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By Suzanne

Interview with Dean Devlin and Christian Kane of "Almost Paradise" on WGN 4/2/20

This was my first video conference call interview! Via Zoom, like most conference calls nowadays. It was a lot of fun and great to see these guys. Christian is just as handsome and charismatic as you would expect. We had a lot of fun.

You can hear the call here, but I warn you, it's not great sound quality. I would have posted the video, but I wasn't allowed.

Below is the transcript. I will proofread it soon.

Dean: Keep watching.

Suzanne: I'll do that. No, I mean, it's very good. I like it. I've been telling everybody to watch it.

Dean: Thank you, Suzanne.

Suzanne: I did a search on Twitter for ... Everybody's asking, "What show should I watch while I'm a stuck at home?" So I did a search for that, and it's like, "Watch this one." So...

Dean: Wow. Fantastic.

Christian: This is a great [inaudible 00:00:20] watch [inaudible 00:00:20] we get to take you on vacation to a place where most people never have never been. Not a lot of people know what the [inaudible 00:00:26] since everybody's at home, I get to be a tour guide, which I'm very honored to do, and take people to the Philippines.

Suzanne: Yeah, exactly. And it's really pretty there. It reminds me ... I lived in Hawaii for a few years, so it reminds me a lot of that.

Dean: Which part of Hawaii?

Suzanne: Honolulu.

Dean: I love Hawaii. I love Oahu. I love the windward side of that island.

Suzanne: Yeah, it's all good. So Dean, how did you come up with the idea for this show?

Dean: Well, it really started many years ago on my honeymoon. My wife and I were honeymooning in Hawaii. And on the local news, there was a story about these people in a small town who had captured these drug dealers because they got tired of waiting for the police.

Dean: And it got me thinking about island justice, and life on an Island, and island spirituality. And I really wanted to write a show about it. But it wasn't until I started thinking about why I cared about island life, when I realized, "Well, I'm half-Filipino, and yet I've never done anything in my career that has anything to do with the Philippines."

Dean: So when we came up with the idea of making this a show that took place in the Philippines, then it got incredibly exciting, and it just started moving very quickly at that point.

Suzanne: Oh, that's cool. Did you have Christian in mind immediately for the show?

Dean: Well, I'll let Christian actually tell that story.

Christian: It's such a great story. I've told it a few times. People really enjoy it. Dean asked me to go to lunch, and so I went to lunch. And he said, "How do you feel about doing The Librarians?"

Christian: And I'm like, "I'm in. Where do I sign?"

Christian: And he said, "Man, I got something else." He goes, "But you're just too young to play it right now."

Christian: And then cut to five years later when we had done four seasons of The Librarians. [inaudible 00:02:13] I think you're ready. I think you're old enough now.

Christian: And we started right there, man. We've worked on it for ... well, he worked on it for 10 years. I was a part of it for about a year before we even started filming, so I had a lot of time to think about it and get prepped and ready for it.

Suzanne: Cool. Christian, how would you say that Alex is different from Elliot on Leverage, or Jake on The Librarians?

Christian: Well, Alex is a character like I've never played. He's not afraid to show his emotions. Other guys had them, and they only came out when need be.

Christian: This guy actually shows his emotions all the time. And so, being sort of an open book is not something I was used to, and that's why I had so much fun playing this character, is trying to find those different emotion and a different juice that this guy has on paper, and then what I brought to it before.

Christian: I've never played that before, so to get to dive into emotion like that, not have to hide it, I think was a lot of fun, and a very big challenge. And so, that was the key to the fun of this character for me playing him.

Christian: He also covers up a lot of his emotions with jokes and he also tries to get underneath everybody's skin. He feels like Kai, who's played by Samantha Richelle. If he can get under her skin, then maybe she'll start thinking about that instead of actually thinking about Alex.

Suzanne: Yeah, it's a fun show. I like shows like this that are a combination of drama and action and comedy and everything.

Christian: That's Dean Devlin. That's every show I've ever worked on with him. It's a mix of all those things, and I think that's why he and me being involved with him have the success that we've had over the years. 13 years we've worked together.

