Actor Daniel Gerroll as David Shea and Judy Davis’ Joan McAllister are a bright spot in the new season of USA Network's "The Starter Wife" with their poignantly played-out story arc dealing with middle-age depression, addiction and a renaissance of love and longing.
Gerroll-Courtesy of USA Network
The two actors are lions of the theater with impressive backgrounds across the board in all acting mediums, and their experience and talent shines in these roles of flawed, funny and complex secondary characters in the friends and family universe of Debra Messing’s unsinkable Molly Kagan.
Judy Davis as Joan, USA Network
So far we have been introduced to Joan's loyal husband Pappy (Ronny Cox), who has urged his alcoholic wife to gain new focus and work part-time at Destinies, the rehab center in Malibu where she sobered up.
Cox's Pappy is played with understated grace, as he can no longer feign sexual interest for Joan, which belies his true love for her; he simply is done with that aspect of his life and it tortures her. Joan is given Carte Blanche to satisfy her sexual side with another, provided there is no love involved.
The fly in that ointment is personified by charming rogue actor David Shea (Gerroll), a Brit who screws up a la Mel Gibson proportions.
He and Joan start out rough, but warm up very quickly to each other. This famous British drunkard both horrifies and fascinates Joan, as he charms her slowly by performing a rather inviting bump-and-grind on a stripper pole in his home.
Pappy and Joan's bedroom, the scene where Joan, David and Molly pack his belongings up - USA Network
When Monsters and Critics visited the set a few months back to meet the cast, we were there on the day Joan (Judy) and David (Daniel) were in scene and packing up Pappy's clothes and belongings as Molly (Messing) tried to help her newly widowed and distraught friend. We spoke to actor Daniel Gerroll right after he and Judy wrapped their tough moment.
The initial scenes at the airport when Joan (Judy Davis) was picking you up were great, and your character David was so vile and delicious.
Daniel Gerroll: Oh, I was vile, yeah, yeah.
What famous celebrity did you pattern your bad behavior after?
Daniel Gerroll: You know, all of them are like that. No, I'm joking. None really. It's just—you know, the great thing about this is if it's well-written, you don't have to do—I'm not a research type.
You know what I mean? If it's there, you do it. It's as simple as that. I mean, there have been all sorts of situations with celebrities overindulging in one thing or another and making slight fools of themselves. And it seems if anyone does it now, it's wide open, largely because of the media.
Remember the old days when the used to cover it up and hide you. You'd go to a Beverly Hills mansion and be put in a gilded cage until—the studio handled the stars—it doesn't happen. Now, not only do you get it in the paper, you get an actor playing you doing it in a TV series.
Can you tell us a little bit about the character of David Shea?
Daniel Gerroll: He's an English, London-based movie star who lives in Santa Monica who has a bit of a drunk and philandering problem. And he's busted for drunk driving by two rather butch female cops, and he makes off-color remarks and gets thrown in the back.
Then he's sent to rehab, and that's where Judy Davis' character, who she herself had—is in recovery and part of being in recovery is to work at the rehab place.
She's assigned to this asshole to wrangle him. And the great thing is that his character - he just falls for her, I suppose, he spends the time either trying to escape from rehab or seducing her, and that's the story line.
It was funny. When I was back east, and when they sent me the script, they made a mistake. They sent the script, and they said, 'You're reading for the much older husband of a middle-aged woman.' And I was like, I went to my wife, 'you know, Hollywood's cruel.'
Then I said, well, I'll do it. I'll suck it up. I'll do it. I mean, I need a job. I'm not proud. I've no vanity, and I'm reading it, and there's this really cool character of this English movie star who's drinking and womanizing. I'm like, well, those days are gone, I suppose. I used to play all those roles.
So I just did this karma thing. I learned the part, drove into New York. Manager rang two minutes in. Terrible mistake. You're not reading the geezer. You're actually (reading David)—they want you to read—and I was like, A), fantastic! B), it's in two minutes! And that’s how it started, and they say.
Apparently they'd been casting it in LA, and I don't think they really wanted to go to the expense of flying somebody from further away than Las Vegas, you know? But somebody in the casting thought of me, and so I just got a call, and I went into the office in New York, finally with the right role, put it on tape a couple of times, and they brought me out here to meet Judy and that.
So I came here with enough clothes for a weekend and ended up having to stay, which was a little embarrassing. I actually went swimming in the hotel pool in my workout shorts. A), because I didn't have any swimming trunks, and B), it was the only way I could, like, get laundry done.
