USA is bringing back the situations created in the hit mini-series, The Starter Wife, as a 10 episode series with Emmy award winner Debra Messing returning in her staring role.  Hart Bochner joins the cast of the series as Zach, a successful screenwriter who has started a writers workshop that Debra’s character joins.  Hart, an established writer and director in addition to his acting,  recently spoke to MediaBlvd about the character, and about joining the series.

Question> Can you start off by telling us about your character that you play in The Starter Wife and who he is and how he fits into the story?

Hart>  He’s a very successful screenwriter and he’s a very successful guy who got started out as a journalist and won a Pulitzer in his late 20’s and then became an overnight success in Hollywood.  The first screenplay that he wrote was turned into a film and he got nominated for an Oscar.  Not that it’s been downhill from that point on, but he sort of has reached a point in his career now where he’s somewhat blocked creatively and he’s in the process of writing a novel.  By virtue of the fact that he’s having trouble freeing his creative juices, he decides that he’s going to have a writers’ workshop, which I think he does as a way of not only giving back, but as a way of looking for a way to free his creative flow. 

So he has about a half a dozen published authors come to his place once a week where they discuss process and start working on various projects that they’re writing.  One of the characters is Debra Messing’s character who is a purported published author.  It turns out she’s written a children’s pop-up book so she doesn’t carry the legitimacy of the other writers in the workshop, but she very quickly discovers her own voice by virtue of revealing this journal that she’s been writing.  It’s quirky and idiosyncratic, and under my guidance she writes a screenplay, which gains a certain amount of momentum. 

And by virtue of what she reveals in herself through her writing, my character, Zach, becomes intrigued by her.  We’re sort of kindred spirits in the fact that we’ve come out very difficult marriages.  We’d been married to high powered people in the industry.  My wife is, while I don’t want to call her, my ex-wife, a shrew, she’s a ballsy woman who is a powerful agent.  She runs an agency.  That’s then hard on my psyche by virtue of the fact that we have a seven-year-old daughter and I’m looking for someone who is supportive of me and she’s anything but. 

Debra’s character, Molly, is coming out of a marriage where she was with a man who wasn’t particularly there for her.  They also have a seven-year-old daughter.  So the two of us are somewhat wounded and gun shy about getting back into real relationships and yet we sort of take baby steps towards one another and we find ourselves, as the show evolves, becoming more and more involved. 

Question> What kind of challenge is it coming into a story or a series that’s already been established with the mini-series? 

Hart>  Well, this show is sort of its own entity in that the mini-series was about marriage and the demise of that marriage.  This picks up really from an entirely a new place, which is Molly trying to find her sea legs and declaring herself and finding a career for herself.  So as far as I’m concerned, it’s not like, I didn’t take over for another actor.  It’s a new character.  It’s a brand new relationship for Molly. 

It was nothing but terrific.  I can’t say enough good things about the show, my experience or working with Debra.  She’s just an absolute joy and I’m just crazy about her.  We finished last night and it was all very sad for everybody.  We’re very much hoping that we’re coming back, obviously and we have high expectations for the show, but nonetheless, we shot ten episodes and it became like a family.  It became a family really very quickly.  It was the nicest group that I’ve ever worked with.  A lot of that is due to Debra and the fact that expression “the fish stinks from the head,” well, she’s just delightful and adorable and incredibly gifted and we had so much fun everyday. 

What I find so remarkable about Debra, while everyone calls her the Lucille Ball of her generation is, she’s also brilliant dramatically.  She can turn that on a dime.  And so for me, it was just really a question of showing up and being in the moment because most of my scenes, all of my scenes are with her.  So it was really quite easy to see and feel that relationship evolve just by virtue of being there with her everyday. 

Question>  Is Zach in every episode?

Hart>  Yes. 

Question> What made you originally want to be a part of this show? 

Hart>  Well, it sort of came out of left field, because I had just finished writing and directing this movie that had come out.  I thought, “Well, what am I going to do this summer?”  And suddenly my manager called me and he said, “You’ve been called in to meet on this Debra Messing show.”  I was

aware of the mini-series and the book, so I read it and I thought, this is a no-brainer if they offer it to me, so I have to pursue it and that was that.           

Question> What about your role do you find most rewarding? 

Hart>  I think the fact that the character has a complexity which makes him not just the romantic interest per se.  He’s flawed.  I think all the characters in this show, as funny as the show is and as quirky as it is, I think what makes the show compelling is, is that everybody is a bit neurotic and flawed.  The fact that I’m not looking to find a woman that mirrors the relationship that I’ve just come out of, which is having been married to a very blustery, successful business woman, I want somebody who’s going to nurture me.  And like all men, this character needs a woman in his life to champion him and to motor him and that’s what’s been sorely lacking in his life.  And what he finds in Debra’s character, and Molly is someone who has the glowing eyes that feed him, but also someone who challenges him.  I think what is most surprising to my character is, I’ve been having dalliances after having come out of this tough marriage with women that are inappropriate, but eye candy, younger, hotter, but ultimately not very satisfying intellectually and Molly comes along and surprises me. 

I think that there are various things that I can bring to my own experience to this character.  I am a writer as well.  I have gone through periods where I’ve been blocked creatively, as I guess all of us have, so the rhythms of the character felt close to me.  Although we had different backgrounds, it in many ways, it felt very relatable, and so that was a lot of fun.  Just sparring with Debra everyday was great because it’s like when you play tennis with somebody who’s a master, it elevates your game and I feel that way about her, so that’s really been a joy for me. 

