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By Suzanne


Interview with Jeff Goldblum of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"

Law & Order: Criminal Intent – Jeff Goldblum Q&A Session
April 28, 2009/2:00 pm. EDT

SPEAKERS
Jeff Goldblum
Chrissy Fehskens

PRESENTATION

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Law & Order: Criminal Intent teleconference with Jeff Goldblum. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. I would now like to turn our conference over to our host, Chrissy Fehskens, please go ahead.

C. Fehskens Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us for today’s Q&A session with Jeff Goldblum of USA Network’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Special thanks to Jeff for taking the time to be with us.

J. Goldblum Thank you so much, I’m so pleased to be here.

C. Fehskens I’m going to keep things brief here so that we can begin the Q&A session, but I wanted to remind all participants that transcripts of this call will be made available within 48 hours. Additionally, due to our time limitations and the number of participants who dialed in we’re asking everybody to limit themselves to one question at a time and then reenter the question queue if you have additional or follow-ups. This will ensure that we can move through as many questions as possible on today’s call. With that I’m going to turn things back over to our Moderator to begin the session. Nicole, please go ahead.

Moderator Our first question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Hello, thanks for taking our call.

J. Goldblum Thank you for calling in; I appreciate it.

J. Ruby I actually am not that far from Pittsburgh myself so I’m curious, since I’m interested in it, too, how did you get started in acting?

J. Goldblum Hello to you from almost Pittsburgh. I always wanted to do it; my parents took us to see some children’s theater I remember, early on at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Even though I was very little I got kind of the bug. I was very excited being around theater and wondered what are those actors doing backstage and I was very excited about it.

And then there’s this thing in Pittsburgh, I think it’s still going on. It’s at Chatham, Music Day Camp it’s called; in the summers for six weeks between fifth and sixth grades and another year, maybe the year before that, too, during the summers I had the most magical time ever going to this thing and going from softball to arts and crafts and piano. I already had started playing piano then to this drama course. At the end of this drama course actually I took part in this recital and my father, my parents had already wisely said if you find something you love to do that might be a key to your vocation. After this show they cast me as this kind of lead in this funny little show and after that I had such an exhilarating time of it I remember, they were there. They said, “How did you like that?” I was like yes, that was really something and I kept it secret to myself just how much I loved it, but I think from that time on around fifth grade I thought to myself that’s what I want to do.

Then between ninth and tenth and tenth and eleventh grades I went to Carnegie Mellon University and they had six-week sessions for people and I remember looking through the catalog with my parents. They said, “What do you want to do?” There was art and I had painted and taken some art classes and had some talent in that. And I was playing piano. They said, “What do you want to do, this music program here? Do you want to do the art program?” I was like, “What if I did the one for actors?” It had kind of been a secret.

And so I did that, fell wildly more in love, several steps down the road in my soul and heart and blood and system toward being obsessed with and convinced and passionate about being an actor. That kind of stuck and then right after high school went to New York when I was still 17, just before I turned 18 and joined the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sandy Meisner, the great acting teacher, where he was still teaching. That’s how it all started. I started to do plays and movies and like that.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Steinberg with Starry Constellation Magazine.

J. Steinberg Hello, it’s such a pleasure to speak with you.

J. Goldblum My pleasure entirely, thanks.

J. Steinberg You’re known for your dramatic roles and also for your dry sense of humor. I was wondering why you chose to be on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Do you at least get to express some of your sense of humor while you’re doing the show?

J. Goldblum Yes, such as it is. Maybe I’m funny sometimes, maybe not so funny other times, but yes. They actually write, Dick Wolf has been fantastic, kind, cordial and brilliant, I think. And they have a brilliant staff of writers and producers and they have intendingly built a part that is suited for some of the things that I like to do and can do. That’s what they’ve tried to do and after seeing the first episode that was aired I think there’s some humor in there. Along with the solving the crime and the very passionate part of this character and serious part of the character, I think there’s some humor in it; I’m enjoying some of the funny parts of it.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line Sheldon Wiebe with eclipsemagazine.com, please go ahead.

S. Wiebe Hello, Jeff, I just want to say first I’ve been following your career since Tenspeed and Brown Shoe and enjoyed practically everything you’ve ever done. Detective Nichols seems to work from an observational point of view, where he’s working on motivations more than just the facts. So he’s kind of intuitive a bit. How would you describe your character if you were actually Nichols describing the character?

