Chris Olivero, most notably known for his work on Kyle XY, recently spoke to Media Blvd. Magazine about his role on the show, as well as past and future projects.  On Kyle XY, Olivero plays the character of Declan McDonough, best friend of Kyle (played by Matt Dallas) and ex-boyfriend of Lori Trager (played by April Matson).

 

Before becoming part of Kyle XY, Olivero had already worked with ABC Family before.  “I actually did a couple of other ABC family pilots the year before.  I guess this is the third one that I did.  So I kind of had a relationship with the network already and with Touchstone and the director who I did another pilot with was the director of this.  So I had a relationship already established.” 

 

However, Olivero still had to go through the auditioning process.  In fact, he auditioned for the parts of both Kyle and Declan before he was cast. Kyle XY appealed to him because he enjoyed the script.  He was nervous but wanted to be a part of the show.  “It was very rewarding when I learned that I got the part.  It’s a great network to work with and I’ve really enjoyed working with them…I’ve done quite a few Disney things and I’ve always enjoyed it.  Basically, the script and the relationship with the network is the main reason why I took it.”

 

Olivero has always enjoyed the science fiction genre.  Growing up he was into Star Wars, Quantum Leap, MacGyver, and Star Trek.  “I was always into the mystery.  It’s always more enjoyable to me in a show when there’s a certain level of mystery or unknown, so you can let your imagination kind of go.  I was into comic books and things like that.  And we do have a lot of loyal fans.  When we go to places like Comic-Con, you see the devotion of the fans.  It’s pretty amazing and it’s rewarding just to know. Even if fans don’t like your character, if they have either problems or issues, just to see they’re passionate about it – that’s what it’s about.  If they believe what’s going on, that’s the most important thing.  Not every character is the most likeable character or whatever, but as long as they believe it, as long as they’re passionate about it, that’s what’s important.  And I think Kyle XY’s a great show for today.  I think it gives you the family values.  It gives you a realness of teenage relationships and also an ideal.  Kyle represents the ideal of what people could be.  So you can watch him go through stuff and it’s like, ‘Man, I wish I was like that.  I wish I could be like that.’  And that’s what everybody around him tries to do.  They want to be more Kyle-like and they take steps in the right direction.  I would hope that in this day and age that the show, that the Trager family could be a reality and people could try to live and get through things and try to do the right thing and everybody could have a Kyle in their life.”

 

What Olivero enjoys most about working on Kyle XY are the people that he works with.  “It’s a great group of people.  We film up in Vancouver, so we’re all away from home, except for Jean-Luc [Bilodeau] and Kirsten [Prout]; they live there.  But we’re all away from home.  When you’re on location, if you don’t have a good rapport with people, it’s harder than anything because a lot of times you have down days where you don’t have much to do in your hotel or your apartment or whatever.  So working with a great group of people, working with a great crew – and this is one of the only shows that I’ve worked on – there’s not a lot of division.  The network people, the writers, the crew, the actors, everybody hangs out.  It’s not really where the actors kind of find their thing and then the writers are over there and the producers are over here.  We’re all in it together; we’re all enjoying it together.”

 

The actors often play tricks on each other on the set.  “There’s a lot of inside jokes on our show.  A lot of the stuff is like people put stuff in people’s trailers or pictures on the wall.  Or they’ll make up fan letters, pretend like they’re a fan and write some stuff, put that in Matt’s [Dallas] trailer, things like that.  Last season I played a big prank on Matt.  We were finishing the episode and I got the set cell phone, it’s Rachel’s.  I called from her cell phone to Matt and basically pretended to be somebody else, saying that the episodes were fried and you have to re-shoot them.  This was when we already moved out.  We were moving out next week and he was all panicking and I’m like, ‘Yes, I don’t know what to do.  We’re sorry, but we’re going to have to be here for three more weeks.’  Then I ran over to Matt’s trailer and banged on the door and said, ‘Matt, Matt, did you get a phone call?  Can you believe this?  What are we going to do?’  He busts out of his trailer and he’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do.  I’ve got to call my manager,’ and then I started busting up laughing.  That’s the biggest joke.  It worked really good, too.  He really didn’t know what to do.  Things like that, there’s a lot of that going on.  We joke around a lot and we hang out a lot.  Usually, I’m the one making fun of stuff.  I like to make fun of myself a lot, so it kind of helps and keeps stuff light and fun.”

