Mark Feuerstein Interview: Royal Pains begins June 3

By April MacIntyre Jun 3, 2010, 15:08 GMT

Royal Pains, courtesy of USA

USA's hit summer series "Royal Pains" begins tonight!

"Royal Pains" is the dramedic slice of life of one fallen Doctor from Manhattan, blackballed after an unfortunate death on his watch, who is now practicing private on-call medicine for the Hamptons set. 

His new clientele never worry about premiums, deductibles or how they are paying the bill.  Dr. Hank Lawson (Feuerstein) is joined by his high energy brother Evan Lawson (Paulo Costanzo), who is part schemer and the perfect foil in their varied Long Island adventures of healing the rich and often times off kilter patients.

Guest stars already announced are legendary actor Henry Winkler and Marcia Gay Harden, along with WWE star Paul "The Big Show" Wight.

The pro wrestler was pitched to USA by "Pains" star Mark Feuerstein, who worked with him in feature comedy Knucklehead last fall.

Feuerstein, who plays Hank Lawson on the medical dramedy, will also appear on USA Network's WWE Monday Night Raw on June 14.

Royal Pains on USA Network returns for Season 2 this Thursday on USA at 10:00 pm.

Mark took time out to talk to Monsters and Critics and some other journalists about the new season, the guest stars, and the awesomeness of a Hamptons summer experience:

Niagara Frontier Publication: Now that you’re into Season 2, now that you’ve been shooting some episodes what are you most excited about for your character and for the plot in general?

Mark Feuerstein: Great question though I won’t be evaluating the questions as I go I’m sure they’ll all be great.

I am most excited about the fact that they’ve added a character, namely our father, Henry Winkler, played by Henry Winkler, Eddie R. Lawson.
I had one thing to say to the writers this year, which I did say in a conference room where I am lucky enough to have executive producers who invite the actors to be part of the creative process, I said Hank Lawson is a fantastic character, a great hero.

But if there was a way to see some of the dirt under his fingernails, a little of the mess in his life that would be just a bonus to add dimension and depth to the character. And enter the character of Eddie R. Lawson, our estranged father.

He brings up all of the range and resentment that Hank has felt from being abandoned by him about 20 years ago. And with it comes all of these emotions that Hank hasn’t felt for years and years. And in getting to deal with them I get this great challenge as an actor.

And it’s been just an incredible ride for Paulo Costanzo and Henry Winkler and me. And something about the chemistry of the three of us literally feels as if somehow unbeknownst to us, we are actually brothers and father and sons.

Niagara Frontier Publication: Right. You know, and that’s interesting what you say. From the setup in the season finale it seems like the character Henry is playing is pretty much a bad, bad guy. You know, he’s done some pretty nasty things to his family.
Can we expect any sort of redeeming qualities out of him or some sort of a, you know, a rekindling of something between father and sons or is he pretty much just, you know, a bad guy at this point?

Mark Feuerstein: You know, the brilliant thing about casting Henry Winkler is if you’ve ever met Henry Winkler, if you’ve ever seen him in an interview or just loved the warmth and humanity that comes from him in his acting you know that this guy is arguably possibly the nicest guy in Hollywood as he is referred to on TMZ for those of you who’ve seen that.

So to have this sort of errant father played by the nicest guy in town is a perfect juxtaposition because you think he’s the sweetest, you think he means well and yet he’s done all of this bad stuff.

And it’s perfectly reflected in the character of Eddie R. Lawson who is a total hustler, always trying to play an angle but playing it with such sweetness that you almost wonder like on an episode of Survivor or something, whether he’s being genuine or not.

And it’s perfectly cast because Henry is so sweet that you have to wonder if it’s true. In the case of Henry Winkler it is 100% true. In the case of Eddie R. Lawson, not so much.

Starry Constellation Magazine: You have such great on seen chemistry with Paulo. How do you guys continue to maintain it?