J. Goldblum I’ll take a crack at it. Yes, I think you’re right. I am an intuitive fellow. Of course people know that both my parents were shrinks so I was sort of raised in an atmosphere where there was that interest in the human mechanism and the human psyche and what makes people tick. And yes, I think I’m particularly creative and adventurous and improvisational and spontaneous in my inner impulses and patterns and deeply curious and appetized in the unfathomably mysterious and delicious phenomena that is the human being and who we really are.

And why certainly people go off the rails and commit murder here in New York City, that interests me particularly, and oftentimes I find it’s a mistake of identity and having their ego built around mistakenly and their sense of identity built around some aspect of form, if you will, in their lives, either their careers or their reputations or their bank accounts. That mistake gets them into trouble and they wind up doing risky and awful things in order to pursue that mistaken notion and defend it and help that survive. It’s a bad, but not uncommon disease of the psyche that I find results in murder sometimes. I’m a humble student of that whole subject.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Julie Kissane with popculturemadness.com.

J. Kissane Hello, Jeff, pleasure.

J. Goldblum Hello, Julie, my pleasure.

J. Kissane You actually touched on this before, that you are a skilled piano player. Were you nervous when you were being filmed during a scene where you got to play the piano in an episode?

J. Goldblum I don’t know how skilled I am, but I did take lessons. Our parents gave us music lessons early on in Pittsburgh and I took to it and loved it. I kind of guess it’s a hobby of mine. I’ve always played piano … I decided on being an actor, I played the ragged cocktail lounges here and there, a couple of jobs while I was still in high school in Pittsburgh and then have always had a piano where I am, where I live and now where I work, too. I just love to play all the time. For the last several years I’ve had a jazz band called the Mildred Spitzer Orchestra in Los Angeles and when I’m off work we book ourselves into places and play gigs around town.

Then, yes, they knew about it a little bit and worked it into the character so my character, Detective Nichols, is able to play a bit and in these couple episodes, one that you saw already, maybe that first episode, and there’s another one where I play. No, I’m not particularly nervous. I get excited and I got excited about it, but I always was sort of thrilled to play. Even when I play gigs these days I have no career aspirations or no fear of criticism. I really do it because I love to do it. Whenever I do it I love to do it, so it was particularly enjoyable for me having it be part of a scene or two.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Christine Nyholm with Examiner. Please go ahead.

C. Nyholm Hello, Jeff, thank you for talking to us today. Touching back on expansion of your first question I’m just wondering what you advise young actors today if they wanted to get into the field of acting. How would you start and where would you go?

J. Goldblum Very good question, advice to, you know I teach, for the last, I’m a humble student of acting myself and part of that studentship is teaching, in fact, I feel like I learn a lot from it. I just love doing it; I could teach every day. I haven’t done it for a while because I’ve been working so often, but one of the things I feel like is relevant and practical to tell my students sometimes, and anybody interested in getting into it, is to, well I like what Stanislavsky said. He said, “Love the art in yourself; not yourself in art.”

So in fact you can begin to discover and investigate whether you are an actor or not, whether you’re in my view, qualified for a life in this profession or in this endeavor by checking yourself out and acting every day, getting plays and scripts and getting together with people and divvying up the parts and acting in one way or another, or writing things. But an actor wants to get up every day and they can’t think of anything particularly more fun to do than getting into a made-up situation and living it out as if it’s real. And having people watch it perhaps and thereby telling those people a story, by acting out these characters in a story. That’s what actors want to do; they don’t necessarily want to be famous or rich or anything else. It’s a very bad gamble if that’s what you’re after. But if your heart is wildly in it so that you can’t think of anything else that could possibly make you happy or happier than getting up every day and acting, playing this crazy game that you make something up and playing pretending as if that’s true; if that’s for you you should start to do it.

And it’s not rocket science. There are a lot of books about it. I had a great teach Sandy Meisner and there’s a book that he wrote kind of chronicling a class that he, his two-year program takes you through. And you can learn many things, but it’s really doing it. If you have a feeling to do it that’s what you might do. And that’s what you start to do. If you make acting a part of your daily life, first of all, that’s a satisfying end in itself. But you might find that you start to get good at it and opportunities may come. If you’re of that sort of temperament you may investigate how to study formally and pursue the profession if that’s of your temperament and all of that.

But I’d say start to act; be a fan. See if you’re a person who loves, is a fan of and a lover of it, a devotee of literature, of material and you say, “I’ve got to do that.” Then start to do it anywhere you can that’s what I would say.

Moderator Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Fulghum with totallyher.com. Please go ahead.

J. Fulghum It’s an honor to speak with you today.

J. Goldblum It’s a greater honor for me. That’s a line from a movie; do you know what movie that’s from?

J. Fulghum Not right off hand.

J. Goldblum A Woody Allen movie, Love and Death. “It’s a greater honor for me. No, it’s a greater honor for me. No, you must be Don Francisco’s sister.” Yes, that’s from Love and Death. But in fact it’s a greater honor for me.

