The TV Chick

Necessary Roughness returns tonight to USA Network and the premiere is fantastic. Obviously, we are all wondering what is going to happen with Dr. Dani and Matt (I hate the word ‘ship, but I love these two together), what TK is up to this season and what about the new divorce? I can tell you this, the premiere does not disappoint. I recently had the chance to visit the set of Necessary Roughness, where the super talented Callie Thorne (Dr. Dani) talked about Dr. Dani’s relationship with TK, new sports that will be introduced into the Necessary Roughness world and what insights she’s gotten from the real Dr. Dani.

Talk about getting ready for this second season and some of the fine tuning that went on.
That’s a good question about getting back into it because we did have a nice long hiatus and it is always, it’s always a little nerve racking coming back into a show and before this I didn’t have so much to think about. This was the first time coming back into the second season of the show being number one on the call sheet I was very nervous about that. And we luckily had about a week before we started shooting which was little bits of rehearsals, little bits of fittings and so the guys and I got to play and talk and hang out and we all just naturally fell back into our roles. And it really made the first few weeks of work that much more sort of giggly and fun. Because really I think what our cast, what we all respond to the most is laughing with each other and even if it’s dramatic scenes or silly scenes, that’s how we get into it with each other and I think that shows up on screen and so it was very smart for them to have us come a week ahead of time. So there’s so much going on but everything was so wonderfully detailed. It made it easy for us to slip back in and um, and I also really liked the fact that it wasn’t like a year later. [LAUGH] You know it was sort of really a perfect time to come back. The audience wasn’t struggling to remember what happened as nor were we struggling to sort of establish things that happened you know do, do expositions, stuff like that. It was all, so it was like right there. So I have to say it was easier than I thought and but mainly because we all laugh a lot and we’re able to make those connections again very easily.

How does Dr. Dani help TK get through everything this season?
Well, it’s even sort of questionable when we come back if she’s really helping him at that point because he does think of her in this maternal way which I, I think kind of backfires a little bit when we come back to that. Because now it’s almost like he’s rebelling as a child or you know a teenager or whatever would with the parent. And he isn’t accepting what really happened to him. He’s in this sort of state of denial and, and that makes their relationship really difficult. She can’t get through to him and so it’s interesting because I have thought of it more in terms of a mother kind of trying to get through to um, to their uh their child um, sort of try and get in any which way to get him to admit what happened because he really is, as wild as TK was last year, he’s a wild and sort of extraordinary character, he’s even more so you know when we come back but not for the best reasons. And so I think it’s really interesting the first few episodes watching Dr. Dani trying to get in there any which way and he’s not, he’s not taking it. He’s, he’s really not working with her at all and that’s new, you know. I think that is a, a new place to find them and then you’ll see what happens. [LAUGH] If that’s good or bad for anybody.

Where does Dr. Dani get all her strength from?
I love that because a lot of what I bring to the character myself is a lot of my own mother. I grew up with a single mother and so there’s a lot of tone and behavior that I think of in terms of my own mom as well as the woman that the, the show is based on. The character is based on a very strong woman, a very, she’s sort of you know, I’ve always said she’s this force to be reckoned with. And that is in the writing you know because she is in the writer’s office, she’s always there to, you know, be a part of what the uh particular patient of the week is. So she’s also there to make sure that the character is very true to herself and the circumstances that she has been in that we are now bringing you know to the screen and then I’m also thinking about my own therapist in real life. And all three of these women are all incredibly independent, they are all women that I’ve learned extraordinary things from and still do and so I really think that that has a wonderful mix with the way the writers write her and so it also sort of falls into place that these are the women I have in my mind and the way that they write her, it’s a very strong voice and sometimes that’s not true. Sometimes you’ve got an enormous amount of homework to do in order to bring a woman like that to life. Often in TV as well, it’s changed in the past few years because there’s so many incredible lead women now and they’re very layered. And some of them are likable and some of them are not and that’s what women are, we’re many different things. So I got all that going on and then I have the luck of good writers that are creating this woman alongside with me.

What sorts of insights have you gotten from the real Dr. Dani?
Well, one of the things that’s really hard for me as Callie, doing a lot of the therapy scenes is you know you see someone in pain, in emotional pain and my natural instinct and I think a lot of people that I know if you have a heart that your instinct is to feel for them and to you know I want to go and give them a hug or I want to go oh my God, I know or whatever it is and what the main thing I’ve learned from Dr. Donna is that place that you have to go to, that neutral place, so that you can be a safe haven for that patient, a place that they can be honest, not feel judged, not feel like they have to impress you or whatever it is and, and it, so even as an actor I’m learning some things about what, how she’s got to present herself as a therapist help me as an actor just sitting in these scenes and you’re so used to reacting as an actor and you know that’s what you’re taught in every class. You know acting is reacting and but most especially in those therapy scenes I have to go to a certain head space to not give too much away and that and let those scenes really be about who I am with and let them tell their story so I think that’s the biggest thing I learned from her in regards to the character. And then in my life I’ve very much learned from her. It’s a theme in the show as well that sometimes people just want to be listened to and it was something you know I spoke a lot about last year, too, that I have learned to be a better listener because of my conversations with her and I found myself babbling with her, talking, sometimes we talk by Skype and I’m going on and on and I feel so great afterwards and I realize she didn’t even say anything. [LAUGH] She just listened to me, she didn’t try to fix me, she didn’t try to you know, make parallels and say, oh I know because this happened to me and that’s very meaningful to me. So those are the two things that I am very grateful for that I learned from her.

What are some of your favorite aspects of stepping outside of the football arena?
Well my first favorite is what happens in the second episode or maybe it’s the third, they get, they get tangled but it’s the roller derby and for several reasons. I was really excited that it was a female you know that we were focusing on a female athlete and then roller derby’s always something that I’ve always loved watching. There was the girl I met three or four years ago and she was an actress who on her off time was this very famous New York, I think they’re really called the New York Dolls, I’m not even sure but she was a very famous New York roller derby girl and she had stories that blew my mind and so that was very exciting to me to go to, they created you know, for the show they created a roller derby arena but they did it very beautifully and they got a real team together and so that was Rob Morrow’s episode and I think also because he’s an actor you know they got a little bit more into that sort of stuff and the actress that they cast as the girl with the issue was a real tough little cookie and she was getting really involved in it. And so that was fun for me because I got to go and sort of be in there and and meet all these incredible women, these tough women um, and I think that’s what I’m very excited about in regards to the second season. There will be way more of, of leaving the football stadium, although obviously I love going to the football stadium. [LAUGH] But that just makes it more exciting for me.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 10 PM to USA Network for the big season two premiere of Necessary Roughness!