Mark Feuerstein: The thing about chemistry, which I so appreciate what you’re saying and I love my scenes with my brother, it’s something that’s out of our hands. No one could predict the chemistry that would ensue between me and Paulo. And I love it. I cherish it every day. And I feel it with him off screen as well.

We have this dynamic where we’re sort of always competing but we have this intrinsic trust. And so at the end of any scene it’ll be hard to know who’s going to end up having the last line because he and I will go toe to toe trying to one up the other at the end of any given scene.

I love that game because that game is exactly what I understand the relationship between brothers to be. And he and I have it in spades. And I feel like knowing him more now, having spent a year with him, we are closer than ever both off camera and that informs our relationship on camera.

Starry Constellation Magazine:  What keeps challenging you about this role?

Mark Feuerstein:   I find that to balance all of the elements - the romantic element, the dramatic element, the comedic element and the medical aspect of the show forces me to constantly have to shift gears. And tonally, the show manages to balance so many different colors, so many different musical notes in the show.

And that for me is the biggest challenge because I’ll go from one scene that’s light and trivial and frivolous to another scene where another scene where somebody’s life is on the line to another scene where there’s a precise rhythm comedically, to hitting it with my brother to some very sort of vulnerable emotional scene with Jill or Paulo or Henry.

Luckily, we have this cast that feels like family to me. So, you know, we’re always - it feels like we’re always playing a trust game and no one’s worried that the other one isn’t going to catch them.

Redeye: Any crazy Paulo Costanzo moments you can share?

Mark Feuerstein: I have to tell you if I try to take you through the million different weird, goofy moments that Paulo and I share onset (a) you might all be bored to tears and asleep; but (b) there are so many it’s impossible to recount them all.

But I’ll take you back about an hour to when we were onset and he started by repeating everything I said. Then he would talk every time I opened my mouth and then I reversed it by repeating everything he was saying.

And then it grew into a shouting match where we were literally just yelling total gibberish out loud onset for about ten minutes straight. I can assure you we cleared the entire set. The crew was nowhere to be found. It was so irritating.

But he and I were having the best time speaking another language because that’s what we do. That’s just how we roll.

Redeye: How does it feel now being a successful show in the second year?

Mark Feuerstein: I have to tell you any of you who have ever seen some of the shows I’ve done or have been aware of me in the course of this 12 years - I mean there have been good shows that haven’t been discovered or - and there have been average shows that just didn’t make it.

To be on a show that is supported by an incredible network like USA and (Bonnie Hammer) who is such a brilliant marketing and promotions and programming genius - to be on a network that supports you and promotes and gets your show out there.

It’s such a relief from the network neuroses and stress where they’re contently hedging their bets and worrying about what the people want instead of a network where they have a clear, consistent aesthetic that they constantly put out there.

A high quality product, a blue skies show with depth and dimension and character. It’s amazing. It’s heaven. I love my show. I love my network. And I just feel like the luckiest kid in town to have landed on this great show, on this great network after having had many misadventures.

Deadbolt.com: How surreal is it for Mark to have the Fonz as your dad?

Mark Feuerstein: It is so surreal to have the Fonz as my dad. I love having the Fonz as my dad. It makes me, even if I’m not even half as cool, cooler than most just by association. I worshipped the Fonz growing up. I watched Happy Days every day both when it was on and in repeats.

It was one of my favorite shows. And I loved Richie and Potsie and Chachi and the whole gang. But no one did I love more than the Fonz.

And to get to work with the guy, to have him tell me stories like he had resolved as an actor, that he would never comb his hair even though all the other characters combed his hair.

And then there was a moment where in the stage direction it said the Fonz combs his hair so he had to bring his comb up to his hair. But he stayed true to the script and to himself by lifting that comb up and then looking in the mirror and saying, “Hey, how can you mess with perfection?”

And to get to hear it right from the horse’s mouth, it’s the best. And I still find in his playing of Eddie R. Lawson certain things he says, certain mannerisms, certain behaviors, they’re just cool because it’s Henry Winkler doing it.

