Congratulations to Sunriseyes, the winner of the drawing of the Kyle XY prize package
By Christina Radish
The ABC Family Channel’s most successful original series, Kyle XY, returned this week and has already begun answering some of last season’s left-over questions about the origin of the title character. In season one, viewers met Kyle (Matt Dallas), the weird, wide-eyed teen who awoke naked in the forest, with no memory and no bellybutton. After he was taken to a juvenile hall, Nicole Trager (Marguerite MacIntyre), the psychologist assigned to the case, brought Kyle home to her family, which includes the older, teenaged Lori (April Matson) and younger son Josh (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), who were initially confused by Kyle’s peculiar behavior.
Upon Kyle’s entrance into the Trager home, Stephen (Bruce Thomas) wasn’t sure he wanted one of his wife’s patients living with their kids, let alone a teenager straight out of lock-up. But, Kyle’s innocent, loving nature soon had Stephen thinking of him like another son.
As Kyle begins to learn the truth about his past, he falls under the strict training of Tom Foss (Nicholas Lea), so that he can learn the full scope of his talents and abilities. But, with the peril increasing, all of this must be kept secret, even from the Tragers, who just want to help him return to the life of a normal teenager.
In an exclusive interview with MediaBlvd Magazine, Bruce Thomas, Marguerite MacIntyre, April Matson and Jean-Luc Bilodeau talk about what it’s like working with each other, as well as how proud they are to be part of such a ground-breaking family drama.
MediaBlvd Magazine> How did you get into acting, and have you had any professional training?
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Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Bruce Thomas, and Marguerite MacIntyre- (ABC Family/ Eike Schroter) |
Bruce Thomas> First of all, I grew up on a farm in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I was born and raised there. In college, I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, but I was not getting very far. Dino De Laurentiis was just opening his studio there and one of the first films they did, if not the first, was . I went down and stood in line to be an extra, and was pulled out to be a stand-in for David Keith, so I jumped at the chance to make $40 a day. I didn’t have to bartend anymore. I befriended a lot of people on set and the bug bit me, having not been involved in anything like that before. I was always a creative guy, but nobody in my family has a showbiz background or anything. I got some great advice to go to New York first, and not L.A., if I wanted to do this. I was told to get into all the theater groups, do some studying, and was given the name of a teacher. It just so happens that somebody knew Lee Strasberg and his wife Anna, and they took me under their wing in New York, which was a great introduction to New York theater. I stayed there for eight years, and then moved out to L.A. in the 90's to try to make some money at acting.
Marguerite MacIntyre> I was born in Michigan and then went to high school in Arizona. I went to USC for training, and I also went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. And then, I moved to New York and was a waitress because that’s what everybody does, after all that training. I trained a lot, and then had to beat down some doors to get those first few jobs.
April Matson> I grew up in Lake Elsinore, which is a small town in Southern California, and I started acting at the theater at my high school there, doing mostly high school plays. It wasn’t until I got into college and took an acting class that I decided to pursue it further. And then, I started studying with Andrew Benne at his studio in North Hollywood. That helped me make my segue-way into TV and film.
Jean-Luc Bilodeau> I was born in New Westminster in British Columbia, Canada, and lived in Surrey, all my life. I think I was about 6 years old, when my mom thought I should go into acting. She got me an agent and I signed up. It was kind of difficult, in the beginning, because I wasn’t booking anything, so I started to question it and think about whether this was something I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. Once I got my first commercial, things started picking up really fast. It’s a fun career to do and I liked it, so I decided that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
MediaBlvd> How did you come to be a part of Kyle XY? Was it just through the regular auditioning process?
Bruce> A manager forwarded me the background of this character because she thought it would be an interesting father to play. I read the script and completely agreed, and jumped into the regular auditioning process. As I walked through the door, it turned out that Julie Plec, a friend of mine, who I knew socially, was one of the producers on it, but that doesn’t help as much as you think it would. She wasn’t able to get me the job, so I had to earn that myself through the normal auditioning process.
Marguerite> I didn’t know anybody involved in the project at all. It was just a regular audition. At my first audition, Julie Plec was there, and the creators were there too. You audition a lot, so you don’t always remember the people in the room. Quite frankly, it’s just one room after another, and I’m bad at that. But, I remembered thinking, “Oh, they’re fun people.” That was the only thing that really stood out for me, as particularly special about that first call, except that I liked the script.
April> I had just finished a series that was on Fox, called Quintuplets. I wasn’t really going out on the next pilot season because I thought I had a show. So, that got canceled and, about four days later, my agent sent me the information and the script for Kyle. I went to the audition and it ran its own course from there.
