By Christina Radish

Gary Scott Thompson, Justin Bruening, and Deanna Russo unveil the attack Kitt at Comic Con 2008.  Photo by NBC.

The iconic 1980s television classic Knight Rider (Wednesdays on NBC) has come roaring back to life as a reinvented, updated and super-charged action series showcasing the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand). The coolest car ever created, KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer) is equipped with artificial intelligence that is capable of hacking almost any system, while its weapon’s systems match that of a jet fighter, its body is capable of actually transforming into other vehicles and it can use sophisticated holographic imagery to elude villains.

Justin Bruening stars as Mike Traceur, the estranged son of Michael Knight (original series star, David Hasselhoff), and Deanna Russo is Sarah Graiman, childhood best friend and one-time girlfriend of Mike. The co-stars, along with show runner/executive producer Gary Scott Thompson ( Las Vegas), recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about the ways that they’ve updated the popular series.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Justin, how did you get this role?

Justin Bruening> Through a regular audition, just like everyone else. I came in, did the audition, came back five or six times, and it was as nerve-wracking as everything else. It was great!

MediaBlvd> Deanna, what can you say about who your character is?

Deanna> She’s a smart chick, she says big words and she beats people up. And, she gets to smooch Justin Bruening, once every other episode. That’s the definite perk of the job.

MediaBlvd> What kind of fan feedback did you get after the two-hour movie?

Justin> It was mixed, but I understand because I’m a fan of the original series. There are things in the original series that I would have liked to have seen in the movie, but we put them all in there in the series. You just have to be patient because we can’t fit everything in right away. Hopefully, we’ll now have a 5-year run, so we can put everything in there and more. I think the fans will be pleased. There’s always going to be someone that won’t like it, but hopefully we win them over. You can’t make the original show because it was an original. You can’t remake something that was great, you can only continue it.

MediaBlvd> In terms of momentum as actors, since you shot a movie and not a pilot, and because you did it several months ago, how difficult was it to get back into your roles and into the Knight Rider storyline?

Deanna Russo> It wasn’t difficult at all. We didn’t take a break from it. Justin and I just kept working on the show, after we shot the two-hour pilot. And then, we immediately started training for the series, even before we knew we were picked up, officially. We just wanted to be prepared. We enjoyed our characters so much that we didn’t want to leave them behind just yet.

Justin> Deep down we all had confidence that it was going to go to series.

Deanna> Shoot, it’s Knight Rider. I mean, come on!

Justin> Yeah, that and from seeing what the ratings were.

MediaBlvd> Is the show going to pick up where the movie left off?

Justin> No. Forget about the movie. It’s done. It’s over. It’s gone. My example is if that was Knight Rider 2.0, if you consider that the sequel, this is Knight Rider 15.0. We took Knight Rider and blew it up. It’s amazing. It’s bigger and badder. It’s a cross between James Bond, Jason Bourne and Batman. It’s a melding of the genres.

MediaBlvd> How different is the series from the movie?

Gary Scott Thompson> It’s a lot different. The movie bridged the gap between the original series and this series. That’s how we like to look at it. This is a much faster pace. It’s balls-to-the-wall, flat-out-go, high-octane adrenaline. It’s a real rush. We went back to the original series to look at what made that work, and then we went through the pilot movie. We don’t want to disappoint some of the fans of the two-hour, so we have four characters coming from that. We made sure that those four characters clicked into what the new mythology was for the series. It’s 25 years later, so we had to update the car, update the people and be in touch with the times. What we did was just try to bring it up-to-date.

MediaBlvd> When the movie came out, it set the stage for a series, but at the same time, there was a fair amount of closure. How challenging is it to excite the audience a second time, as the series begins?

Gary> We plan on going a long time with this one. Challenging-wise, it was actually pretty easy. We’ve got great stars and a great car. We’ve got a few new cast members, and we have great writers. There are a lot of stories to tell.

MediaBlvd> After five seasons of Las Vegas, was it your plan to jump into another series right away, to potentially keep you really busy, for many years to come?