Suzanne: So you guys must be pretty close friends as well as colleagues.

Dean: I never talk to him. No, the thing is, is what's so lovely over the years is you begin to develop a shortcut language. So our ability to communicate is so heightened.

Dean: I don't have to finish a sentence on set, because he goes, "I got it, I got it. I know what you want."

Dean: And I think that the other part of it is Christian trusts me. And I asked him to go to places this year as an actor that he's never gone before, and to really take a risk as an actor, to be vulnerable in a way he hasn't done before.

Dean: And I think that partially why this worked so well is because he trusted that I wasn't going to put him in a bad place. So even if he was doing something he hadn't done before, we had developed a trust that he knew if I was asking him to do it was because I knew he could do it and that he would be great at it.

Suzanne: All right. Now, Christian, will you be singing on the show?

Christian: Well, Dean made a promise to all the fans, and Dean keeps good on his promises, and he said that I would be in some way, shape, or form singing, or ... And I think he ran the gamut on this one. And I'll be singing, I'll be playing, and I even had a word or two in there with it. So yes, I will be singing on the show.

Suzanne: Oh, good.

Christian: It's a very fun episode, and there's just as much fighting as [inaudible 00:05:31] so it's [inaudible 00:05:34] a little music video.

Suzanne: Oh, good. I really liked your guest starring role on Supernatural last year and the scene you did there with Jensen Ackles. That was cool.

Christian: That was a lot of fun, man. Me and Jensen have been friends for 20 years, and it works out where I've ... like three times I couldn't go do the show. And this time, he said, "This is the final season."

Christian: I said, "What are we doing?

Christian: He goes, "Well, we're singing in a bar in Texas."

Christian: I was like, "All right." I go, "Are we fighting?"

Christian: He goes, "Heck, yeah, we're fighting."

Christian: And I go, "Do you win?"

Christian: He goes, "Well, I kill you."

Christian: And I go, "All right, I'll come in. It's fine."

Suzanne: Yeah, those type of shows, where you're like, "No, don' kill him."

Christian: Right. But you know what? After it was all said and done, it's kind of like my death scene on Angel. I hated it, because I thought I should be there for he final fight, and our late friend, Andy Hallett was the one that killed me. And now, you know that Andy's passed. He was such a good guy and such a good friend. I'm glad that he was the one that did it. And it's kind of like the same thing with Jensen. I enjoyed ding that death scene with him because it was a really sincere goodbye.

Christian: The writers didn't even know we were going to do, so it was a lot of fun, yeah.

Christian: I filmed that [inaudible 00:06:43] before I filmed that, I flew home, packed a bag and got on a plane to the Philippines, so that's how quick everything [inaudible 00:06:49] going for me at that time.

Suzanne: Wow. So getting back to you, Dean. I have to say that the beautiful location reminds me of a show that I enjoyed last year, Reef Break.

Suzanne: Now, that show wasn't as good as yours, but the scenery was spectacular. I think they filmed it in the Azores. Did you see that one?

Dean: I didn't, but I heard about it.

Suzanne: Yeah, it is just beautiful, just like [inaudible 00:07:11] and I was like, "Oh, good." Because that one get canceled. So I'm glad there's another show with such a beautiful island scenery that reminds me of why Hawaii.

Dean: Well, there's all kinds of different television series, and all kinds of different entertainment. And some is very reality-based, some is dark and edgy and serialized. And all of them have a place in our world, but what I've enjoyed doing in my career is escapist entertainment. And sometimes that's thought of as trivial.

Dean: But there are other times when we're going through a lot of things, like now, where the thing you want more than anything is to escape to paradise, well, almost.

Dean: And so, to me, as Christian said earlier, that we can invite people who are locked in their homes to come to paradise with us, come [inaudible 00:08:05] where they'll see things they've never seen on any show.

Dean: You know, this is the first TV series in history shot in the Philippines?

Suzanne: Yeah.

Dean: And so, people are going to see not just visuals, but they're going to see things about the culture. They're going to meet artists they've never seen before, wonderful actors who've never been exposed to the public before, great Filipino directors, great Filipino production designers, cinematographers.