Jean-Luc> I did the first audition in Vancouver, and then, they flew me out for the second audition in L.A. It was really quick. I went in for the audition and about four days later, they said I was going to L.A. It happened in a flash.
MediaBlvd> Marguerite, when The Days didn’t succeed as a series, did that discourage you from wanting to try another series?
Marguerite> It didn’t discourage me from wanting to try one, since it’s what I do and I love to work. With every job, even when it’s just a pilot that doesn’t go, you have fun and you meet people, and it’s always thrilling, to see if it will happen. The discouraging thing about The Days was just how good I thought it was. It was hard to see something that was so well done, with such a strong cast and such a strong team behind it, not fly. It didn’t get picked up, so that was a little rough and a little wounding. And, we also got very, very close on that. We were all so compatible with each other and had so much fun. It was a great time and I’m still close to them, so I can’t really complain. But, it’s hard when something so well done doesn’t get picked up.
MediaBlvd> April, when Quintuplets was canceled, was that discouraging for you?
April> I think everybody, no matter what business you’re in, gets to a point where they think, “Am I really good enough to do what I’m doing?,” and I definitely had that. I thought Quintuplets was going to keep going. And then, on my way to the Kyle XY audition, I thought, “That was fluke. I’m not going to get another show. What am I doing? I’ve got to wait tables again.” It’s so competitive. It’s not easy to do. You do start to doubt yourself. Even when good things happen, you think, “I got a lucky break.” You never think it’s because of you. So, I guess it did discourage me, in a sense, but I think, deep down, in the back of my mind, I always knew that I would find other work. It’s all about perseverance.
MediaBlvd> Was there something specific about this script that made you want to get involved with the show? Had you been a fan of sci-fi prior to doing this?
Bruce> The pilot had a combination of drama and comedy, which I really liked. My character was a good guy, but more than that, he could be a noble person. Up until recently, fathers in shows have just had the crap beat out of them. They’ve been the butt of the jokes. They’ve been oafs, and not worth much as human beings. Here was a script where my character was able to have a lot of input in his family, be a strong father and have people look up to him, even though he has faults. He works through those faults and discovers things about himself that he can teach his kids. It’s such a normal family situation. It’s a real life family, where you stumble and then you find a way to get up and learn from that situation and move forward.
Marguerite> Good sci-fi is great. I like good anything. The greatest half-hour comedy will give me bliss, and so will a beautiful hour-long drama. But, the thing about this that I loved, especially not having any conception of how they would do it, one way or the other, was the beauty of this unspoiled, unformed person, perceiving life as we live it, but with no preconceptions. I thought that was a pretty fascinating angle to explore. Everybody thinks they’re living an examined life, but not really. You can’t because your culture dictates a lot of how you look at things. So, it was pretty cool to think, “Well, what would that be like?” That was a pretty fascinating aspect of it.
April> I’m not a big sci-fi fan, in the Star Wars sense. Not that they’re not great movies, but it’s never really been my thing. I could appreciate The X-Files, and things like that, that had sci-fi elements, as far as the mystery goes. Seeing someone dressed up as an alien doesn’t entertain me, but the illusion that there might be something there that’s not human has always been intriguing to me. The mystery part of it is probably what really grabbed me. When I first read this script, what I really loved was just the way the writers showed the audience the world, and human nature, through Kyle’s eyes. The way that it very simply held up a mirror to human nature and how we are, and what’s beautiful about it and what’s not, was the major element that grabbed me.
Jean-Luc> If I got a part on a TV show and I didn’t like, I’d still do it. But, when I read the script, I thought it was cool. My character is really fun to play. He’s a very clever, smart-assed, quick-witted kid. He gets into a lot of trouble, which is always fun to shoot. And, sci-fi is cool too. Once I read the script, I started getting more into it and it made me want to be a part of it even more.
MediaBlvd> April, was it difficult for you to identify with playing a high school student, or was that pretty easy for you to recall?
April> It was pretty easy because every character I auditioned for was 16 years old, so it wasn’t really that strange to me. I was used to it. That’s what I worked on in class and that’s what I played. But, sometimes I’ll be reading a scene with Matt, and he’ll be helping me with my lines, and he’ll say, “If you do it like that, you’re doing it from the point of view of a 20-something, and not a teenager,” so sometimes I do have to catch myself and put myself back into what it was really like to be a teenager. And, I was 16, 10 years ago, so it is a little bit different now. That’s a little bit challenging sometimes, but I feel like I’ve got Lori down now.
MediaBlvd> Once you were all cast on the show, did you do anything to get to know the other cast members better, since you had to come across on screen like you were a real family?
