ABC’s new mockumentary-style drama, MY GENERATION, follows nine 28 year olds who were part of a documentary in their senior year of high school. The filmmaker has decided to check in on them ten years after graduation to see if their lives are what they expected. (Hint–not so much.)
Keir O’Donnell stars as Kenneth Finley, “The Nerd,” and Hot Celebrity Tv talked to Keir about his character, why everyone will find something to love in My Generation, and what type he was in high school.
My Generation premieres on ABC tonight, Thursday, September 23 at 8pm/7 central. Be sure to check it out and keep up with our My Generation coverage here. Until then, enjoy what the funny and not-at-all nerdy Keir had to tell us.
Congratulations on your premiere tomorrow night –
Keir O’Donnell: Thank you, I know. It’s finally here.
It’s amazing to get a show on the air, let alone one that looks unique and good –
Keir O’Donnell: I know, tell me about it. It’s been a long time in the making. It’s great.
What can you tell us about ‘My Generation’?
Keir O’Donnell: The whole premise revolves around nine of us who all went to high school together in Austin, Texas. A documentary film crew follows us in our senior year and then it picks up ten years later to sort of see what we’re doing with our lives and how things have changed and how things have not changed. We all follow the sort of archetypes of the jock, the punk, the over achiever, the beauty queen, all these things. I play the nerd.
What can you say about Kenneth then?
Keir O’Donnell: My whole goal with the character, for all the nerds out there I want to put more layers on the character so that it’s not just that classic, sort of generic stereotype to the nerd. I want to add more layers so that people can relate to him because I think the nerd is the guy who gets overlooked in school a lot but when you sort of put that under a microscope you can see that he’s extremely relatable to a lot of people. So I hope he comes off as a more sympathetic character more than anything else.
It seems like Kenneth would be one of the harder characters to place since he seems like such a nice guy. I guess you’d have to give him a little bit of an edge so he’s not too sweet or too nice?
Keir O’Donnell: Exactly. That’s sort of what we’re getting into now. He starts out and he was just the classic nerd in high school. Ten years later he’s an elementary school teacher. He’s still definitely the nice guy and he’s still looking out for everybody else but himself and as that progression happens everybody starts taking advantage of the person who’s giving all this help away. So his time is coming. I think that Kenneth has to hit rock bottom before he starts building back up.
Kenneth and Dawn interact a lot since they’re living together but are there other characters that he had been interacting with in the years before the documentary crew has come back?
Keir O’Donnell: Yeah. In high school I guess his one and only friend is Steven Foster played by Michael Stahl-David and they have a really strong bond. That bond is broken and then they’re trying to rekindle that ten years later. So that’s going to become a pretty heavy storyline which has been really fun. Obviously, the Dawn stuff is very interesting because I still have a lot of feelings for her but she’s now married and pregnant. She ends up having the baby but then Rolly comes back from Afghanistan. He’s played by Mehcad Brooks and he’s going to want his baby back. I’ve been living this sort of fake family life which is my ideal. So that’s going to be very trying for Kenneth’s psyche I think.
That sounds pretty intense actually –
Keir O’Donnell: Yeah. It’s cool. In a way, because Dawn lives with him I have so much interaction with her and when that’s taken away he’s faced with the reality of his life. His life, he’s not married. He doesn’t really have anyone who’s really interested in him. He’s sort of left lonely. So we’re sort of playing around with where all that’s going to go.
How much are we going to see in terms of the flashbacks? I know there are some in the pilot but are there more going forward?
Keir O’Donnell: Yeah. We’ve still been going back to high school in almost every episode and you start to see – it’s really fun to play around with – the progression of Dawn and Kenneth’s relationship. You see them on their first date which was really fun to do. We’re trying to play around with the idea of how can we have footage of stuff in between high school and now. So they’re playing around with a lot of stuff, sort of home videos and what these characters were doing. That’s interesting. Playing with this style of shooting is why are the cameras there and to avoid making it convenient that the camera is always there to capture these pivotal moments. So how do you get away with seeing something that you’re not supposed to see.