Dean: And then the food. You're going to see some fun episodes with a Christian's character discovering the food of the Philippines. Sometimes with great joy, sometimes not.

Suzanne: Yeah, we had a friend stationed there for a while, so we heard about some of the food.

Christian: Yeah, what Dean did right off the bat, which I thought was so spectacular, is he used the Philippine ... I mean, the Philippines should have been on the call sheet.

Christian: He used the [inaudible 00:08:54] as the lead actor, and I thought ... which also took a lot of pressure off of me because you're in this unbelievable background. And all of a sudden, you're in the character, you're in the role.

Christian: But he used the Philippines as a leading actor a lot. And it was so beautiful that you couldn't. And the colors, even in some places where ... and they call it ... and the slums and all that kind of stuff.

Christian: The unbelievable color and the unbelievable people that we were able to film. They were so nice. We were in some places that people would cringe, and we were getting ... They were bringing us drinks.

Christian: I was going in their house. You know what I mean? They were coming up and saying, "Hi. There was like 200 ...

Christian: When we took the Hummer through the wall in the first episode, there was 200 kids outside. I filmed it. You know what I mean? And I went to by, and I stopped the Hummer and got out and said, "Hi." To all of them.

Christian: They're the nicest people in the world. And the colors that are there are just these unbelievable blues and reds and yellows and oranges and turquoises. And it's on their houses and it's just so beautiful. And Dean was very smart to use that as leading actor, not only as a backdrop.

Suzanne: Yeah. I was wondering why this was the first ever American TV series [inaudible 00:10:07] there. Did you guys encounter any obstacles at all filming there?

Dean: Nothing but. But that's kind of what made it fun. And one of the giant success stories of Christian's work on this show that will never really be seen by the public is the mentor role he took on in helping not only the actors, the Filipino actors, who had never done this type of work before, but the crew.

Dean: They're incredibly talented, but they had never worked in this kind of system. We do something like 50-some odd setups a day, and we try to do it all within 12 hours every day.

Dean: And so, we work at a great speed. We get a lot done each day, and there's a method to it. And Christian and I've been doing it together, as he said, [inaudible 00:10:52] now. So he was on set, showing the grips the safe way to carry their equipment When when you have to move quickly.

Dean: I mean, literally, I would hear him after a take stop someone carrying something. Saying, "No, no, no. When you walk through the people say, 'Points'. That way everyone knows."

Dean: Just little things that he was constantly doing. And his generosity towards the other actors. Every night after the shoot, he would spend time with them and go over how to study the part and the way in which you need to be prepared in the morning. And it was just ...

Dean: He earned every bit of his producer title on this.

Suzanne: So did you hire most of the cast and crew then from the Philippines?

Christian: I would say it's over 90% all Filipinos. There were some cast members that we brought in from from New Zealand and Australia. But for the most part, it was Filipino directors, Filipino D.P.s, Filipino camera assistants. I mean, up and down, it was wonderful, amazing artists. Homegrown.

Suzanne: Is that unusual? I know they filmed a lot up in Canada and other places. Do they usually ...

Christian: Well, it's shockingly unusual, but especially for the Philippines. Almost every American movie that's ever shot there brought almost their entire crew.

Christian: We're currently selling the show around the world, and and for the longest time ... One of the reasons the show is not showing simultaneously around the world as it is in the United States is a lot of places didn't believe that the quality was going to be good enough, because they'd never seen anything come out of the Philippines that looked like this.

Christian: And so, now that they've seen the show, obviously, we're deep in negotiations all over the world. But there's an enormous sense of pride for the people in the Philippines having made the show, and there's also an enormous sense of pride for Filipinos here in the United States.

Christian: I'm half-Filipino, and having grown up Filipino, whenever I would talk about the Philippines with people, the only things they knew about the Philippines was Imelda Marcos' shoes and Manny Pacquiao.

Christian: And so, to be able to open that door and say there's a really interesting and wonderful culture here, that not only are you going to enjoy, but you're going to find out that it's wildly similar to our own. And you're going to relate to these people and connect with them.

Suzanne: Oh, so just switching [inaudible 00:13:07] here for a minute. How did you go about signing Sam to play Kai?