Bruce> We all fell in love during filming for the pilot. I saw April Matson during the audition process, and got to know her a little bit. I saw Chris Olivero during the audition process, and got to know him a little. I had actually worked with Chris many years before, when he was a teenager, on a different project. During the pilot, we all discovered that we have this incredible chemistry. I guess you have to give credit for that to the producers, and to Julie Plec and David Himelfarb, and Gil Junger, the pilot director, who threw us all together because they must have seen something in all of us. We’re all very close, and we’re best friends, to this day. It has not waned one bit.
Marguerite> Matt and I had to do a lot in the pilot, and we just loved each other. We had an immediate bond. We all did. We went to dinner and we hung out, and whatever, but immediately, we were each other’s people. We just went, “Oh, I know who these people are. They’re all cool. I get it.” There was no discomfort. And, I think that also has to do with the casting because when Jaimie Alexander was cast this year, it felt the same way. It was a big deal because our little group is tight, and she came in, but we were all on the same wavelength. We have fun. There’s just a really great atmosphere on set, and Jaimie fits right in. There’s something about the way that these guys perceive people, as they’re casting, that is working brilliantly. There is not an uncomfortable moment anywhere. Everybody just works really well together, and we automatically took to each other. We didn’t have to work very hard at it. The more we got to know each other, the more we liked each other. And, when we were off, between seasons, we saw each other all the time. We hung out a lot, so I thought that was a pretty good sign.
April> We all instantly loved each other, so we really didn’t have to try that hard. The second we were all together, we couldn’t shut up and we couldn’t stop hugging each other. It was like, “Oh, there’s my family!” It was really an instant connection between everybody, so that was easy. We were all up in Vancouver shooting and we didn’t have anyone else to hang out with, but each other, so after rehearsals or shooting days, we would have dinner with each other, and we would spend time together on weekends. We bonded instantly. Two years later, we all still love each other deeply. They are my family, so that’s never been an effort.
Jean-Luc> Once I got the part, it started picking up really fast. We were shooting all the time, so I got to know them while I was shooting with them. They’re really easy going people, so it was easy to get to know them. It worked out really well.
MediaBlvd> Without giving anything away, what can fans expect from season two, and how will your character be growing and changing?
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Matt Dallas as "Kyle", April Matson as "Lori" and Chris Olivero as "Declan" on "Kyle XY" on the hit ABC Family original series, "KYLE XY" . (ABC FAMILY/BOB D`AMICO) |
Bruce> Kyle will be harvesting the special gifts that he has, through the help of his new-found buddy Tom Foss (Nicholas Lea), who was very shady, at best, in the first season. He helps Kyle harvest those special gifts and powers into being almost a superhero kind of guy. As far as the family goes, we just continue on, stumbling through life’s little challenges. For example, I have a storyline where I discover that my son, Josh, is smoking pot. Hats off to ABC Family for broaching that subject because it’s so prevalent throughout our society. They wrote it in a very funny way, but yet, at the same time, that storyline is more about saying, “I’m telling my kids not to do something that I’m doing myself.” What it’s really about is that actions speak louder than words. If I’m going to tell you that you can’t smoke pot, then I can’t do anything like that, myself. He learns that he has to set a better example and be a better human being.
Marguerite> The plotlines this year are pretty thrilling. Fans will get a lot of answers, and then they’ll get a lot more questions, and the questions will be bigger and more interesting. As things unravel, suddenly a whole other area explodes out and you go, “Oh, my God! What is that about?” There’s some new characters, some characters that come back, that get explored a little more fully, and there’s development within all the regular characters. It’s not about coming back to the character that you did, it’s about where the character you did is at now, and where they’re moving to. There’s a lot of evolution in it, which I think is great. They’re being affected by everything, and they’re evolving as a result of that, which is cool to play and fun to watch.
April> Lori definitely starts to try on a lot more things, as far as who she might be, as a woman. I feel like she’s growing up and maturing. And, from what I’ve heard, I think she goes through a little bit of rebellion, here and there, which is all just shaping her to be who she’s going to be. She gets very opinionated and very bold. The show, overall, gets a lot more juicy, not just with the relationships and the human drama, but also with the mystery. And, there’s a lot more danger. Sometimes, I will read a script and I’ll find my heart pounding because I know something’s coming. Even when I know what’s going to happen, like when we’re doing a read-through, I’m still really affected by it. Our writers are doing a really good job of keeping everybody on edge.
Jean-Luc> People are going to be left with more cliffhangers. There’s a lot of new information, and a lot of information answered. The whole first season will be answered in the first couple of episodes, which is pretty neat. Josh starts growing up, so he gets a car and starts to drive. He gets a love interest. And, he gets a job. There’s new things for every character. There’s family troubles. Things are starting to happen more for Kyle. He starts growing into a real teenager, which is cool to see. There’s a lot of new changes, but it’s for the better, and people are going to love it.