Gary> No. I have a lot of features that I still have on hold, that I put on hold five years ago, so it was not really my intention. NBC handed me the show and said, “Do you want to do this? What do you think? Do you think you can make this work?” I looked at it as a big challenge and, once I started thinking about it, I couldn’t turn it off. For me, that’s usually a reason to jump into something. If I’m staying awake obsessing about it, then there’s probably a good reason for me to be doing it.                                                

MediaBlvd> What kinds of stories will you be telling, on a weekly basis? Are they stand-alones, mythology stories or a combination?

Gary> All of the above. Most of them are stand-alones. It’s boy and car save world. We live in a different world than the original show. In the original show, it was about a drug dealer here, a runaway there. We live in a world now where there’s terrorism, and where people are trying to destroy and kill each other, and the stakes are a lot higher. That’s what we’re going to deal with.

MediaBlvd> What are some of the new refurbishments for KITT that were not reflected in the movie?

Gary> KITT can transform from one vehicle to another. He has more advanced weaponry. He likes Deanna’s character better than Justin’s.

Justin> His windshield is now a heads-up display, which interacts fully with our headquarters, the SSC.

Gary> And, we have a headquarters, which we affectionately call the KITT Cave, that is the Satellite Surveillance Chamber. It is part of Knight Research and Development, which is our main base of operation. We can track and follow the car anywhere in the world via a co-opted satellite.

MediaBlvd> Deanna, were you a car person going into the show, or has the show made you one?

Deanna> My dad invented this water filtration system for a car wash, so I grew up working at my dad’s car wash from the age of three years old. I was just always around cars. I don’t know how to change my oil, but I like them fast.   

MediaBlvd> If you could trick out your own car with a KITT feature, what would it be?

Justin> KITT transforms. It’s pretty cool. I want that. It’s amazing and awesome. I act like a big kid because you have to for this show. Everything is green screen and you just have to have an overactive imagination, so my inner 10-year-old is screaming with joy right now.

Deanna> I want the artificially intelligent turbo boost. And, it would be cool if my car could transform into a pick-up truck at will.

MediaBlvd> You wouldn’t be afraid of your car taking over the world, if it had artificial intelligence?

Deanna> I need a car to take over my world, to be honest. It would be great because then I wouldn’t have to think. It would just do everything for me.

MediaBlvd> Can you talk about KITT’s maturation?

Gary> It’s not so much that he’s a teenager as that he’s actually learning. It’s a developmental process through the course of the first season. The idea is as if a child would go from sixth grade all the way through college. It’s the idea of training him and having him learn. We’ve got some terrible teens going on in the Halloween episode. He’s a little defiant.                  

MediaBlvd> Back on the original show, KITT was really a science fiction creation. How much of a science fiction creation do you think the car is today, or is it close to reality?

Gary> It’s very close. Everybody already has a GPS and OnStar. Cars do talk to you. They’re working on cars that can drive themselves using sensors, so they will never wreck. They’ll know the speed limit, and all that. That’s maybe 10 or 15 years away.                 

MediaBlvd> Justin and Deanna, you both have done some time in the daytime soap opera world. How do you think that world prepares you for anything else outside the soap world?

Deanna> The pace of a soap is much more intense than anything else out there, so it’s an entirely different animal than primetime. We would go through 70 to 90 pages a day for daytime. For primetime, people complain, if we’ve got 9 pages.

Justin> It just prepared us a little more as actors, in general, as far as finding your camera. You learn how to be comfortable in front of a camera because you don’t have time to think about it. Now, it’s actually refreshing to have more time to be in a scene, and make it deeper and more complex, instead of having to rush through it.

Deanna> That challenges your instincts.

MediaBlvd> Deanna, what was your experience with the original series? Had you watched it at all, growing up?

Deanna> I’m a little sister of a big brother who dictated everything on television, and Knight Rider was always on, along with The A-Team and Dukes of Hazzard.

MediaBlvd> David Hasselhoff was in the movie. Will he be coming back for any episodes, or could William Daniels pop up somewhere, even though he wouldn’t be the voice of KITT?