J. Fulghum Throughout your career you’ve starred in movies that feature incredible and even monstrous creatures like Jurassic Park and Incident at Loch Ness. Do you have any interest in cryptozoology, which is the study of hidden animals?

J. Goldblum Not particularly. I don’t have much of an interest in Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster or dinosaurs that actually might be running around, no. I’ve never heard anything credible that would make me think that any of that stuff actually exists. Even though I love playing in those stories including the dinosaurs, no, in real life I’m not particularly interested in Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Troy Rogers with deadbolt.com. Please go ahead.

T. Rogers Hello, Jeff, thanks for taking the time.

J. Goldblum My pleasure.

T. Rogers How would the Jeff Goldblum of 20 years ago approach Zach Nichols?


J. Goldblum Jeff Goldblum 20 years ago might have been, but I was playing that Tenspeed and Brownshoe so I would have been the actor involved perhaps, this is hopefully I wouldn’t have any business with doing anything wrong that would have gotten me involved in a guy who’s investigating murders. But I’ve always been involved with crime stories and if I had been, for instance 20 years ago not inconceivably involved in a part where I might have been playing a detective like this I would have been very interested to talk to Zach Nichols, who’s ostensibly a real and a uniquely brilliant detective, for research purposes.

Here on our set, Criminal Intent we’ve got a guy like that, so the current Jeff Goldblum can talk to this fellow Mike Struck who’s a brilliant real-life detective. I love hearing all his stories and he’s on the set when we do our stories here and he tells us what’s real and if he were playing the part and he were in the actual situation what he’d be thinking, what he’d be doing, how he’d be doing it, and that’s thrilling and fascinating to me. So that’s how I can imagine Jeff Goldblum of yore talking to Zach Nichols if he were real.

Moderator Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Oat with televisionwithoutpity.com. Please go ahead.

Z. Oat I’m a big fan of Raines and I don’t know if this has been touched on already, but were you disappointed when the show got cancelled and did that influence you at all in considering this part on Law & Order?

J. Goldblum Let’s see, I have a very, at this point maybe I have a philosophical approach that allows me here and there to be satisfied with whatever happens, believe it or not. Yes, I have my ups and downs and I can be disappointed in one thing or another, but generally speaking whatever happens I will mostly, and you can, it’s not strange to think to look at my life and go, “You’re a lucky guy,” and to mostly feel incredibly grateful. So even during a period when for instance Raines came and Raines went, I just felt incredibly grateful. If they had told me in fact that Raines would have been a six, seven-part miniseries I probably would have signed up and been very happy to do it like that too. I would have been very happy. But I’m always interested in the unexpected and know that things, especially in show business, but in life generally, are inevitably fleeting to one extent. It may be short, it may be long, but there’s no such thing as long. I think all of life is a fleeting proposition, so I’m sort of happy with whatever comes and goes in fact. And I think in loss and in the goings is sometimes the greatest opportunity for expansion.

Anyway, in another way it did give me, it whet my appetite for more cop parts, it’s true, and even before I did Raines I did this … show called The Pillow Man, where I played a detective, a homicide detective in fact. And I had a great time doing that. It was this Mike McDonough play and I was in it with Billy Crudup and Zeljko Ivanek and we had a great time for six months at the Booth Theater in New York. After that I was still very appetized when Raines came along, and after Raines, to do this, and there was sort of some kind of appetizing continuum for me in those things, that’s right.

C. Fehskens Nicole, we have time for one more question.

Moderator Our final question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby So out of all the roles you’ve played, because there’s been a lot, what’s been your favorite and why?

J. Goldblum My favorite and why. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to get better and I feel like I am, but I currently am pretty in love with this part that I’m doing now. Then I’ve got a couple of, I like the parts at the stage when they’re at the stage of development, so I’m doing a couple more movies right after this, this summer, one called The Baster with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, and I’m at the stage where I’m rehearsing it and trying to figure out who the character is and what the part is, and I kind of love that. And then I’m doing this movie with Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams called Morning Glory right after that, and I’m a bit in love with that. I think you have to be. That’s part of the criteria and qualification for taking a part. It has to be a passion and something you’re in love with.

But besides that, having said all that, I did love very much Adam Resurrected that I did this last year with Paul Schrader directing that Willem Dafoe was in and it was a wonderful movie and experience for me. I loved doing that movie, Pittsburgh that I think you can still get on NetFlix, a very handcrafted affair that I sort of cooked up over several years. Besides that, holy cats, many things that I could think of, but those are a few that come to mind.