MediaBlvd> Have you been surprised about the subjects that ABC Family has allowed you to address, such as teen sex and alcohol abuse?
Bruce> It’s not so surprising because they let us all know that we were going to be their flagship show. They started out by saying they wanted to push the envelope with this particular show, and not define ABC Family as a corny, virtuous network, but allow the family to be real, and that means bad and good. I knew from the start that they wanted to do something similar to what Fox has done with The Shield, or show’s like that, that really push the envelope and are more real.
Marguerite> What’s so wild to me is that my sister watched one of the episodes, on both ABC Family and ABC, and I don’t remember which episode, but I remember her telling me that something a little racy or surprising was cut from the ABC version, even though it was in the ABC Family version. I think that they’ve been really brave and I think that they’ve been trying to establish who they want to be, as a network. A family is not just a little clean-cut organization, where nothing goes wrong. It’s not a well-run machine. It’s always a work-in-progress, and I think that they’re brave and cool to show what kids can be up against with sex and drugs, and really, deeply complicated relationships. When I was a teenager, those were some of the most complicated years of my life. There’s a lot of big questions that you start to answer then, and I love that they don’t dodge them. I feel like ABC Family is so strong and so committed to what they’re doing. I really hope for their success because I think it’s a really smart move, on their part. It’s a smart way to go about re-branding their network. Before this show, I would have been like, “What would I watch on ABC Family?,” but now I’m like, “Ooh, look at what’s on. That’s pretty good.”
April> I’m really glad that they let us address those subjects because they are a part of our world today. At the end of the day, I don’t think that we’re really glamorizing or glorifying anything. It’s just part of their lives, and you can see consequences from it and what we have to suffer, when we do make mistakes. In that sense, I think that’s an important part of storytelling, especially to teenagers that are watching the show. Honestly, we’re not really talking about or doing anything that the kids that are watching the show haven’t already seen, heard and probably done themselves. When you think about what the lifestyle is like for most teenagers today, we have a pretty mild representation of that on screen.
Jean-Luc> There’s some stuff in the new season that I wouldn’t have thought ABC Family would ever let on TV. But, it’s life. Everybody goes through it. The most fun thing about playing a teenager on this show is that he’s so real. It’s always fun to play a normal teenager, focusing on normal teenage things.
MediaBlvd> Bruce, will Stephen be learning to deal with his kids a little better in season two?
Bruce> I think so. Some of the nicest written scenes this season have been between him and Josh. They discover things about each other, on both sides. If he was able to figure out his kids, I think it would be false. I don’t think parents ever really, truly figure out their kids’ lives. If he did really relate to his kids, it wouldn’t be much fun to play the character.
MediaBlvd> Did the fact that there is more interaction between you and Jean-Luc this season come from the writers, or did you have any input into that?
Bruce> I have material input, but I don’t really have structural input, like what storylines I think my character should follow. That totally comes from the writers’ room. But, when I meet with them before each season, we talk about the subject matter that’s coming up and how I deal with things like it in my personal life with my kids. I can add that kind of color to what they’re writing, but they totally decide the storylines. I think what they’re doing this season, with Jean-Luc and I, is working on the father/son relationship because it builds up to episode 8, where Stephen loses his father. His own fatherhood issues will come to the surface, and he’ll have to deal with closure in that. That storyline will go through this whole season.
MediaBlvd> Jean-Luc, how has it been to spend more time this season working with Bruce?
Jean-Luc> Bruce is a really cool person to work with. It’s kind of like a normal family. Kids run into situations with their parents and they get into a little bit of trouble. Josh definitely goes through some rough spots with his dad, and his mom. There stuff between me and Bruce is just really good writing. I like playing the son because it’s a fun role.
MediaBlvd> Now that you’ve had time to figure your character out, does that make it easier to do another season? Or, did the long delay between seasons make it more difficult to get back into the character?
Bruce> When you come back from a long break, you feel a little rusty the first week. I don’t like being gone that long. It’s not fun. Fortunately, now it looks like we’re going to be doing a lot more episodes in each season, so we’ll be able to really live it for most of the year. And then, of course, the break will be welcome.
Marguerite> It’s not really difficult for me, partly because of the chemistry between all of us, as actors, when we get on set. Besides the fact that we have a good time and we’re very silly people, we immediately have that connectedness to each other, which pulls you back into it. With my character, in particular, we’re always so busy refining and making sure she’s a believable person, in her trajectory as a therapist. This season, things change a bit, as far as how she approaches therapy and stuff. Because she continues to evolve, it’s not so much trying to get into where she was last year, as getting into where she is at the moment. I don’t feel like I have to put on the same exact suit as last year. That’s how we’re looking at her.
