411mania Interviews: James Duff (creator & executive producer of The Closer)
Posted by Al Norton on 12.21.2009
411's Al Norton sits down for an exclusive interview with James Duff, creator and executive producer of TNT's Emmy and Golden Globe nominate series The Closer.
James Duff is the Emmy nominated creator and executive producer of TNT's The Closer and he directed tonight's season five finale as well.
Al Norton: Let's start with what is clearly the most important question; how and where did you find Joel?
James Duff: (Laughing) Joel was brought to us by a lady who is a cat wrangler. We wanted to be able to able to double Joel up properly, better than we did our first cat, who ended up dying three or four days after her last day of filming. The reason we had Kitty die this year is because we knew she was dying. We had an animal rights person on the set to make sure we were doing everything right; Kitty was never in any pain or anything. That's why we replaced her, because it was a genuine loss.
One of the things I most liked about Joel is that he had two brothers who looked exactly like him; we have three cats playing the part of Joel who all look alike and are all growing up together.
I looked at a whole lot of cats. We wanted to go with an orange Tabby. They were just the cutest little kittens you have ever seen. I think we extended the audition process much longer than it needed to be simply because in the middle of a workday there's nothing like having three kittens appear to play with (laughing).
Al Norton: How closely does the show that we're watching today resemble what you pitched to TNT five years ago?
James Duff: It's interesting because the show we're watching now has a more flexible tone than the show we pitched to TNT, and I think that would happen with any show that achieves some longevity. It sounds so unreal to say but we are going into our sixth season and I think part of the reason why we're able to do that is because when you turn in to The Closer not only do you get a mystery involving a crime, you get a mystery involving a tone. It's a mystery of which characters are going to be involved. TNT showed a lot of foresight in allowing us to have so many characters and taking our time to develop those characters.
I think the show has changed in terms of what you can expect to watch every week and in terms of how you know the characters that are in the squad. You started out knowing Brenda pretty well, JK's character pretty well, and Sergeant Gabriel pretty well. Most of the other characters came along pretty slowly; Fritz was only in one scene in the pilot and it was a pretty quick scene. Jon Tenney shot the first day and was gone. He didn't meet anyone else in the cast until the wrap party.
It's been a long journey and I think the show has evolved in many good ways and is evolving still. It's not as dark as it once was.
Al Norton: When you are laying out stories at the start of the season how do you choose which of the supporting characters are going to be featured that year?
James Duff: That sort of happens as we develop the stories. In the year that partnership was our theme, that's the year that Flynn and Provenza became cemented together and it helped demonstrate in ways large and small to dramatize that theme. In the year that family was our theme we had a fantastic performance from Raymond Cruz in a story that was inspired by a true story.
It really does depend a lot on what tone we're trying to strike and what we need the actors to do.
Al Norton: If I were going to mount a campaign, how many guaranteed viewers would I need to deliver to get you to start work on a spinoff called "Provenza"?
James Duff: (Laughing) Already done it. We're already working on it. It's not called Provenza, it's called The Fixer, but he and Flynn are in that spinoff that we're working on right now. We're trying to calibrate it properly. The idea is that Flynn and Provenza are still on The Closer but moonlighting for a Hollywood attorney that they detest. They would do it for the money but they would hate him every step of the way.
We're trying to find the right tone before we shoot it; we don't want to mess it up.
Al Norton: I am not sure how far ahead you think but what are the chances we'll see Billy Crolek and Phillip Stroh in the new season?
James Duff: The character of Phillip Stroh is sort of an uber-villian, and Billy is an uber-villian as well. A couple of people have suggested we get to a crime scene and find that Phillip Stroh has been burned alive. I don't know, that's a little outrageous for us; that's more like Dexter than The Closer.
We don't know about either character. We talk about them a lot. I think those two characters are our two best villains who we can go back to. There are people who want us to bring Beau Bridges back already. There are people who want us to bring back Jennifer Coolidge.
Al Norton: I have no idea what accent she invented but it was one of the funniest things I had heard in a long time.
James Duff: She is hysterical, just amazing. She was so fun in that part and everyone wants her back in that part. Somehow or other her cast gets tossed out on appeal. People just loved her.
Al Norton: I don't remember what the other episode was but the Jennifer Coolidge episode back-to-back with a much, much darker episode and the way you managed to excel with the different tones was impressive.
James Duff: Thank you. The idea is that we are going to take you to some very dark places some week but we go there with a flash light. We go to some dark places in the heart but we always bring a light with us. For every dark episode we do we try and have something lighter along the way.
Al Norton: Is it more challenging writing for a couple maintaining a relationship than it is one in the courtship phase?
James Duff: I don't think so. Everybody seems to think you have to keep the relationship on the edge in order to make it work but I don't think so. Marriage is more complicated than romance. Romance is a theme park and marriage is a lifelong journey that keeps asking things of you as you go along.
I don't see very many relationships on dramas where couples are married, it looks like they are going to stick it out and the relationship is still dynamic, and I think that's the challenge; let's do a real life marriage and treat it like a real, adult marriage and see if that works.
It's sort of like putting your characters in false jeopardy, and I don't think you really want to do that. I don't want these characters in false jeopardy. How trite is it to see someone who has been in AA fall off the wagon? How trite is that? It has happened over and over again. Is it better to see someone who deals with things, sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy, and sometimes says, "I've had it with you, I'm going to go see my sponsor." To me that's good drama and it's not the cookie cutter, clichéd version of what you are supposed to do with marriages on television.
Al Norton: What do you watch on TV?
James Duff: It's very hard for me now that Battlestar Galactica is off the air. I've gone through an intense period of mourning. I loved that show. I watch Mad Men, The Amazing Race, Survivor, and Leverage. I think Leverage is a lot of fun. I am looking forward to watching Men of a Certain Age; I love those actors. I watch The Mentalist but don't tell people (laughing).
Al Norton: how do you choose which of the episodes you direct?
James Duff: How I decided what I'm going to direct is very easy, I decide to do the last or next to last episode of the season because that's when I have time. During the season I'm helping people with their episodes and doing a lot of writing so I don't have time.
Al Norton: Give me a preview of tonight's finale.
James Duff: Tonight's episode is more psychological. We look at these last three episodes, or however many we get to do in the winter, as a chance to experiment with the show. You'll see flashbacks and you wouldn't see those in the summer. You don't actually see the dead body until act 4 and that's very unusual for our show. There is no murder in the beginning; it doesn't happen until the beginning of act two.
People keep asking me why Fritz is so easy on Brenda a lot of the time and I feel like tonight's episode answers that. In giving that answer it allows the relationship to be reformulated; now we know why he was so easy on her up to now and we also know why he may not be in the future. Those are the main headlines in tonight's episode, those and that Mary McDonnell is back. She's amazing and the cast loves her. We had a prom of sorts, with the cast and the crew partying after wrap on a Friday and Mary was named the Prom Queen.
Don't miss the season finale of The Closer, tonight at 9 pm on TNT