Then after a few days here, I got a chance to go home and get—I'm not saying which hotel—I'll never been allowed back in there.
Have you had the chance to be in any of these great Molly daydream fantasy sequences?
Daniel Gerroll: I'm in the next one. The next episode. Yeah, I think it's the first. Yeah, I don't think I was in any of the other ones. I've been doing this now since June.
I can't quite remember, I don't think I was in any of the others, except maybe one. I am in one. I knew there was one. I'm on horseback.
They've had me swimming, horseback riding, now I think I'll be singing, without asking me whether I can to any of them. It's like, fine. But yeah. The scene—actually probably one of the best hooks this series has, these marvelously well—brilliantly-done fantasy sequences [they’ve got], plucking from every different genre of Hollywood movies. Very, very clever.
Does your character actually attempt recovery?
Daniel Gerroll: Well, he is in recovery. He goes through the program, but he certainly finds it tough.
I mean, even I don't know how it's going to end up, to be honest. But it's nice. I mean, I'd hate it to be too happily-ever-after because, as we all know, it's such a common thing now. We all know how difficult it is.
I just feel a big squeamish having a drink the first week. When I went to the bar, like, “Whew, that was a hard day's work, playing a drunk in rehab. Can I have a martini?”
But I don't know how they're going to do it. It's actually more fun playing pre-recovery than post-recovery, but fortunately, like, during the period when there's a recovery, there's this really great kind of sort of—it's not exactly a torrid romance, but it's a very edgy relationship with the Judy Davis character, that's what's really great fun.
Talk more abut the relationship between David and Joan.
Daniel Gerroll: Well, it's really great because what I love, maybe it's because we're all my generation, we're all baby boomers, and so people in my generation are still writing love stories about people of my age.
Otherwise, you're always going to see people, like, 22 years old falling in love. So Judy and I have this really great—she married, and I want her, and she's torn.
And she's just beastly to me all the time, which doesn't put me off. It's a marvelous—the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, [the scene] where they're slamming each other the whole time, but really, they're in love.
So it's kind of got a little bit of that, which is a classic story.
They do it really well here. There's a very sort of indiscernible feel to it because it is after all something of a satire on the Hollywood scene. You know, both domestic and professional.
Is your character eaten up with guilt when her husband dies?
Daniel Gerroll: Yes.
Did you watch the mini series before you took this role?
Daniel Gerroll: I did. I sat down. I hadn't been watching them. I have kids and a life, so I hadn't really watched a whole lot of TV. And I'd seen Debra Messing on the stage years ago.
I thought she was brilliant, and she was all over these buses all over New York, Starter Wife, but I saw it, and I thought it was only a pilot, and this was a series. So I sat down to watch for an hour. Six hours later—but it was great, and I had friends in it, and so actually, it was a good—it was great to be able to watch something and actually take a meal break and want to come back and watch it.
So I knew it would be something I'd want to do. That was before I knew I was going to do it while I was auditioning.
Did that influence the way that, then, you approached your character and interacting with Joan ?
Daniel Gerroll: Yeah, because it's important to understand—when something has any element of comedy to it, you really have to know where everybody is pitching it.
You can't clown where it's light comedy, and you can't be too dry where it's comedic... you just have to know what everybody is doing.
You can carve out your own niche and find your own style, but you can't, very often, people can be very mocking in comedy where it's actually meant to be told very truthfully and visa versa. So it was very helpful to see that to--[it was really good]. And the two main women, Judy and Debra, two of the most accomplished actresses in the business.
To be honest, as soon as I knew who was in it, that's why I was going to play the old guy if they asked. Really. It doesn't get better than—so much depends on who the main actors are for a show, and also, it's funny because the writers said to me that, they said they loved writing for my character because it's very kind of delightful.
When you have really good actors like those girls are, too, it brings out the best in the writers, and that's a wonderful sort of chemical reaction that happens to some of the most successful shows on TV.
Same sort of chemistry. A friend of mine—Kelsey Grammer's an old friend of mine, and my god, his dry wit in 'Cheers'. I mean, the writers fed of that for years, and it just blossomed, and that's really cool about—American television's gotten so much better over the last 15 to 20 years because the writing is so good. Maybe some of the actors aren't so good.
You're from London?
Daniel Gerroll: I'm from London.
And now you're here.
Daniel Gerroll: I lived in—my wife did many TV series during the '80s and '90s, and we lived out here during that period.
