The final day of the international press tour of top American TV shows in Hollywood included an interview with former Sopranos' star Michael Imperioli, who was mobster Christopher Moltisanti.
He takes the lead role in ‘Detroit 1-8-7’ as Detective Louis Fitch, who works for Detroit's leading homicide unit. The 1-8-7 in the title refers to a Penal Code designation for homicide. Fitch is a respected yet deeply misunderstood man fighting crime on the streets of a city with America's highest murder rate. He's a ten-year veteran of the force and is originally from New York, where his ex-wife and teenage son still live.
After being in a show as good and as popular - it's rare that you get a show that is both - Imperioli admits that it was difficult to find something new that grabbed his attention.
"It's not that easy, but I found a few things that were interesting," he recalls. "You know, I tend to look for stuff that's good, overall. A good script, a good director, rather than just looking for a type of role."
‘Detroit 1-8-7’ immediately appealed to the New Yorker's sensibilities as a serious actor who likes to take on meaty roles. But he also admits the show's creators changed a key element of its MO once it got the greenlight.
"The pilot script was originally conceived as a documentary," he explains. "Literally, with a camera crew following these detectives. There were times when we looked in the camera and talked, and stuff like that."
And while similar techniques have served comedy well – ‘The Office’ and ‘Modern Family’ - Imperioli enjoyed the idea but realised it had the potential to limit the show.
"I thought that was very interesting for a cop show. But they went away from that once we got picked up because they felt that, in the long run, it would put limits on the amount of stories we could tell - different types of stories, because they really wanted to get into some of the private and personal lives of these detectives."
The final show on the international press tour is ‘Off the Map’, the latest offering from Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice creator, Shonda Rhimes. And yes - it's another medical drama.
This time around though, the setting is very different. ‘Off the Map’ is based in South America, and sees New Zealand actor (and all-round hunk) Martin Henderson star as Ben Keeton, an American doctor working in the jungle.
"It's a great role," he insists, "but when [‘Off the Map’ creator] Shonda Rhimes] first pitched the idea of the show to me, I had some reservations about it, about doing television as it's a hard slog, long hours, and it can be years of your life. And I imagined, you know, most roles you play on TV, they're doctor, lawyer, or cop, really, and it wasn't that enticing.
"But when she presented this idea of you're going to be in the Amazon, and we're going to shoot it in Hawaii, and you get to climb a coconut tree. If I was going to be a doctor, that's the kind of doctor I'd want to be."
Full and exclusive interviews with Michael Imperioli of ‘Detroit 1-8-7’ and ‘Off the Map’ star Martin Henderson will appear in future editions of the RTÉ Guide and here at TEN.
John Byrne