April> It’s definitely easier this year because I do feel more settled into Lori. The first season of a show, everyone’s trying to get on the same page about storylines and characters. Now, I feel like we’re all on the same page about who Lori is. I feel like the writing is more clear, so there’s less of me having to say, “Is this inconsistent?,” or “Who is this girl and what is she really after here?” Now, when I get a script, I feel like, “Oh, yeah, this is Lori.” They know what I’m capable of bringing to it. Together, we’ve developed the character and the tone of the show.
Jean-Luc> I’ve matured with Josh, so in the second season Josh is growing up a bit, which is nice. I’m not the little kid I was in the first season. I’m not playing a whole different character, but I’m playing a growing character. It wasn’t that difficult to get back into playing Josh, since it was kind of a new character.
MediaBlvd> Has it been difficult to adjust to the longer shooting schedule this season, or do you like it?
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Bruce Thomas as "Stephen", April Matson as "Lori", Matt Dallas as "Kyle", Jean-Luc Bilodeau as "Josh" and Marguerite MacIntyre as "Nicole" on "Kyle XY". (ABC FAMILY/BOB D`AMICO) |
April> I had to move up to Vancouver full-time. That’s a big life change. When I’m here, because all I do here is the show, I don’t have much of a life outside of it, which is hard because you want to try to have time for yourself too. I have weeks where I’m not really there at all, and I have weeks where I’m working a lot more than I remembered last year. It’s a little more intense. Knowing that we’re going to be here until September, we’re all trying to conserve our energy a little bit because it’s not just three months this time. We want to make sure that we last. We don’t want to lose momentum about half-way through. You’ve got to keep your energy up through the whole thing and give it 100%, every show. We don’t really get a vacation.
Jean-Luc> The longer season is nice because that means I get to stay away from auditioning and getting rejected. I’m so glad we got picked up for 22 episodes because I don’t have to go through any of the audition processes. I can kick back and take it easy. It’s going through my summer, but I don’t care because I’ll be working, which is nice because usually in the summer, I sit on my ass and sleep all the time. It’s nice that I have a job. I’m totally adjusted to the longer shooting schedule.
MediaBlvd> April, are you happy with the direction your character has gone in, since she really has changed quite a bit since the pilot? And, do you get any input into what you’d like to see happen to Lori?
April> I’m really happy with the way that she’s changed because, in the beginning, she was kind of bratty and snobby and a little short with her parents, and I was never like that. That was actually really hard for me. I never talked to my parents that way, although I saw a lot of my friends do it, so I could learn that way. I didn’t like it because I like the idea of America, and the world, seeing a teenager who can be trusted by her parents, who can be honest with her parents and who has a good relationship with them. I think that’s realistic, and a reflection of how a lot of teenagers are being raised these days. Relationships are a lot more open than they used to be, so I really like that it went in that direction. And, I definitely have a bit of input, as far as where Lori goes. I’ll suggest something like, “Maybe she should go through this kind of a thing” -- just what I see happening in the world -- and if it works with the storyline, they put things in. They’re really open to hearing anything that I have to say about her, and anything that doesn’t feel right, they’re really good about working with me to make it work.
MediaBlvd> Your more emotional scenes last season were with Chris Olivero, who plays Lori’s boyfriend, Declan. What was he like to work with, and will your characters be exploring that relationship more in season two?
April> He’s great to work with. He’s very sweet, and he’s a really open guy. He’s a lot more open this year too, so it’s nice because our relationship with each other has grown and we’re a lot more comfortable with each other. He really appreciates hard work. You can tell when someone comes to the set, ready to work. He wants everything to be really good and he wants to make sure I’m okay. He’s a very generous guy. I love working with him. And, this year, we definitely explore a lot of aspects of a teenage relationship, as far as distance, awkwardness and closeness, and all the things that get in the way of people being able to be together. On all levels, we’re exploring a lot.
MediaBlvd> Is there ever going to be any romance between Lori and Kyle, or do you think that relationship will continue to be purely that of a brother and sister?
April> I don’t think there will ever be anything romantic, but I think it’s been talked about. I don’t know if that’s something where, when they run out of things to write about, maybe they’ll come up with that, but hopefully they won’t ever run out of things to write about. I think that Kyle and Lori are brother and sister. That’s the relationship they have. It’s been really great because Matt and I have a lot of scenes as Kyle and Lori this year, and we have gotten a lot closer on screen, as brother and sister. It’s been really fun to have that relationship with him. It’s playful and it’s cute, and I have a feeling that they’ll keep it that way.