Question> Do you have a most memorable moment from filming? 

Hart>  From filming, most memorable moment.  Well, we do these fantasy sequences in every episode which are really interesting.  They’re segments from various movies, sort of seminal movies, Body Heat, A Few Good Men.  We just did Basic Instinct.  Debra has this uncanny ability to sink into these characters, and I think that’s been a great joy for her.  But watching her, when we did Hello Dolly, we did a version of Hello Dolly and we were shooting downtown at the Los Angeles Theatre, which is one of these great, old iconic theatres of the city.  I walked on the set and this Carol Channing figure is smiling at me and I thought, “Who the hell is that?”  And it was Debra completely done up and then I walk on the set the other night and there she is as Sharon Stone.  I was playing the Tom Cruise character in A Few Good Men, and she was Jack Nicholson, and there she was.  Look, she doesn’t look like a man or Jack Nicholson, but the demeanor and the way she attacked the sequence was just astounding. 

I’ve had a blast all the way through.  But I think the fantasy sequences are so unique and hilarious and well observed that I guess that would have to be the part of the show that I’ve gotten the biggest yucks from. 

Question> As far as what you direct compared to what you act, your acting roles seem a little more dramatic than what you’re used to directing. What do you prefer and is it hard to wear so many hats and be on the set and do your thing as an actor? 

Hart>  Well, yes, that’s a really good question.  Wearing different hats is not difficult.  It’s actually challenging and creatively fulfilling for the most part.  I love directing.  I had a movie that came out earlier this year, that I wrote and directed called Just Add Water with Danny DeVito and Jona Hill and Justin Long and Dylan Walsh and that was a very personal project that took me basically five years to get going from inception to execution.  And then I started a movie that my buddy, Campbell Scott wrote and directed last fall, but prior to that hadn’t acted in a few years and so it’s a muscle that needs to work out, that needs to be worked out. 

When I was offered this show, it’s not that I found it difficult to recognize what my place in the show was and the process, but sometimes I find myself when I’m in front of the camera thinking, “I wonder if we need this or this or this,” and sometimes that’s difficult.  But I had my work cut out for me in this show, and as I said, it’s the first series that I’ve ever done.  So the fact that you don’t have a lot of time and you don’t really rehearse a lot was new to me.  I think it was initiation by fire and I think I got up-to-speed rather quickly.  As I said earlier, it’s been one of the great work experiences in my career and I hope that they have me back and that the show comes back and runs forever, because it’s just been such a joy. 

Question> And maybe you’ll be able to direct an episode?… 

Hart>  Yes, we’ll see. 

Question> What do you prefer more, directing or acting?

Hart>  Well, it’s interesting.  I really, really always wanted to be a director.  So when I started, for me, it was like really fulfilling a dream.  Acting was something that I kind of got into accidentally when I was about 19 years old.  I was discovered at an open house at the American Film Institute, because I wanted to go to film school, and this woman came up to me and asked me my name.  And a couple of months later I got a call from Paramount and six months after that, I was playing opposite George C. Scott in this Hemingway movie called Islands in the Stream. 

So it took me about 16 years to get behind the camera, but when I started directing, after I directed PCU and High School High, I thought if I could continue doing this, that’s a pretty good deal for me.  Those movies, quite frankly, didn’t hit the number that studios need to show their shareholders in order to hire you again and I found myself having to reinvent myself as a filmmaker.  So I had various projects in development that took a nosedive and then I had another movie that was good to go and that fell apart.  Then I got this movie made, but in the interim I went back into acting and did some pieces, but I had taken several years off from acting because I wanted to be taken seriously as a director. 

And then I started missing acting.  And getting back into it now, especially after I’ve had years away from it, it’s much more fun now.  I also think that for a man once you grow into yourself the words that come out of your mouth fit in your body better as you mature.  I find that that has been a really interesting process.  It makes the work a lot more pleasurable, I have to admit. 

Question> You’ve been a part of some really incredible projects.  Do you have any favorites that stand out for you?  I know that Just Add Water is probably your baby, but what is it when you think about your career, what is it that really stands out?

Hart>  Sometimes you can have a great experience and the movie is crap and vice versa.  I guess it’s interesting because I’ve done movies as an actor over the years that have meant a lot to me when I was starting out the first few, Islands in the Stream, Breaking Away, Rich and Famous.  I guess the movie, it’s funny because it’s probably the smallest part I’ve played in a film was Die Hard, but that movie, I guess, resonated within the culture so much that even after 20 years people still talk about it, so there’s that.  I did a movie called Apartment Zero with Colin Firth years ago, which I guess has become a cult film, which was very satisfying creatively because Colin and I were given the framework for a script and we improvised basically every scene, so that was really interesting creatively. 

Then I guess directing my first film, PCU, was great, and that was like, I couldn’t believe anybody hired me off this little short that I had made.  I made a black comedy starring Jon Lovitz about a guy who gets trapped in his apartment with a mosquito and goes crazy and the fact that I was hired to do a major studio film based on that was certainly beyond my expectations. 

Question> What other projects do you have going on now?

Hart>  Well, now that we just finished, I’m writing a script with Campbell Scott and then I’m writing a script on my own that I hope to direct at some point next year.  When you say erotic thriller, it sounds like a B movie that shows on cable at midnight on a Saturday night, so I don’t want to say that, but that’s kind of what it is.  I thought I’d try my hand at something different, you know?