So for about ten years, I would commute back to do theater while she did her thing, you know? Her name's Patricia Kalember. She was on 'Sisters' and 'Thirtysomething.'
I kind of knew the scene, but I was never really part of this part of it because I was such a theater person. So that's changing.
What is your preference, living in the UK or America? Or do you find strengths in both locations?
Daniel Gerroll: You know, we lived in the Pacific Palisades, and it was bliss, and I loved it. And we now live in Connecticut, which is like the East Coast version with seasons. You know, it's kind of good.
I look forward to getting back out here whenever, and I'm one of the only people who will ever admit it. I love LA, and not in the Randy Newman, you know, [arts] way. I just really think it's great. I just love it.
I mean, mind you, I'm usually working. Well, I used to say that I love living here, being out of work. When I got a job, it was very—5:00 in the morning, Burbank, makeup, eight hours to—it's, like, stuck to your skin. But this has been the best gig I've had.
Do you think English perceptions of drinking problems are different than American perceptions?
Daniel Gerroll: Totally.
Please elaborate.
Daniel Gerroll: One of my closest friends, he was somewhat older than me. He was a famous playwright, and he died about a month ago, and I went to his funeral in England. And he had nearly died from alcohol about ten years previously, and we were—and my wife came with me.
I have a lot of friends I hadn't seen for 30 years or so. And English actors are famous drinkers, and we used to go the pub and drink during movie—making a movie, and then doing our thing.
There's a huge refusal to believe that it's a disease, which was true here many years ago, but now it's an acknowledged thing in America's, [to think] that it's a disease.
In London, it was rather like New York 35 years ago. They're almost there. You can feel it coming, but it's still—it's like, some very close friends of mine. I would look at them. I'd realize—and they'd say, “Oh, yeah, you know, I'm probably an alcoholic, so I'm only drinking white wine.” and I'd be like, “This is so bizarre.”
So yeah, there's a huge difference. It's quite shocking.
The pub culture is something which we don't have in America. It really is (in UK) you're either at home, in bed, or at work or at the pub. But yeah, there's a difference.
So when you're homesick, and you want a banger or a mash or a spotted dick, where do you go?
Daniel Gerroll: When I'm home and I want a banger? I miss good fish and chips, but bangers and mash are really just a large sausage and mashed potato—I mean, there's nothing particularly—I never—but I know there are. They used to be a lot more of these English pubs up and down the coast of Santa Monica, and they're pretty much gone now ...I don't miss that at all.
One of the reasons I left—if I arrived here and they handed me a plate of bangers and mash, it would kind of destroy... ruin the impetus rather.
What do you miss about home?
Daniel Gerroll: I hadn't been to London for a very long time until last month, and I stayed in a really nice area. A friend of mine's house, and there was no noise. I mean, there was no noise.
And my wife said, well, what about the bugs, the crickets. You actually sit there, I could actually hear my ears ringing. When you're in complete silence, if you go like—so I miss that.
I'd forgotten how gentle certain parts of London could be when it's rain washed and quiet, late at night. It's just magical.
But I don't miss much else. The people, politics, I miss going to the theater. This sounds terrible because I mean, I hate going to the theater, even though I'm a theater actor.
I couldn't wait to go to an English theater, even though—and some of it was really fucking awful, but I just loved going. So I guess I miss that somewhat.
Do have a dream sequence idea you kind of wanted to pitch for the show?
Daniel Gerroll: God, I haven't thought of that. The funny thing is, though, that I was in 'Chariots of Fire', and it'd be funny because that's another sort of a genre. It'd be funny to do that, but there was a scene where I was in a swimming pool, and Judy would say, come on. Come on, out, out. As I was running through and I started singing the Chariot song.
Your character David brings Joan back to your home, and you have your stripper pole in your apartment.
Daniel Gerroll: Oh, yeah, right.. I haven't seen it yet. First of all, I thought it was—how—that's pushing it. Actually, I couldn't—anything you see here is, it's out there. That was kind of fun. I just—you see a pole, you dance. I mean...
You did a great job.
Daniel Gerroll: Did I? Oh, thank you. My wife's a dancer, too. And she said—[I said I got] she said, “Is somebody going to like, you know, you're the klutz in the family.” She said to me, “Is anyone going to help you with it?” I'm saying, no.
Oh. [his cell phone rings] My son put this ringtone on for me. [answers the cell phone] Hello?
[to his wife] "Darling I'm in a press conference, honey. Can I get back to you? I'll call you back in two minutes. Okay. Bye. That's very funny. I've always wanted to say that. "
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