MediaBlvd> Jean-Luc, are there things that you would like to see continue to happen with your character, or do you just leave all of that up to the writers of the show?
Jean-Luc> I haven’t disagreed with anything they’ve ever done with Josh before. They’ve always been pretty good with the stuff they’re writing for me, so I just leave it in their hands and let them take it wherever. I wouldn’t ask to change anything, unless it was horrible, but they wouldn’t do that to me. Josh is a fun character to play. He’s smarter than I am, and playing a smarter kid is nice because I start to actually pick up on some of the things he says. Josh is a fun character to play. He brings a lot of comedy to the show.
MediaBlvd> Will Josh be getting a love interest this season?
Jean-Luc> Josh does get a love interest for the second season. Those are fun parts to play. I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi and really thick plots. I’ve never been a teen drama kind of guy. But, I’m okay with playing that role. It’s fine with me. If I had to pick between a teen drama and sci-fi with a really thick, complicated plot, I’d pick the sci-fi, over pretty much anything, but when I do play the teen drama roles, it’s totally cool with me.
MediaBlvd> How did it feel to find out that Kyle XY had the ABC Family Channel’s highest rated original series premiere?
Bruce> I expected it, and I don’t mean to sound like we’re the best thing that ever happened. I just think it’s good writing and I think that the family show that we’ve created is something that the people out there have been wanting to see, just because it’s not cliched and it’s not Little House on the Prairie, where you know every character is good, right off the bat. They’re not one-dimensional characters. You get to watch them evolve and grow. I think family shows like this are needed, and we’ve shown that. It’s not a stupid show.
Marguerite> That was very thrilling. We were up in Vancouver, doing our little cable show and having our fun, and then people were calling and saying, “There’s this really huge poster outside Warner Bros. Oh, my God!” I had already seen the first episode at our wrap party, so I didn’t see it when it actually aired. I was driving down from Vancouver with a friend of mine, and we were in Oregon somewhere when our producer, David Himelfarb, was trying to get ahold of me, but my cell service was going in and out. He called to tell me, “Hey, we did really well!” I just did not realize how well. ABC Family has been hugely supportive of the show, and really behind it, but we’re cable. It helped that the show also airs on ABC. But, I really was surprised by how well-received it was and how many people were aware of it.
April> The whole experience surpassed my expectations, and then, the result of it all was just icing on the cake. I did believe in the show and I knew that it was great, but there are really great shows out there that, for whatever reason, people don’t ever watch, or get a chance to hear about. More than anything, I think it made us love the ABC Family marketing team and the publicists, and just the network overall, because they made a little extra effort to get it out there, and people responded. It was a really pleasant surprise.
Jean-Luc> It was really cool. I was on a TV show, but it didn’t really hit me that the show was setting these records for ABC Family until three months after. When your first big project does really well, you’re going to be bouncing off the walls. Once it hit me, I was really excited about the show. The first season was really fun to shoot. Things went really fast.
MediaBlvd> When you work on a show like this, that’s all about the big mystery, how much are you made aware of ahead of time, and how much do you learn just by getting the scripts?
Bruce> We are learning as we go, which must be frustrating for Matt, in playing Kyle. He may know more from the writers’ room than I realize, but it’s fine for me, personally, not to know much of anything because on the show, that’s how I am. My character is clueless as to who Kyle is and where he came from. He’s discovering little bits and pieces about him as we go, and that’s fine with me. It’s fun to get the new script and go, “Hey, wow, I know that? Oh, cool! That’s going to be fun to play.”
Marguerite> When someone develops a pilot to go towards a series, they have an idea of what the big mystery will turn out to be, but that idea can change as well. We vaguely had an idea of how it would all manifest, but I think that continues to switch and change, as they get more creative from season to season, even though it still ties in to the basic ideas that they had, initially. I’d like to say I know the answers, but I don’t think that I do because I think it continues to change as they go forward.
April> I love to be surprised by things. I’m the type of person that, if I get a script for a movie that I’m auditioning for, sometimes I don’t read the end because I don’t want to know what happens. I want to be able to watch the movie. And so, for this, unless it has something to do with my character, I don’t really think about all of the other mystery elements. I read what I need to know, for what’s happening with me, but I really love to watch the show and be surprised about what’s going on with other things. Matt laughs at me because we’ll be at a table read and it’ll be the end and there will be this cliffhanger, and I’m swelling up with tears and sweating, and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe it!” Matt will say, “Didn’t you read the script?,” and I tell him, “Yeah, sort of, but not really.” I enjoy being told the story so much, and being the audience for all the other stuff going on, that I end up not really thinking about it much. When the show was airing last year, my parents would call me and say, “We’ve figured out what this means. Is it this?,” and I’d say, “I don’t know, you guys, maybe, but I don’t think so.” They’ll call me and try to get me to work out theories with them, and I tell them, “I really don’t know anything.”
