The Point Radio: Nothing Complicated With Jessica Szohr

Actress Jessica Szohr has landed on the hit USA series, COMPLICATIONS. She fills us in on all the action, why you should be watching and talks about her upcoming roles, too. Plus we look at what may TV’s most unique concept, Comedy Central’s DRUNK HISTORY. How do they do that?

In a few days, Denis Leary joins us to talk about SEX, DRUGS and ROCK AND ROLL,  Be sure and follow us on Twitter now here.

Transcript

The Point Radio It's Mike Raub. Life is anything but complicated right now for actress Jessica Zor. The hit series Complications has her on everybody's radar every week on USA and will let you get to know her. Plus nothing makes history more fun than a little buzz. How do they do Drunk History? We'll find out. Let's get to The Point.

This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. Actress Jessica Zor first onto our television screens a few years ago with a big part in a hit show called Gossip Girl. And now she's back as part of a new hit series on the USA Network called Complications. Complications is this crime thriller that takes two ordinary people as a doctor and nurse doing their job every day. And then at one point, John, played by Jake Nomara, happens to be in the middle of a drive-by shooting and tries to save this child that gets shot and throws him and I in the middle of this gang war in Atlanta.

So it's just crazy situations. And the whole time they're always trying to do the right thing, but not always going about it the right way. And they need each other, but yet they sort of sometimes get on each other's nerves because John's very structured and the way he wants to go about protecting them and their families and the gang members and their co-workers is very, you know, we've got to do this and do this. And Gretchen's kind of like, let's break the window, take the drugs, go put them here because we don't have time and the cops are coming or this person's going to die. So they're trying to always help people, but they're really close to, you know, having to maybe break the law. And it's kind of like when I would read it just for myself as Jessica, sometimes I'd be like, oh, my God, if I was in that situation, what would you do?

Do you break the law to save many lives or this one life? Or do you go to the cops? You can't go to the cops because these people will die and then this will come out. So it's definitely like complicated and crazy decisions that they have to make. And sometimes these decisions and just a split second that could change someone's life in a great way or a horrible way.

So it's just intense and it's a crazy, crazy journey, but very fun to play for sure. Jessica's character, Gretchen, is a pretty complicated, no pun intended and fascinating character. Yeah. You know, when I read the pilot, I wasn't I remember loving it and being a fan of Matt Nix and like, oh, this is such good writing and such a cool, really deep, awesome character that could be, you know, really a challenge to play in something so different than I've done before. But for an actor, when you read a pilot and then, you know, once I booked it and we shot the pilot, once it goes, I don't I didn't know some of the things about Gretchen that come out, you know, episode four or five, six when we shot the pilot.

So you've got to kind of go off your instincts. And I created my own backstory. So I had something to dig in and play off of. And then, you know, as the first season goes on, as you're taking the information you are given and creating your own stuff to create this character, you're kind of doing it together. And it's and it's fun and it's challenging and it's scary and it's nerve.

You know, I was nervous because I'm like, oh, my gosh, I hope this is the right choice. But, you know, once you jump in, you kind of just got to keep it going. So there was definitely things that I was, you know, oh, OK, you should go up in a foster home. Like, I didn't know that at the pilot, which could have would have been helpful. But obviously, we have great directors and producers and writers that would be like, you know what, this is you'll find this out.

So maybe play it this way. Or I like what you did there, even though you didn't know that. So it's a bit of a challenging thing, especially for a first season of a show, because you're you're coming up and creating this character as the story is going. So it's pretty intense, but great. And yeah, with Gretchen, she I mean, she has a really big heart and she is always trying to help people.

But she's had a really crazy upbringing and she has trust issues and she's protective of her sister and she is protective of her patients. And, you know, when she sees people in situations that maybe she was in or someone she cared about, she really goes above and beyond to make sure they're OK, even if it takes going into the middle of a street full of gang members to save a child. She's there and with guns pointed at her, you know, in her face to make sure that this kid is going to be OK. So, yeah, she's she's really bad ass. And I really respect her.

And, you know, she does it, you know, she has her walls up and a bit of a chip on her shoulder. But you kind of see where that comes from. And I think that John brings out a different side of her and maybe a little bit of a softer side that you totally don't see. But you can see it's in there somewhere. So, yeah, it's been fun to play and challenging and awesome.

At the heart of the show is a dynamic between Jason O'Mara's character and Jessica's, one I think that works pretty well. Oh, that's very nice to hear. Yeah, I mean, he's so fun to work with and I've learned so much working with him and he's awesome. But, yeah, they're definitely like their partners in crime and they need each other, but they both go about things very differently. You know, he's very structured and needs to plan things out.

And Gretchen is like, no, let's break the window, get the drugs and take them there now. We need to do this. Like someone's going to die or we're going to end up in jail. And he's, you know, more thought off, but they need each other and they play off each other. And as much as they can kind of get on each other's nerves at times, I think there's a really, really deep respect for each other.

And he knows he needs me and I know deep down I need him. But, yeah, and I remember reading that. I'm like, I hope there isn't anything romantic between them because it's so easy to just go that way. So I like that that hasn't happened, you know, yet. So she builds her acting resume.