 

As far as the show goes, Olivero likes picking up the scripts.  “There’s a new mystery and new storylines to be undertaken…You’re constantly wondering what’s going to happen and what’s going on and you’re able to communicate with the writers and give your own opinion of where your characters go.  Just the whole dynamic of everybody and the nature of the show is what’s most enjoyable.”

 

The character of Declan has gone through a transition between season one and two.  “In season one Declan pretty much had the high school worries.  The thing about Declan, though, is there was always a depth to him.  He may have appeared to be kind of the typical high school guy and there is that part of him, but there was always a depth of who he is, a soul searching kind of a thing.  That’s why he was into Lori, because she was different and she was unique.  And that was part of him.  And then, when Kyle came into the world, he didn’t know whether or not to be jealous.  He didn’t know what to think of him and kind of felt threatened by him.  And then the friendship developed and Kyle became basically his only true male friend and he did whatever he could to protect that. You do see him grow up and it’s one of the reasons why I really liked the character in the beginning, knowing that he was going to grow up and stand up for what’s right.  He cherishes what’s close to him and he sometimes doesn’t handle situations right or he makes mistakes, like maybe how he reacted to Kyle standing with Lori.  But he means well deep down.  He definitely wants to help Kyle find who he is.  He kept his secret.  He took all the price, the physical tolls and the emotional tolls that came with it…it’s a big transition between season one where he starts and where he ends.  And season two it’s the same thing.  You see that he is flawed; he’s not perfect.  But he tries hard and he wants to do what’s right.  That’s pretty much where he went with Kyle.  He’s just trying to do what’s right and trying to protect what he feels is close to him because there’s not that many things or people that are close to him.”

 

This season, the focus is going to be on Declan’s relationship with Lori and friendship with Kyle.  “He just lost out on his basketball scholarship because of his injury.  So it’s kind of going to be ‘where’s Declan going from here.’ He’s held Kyle’s secret.  He’s focused on that; his relationship with Lori has suffered and he’s tried to repair that.  Now that’s kind of where it’s at.  All of a sudden, he’s thrown into [a situation] where now he’s friends with Lori again.  Kyle has Jessie (played by Jaimie Alexander) to worry about.  Kyle has his own issues to get through and worry about and Declan now has his, with school and everything else. So what’s in store is basically just trying to figure out [who] he is; trying to figure out how to help Kyle; how to protect Kyle.  We get to see more of that as the season will progress and, especially towards the end, more of the emotional kind of confusion.  He tries to find some resolve and there’s always complications that are still going to arise in his life.   Like I said, he tries to do the right thing, wants to do the right thing and sometimes things just don’t work out for him.”

 

Now that Kyle’s secret is out, Declan’s relationship with Lori is changing.  “The relationship now, it takes a lot of pressure off of Declan as far as not knowing who he can tell, what he can say, when people want to know the answers about Kyle.  Now he can try to protect his friend, but at the same time try to focus on his relationship with Lori and where that should or should not go.  Basically, the characters now can focus on themselves a little bit.  Protect Kyle, but focus on their relationship, what their future holds together, what their future holds individually.   The dynamic is going to be like a friendship, with that same kind of back and forth that we’re used to, with some new elements to it because we’ve already been through so much together.  Declan is still into Lori, and it’s the same thing of friends or not friends?  That’s going to continue.  But definitely a lot of the pressure is gone and now it’s kind of back to the whole family protecting Kyle.”

 

There is some interaction between the character of Jessie and Declan in the future as well.  “There is some stuff in the future that Declan will kind of come to her for, not for romantic interest, I can tell you that, but he comes to her more for help.  So he does look to her and she does become more of a part of everybody’s life, more than she is now.  Romantically, right now, Declan has his hands full with Lori and also with trying to figure out what he’s doing himself.  But you never know with our show.  There’s lots of rumors going around with everything, but you never know.” 

