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Friday nights, he’s the incredibly loyal if oftentimes skeptical husband of vision-seeing psychic Alison Dubois on CBS’ “Medium.” But almost 15 years ago, Jake Weber struggled with more sinister supernatural forces on the filmed-in-Wilmington series “American Gothic.” Weber played a doctor in a small Southern town looking after a boy being targeted by a demonic sheriff. Weber, 45, talked with me recently about his unintentional relationship with fantasy, his memories of life on local sets, and what makes his on-screen relationship so special.
Q: “American Gothic” was a short-lived critical darling that never caught on with viewers. What did you think of that show?
A: The pilot I thought was just so good and so well shot. It felt like a little movie. Then almost as soon as we got into it, I don’t think they realized how hard it was going to be to write the show. You really had to write those episodes with imagination, and I think it kind of caught them off guard. There wasn’t a lot of really complicated stuff on television back then. I loved working with that kid Lucas Black. he was such a cool kid. I always wished that it had met that potential.
It was kind of before its time a little bit. I did about nine episodes, and the show wasn’t working all that well. They just had to change something up. I hope they didn’t fire me out of just incompetence, but they did replace me. And they replaced me with a guy that was more straightforward.
Q: What do you remember about your time in Wilmington?
A: Wilmington was great. I liked it there. It’s a cool town. They had this Italian place that had the best spaghetti with clam sauce. And they put Parmesan cheese or something on it, which is kind of heresy in Italian restaurants. But now I always put Parmesan on my spaghetti with clam sauce. We shot a lot in the studios (on 23rd Street). We shot a lot on location, which got really hot in the summer. The crew was collapsing.
Q: Beyond “Medium” and “American Gothic,” your resume includes “Dawn of the Dead,” “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” and “The Cell.” Do you seek out supernatural projects, or is it a coincidence?
A: It’s so random and coincidental that I ended up doing so much supernatural stuff,. One of my favorite films was this film called “Wendigo,” which was this small independent horror film. I’m not like a huge horror fan. I’m not like a huge supernatural fan. I like good horror movies that are about other things, that aren’t just chopping people up, like “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Carrie,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I like these horror films that have an allegorical context. Look, I’m a working man. I go where the work is. Given my druthers, I’d like variety.
Q: Joe’s had deal with a lot over the years as his wife and, lately, daughters are having visions, getting possessed and switching bodies…
A: Joe tends to be the bastion of sanity in the household. I hope that doesn’t sound misogynistic. He’s surrounded by psychic women.
Q: Is it time for Joe to be possessed himself?
A: Yeah, it would be fun. Yeah, absolutely!
Q: Can you talk about your on-screen marriage? Joe’s relationship with Alison has always been the rock of the show, something very believable, even when they’re talking about ghosts and visions.
A: Glen (creator Glen Gordon Caron) has always been interested in this marriage. When I met him, he said, “Look I really want to explore this marriage. This is what I’m interested in. This is kind of the heart of the show and everything else is really scaffolding around that.”
He’s very good at writing plot and writing very intricate plot lines. But he’s really interested in this love story between this woman who sees dead people and this man who is a man of science — two people from totally disparate worlds. It’s a very optimistic view of relationships. They fight, they’re fierce, they’re opinionated, but they make up really well. Glen was writing this as his marriage was breaking up, and I thought it was very big hearted and optimistic of him to write such a positive relationship as his own first marriage was coming apart. I think it’s the biggest strength of the show. It’s kind of cool that their going to get through anything.
Catch “Medium” at 9 p.m. Fridays on CBS.
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Date: 2009-11-21 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-21 03:46 am (UTC)