Gary> We haven’t spoken about William Daniels, at this point. I have spoken to David, and David, NBC and myself are discussing that.

Justin> I hope David returns. I think we all want him to. He’s doing America’s Got Talent, which kind of conflicts with this, but we would love to have him. We’re not ruling that out. If there’s an opportunity to bring him in, we definitely will. I play his son, and  I end up taking over his name, which didn’t really sink in until I had to actually say that line. I laughed the entire time. We had to do it so many times. It’s a great role. It’s my childhood hero, so it’s really funny to actually have the words come out of my mouth and say that. But, it’s an honor to be taking it on.

MediaBlvd> With the series being changed around a bit, is the family connection with the father (Bruce Davison) still going to be important?

Justin> It’s always there. Family is very important. We haven’t talked about it much, but I believe there will be times that I may have to learn from my predecessor. And, with Sarah, her family works there. The whole team is a family. As the series progresses, you get to find out what each character means to each of us. In the first episode, my character really does realize what everyone means to him, and that they’re his new family.

MediaBlvd> Justin, what is it like to work with Deanna?

Justin> Deanna is fantastic! She’s unlike any actress I’ve ever worked with. I screen tested with a lot of the actresses for the role, and she was the one that came in and really had a completely different approach to the character. She really shocked me to the point where I was like, “Oh, I didn’t know you were going to go there. Okay, cool! Let’s do that.” I had already done it 15 times, and it was refreshing to have someone come in with a completely different point of view. She’s brilliant in it. And, as far as our dynamic on the show, we play a very fine line. It’s complicated. We had a relationship, but my character doesn’t remember certain moments of his life. He has amnesia or mindwipe, or whatever. I don’t know what it is. They don’t tell me anything. Our relationship was actually a lot deeper than in the movie, and I don’t even remember. In the two-hour movie, she was a little resistant to me, and a little harsh with me. When I read it, it gave me goosebumps. It’s the perfect guy excuse. He has amnesia, so he can’t remember anything.

MediaBlvd> There wasn’t a lot of time for a romance in the two-hour movie. Will there be more time for romance in the series?

Justin> That’s part of the story. We have to save the world and there’s not a lot of time for romance, but we try to fit in having a life with going on the missions. That’s where the humor comes in, and the sexual tension.

Justin Bruening at the NBC All-Star Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 20, 2008.

Deanna> It’s more of a will they or won’t they kind of storyline. What keeps us apart is all these floozies that keep coming in.

Justin> When you’re a spy, you sometimes have to go under covers.

MediaBlvd> How often do you guys just crack up on set, considering that you’re dealing with a talking car, day in and day out?

Deanna> All the time!

Justin> Especially when you add the green screen in with it. We have a voice double for Val Kilmer, and his name is John Berdell.

Deanna> He’s amazing! He really helps us out. We couldn’t do what we do, if it wasn’t for him.

Justin> KITT learns, and having someone there that is a voice actor can always add those elements of what he may be learning or not learning. That really helps us react.

MediaBlvd> Justin, the movie touched on Michael’s background and that he was previously in the war. How has that shaped him into the guy he is today, and what have you enjoyed about the way they have flushed that history out this season?

Justin> One of the new mythologies, and one of the storylines to the series, is actually Mike’s past. He was in the war, but he doesn’t remember a few years of his life while he was in the war. There are things that come up from his past, throughout the series. There are people that want to kill him or his loved ones, and that really affects the missions. That affects everyone’s relationship with him. He remembers things that he’s done that are not good, so he knows that the things that he doesn’t remember are probably far worse. There are a lot more elements, and it makes the character a lot more complex.

MediaBlvd> Deanna, what role does Sarah play in Michael’s life and adventures? Do you consider her his trusty sidekick, or an important member of the team?

Deanna> She’s definitely got mechanic tendencies, and she’s just trying to prove herself as one of the boys. She’s been trained to fight, but she winds up getting in trouble and has to be saved a couple times. But then, in turn, there’s a couple times when Mike gets in trouble and she has to save him. So it’s tit for tat, perhaps.

MediaBlvd> Do you enjoy kicking some ass, then?

