Keeping (Lee) Pace: An Interview with Pushing Daisies Star
Matt Richenthal at .The following interview with Lee Pace is taken from the same E! Online feature that named the actor as a Newbie We'll Love...
I've been doing movies for the past five years, and I wasn't really looking at doing television until this year, but I did work with Bryan Fuller on Wonderfalls, and I heard through the grapevine that Bryan Fuller had a new show, so I got a script from the manager. I read it, and I thought, this is actually really, really good.
Then I talked to Bryan, and he told me, "You know, I kind of wrote the character with you in mind." And I was like, Oh, wow, that's never happened before.
That's so amazing.
Ned reads like the way I speak; we have the same speech patterns. So, I called my agents and my manager and I said, "I think this is really worth doing."
So, they fought you, or you fought them, or both?
Both. I remember one of them saying, "Doing television right now would be a deeply regrettable move." I just kept thinking, You know, if I'm tied up not doing movies for six years that means the show is a massive hit. And if that's the problem I'm dealing with six years from now, then I'll take it. I'll take it. But what really kind of tipped the scale is that it's good. Barry Sonnenfeld is directing it!
And the cast is great.
Every element has fallen into place. Everyone on the cast and crew gets along really, really well, we enjoy working together.
This show is love!
It's about love and life. It's about someone who can bring people back to life, but who can also inadvertently kill people. What I think we're going to see Ned gain through the course of the series is an appreciation for how good it is to be alive. That's the addition that Chuck makes to his life - it's good to be alive, it's good to be out of the Pie Hole, solving these cases. He learns how good life can be, how important this gift is.
Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.