What kind of roles is Jessica looking for? You know, when I was for complications, you know, I did Gossip Girl for four and a half, five years or four and a half, five seasons. And then I did, you know, a couple of indies here and stuff like that in between. But I was looking for something different than, you know, what I did on that show and just a more mature role and something, you know, just a completely different world.

And, you know, that's what I got from complications. So I'm drawn just for me as an actor, I'm drawn to dramas more, even though it's funny because I love comedy and real life. And, you know, I love going to stand up shows and going to see romantic comedies or, you know, comedy movies. But as an actor, I'm always drawn for some reason to dramatic roles. And what's coming up next?

Right now I'm working on the show called The Kingdom, which is on DirecTV, which is also funny because that's a completely different world. It's all about the UFC. So that show, they're like hurting people. And then I'm on complications, like trying to make sure no one gets hurt. So, you know, going from the Upper East Side in Brooklyn to the middle of a gang war to the UFC world, it's been three completely different roller coasters and roles.

See what complications is all about with new episodes every Thursday on the USA Network and catch up on past episodes with on demand. Couple of cable series, see the writing on the wall, all that and more. Here's the latest in what's going on in pop culture. Internet chatter or is there something real here? Well, you decide after you read all the stories this weekend about an interview that Brian Singer did a few days ago where he said there was a possibility of a

crossover between the X-Men franchise and the Fantastic Four film franchises at Fox. Of course, the one solid thing here is that it'll all depend upon the success of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie and next summer's X-Men apocalypse as well. But should both films be successful? There's a possibility of a crossover, at least Singer seems to think so sometime around 2018. Rick and Morty returned this weekend to Adult Swim and if you got some time to kill before that, well, you can play with the Rick and Morty Rick's Diverse on Instagram.

You can tap on individual photos, tags and do all sorts of interesting things. Again, just go to your Instagram account and search for Rick and Morty Rick Diverse. The upcoming season of Da Vinci's Demons on Stars will be the last. David Goyer tweeted this over the week and Stars confirmed it as well. This final third season will premiere on October 24th.

And over on FX, it looks like The Comedians is over. The Billy Crystal Josh Cad comedy will end after one season. Now it looks like there may be a Logan's Run reboot. Warner Brothers has hired a film producer and writer Simon Kinberg to write the story and the treatment for a possibility of getting this back on the big screen sometime over the next few years. Bo Smith's Winona Earv is coming to sci-fi.

The series has already been headed for production. In fact, cameras will start rolling sometime next month. They're describing it as a combination between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Justified and there'll be 13 episodes of the show when it premieres sometime next year on sci-fi. Over on Showtime, the dates are set for a couple of return to series. Homeland will be back with a new season on Sunday, October 4th.

And the second season of the affair also begins at the same time one hour later at 10 o'clock Eastern. There's no doubt that the concept behind Comedy Central's drug history has to be one of the most unusual in television. It's spun out of a very popular web series and if you haven't seen it yet, well, here's how it works. Various comedians invite the show into their home and are allowed to narrate a certain period in American history. The catch is they're drinking while they do it.

And then the whole thing is put together in a reenactment with some pretty familiar faces in it too, by the way. I talked to series creators Derek Waters and Jeremy Connor and I first asked him how carefully they choose the period of history they're dealing with. It's a good question. I think some things you don't, you know, if it's making someone that we remember as a good person a bad part about them, we don't want to do that. Because, and not saying that we want to ignore history, but there's some things that happened a long time ago that it's just not great bringing up. We like finding the people like you knew a little bit about and showing you how great they were, you know, or finding the small characters like Claudette Colvin, you know, who did what Rosa Parks did a year before Rosa Parks, but people don't know about her.

So finding stories like that, we were just like, how did I not know this? But I always say the only rule is as long as it has happened, we can do it. But there's also things I wouldn't want to touch. You stay away from religion. Yeah, religion is a good thing to stay away from. He thinks mom's a vital studies teacher, right?

Yeah. You don't want to. Yeah, but even if she wasn't, I just think religion and comedy is a scary thing. And that's what's fun about the show is like, no, these are things. It's not telling you what to believe. And they're just saying, no, these are things that happen. Take them for what they are. So how long does the whole process take?

We shoot like about six to eight hours because anyone that has alcohol understands that when you first have a little life is great, but it's not really that funny, you know, and then add a camera to that feeling. And then you're going to start really trying to be funny, which trying to be funny will never be funny. It's when they keep going and they get tired of trying to be funny and they're just talking. So it's a it's any human being would do what everyone does. So you just have to respect that. You know, go outside, smoke a couple of cigarettes and wait for it.

And as it certainly could, what happens when things kind of go off the rails? You just go, all right, next. Yeah, we're actually with the Yeah, there's some people that you have to reshoot, but I think we wouldn't want to show the outrageous moments that exploit them in any way. But yeah, they're definitely some that we can't show out of respect for ourselves and them. Find out how it all comes together with episodes of Drunk History right now.

The first two seasons available on Hulu and new episodes begin on September the 1st on Adult Swim. That does it for the podcast, but we're back in a few days. And with us, Dennis Leary to talk about his new series, Sex, Drug and Rock and Roll, and why you're probably missing something big if you haven't seen the show yet. Don't miss anything that we do. We turn up every few days on websites like ComicMix.com, GetThePointRadio.com, and in the iTunes podcast directory.

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