Jean-Luc> I only find out things when I read a script. They don’t really like to tell the cast, which is totally understandable. I’m cool with putting the pieces together myself. Whenever there’s a question asked, it’s always answered through a script I read. I haven’t read all the scripts for the whole season yet. I find out everything as soon as the other actors do. It’s the writers that know ahead of time, but they keep it pretty confidential.
MediaBlvd> Have you spent any time at all, coming up with theories of your own, about the mysteries of the show, and did you ever discuss that with the other cast members?
Bruce> We did a little bit of that last year. Going into it, we didn’t know anything. We weren’t even told that Kyle was not an alien until three or four episodes into it. It was fun for us to banter about the ideas, but we don’t really talk about that anymore.
Marguerite> We did that early on last year because it was such a driving thing. When I read the pilot, I was like, “What’s up with this dude?” We all had our ideas. And then, as we were working, we’d needle all the writers to get a little answer here or there. But, they would say, “You can’t say that it’s this because we don’t know if it’s really going to be this.” What’s so cool about this year is that it’s not just the basic questions of where Kyle comes from, but what it means and how it extrapolates out to other people. How it all happened that he was in their lives is kind of crazy cool. You’re not so concerned about, “So, what’s with the fact that he has no bellybutton?” anymore. It’s more about the philosophy behind it, which becomes really interesting.
Jean-Luc> Me and my dad would just piece things together ourselves. We didn’t know for sure, so we both came up with these theories. We were sort of right. It’s a fun show to try to put things together and try to figure out.
MediaBlvd> Jean-Luc, since Kyle XY is your first big project, who have you learned the most from while working on the show?
Jean-Luc> A lot of the stuff I’ve learned is from Marguerite and Bruce, who play my parents. I’ve learned from the whole cast. I’m the new actor on the block, with this show. I learn every day from these guys. They’re just such good actors and they help me out a lot, with every scene I do with them. I’ll use this experience as a big helping hand for other things that I’ll do in my life. I’m glad I’ve gotten to work with these guys because they’re all good teachers.
MediaBlvd> April, who do you feel like you’ve learned the most from?
April> I have gotten something from everybody that I work with, and I’m really being honest when I say that, but I have to say that I really admire Matt’s work ethic. He really puts 110% into everything. He does his homework and he’s always prepared. Everybody in the cast is, but his role is so big and there’s so much for him to do. He’s never late, he never misses a line. He’s just got it together and it’s really inspiring because, if I had to carry a show the way that he has to carry this show, I would be exhausted. He is able to do what he does, and then at lunch, have a normal conversation with you and not be frantic about his day. He handles it very well. I would say that’s made a big impact on me, and it makes me work harder, too. I have things coming up that I have to do a little bit more homework about, and he’s really been an inspiration. But, we’re all really open and we all go to each other, if we don’t know what to do with something, or if something doesn’t feel right. We all turn to each other and rely on each other for help.
MediaBlvd> Marguerite, did you do any research into psychologists and how they behave with their patients, to see how that dynamic worked?
Marguerite> A little bit. It’s TV, so some of it is pretty realistic and some of it is a little further than most average therapists could get away with. One of my dearest friends is a therapist in Los Angeles, so I’ve asked a lot of questions, like “How far is too far? What’s the language I should use?”All therapists come from different schools, so that language can be different, but there is some basic stuff about behavior that is appropriate and inappropriate. We keep trying to maintain some integrity on that, while still being able to tell the story. We email each other a lot, when scripts come out, and say, “Is this appropriate? Should we change this dynamic? Could we tweak this?” We keep working on it, and try not to make it seem like they should just take her diplomas away. We have to try to keep her in the world of somebody who is actually doing what she does. It’s a work in progress, but we do try to maintain some integrity.
MediaBlvd> When you were working on this character, did you give any thought, as to what someone has to have within them, in order to be willing to turn their life upside for someone who they really don’t know and who, essentially, is a stranger that they’re bringing into contact with her own children?
Bruce> It was all Nicole’s idea, and it comes from her deep love of her profession and her empathy for people. My character is a good guy and a good dad, who loves his wife, unconditionally, and so, he trusts that she’s doing the right thing. I think it’s a real genuine, generous love and trust of his wife.
