lives of all the different characters that get drawn into this and the impact of the event; the death of Danny Solano, which starts the whole ball running, which is the inciting incident in the show. It's not just another TV cop show death. We really understand the impact of that, and we really understand what that would mean to a small community such as Gracepoint.
The repercussions of that are followed through. I think it's very hard to watch the first episode without your heart breaking for the family, actually. That's helped by the fact that they're played by Michael Pena and Virginia Kull, who both really take you on this harrowing, awful journey of two parents who lose a child. That, in itself, is about one of the worst things that human beings can imagine.
It doesn't shy away from really showing you what the true repercussions of that will be. That really follows through the whole series. It's very honest. It's very candid, and yet at the same time, it's a thriller as well. It just takes you on the journey. It kind of grabs you and takes you on this journey, which is a bewildering and thrilling and grueling and gruesome, and yet, at the same time, I think impossible to turn off. I think it's a compelling story. I think it's been brilliantly told. I'm just very pleased to be a part of it.
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Do you have a favorite genre that you prefer to work in?
I don't really. I'm quite greedy for the variety, I suppose. I like the fact that I get to flip between them all. That's something that I would sort of work quite hard to preserve my ability to do that, I suppose. There are advantages and frustrations with each, I guess. In theater, you get to tell a story many times, over a number of months, and you get to investigate every possible corner of what that story might be.
I guess if you're filming something, whether it's film or television, it's all about chasing that one moment and getting it in the can to make it live just that one time. They're both related but very different techniques. I enjoy trying to master both of them really. I think they are quite different jobs, but the experience of working the theater I think informs working on film and television and vice versa. I feel very fortunate that I get to dabble in all these different genres. Hopefully, that's something I'll be able to continue to do.
How did you perfect your American accent for the show, and are you worried that American fans of 'Doctor Who,' who recognize you for your Scottish accent, but they may not be as receptive to your character?
Well if they're fans of Doctor Who, I didn't use a Scottish accent in that, either. I used an English accent in that. I don't imagine that's an issue. I think doing different accents is part of the job of acting really. It's something else that I quite enjoy the challenge of, to be honest.
Preparing for an American accent, I think just about in every corner of the globe, we're brought up watching American movies, so it's something that we all have some kind of ear for, I guess. Obviously, it's something that you take seriously, and you work with dialect coaches and experts to help you, and then you just practice until it's kind of in your bones, really, so that it's not something you're thinking about when you're on set every day. You do your homework and then you wind it up and let it go, I suppose.
It's part of what actors do. I always like seeing people transforming themselves in whatever way that might be, and a different accent is part of that. An accent, obviously, it's to do with the way your mouth works and the sounds that come out of your head, but somehow it informs everything about you, I think. If you speak in a different accent, you begin to move in a slightly different way. You think in a slightly different way. I think it's part of trying to find what makes a character and it's probably one of the things that, because I've done a character very similar to this in the British show that preceded Gracepoint, I guess this is, the accent, is one of the things that helps define what's different about this incarnation of this particular character I guess.
Do you feel your theater background helped you with the show, since you're used to doing different interpretations of the same basic story?
Well, maybe. It's hard for me to really know, isn't it? I keep being asked, "Was it odd to tell the same story again?" Of course, from a theater background it's not at all, it's what you do eight times a week. In fact, I was doing it in a whole new set of circumstances, surrounded by completely different actors, at times telling completely different parts of the story.
There are bits of plot; there are some characters in Gracepoint that no equivalent existed for in Broadchurch. It didn't really feel like a repetition, it just felt like you were telling a story that was familiar, but there were enough differences. Yes, as you say, acting is always about repeating things, to a greater or lesser extent. It's very rare you do one take of something, even on a TV show, so you're used to repeating things more than once. It just was an extension of that principle, I suppose, to go back and tell a similar story again from the start.
Maybe theater background does help with that; it's difficult for me to entirely know, as that's the training that I've had. Because I started in the theater, that still sort of feels like the day job to me, and any kind of filming, it still fills like a bit of a sabbatical, even though I probably do a lot more of that now then I do on stage. I guess that's in my bones, that's how I sort of approach things. Maybe it did help.
See a clip from the show here:
Is there a feeling that if Gracepoint does really well on Fox, that they'll be another series or what we call another season of Gracepoint?
Yes, there's always an eye for that, isn't there, with almost everything on television. We have to wait and see how the audience responds to it. Broadchurch is going to a second season, so there's no reason why Gracepoint shouldn't. There's a template there; although, a second season of Gracepoint might go off in a very different way. Who knows?
All these things are to be decided. We're all very excited about Gracepoint premiering in a couple of weeks. I just want America to take to it in a way that the UK did, because it was an extraordinary thing to be a part of. Even as objective as I can be, I think it's a fantastic story that people will be thrilled by. I'm delighted to hear that you're desperate to watch the last three. That's exactly the reaction we're after.
Tune in to FOX at 9:00pm on Thursdays beginning October 2 and see if you can figure out the mystery in Gracepoint!
For more on "Gracepoint" visit http://www.Fox.com/Gracepoint
Follow the show on Twitter: http://Twitter.com/GracepointFOX