Dean: Well, Christian and I, actually, we flew in early to Manila, to hold auditions. And there's a wonderful directing producer on our show named Francis dela Torre, and he knew Samantha.

Dean: And he came over to me, and he said, "Look, I know she's never acted before, but I'm telling you there's something really special about this woman."

Dean: And I was very reluctant. I'll be honest with you. I thought, "Look, this is a hard show. I really need someone who's trained, who knows what they're doing."

Dean: But because we had Christian with us, I thought, "All right, well, not only can we audition them, but we can put them side by [inaudible 00:13:47] see if the chemistry [inaudible 00:13:52]."

Dean: Well, the chemistry was in the first second, from the first second. And literally, as she was walking away from the audition, Christian was like, "Her, her. Cast her. That's the one. That's the girl." Which he also did with Acuna as Ernesto too.

Dean: So, yeah, the chemistry between these actors was apparent from the first moment.

Suzanne: Great. And let's see ... Christian, so you never filmed in the Philippines before, is that right?

Christian: No. I visited a friend a while back, and I was there for about five days in Boracay, but you don't really get to see the Philippines. I was on an island resort. I was on the island [inaudible 00:14:28] in Boracay. It was very beautiful and I loved it, but I didn't know anything about it, so I had never been.

Christian: So I just ... instead of being cocky, "Oh, I've already been here before." I said, "No, this is my first time." And had to learn everything.

Christian: And I'll tell you, going back to the crew and the ... I call them friends and family now, it's just ... I never felt like an outsider. I never felt like the only American there. I literally ... These guys became my family, and they never made me feel out of place, which I've been in places like this.

Christian: I've been in situations like this before on films. It doesn't always work like that. And this one, they just ... open arms, man. It was so beautiful.

Suzanne: That's good. I thought that about Hawaii too, that if you just go, and you stay in the resort or whatever, you don't really get a sense of what the people are like. And if you get to know the locals and what they do ... I was in a band for a while there, and there was some Filipino and Japanese and Hawaiian mixed people, and I got to go to some of their family gatherings and that kind of things. Like, "Oh, this is the kind ... "

Suzanne: There's some part of Hawaii that nobody ever really gets to see. It's very similar.

Christian: Yeah. Well, [inaudible 00:15:41] into that island, and we filmed on that whole .... We don't in just one location. We filmed everywhere. I mean, it was-

Suzanne: All over? Yeah.

Christian: There's [crosstalk 00:15:47]. Yeah.

Suzanne: I'm looking forward to seeing that. So how many episodes are there total and how many have been filmed?

Dean: It's a 10 episode season, and I directed the finale, and we literally finished at 6:00 in the morning on the last episode, 18 hours before they closed the airport in the Philippines. So-

Suzanne: Wow.

Dean: While many of us had this great idea that we'd hang out in the Philippines for a couple of weeks to get some sun and relax, we literally went, "And that's a wrap." And we all raced to our hotels and we packed up our stuff, and we raced to the airport.

Dean: It was one of the craziest things. I felt like in the Star Wars or something, when the door is closing, and we have to roll under the door, [inaudible 00:16:34].

Suzanne: Wow. So, why is it on WGN? Was there a process that you went through that it ended up there? Can you let us know?

Christian: Well, a lot of it is just trying to do independent television, which is harder and harder today. In the old days, you would do a TV series, and you would license it to a broadcaster. And the broadcast would show it in the United States, and then you would sell it around the world, and you can stay independent.

Christian: Today, almost all distribution channels in the United States want to own the show for themselves, and they want to own it for worldwide rights.

Suzanne: [crosstalk 00:17:10]-

Christian: So there was only so many places I could go to, to talk to about trying to support an independent company like Electric and to allow us to do a show independently.

Christian: I don't know if this show would have been the show that we made had we done it some place where we didn't have control over the show and we didn't own it.

Christian: So I went into WGN over a year ago. And at that time, they said, "Well, we're no longer doing original shows."

Christian: And I said, "Well, I think you're going to want to make an exception."