I would think it’d be really challenging to shoot using that documentary style –
Keir O’Donnell: Absolutely, and we’re also sort of reinventing that and trying to come up with ways where you do feel like a fly on the wall. So we have to justify why they’re there. It’s extremely challenging but the creators of the show have really genius ideas of how we can show these moments.
I think it fits this particular generation better than any before it because they’re used to being on Facebook and on camera.
Keir O’Donnell: Totally, and as an actor the thing I’ve been playing around with is that there’s no fourth wall. Everything that we’re shooting exits where we are. The show takes place in Austin. We’re shooting in Austin so that’s nice. You don’t have to pretend that you’re somewhere else and we’re using actual locations. The town has become a character on the show. So it’s been really nice shooting in these places. The locals are extremely friendly down here and we can shoot in places where people do actually hangout and so it becomes a believable space to play around.
It’s amazing how many shows are shooting in Texas right now. You’re not exactly lonely down there –
Keir O’Donnell: I know. There are a couple of shows in Dallas I think and ‘Friday Night Lights’ just wrapped up here and so we got a bunch of their crew members.
Is it really strange to play Kenneth as a high school student?
Keir O’Donnell: It is weird. I’m far from my high school days so there’s definitely a suspension of disbelief but they did a great job with casting people who can look younger and older. When I first read the script I was like, ‘How are we going to get away with this?’ But they’ve done a great job of shooting it in kind of a different style and obviously there’s a lot of shaving to the bone that we have to do, shaving our faces. We’re trying to get away with a lot more than we should be but it’s good. I think it’s more about playing the attitude of high school. I think it’s about finding where these people were in their lives as opposed to the look of it. It’s been another great challenge figuring out not only who I was in high school and rekindling those thoughts but also who Kenneth was. On top of that he’s involved in a documentary. So whether he’s aware of the camera I think he’s a guy who doesn’t really sort of understand why he was chosen to be in this documentary because he doesn’t think that his life is very interesting.
I think we’ll find out that’s not at all true, right?
Keir O’Donnell: That’s what’s been interesting, yeah. I hope that people can relate to that. There are a lot of people who think that their lives aren’t interesting and it’s like when you put it under a microscope you find out that everybody’s lives are extremely interesting. I think that’s sort of the basis of the show. We’re not trying to get away with all this social commentary and say, ‘Look at the last ten years. They’ve changed these characters immensely.’ I think they’ve changed all of us whether we’re aware of it or not.
Besides Kenneth story who’s storyline do you find the most interesting?
Keir O’Donnell: They’re all so different. I mean, obviously Rolly’s character is something that I can’t relate to at all, being a soldier, fighting in a war and what that must do to your psyche. It’s been interesting living through the last ten years and soldiers going to war and hearing the news reports and how much that affects you. Then seeing the actual character who goes to Afghanistan, I think, again, that’ll resonate with people when they start seeing what that does to someone’s psyche.
What type were you in high school?
Keir O’Donnell: I was actually kind of a hippie. I had long hair. I went to this really small public school in Massachusetts, a little backwoods town. My high school graduating class was just fifty odd kids and I knew everybody in high school. My mom worked in the school. So I couldn’t get away with anything. She would find out about all the parties before I did. Everybody was basically hippie in my town.
Are there are any other shows that you’d love to do a guest star spot on?
Keir O’Donnell: I’m like obsessed with ‘Dexter’. I love ‘Dexter’.
Would you want to be one of his victims?
Keir O’Donnell: I would love that. I’d like to be his little sidekick maybe.
Your timeslot is really tough so tell me the number one reason people should check you out tomorrow night –
Keir O’Donnell: It is a tough timeslot but I think it’s great that we’re the lead-in for Grey’s Anatomy. I think it’s a huge responsibility that we have on our shoulders and I think we’re going to bring a lot of new viewers to the timeslot. I think we can bring a younger crowd. I think the show is going to resonate with all age groups. Younger people can relate to it because they’re literally going through it right now and I think it can be extremely inspiring to them to start examining their lives and see that maybe they’re not where they want to be or they can examine where they want to end up. Then I think in the older age group they’ve sort of been through it and they can look back and feel like everything has shaped who they are and how even though their dreams changed, their lives ended up being more than they expected.
Labels:
Celebrity News
0 comments:
Post a Comment