C. Fehskens That’s all the time we have for today, folks. I wanted to again thank Jeff for joining us and remind everybody to tune into new episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent Sundays at 9:00/8:00 central on USA. Have a great day, everyone.

J. Goldblum Thank you.

Interview with Kathryn Erbe and Vincent D’Onofrio of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"

Law & Order: Criminal Intent Q&A Session
April 15, 2009/3:15 p.m. EDT


SPEAKERS
Kathryn Erbe
Vincent D’Onofrio
Chrissy Fehskens

PRESENTATION

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Law & Order: Criminal Intent – Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe question-and-answer session. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I’d now like to turn the conference over to our host, Ms. Chrissy Fehskens. Please go ahead.

C. Fehskens Good afternoon, everyone, this is Chrissy Fehskens from New Media Strategies and I want to welcome you to the Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe Q&A session, and start things off by thanking Vincent and Kathryn for being with us today. As you know, Vincent and Kathryn costar as Detectives Goren and Eames on USA Network’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which will premiere an all-new season this Sunday,
April 19th, at 9:00, 8:00 Central. In a moment we’ll begin the Q&A session.

Moderator Thank you. We have a question from Jamie Steinberg with Starry Constellation Magazine. Please go ahead.

J. Steinberg Hello, Vincent and Kathryn, it’s a pleasure to speak with you both.

K. Erbe Hello, thanks.

J. Steinberg I was wondering, Kathryn, what about your role continues to challenge you?

K. Erbe Finding ways to – let’s see. That’s a very good question. I don’t know, every day we have new challenges, just in dealing with the new actors that we get to work with. We have new writers on the show, new producers and I feel like it’s a challenge just staying involved with the work that we’re doing and staying actively involved in finding ways for Eames to stay important to the stories and to bring a positive – just have a positive effect on what we’re doing.

J. Steinberg And Vincent, after so many seasons, how do you all continue to maintain chemistry between each other?

V. D'Onofrio I think it’s been eight years now, so I think that anything the audience sees is just whatever has happened naturally in the eight years. I think that both of us kind of just rely on that – the history of the show and the history of the characters – to just somehow translate to the audience in some way.

Moderator We have a question from Troy Rogers with thedeadbolt.com. Please go ahead.

T. Rogers Hello, Vincent and Kathryn. Actually, this is for either one of you: How much more in-depth is the Goren-Wallace frame-up story going to go into during season seven? Or is that just completely done?

K. Erbe Oh, she’s dead. Right?

V. D'Onofrio Yes, that’s over.

K. Erbe Yes. Unfortunately, sadly, they killed her.

T. Rogers There’s no way it’s going to come back to haunt you guys later on?

V. D'Onofrio I don’t think so, no. That was a certain set of writers that were doing that, and we were enjoying that with them. And then we’ve had another set of writers since then, so – that’s not going to happen again, I don’t think.

K. Erbe Yes. It’s sad.

Moderator Our next question will come from Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby This first question is for Vincent. You’ve played quite a variety of topics. What kind of role do you enjoy the most, or does like playing maybe evil have a different set of challenges than what you’re doing now?

V. D'Onofrio Is the question which I prefer?

J. Ruby Yes, what kind of role; because you play good and evil, so –

V. D'Onofrio I don’t know, I think I’m – it’s the same as most actors. Anything that’s interesting, you know. Like whatever comes my way, like the most interesting parts of those are the ones that I would do. I don’t really have like a dream role or anything like that. I just go script by script and see what’s interesting, and if not, then I don’t do it. You know, it’s like that.

Moderator Our next question will come from Zach Oat with televisionwithoutpity.com. Please go ahead.

Z. Oat Yes, Television Without Pity. Vincent, I wanted to ask, with the events of last season’s finale, what is your character’s mental state at the beginning of the season? Is he resolved about – resigned himself to all of the loose ends being tied up or is he at all – has he broken down at all in the face of everything that’s happened to him and his nephew being missing?

V. D'Onofrio We never really tie anything up when it comes to Kate and my characters, because it’s – they always want to leave it open. You know, we tie up criminals, but – we’ll end those stories, but not – they’ll never really shut any kind of storyline down completely, so it’s kind of open as to what’s going to happen with my character, I don’t know. I think that this eighth season, I just – you know, I just played it differently than last season, but last season was very, very extreme. So this season, it’s like he’s just trying to be a cop, trying to do the best you can kind of a thing.

Moderator We have a question from Ashley Aikens; please go ahead.