Christian: And it literally took a year of negotiating, and we finally got it up, and they couldn't have been better partners. They were so supportive. There was never any talk about not using Filipino talent, there was never any talk about changing the tone of the show or ...

Christian: I think I could put on a napkin how many notes we got on the scripts after 10 episodes. So it was just a fantastic experience, and the end result was a show that I'm more proud of than pretty much anything I've ever done before.

Suzanne: Cool. Yeah, it sounds great. Are there any notable guests stars that we expect, people from your past shows, or just people we'd really like to know about, or that you can tell us?

Dean: For the most part, we were showcasing talent from the Philippines and some talent from New Zealand and Australia. There were two exceptions. Chris, do you want to tell her about that?

Christian: Well, first of all, we have John [Story 00:18:34] coming in, who's one of Dean's not only best friends, but one of his oldest friends. And John came in. He was on, I think, Juror Number Six is someone he was on in Leverage. And I didn't get a lot to do with him. This time, I did, and it was so great.

Christian: He's such an unbelievably talented actor, and it was fun to have someone come in after a couple of episodes and remind me of home a little bit, not that I was homesick. I never was homesick the whole time, but it was fun having him there.

Christian: John did an unbelievable job, played this really, really groomed character for him. He's fantastic.

Christian: And then Richard Kind, Richard Kind. We asked Richard . to come in. He was on Leverage, he was on The Librarians, and now he's on Almost Paradise. And he comes in, and it's a serious show. The stakes are high. But me and him bouncing off each other for 45 minutes, it is the funnest time I've had in a long time, man, just the ... So the comedy between me and him is ...

Christian: It always looks like Richard Kind is going over the top, but he's not. That's actually who he is.

Christian: And so, to have this underlying comedy in the thing, and bouncing off someone who has a lot of comically stuff like I like to do, it just makes for such a great episode. It's one of my favorite of the year.

Suzanne: Oh, good. Yeah, I love him. He's on everything. Like-

Christian: Yeah. Yeah. I think he's just [crosstalk 00:19:53]-

Suzanne: I think [inaudible 00:19:53]-

Christian: ... and he came in.

Dean: If he can [crosstalk 00:19:55]-

Suzanne: I'm sorry, I didn't hear that last part. You think he what? Christian?

Dean: [crosstalk 00:20:02] yeah.

Christian: I think he [inaudible 00:20:05] just Mad About You like two days before he flew out to do our show.

Suzanne: Oh, right. Yeah. I think there's some Hollywood rule that he has to be on every show.

Dean: [crosstalk 00:20:15] Yeah, I'm not sure if he's got it. But if he doesn't have it, I'm sure he's pretty close to the coveted EGOT.

Suzanne: Yeah, probably. So do you have any funny stories that you'd like to share about the filming of the show?

Christian: I mean, the fun story was he just told, when we literally wrapped, we high-five'd, and we packed our bags and got on a plane. I was going to stick around for five days and pack at my own leisure, and we were up ...

Christian: That was the strangest thing I've ever been a part of in my life was filming all night, huge fights, these huge action scenes. Dean blew up a building, and all a sudden we have to get on the plane. I mean, it was ...

Christian: We didn't sleep for like, I think, like almost 48 hours. And so, it was just absolutely incredible. That was a fun story.

Dean: And the plane was packed with other people trying to get out of the Philippines too. We ran into to Dante Bosco. He had just wrapped his show and was trying to come on. So I mean, it was like we were on the Mayflower or something.

Suzanne: Absolutely crazy, man. But I think the fun times that nobody ... We did stay at a resort. We stayed at the Shangri-La. It was a very beautiful hotel. They allowed us to be there, allowed us to film there.

Suzanne: And I think the best stories that I have are simply the fact that we would get off work ... This doesn't happen normally with a cast. It's very rare. It used to happen on Leverage.

Suzanne: We would get off work, and we would all ... no matter when we got off, we would all just meet at the bar for either a beer or a cocktail and talk about what we did that day. And then we would go into what we were going to do the next day. And you just don't get that in certain places. In this location, we were forced to be together, but in such a great way.

Suzanne: And to me, that was the funnest thing that I experienced on this show was these ators and me just wanting to talk about the day and high-five each other. And it was a very ...