Deanna> Always! Oh, man, that’s the best part of the job!

Gary> And, she does it quite well.

Justin> Yes, all over me.                    

MediaBlvd> Have you guys had to do any stunt driving? Have you had any training in that area?

Deanna> Yes, and it was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done. I still don’t know how they green-lit that idea. I almost crashed the car. We were on a skid pad, so I don’t think I hit more than 50 mph. But, I was pulling a 180 and I didn’t cut the wheel fast enough, so I skidded off the road 90 degrees and came two inches from falling off an embankment. I was terrified. The instructor was in the passenger seat and he said, “Okay, now take it back to the beginning and we’ll try it again.” I said, “This was great, but I think I’ve had my limit for today.” I couldn’t do it again, right after.

Gary> Justin hit a tree.

Justin> I did not hit a tree. KITT hit the tree.   

MediaBlvd> Gary, can you talk about practical effects versus CGI with the car? What sort of effects will you be doing?

Justin> There is a lot of green screen, but we also have a whole second unit.

Deanna Russo at the NBC All-Star Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 20, 2008.

Gary> It’s a combination of both, at this point. There’s real driving, and then, because the car is transforming, we need to do some CG. Also, it’s just not cost effective, nor can we close down freeways, to drive 300 miles an hour. Trying to drive that fast in the state of California is a little prohibitive, so we have to do green screen for a lot of those shots. But, we’re out doing stunts in highways that we can control. And so, it is very much a combination.

MediaBlvd> Having written the first two Fast and the Furious films, what did you take from that experience that you brought to this show?

Gary> The experiences from Fast and the Furious just taught me that there’s an audience out there for cars. We’re a huge car society, so people like to tune in for cars. We try to remember that when we’re writing the episodes.

MediaBlvd> Justin, what was the experience of working with David Hasselhoff like for you? Was it intimidating at all?

Justin> The experience was great! I was a little intimidated, at first. He was my childhood hero, and Knight Rider was my favorite show. So, when he came to the set, I was fine until we were in the middle of the scene and he introduced himself as Michael Knight. Then, I freaked out a little bit. But, other than that, it was a wonderful experience. It’s one of those things that I get to tell my grandkids about.

MediaBlvd> Do you feel any pressure, playing the son of Michael Knight?

Justin> No, not at all.

Gary> I told him he couldn’t have any pressure.

Justin> Yes, I’m not allowed to have pressure. I don’t have time.

MediaBlvd> What do the veteran actors, like Val Kilmer and Bruce Davidson, bring to the show? What’s it like to work with them?

Gary> It’s great, as a writer. Bruce is great, and Val as well, because there are a lot of explanations and they know how to deliver that information, so it doesn’t just sound expository. That’s great, from a writing standpoint. Basically, you only have 43 minutes to tell a story and, at some point, no matter what the TV show is, you have to explain things. To have pros who can pull it off, and pull it off in a way that it doesn’t seem like it’s just spoon feeding an audience, is fantastic. Plus, the great thing about Val is that he has such a voice that he can get in this character of KITT and he’s able to go all the directions that we ask him. He doesn’t speak with contractions.

 Deanna> I have to say that the best part is lunchtime because of the stories that Bruce tells.

MediaBlvd> Now that you’ve done several episodes, how are the characters developing through the season?

Justin> With each script, I find out more and more about Mike, and a lot of it is fun for me because there are a lot of things that he doesn’t remember. Every time I get a new script, there’s always this little snippet and I’m like, “Oh, look at that, there’s something else to add into my personality, or my bag of tricks.” He just gets deeper every episode, and he gets more complex.

Gary> With each script, there’s something different. There’s a little bit of back-story about what the relationships were like in the years, months or weeks past.                  

MediaBlvd> Justin, is this a very physical role for you?

Justin> Here’s my example of that: I gave up caffeine for two months. I said, “Yeah, I don’t need it anymore. I’m good. I’m rested. I’m awesome!” I made it to day three, and I was like, “Go get me a Red Bull. I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to die if I don’t have caffeine.” The first episode starts off in the middle of the action. It’s really a throwback to James Bond. Really cool. We have all our little gadgets, like Mission: Impossible. We’ve got the talking car, which is the biggest, coolest gadget of them all. I shouldn’t call him a gadget, but he’s not here, so it’s fine.