 

Although Olivero does not know where the writers are headed with his character, he has some of his own ideas of what he would like to see.  “I would like to see my father come in, with my mom not being in the picture and just the relationship there and the tension that that brings, so that people could see a reason for Declan’s actions and stuff, maybe with a troubled relationship or his mom maybe even leaving.  That’s kind of where I’d really like to see the show go, but otherwise, just give a better understanding of who Declan is.  And also Declan’s involvement with Kyle - I really enjoyed solving the mystery of who Kyle was last season and helping him out and things like that.  It’s fun to shoot; it’s fun to do.  I’d really like to get more involved with Kyle and find out more about what’s going on with him and being his friend.  We do have that; it is in the show.  But if I could write it I would keep in the same path they’re going.  Like I said, I don’t know what’s going to be in season three.  I would like definitely a back-story with my family and maybe even other family members, the issues that that brings up, just so we have, just so we have some reasons to know Declan better.  I feel like sometimes you don’t like me and then you like me again, then you don’t like me, then you grow to like me.  Like I’ve always said, I don’t want to betray the audience.  If I’m going to be bad, I want to be really bad.  And if I’m going to be good, then I want to be a good guy.  I don’t want to be mediocre; I want to be strong either direction, so that the audience itself can gravitate towards my character in one way or the other.”

 

Olivero is also interested in working behind the scenes on the show.  “You know, I would really like to direct.  It’s very, very hard to do.  I like to write but, my problem is, I could come up with ideas, broad storylines and then I try to write it.  And I can’t get past the page or I’ll write one conversation and it’ll be ten pages long.  Maybe f I could collaborate with the writers or something, but I don’t have the skills.  I really like directing.  I’ve shadowed, which is basically following around, the director and listening.  And I pay a lot of attention to what goes on behind the camera.”

 

Olivero has also enjoyed other roles he has had outside of Kyle XY.  “I always like playing different characters and I’ve been fortunate where I’ve gotten to play a drug dealer or a killer and things like that.  I enjoyed CSI Miami a lot.  It was just one episode, but it’s kind of nice to play.  A lot of times, I’ll play characters where I start out kind of bad.  But then I turn out to be the nice guy; I turn out to be the good guy or I’m just the good guy throughout it.  But I get to play the darker characters, it’s good.  In the show, even when I played a bad guy, it’s been for a good reason, like I was a drug dealer because I was trying to support my sister.  Not that that’s a great reason, but there’s always a positive kind of thing.  So, in that, you thought I was this shy, quiet, kind of nerdy kid or whatever and then I ended up killing the …agent because I was tired of being rejected.   Also, there was a sentimentality to it.  It wasn’t just pure evil; he did it because of the rejection, because of all the stuff that’s going on in his life.  It was enjoyable to play.  I like when people are like, ‘Huh?’  They don’t expect it.  I thought it turned out pretty good so I was kind of happy about that.  That was a lot of fun, actually.”

 

As for future projects, there is a movie that was previously put off that may still be a possibility for Olivero.  “That was supposed to film this summer actually.  The writers’ strike actually threw a lot of stuff into loops.  There are some other film projects that, actually, this week, I’m waiting on.  The thing of it is, with the show too, when the strike ends, we don’t know – we’re contractually obliged to Kyle XY, so we don’t know when it’s going to start up again.  Basically, it’s a very wait-and-see and a lot of studios aren’t really into that because they want their actors immediately to sign on.  It still is a possibility; it films in Lithuania, so obviously there’s no possibility to do Kyle and that.  Right now, it’s just a big wait-and-see.  Everybody kind of has their fingers crossed as far as what’s going to happen.  Hopefully, the strike will resolve and we’ll at least have a tentative date, so the projects can go forth.  There’s about three or four projects now that I’m up for.  But, like I said, this week, early next week, hopefully start around early March filming.”

 

Until then, you can watch Chris Olivero on Monday nights on Kyle XY on ABC Family.