Suzanne: No one was selfish. When it was somebody's turn, everybody stepped back and let them have the scene. It doesn't happen like that. And I literally, I just ... I'd never been a part of something where every single night we stopped at the bar on the way to our room. We had one beer, and we would talk about what was going to go on tomorrow. And it made it so much easier, and that was fun for me. I mean, I know that I maybe work two months, and that's fun for me, it really was. [inaudible 00:22:36].

Suzanne: That does sound fun. So is the Shangri-La the one that we see in the show when they show-

Christian: Yeah.

Suzanne: ... the big fancy hotel?

Dean: Over the course of the season, you're going to see a lot of different resorts in the Philippines, and that's part of the fun of the show is seeing different resorts. But the main resort that his character lives in, he actually lived in.

Suzanne: But not in a shack and behind a gift shop.

Christian: That shack is on the premises.

Suzanne: Oh.

Christian: They allowed us to build it on the premises of there-

Dean: But wait, we got a him a room with hot water though.

Suzanne: That's good. And that little girl is adorable too.

Dean: Oh, my gosh,

Christian: No one's seen her yet. She's fantastic. She's like a two time Filipino Emmy-winner, and she's like eight, yeah.

Suzanne: Wow. That's amazing.

Dean: You'll see her a couple times on the show this year.

Suzanne: Yeah. I can tell there's like a father/daughter surrogate relationship building there, and I look forward to seeing more ... learning about your character more in the backstory. That looks like it'll be cool.

Christian: Well, see, that's the thing that Dean was talking about earlier, the speed and the aggressiveness of the show. Marc Roskin ... Nobody else could have done that. Maybe Dean, Mark Roskin, and maybe a couple of other people that I've worked with on Librarians and Leverage could go [inaudible 00:24:02] because they have the job of introducing characters, introducing backstory and still having an unbelievable plot and keeping people involved with the action.

Christian: You got [inaudible 00:24:10] to do it. So you know Marc has the job of ... And once we establish these characters, usually takes five episodes, usually could take a season sometimes. We didn't have to do that, man.

Christian: We establish them quick, which allows us to turn up the speed, and then they all get glued together, which allows us to turn up the volume. And by halfway through episode two and episode three, you're not worried about their backstory or who they are. You know them now, and not a lot of people get to do that, and we get to do that. And so, it literally [inaudible 00:24:37]-

Suzanne: Yeah, it's-

Christian: ... do this. And everybody's going to say it's crazy.

Suzanne: Yeah, I like that it's very fast paced. It doesn't get boring, but there's a lot of layers to it. That's always good.

Christian: Yeah. Yeah.

Suzanne: And Christian, Dean's said you're a producer on the show too, you have producer credit, or was he joking?

Christian: I'm sorry.

Suzanne: He said you have a producer credit on the show as well?

Christian: Yes, ma'am. I do. Yeah, he gave me that halfway through the season. He called me and said he was going to make me a producer. And I thought that was a really big honor because we're all out there working. I'm working hard on something that I love to do, and he didn't need to do that, but he felt that ... I guess he felt I had earned it, and it's a huge honor for me to [inaudible 00:25:30] compliment, to be honest with you.

Suzanne: Yeah. I can die now. I've been, "Yes, ma'am-ed." By Christian Kane. I live in ... I'm from California, but I live in Arkansas, Southern Arkansas, right near Texas, where you're from and the [crosstalk 00:25:49], so-

Christian: Oh, where are you at?

Suzanne: I'm in Magnolia, Arkansas, a little town. Southern Arkansas University where my husband works, just about an hour from Texarkana and a half an hour from Louisiana border.

Christian: I know Texarkana very well, but I'm a [inaudible 00:26:07]-

Suzanne: Really? I'm sure that's [inaudible 00:26:11].

Christian: I don't have any more [inaudible 00:26:13]. I used to have family in Texarkana, so we would go down all the time. My grandpa lived in Texarkana.

Suzanne: Oh, cool. Yeah, that's our big city..