Marguerite> Casting Matt was a really important part of it. Anyone who wants to be a therapist, who’s not egomaniacal and thinks that they can fix everything, is mostly coming from a place of deep curiosity about other people and how they work, and they also have compassion because they want to help people. Presumably, that’s where Nicole is coming from. To allow this young man to get so deep into her life, she has to be working on a very instinctual level about who he is and who she presumes him to be, in terms of his goodness and his intentions. Honestly, when I read it, I was like, “Is she crazy?” But, with Matt play Kyle, and certain tweaks made, it just worked. It’s just that those two characters, Nicole and Kyle, have a soul connection that you can’t really describe. There’s some level on which they look at each other and know each other, even though they don’t, so I think that creates this instinctual trust. She’s willing to go on that, and the fact that he continues to prove himself to be worthy of that trust.
MediaBlvd> Do you consider the show a sci-fi series, or do you prefer to think of it as a family drama with some sci-fi elements?
Bruce> I consider it a family drama with sci-fi elements. I think that’s what people relate to. Eventually, we may get into more special effects and more of the sci-fi elements of the show, which will be fun because I think, by then, the foundation of the family relationships will be so set in people’s heads, and they’ll know us so well, that that will be more interesting. But, I think it’s easier to relate more to what’s going on with people. That’s why soaps are so popular. People get to watch people going through emotional situations on this show. It’s character development. It’s human relationships and their foibles.
Marguerite> Last year, when we were first shooting, I would be like, “What are we doing?” When you’re acting, sometimes it’s helpful to know that they’re shooting it a certain way, what the effect is, what audience it’s for -- it can help you hone the world that your character is living in, which tells you how to behave within that world. If you’re doing The X-Files, it’s different than if you’re doing Party of Five. This show is a blended genre. They would say it’s sci-fi and a family drama, and the fact is, they’re right. It’s a funny line to walk, but they’re successful at doing it.
April> When people ask me what the show is about, I usually say that it’s a family drama with a sci-fi twist to it. Now, I think it’s becoming more of a sci-fi show with a little family drama in it. It’s Smallville meets The X-Files. Matt always says it’s Smallville meets The X-Files meets The Brady Bunch. Sometimes, we do feel a little After-School Special with it, but we want to keep all the family stuff and the growing up stuff in there, too.
Jean-Luc> There is definitely teen drama and family drama. But then, there is also the sci-fi aspect of the show, which plays a really big part in finding out the mystery. I don’t want to say it’s all sci-fi. It’s teen drama and sci-fi, all mixed together, with comedy. The show’s got a really good balance of different stuff.
MediaBlvd> Bruce, you’ve done some sci-fi work in the past, prior to doing this show. How does this show compare?
Bruce> I played a reptile who spoke English on Enterprise, which was not necessarily about the human relationships. I like this format better, myself. But, I certainly have moments where I like to sit down and watch Star Wars, or something, and get carried away with it. That’s fun, too.
MediaBlvd> April, in what ways do you feel the success of the show has changed your life? Do you get approached by fans a lot more now?
April> Not really. I’ve been approached by people a little bit, and I can definitely tell when somebody recognizes me from the show, but it’s more often when I’m with Matt because he’s more recognizable. He and I are really good friends, so we go do things together a lot. Even in L.A., I’ll notice that people notice him and then they realize, “Oh, the girl from Kyle XY is there too.”
MediaBlvd> Marguerite, since you’ve done a lot of television, is that where your primary focus is, or would you also like to work films during hiatus?
Marguerite> I did a lot of theater, at first. I worked in New York for a long time, before I went to L.A. And then, I just started working in TV and went, “Oh, this is fun!” I would love to do anything. As a matter of fact, in the next few weeks, I have one episode that I’m not in and another episode that the producers are kindly trying to work around me for, so that I can do a workshop of a new show at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, and then go and do a little independent film with D.B. Sweeney that shoots in Iowa. I like to work.
MediaBlvd> April, are you hoping that the success of this show will lead to some film work for you? And, are there particular types of roles that you’re looking to do?
April> I’m definitely hoping that it leads to film work. I don’t know an actor that doesn’t want whatever they do to lead to making good films. But, I think it can be dangerous for actors to want to play specific kinds of roles. I’m really open. If someone handed me a script and it was a really good story that they were telling, and I thought it was important and entertaining, and I was drawn to it and thought I could do it and it was challenging, then I would do it, whether it was one scene, or the lead in a film. I like actresses like Renee Zellweger because she’s done a lot of different kinds of things. That’s a career I’d like to have. I’d like to do a romantic comedy, and then go do something a little heavier, and then do a musical. I like the idea of not being put into a box.