He’s got a way about him, a panache. And I can only learn from that and hope that some of it rubs off on me.

Deadbolt:  At the end of Season One we learned of something called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. What other weird medical conditions can we look forward to in Season 2?

Mark Feuerstein: I want to assure you that there will be no lack of weird, crazy, outlandish medical conditions or MacGyverish situations. We have some of the most rare and most fascinating - both fascinating for how unlikely they are to happen to a person, unfortunate that they are to happen to a person.

But then the solution is that much more rare when you see it and the way that we come to solve it. Even right now we’re about to shoot an episode set on a vineyard. And our character of Tucker, who we love, has a friend named - and something goes down with him which I can’t get into.
\But I perform a surgery impromptu in the barrels of a wine vat that will definitely entertain and is quite shocking.

And the funny part about it is as certain wires and tubes are being connected to this kid, impromptu, Henry Winkler’s reactions will be the best part as he goes oh wow, oh boy, I didn’t expect that to happen.

Monsters and Critics: Regarding your guest stars, you already talked about Henry Winkler but I’m really curious about The Big Show and the whole story of how you got him in as a character on this season and if you could talk about that and also your personal connection to wrestling.

Mark Feuerstein: Great questions. So when I got the script for this movie that the WWE was producing, a film on my hiatus, I loved it and I found that it was being directed by Michael Watkins, a TV director who had directed one of my favorite episodes of our show, last season.

I said this has got to be something I get involved with. And then I found out this guy, The Big Show is starring in it and I had no idea who he was. I had followed WWE as a high schooler and as a kid but I haven’t been following it that much recently.

And so I took this amazing gig to shoot a movie in New Orleans and I literally spent every day for about six weeks hanging out with Paul “Big Show” Wight on his bus, on the set in New Orleans. We were inseparable. And I love the guy.

He and I were like living the Of Mice and Men story together. I’m not sure who was Lenny and who was George but I love the guy. And I just wanted to continue the bromance.

So when I came back - and I guess I had it somewhere in my subconscious that it wouldn’t be a terrible thing to be doing a movie with a guy who’s on the same network as I am by being on Raw. And it all paid off in spades when I came back to a party with all of the executives from USA.

And I threw it out to a guy named (Michael Sluchin), on our development executives. I said (Sluch) I just did a movie with The Big Show. He’s on your network. I love him. Do you - and Paul and I - Big Show - had talked about him coming on the show.

And he was so excited about the idea because when I went into his - onto his bus where we watched a lot of TV together, I found Royal Pains in his TiVo already set. So he - I knew he was a big fan of the show. And the executive turned to everybody else and they instantly loved the idea.

They threw it out to our executive producers, Michael Raunch and Andrew Lenchewski who loved it, and the wrote this amazing episode that we just finished shooting last week for Paul where when he got the script, he said it’s as if they knew me.

They wrote my voice and who I am privately, not as The Big Show but as Paul Wight so well. And we just had the best time together. And now I’m going to be hosting - just to continue the network and the creative synergy, I’m going to be hosting Raw on June 14th.

Monsters and Critics:  I know that you film this in the Hamptons but you’re based in LA. I mean do you prefer the East Coast summer or West Coast summer?

Mark Feuerstein: I love both coasts for different reasons. And the reason I love the East Coast summer is very particular to our show. I love summer in the Hamptons. It is a very special place at a very special time of year when all the restaurants are hopping. And there’s a place called Cyril’s in Amagansett where everyone gets, you know, rum drinks and sits out as the sun sets and listens to reggae.

And there’s getting lobsters in Montauk at Gosman’s by the beach. Or getting sandwiches at the Sag Main Store and going to Gibson Beach and sitting with my brother and opening up Hampton’s Magazine and just, you know, doing something mindless while hanging out with friends from high school and friends from life and my family is out there sometimes.

So for me there’s something akin to a paradise in the Hamptons in the summer.