Christian: And it's back [inaudible 00:26:25] there was the line right down the middle of it, and I think the Arkansas side was dry-

Suzanne: [inaudible 00:26:28]-

Christian: ... in Texas. So everybody [crosstalk 00:26:30]-

Suzanne: Oh, yeah.

Christian: ... back with the beer. Yeah.

Suzanne: Yeah, there-

Christian: [crosstalk 00:26:36]-

Suzanne: There is still a lin, but you can drink in Arkansas.

Christian: Well, yeah.

Suzanne: Are [crosstalk 00:26:43]-

Christian: [inaudible 00:26:45] when that happened. That was what my parents were telling me about. Yeah, exactly.

Suzanne: Oh. Our town was dry until about three years before we moved here. So we would have moved here anyway.

Christian: Not going to ind me in that town.

Suzanne: No, it's very different. We lived in Alabama and Georgia and Texas before, so we were familiar, but Southern cultures. But it did take me [inaudible 00:27:11] when we first moved to, I think it was Texas, getting used to being called ma'am, no matter what age you are. And it's like, "What?"

Christian: Well, I was born in Texas, so I'm a Texan, so there you go.

Suzanne: So, yeah, you're used to it. And you grew up in Oklahoma, right?

Christian: I grew up back and forth from Texas and Oklahoma-

Suzanne: Okay.

Christian: ... until I was up in high school.

Suzanne: Wow. I can tell that-

Christian: I lived in Odessa for a long time, so it was like Odessa, Dallas, yeah.

Suzanne: I've been through there. Yeah, we lived in El Paso for a year, and I was in the choir in my college. I took a tour through Midland Odessa and got there. And I was like, "Wow, there's a church on every corner." At least that's what it seemed like to my [crosstalk 00:27:55]-

Christian: All right [inaudible 00:27:55] question. I just did a film a couple of years ago out there called [inaudible 00:28:01] to One, and we filmed at the racetrack there. We also filmed ... Wait, there was a little barbecue place there, and they have these baked potatoes the size ... bigger than your head. And they put the barbecue and the pulled pork ...

Christian: You know what I'm talking about? It's right off the highway there. [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Suzanne: No, I don't know that place, but that sounds like the kind of place they have here.

Christian: Well, yeah, El Paso is the [crosstalk 00:28:21]-

Dean: [inaudible 00:28:21].

Christian: ... murder capital of Texas and that's [inaudible 00:28:27].

Dean: So you know that Christian is telling the truth about his background. Every time he would go and have a meal anywhere he brought with him a bottle of hot sauce. So you know he's telling you the truth about where he's from.

Christian: My mama was raised in Texas, but she was born and spent some time in New Orleans. And so, I [inaudible 00:28:49] peppers the backyard, and they're just a little bit different than in Texas, because they grow in that dry soil, so they come out hot.

Christian: Yeah, [inaudible 00:28:55] my hot sauce with me, man. That's the one thing about the Philippines is I got to argue with them about. They don't have hot sauce. Got to get some.

Suzanne: Really?

Christian: No. They do have [inaudible 00:29:04] that they did serve. But yeah, anyway ...

Suzanne: Yeah, I guess their food is not that spicy. The other thing I was going to say was the barbecue is really big in this [inaudible 00:29:17]. It seems like every time you drive through any town there's that one barbecue place, at least one.

Christian: Yeah.

Suzanne: I think that'd be a great trip to take, drive all the way through Arkansas and Texas and just hit like every barbecue place. You know?

Christian: Yeah, I think you're right on the borderline too. So I think if you go just a little bit east, you're going to have a vinegar base instead of a tomato base. Right now, you're [crosstalk 00:29:38] in the middle of all tomato base. But you go just a little bit-

Suzanne: Yeah, I-

Christian: ... further east, even [inaudible 00:29:42] there's [crosstalk 00:29:43]-

Suzanne: [inaudible 00:29:44]-

Christian: ... tomato alley. You know what I mean?

Suzanne: Oh, yeah.