MediaBlvd> Have there been any kick-ass stunts or action sequences that you’ve enjoyed shooting?

Justin> Every episode has something. Episode 4 is amazing. And, I had to go to surfing training because Episode 5 was a whole thing with surfboards and surfing. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it, so I figured I might as well. Every episode has amazing stunts. It’s fantastic! I’m so excited to go to work every day, even though it’s like 14 hours a day. My character is a screw-up sometimes because he’s very lackadaisical with his approach to missions, but he is a soldier who is highly trained. He just doesn’t care. That’s where the humor comes from in our episodes. He tends to screw things up, but he also fixes everything that he screws up. That presents a fun little challenge.

MediaBlvd> Had you ever worked with green screen before?

Justin> No. I’m not even actually there. They just put me in afterwards. No, I’m kidding. It’s a challenge. And, on top of that, the car doesn’t actually talk. Nothing actually works. Our car continues to evolve. He needs to learn. He has super-intelligent artificial intelligence, and he continues to become more human, the more he learns. It’s great having an actual voice actor there to talk to us. He adds that cadence and the hints of emotion, so our characters can react to that. It provides a lot of interesting moments when KITT says that he is afraid or that he has feelings because you’re like, “You’re a car!”

MediaBlvd> Deanna, as the love interest, do you actually get to participate in any of the stunts and action?

Deanna> Oh, yeah! They fully hooked me up with some training. I did fight training, weapons training and stunt driving training. And, so far, I’ve actually had more fight scenes than Justin. I didn’t think that was going to happen.

MediaBlvd> Have there been any injuries of any kind?

Deanna> Only to the 10 guys whose asses I kicked!

MediaBlvd> What do you have to do to stay in that kind of physical condition, to do those fight scenes?

Deanna> I fantasize about jelly donuts all the time, but I don’t actually go near them. Production hooked us up with a trailer with work-out equipment, so because we have all these crazy, long work hours, we’re able to work out in between scenes.

MediaBlvd> Justin, is that tattoo on your forearm going to play a part in the character development?

Justin> That’s part of the character, and it’s something that plays into the continuing storyline of our show. It ends up being more than it seems.

MediaBlvd> What is the coolest car that you’ve ever personally owned?

Justin> I had a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba with maroon Corinthian leather. It was a P.O.S. car.

Deanna> I had a 1992 Hyundai Excel. Everything was manual, but the transmission. He was a little white piece of plastic, and I called him Elroy.

Gary> I had a 1958 GMC pickup that my grandfather gave me when I was 12. That was probably my favorite car.

MediaBlvd> Justin, what’s your favorite bell or whistle on KITT?

Justin> That’s a hard one. There’s something new, each week. I fall in love with something, and then I get a new script and there’s a new something. There are always new little buttons to push and gadgets to play with.

MediaBlvd> Deanna, how much do you know about nanotechnology now?

Deanna> More than I ever thought I would, in my entire life. I’d never even heard of it before the pilot. Apparently, it’s a real thing.

MediaBlvd> Gary, in regard to the nanotechnology, how easy is it going to be to fit in new technology as it comes up?

Gary>  It’s fairly easy because we have a super brainiac, in Deanna’s character, who comes up with new technology and is able to program the car.

Deanna> I say big words.

Gary> I actually try to make up the words, just to see if she can actually say them.

MediaBlvd> What’s been the most fun element for you guys, on the show?

Deanna> Every day is fun!

Justin> We have fun every day, on this show. I always say that this is probably the most fun show on television. Our entire cast and crew is always laughing, and we’re always having a good time.

Deanna> Because it’s about a talking car, we can get away with a lot of thing that wouldn’t exist in real life. It’s always the punch line of the day

Gary> For me, it’s just working with Justin and Deanna. They’re absolutely fabulous! That’s my favorite part.