Christian: Vinegar is over here, and tomatoes over here, so-

Suzanne: Yeah. I've had barbecue. We've traveled a little bit, and Los Angeles and Kansas were supposed to be very ... and Alabama and all over. And I really think ... and I'm not being prejudiced here just because I live here, but I really think I like the barbecue here better than I've had [inaudible 00:30:08] including Texas, sorry. But I don't know it's just me, but we have a great barbecue place. It's like the best thing in the whole town. It's just go in, order, sit down. You know those kinds of places where they have the paper towels on the rod and ... but it's like the best barbecue anywhere.

Suzanne: I wish-

Christian: Good. [inaudible 00:30:26]-

Suzanne: [inaudible 00:30:30]. Sorry.

Christian: [inaudible 00:30:31] get to have some soon.

Suzanne: Yeah. Well, I'll send you some.

Suzanne: All right. Well, I really appreciate it. I had a fun time, and I'm sorry I didn't get Sam. I just didn't know her [inaudible 00:30:46] well, talk to these guys. And as Deana said that it would have been four different time zones if we had [crosstalk 00:30:52]-

Christian: Yeah, [inaudible 00:30:52] in the morning there, so-

Suzanne: Yeah, that's true.

Dean: Now you can do another one with Sam.

Suzanne: That's right. Yeah, that I don't [crosstalk 00:31:02] living in Hawaii with the time difference and trying to do interviews and some of them are like go really bad [inaudible 00:31:07] what time is it and no Daylight Saving Time there, so you're always trying to figure out ... Well, thank you very much. I look forward to the rest of the show.

Dean: Thank you so much.

Deana: Thanks, Suzanne.

Suzanne: Thank you.

Dean: Thanks for coming on.

Deana: Dean and Christian, I need you for two seconds.

Dean: Okay.

Christian: Okay. See you.

Deana: Sorry.

Suzanne: Bye. Nice to meet you [crosstalk 00:31:28].

Deana: Bye, Suzanne.

Suzanne: Bye. [inaudible 00:00:31:32].

MORE INFORMATION:

ELECTRIC ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES NEW ACTION CRIME SERIES “ALMOST PARADISE” DEBUTING ON MARCH 30, 2020

Los Angeles, CA March 30, 2020 – Electric Entertainment has announced its newest crime series, “Almost Paradise” starring Christian Kane and Samantha Richelle, to premiere on WGN AMERICA on TONIGHT at 10pm EST/9pm Central. 

CHRISTIAN KANE (The Librarians, Leverage, Angel) s

tars in “Almost Paradise” as Alex Walker, a former US DEA agent who was forced into early retirement. Once the DEA’s most resourceful undercover operative, the combination of his partner’s betrayal and a life- threatening battle with hypertension has sent him as far from the madness as he can go... a small tropical island in the Philippine Archipelago. He now runs the gift shop at the island’s luxury resort hotel, gets his disability payments at the nearby US Air Force base, and generally manages his transition from Jason Bourne to Jimmy Buffett. BUT, the island’s luxury resorts attract rich, powerful, and sometimes criminal elite from around the world, often on a collision course with Alex. Despite his best efforts to begin a tranquil new life, he’s pulled back into a world of dangerous people and deadly situations, either through his friends in the local police department or running into people from his old life. And the problem is: he likes it.

Almost Paradise was executive produced and created by Dean Devlin and Gary Rosen. Almost Paradise was also executive produced by Electric Entertainment’s Rachel Olschan-Wilson and Marc Roskin.

About Electric Entertainment
Electric Entertainment is a Los Angeles-based production, distribution, and post-production company, with an office in Vancouver, Canada.

Electric’s domestic distribution division theatrically released the award-winning film “Say My Name” starring Lisa Brenner and Nick Blood, “Bad Samaritan” starring David Tennant and Robert Sheehan, and Rob Reiner’s historical biopic “LBJ.”  The company also exclusively licensed these films’ post-theatrical rights to Amazon and other outlets.

Electric’s hit television series, “The Librarians” and “Leverage,” which ran for four and five seasons respectively on TNT, continue to be successfully relicensed to all arenas domestically. Electric’s most recent series, “The Outpost” is currently in production on it's third season. Electric currently manages the international distribution of FilmRise’s library, including titles such as “Change Is In The Air” starring Rachel Brosnahan of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

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