A. Aikens My question here is for Vincent and I’d like to know, what is it like to be developing a character over several TV seasons as opposed to having to develop a character in a two-hour film?

V. D'Onofrio Yes, it’s completely different. When I first started the TV show, I kind of thought it’s ostensibly about the character, and did a lot of planning and stuff. Most of the planning went out the window, and then I just kind of tried my best after that. With a film, it’s much more – it’s really planned out scene by scene and there’s a real solid arc hopefully most of the time. The structure of the film is in three acts, you know it’s going to end – it’s easier to plan out a role like that. It’s just as interesting but it’s a completely different thing.

With the show, it’s just wide open. We just keep doing it, and there’s different crimes, different little stories to tell. So it’s two different things. I think I just always will prefer films. I just think that’s my favorite thing to do. But Goren’s a great character, so it’s good to do.

Moderator We have a question from Kristyn Clarke with popculturemadness.com. Please go ahead.

K. Clarke What do you feel it is about a show like Law & Order that resonates well with viewers?

V. D'Onofrio I think in our show I think it’s the characters, and I think we investigate weird crimes and I think it’s a popular thing on TV, these kind of crime shows and – just like people were not – and still are – into like crime novels and short stories. That’s what we’re doing, but we’re doing like a TV version of that, so – you know, it takes off and people like it.

K. Clarke Do you have a favorite type of case to tackle on the show?

V. D'Onofrio Yes, I like simpler stories. Like we just finished one like a spree killer type story about one guy doing bad things, and Kate and I had to like, you know, catch him. It was more direct, not complicated, and it had heart, and I like that kind of thing.

Moderator We have a question from Jay Jacobs with popentertainment.com Please go ahead.

J. Jacobs I just was wondering, I know that Jeff Goldblum is new to the show and I know you guys aren’t working directly with him, but have you seen any of his work and how is he fitting in with the show?

V. D'Onofrio To me it looks like he’s psyched. Kate, do you want to – go ahead.

K. Erbe That’s okay. We only really got to see him in the beginning when he was waiting for his scripts to be ready. He came and hung out with us extensively and learned all the names of everybody on the crew and just asked us a lot of questions. It seems like the crew is really happy with him and the producers and like he’s having a good time.

V. D'Onofrio Yes. He seems really enthusiastic. And I haven’t seen any of his episodes, so I can’t comment on that.

K. Erbe Yes.

J. Jacobs Okay. Have you worked with any particularly interesting guest stars or bad guys for the new season?

K. Erbe We have a lot. We have Lynn Redgrave, we have Scott Cohen and Kathy Baker are in the episode Sunday night. We had a great time with them. Who else, Vince?

V. D'Onofrio We’ve also worked with some really good unknown actors, like young people that were really good. We’re very lucky in that way, that most times we get really good actors, whether they’re known actors or not.

K. Erbe Yes.

V. D'Onofrio That’s one of the pros of working on this show.

K. Erbe Yes.

Moderator We have a question from Christine Nyholm with examiner.com. Please go ahead.

C. Nyholm I’ve been a longtime fan of the show, I think since it started.

K. Erbe Oh, great.

C. Nyholm Yes, I really enjoy it. My first question is for Vincent: Your character goes into some very dark places, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in him since the beginning in the last season, and I was wondering what kind of toll that takes on you as a person, what effect that has on you, if any, in your real life.

V. D'Onofrio Well, it takes a lot of time. It used to take a lot more time before we started sharing the episodes with another detective. But – you know, it’s – how do I answer this? The first four years, or maybe the first three years of the show, when we were trying to make the show a show, you know, just make it distinct from the other Law & Orders and just a plain old good show that people would watch, that was – that was hard. It was like a 24-hour job and it was with me all the time.

But that’s a long time ago now, and we all know how to do the show, and we know what the show is. And so it’s not that exhausting anymore. The hours are long sometimes, and when we are working we don’t see our families as much as we want. But that’s part of our job, so we have to do it. And as far as Goren, bringing Goren home, that just doesn’t happen anymore. I’ve been playing him too long, and it’s – it’s not something that stays with me.

Moderator You have a question from Ian Dawson with www.stuffwelike.com. Please go ahead.

I. Dawson I wanted to know … all the Law & Orders deal with heavy subject matter and I was wondering what you guys do during downtime on the set.

V. D'Onofrio What do we do?

K. Erbe How do we deal with heavy subject matter and what do we do in our downtime?

I. Dawson Yes. What do you do like on breaks from filming?

K. Erbe Lots of different things. Eat, read, I walk my dog. What do you do, Vin?

V. D'Onofrio We run our families, over the phone. We try to participate in our lives out of our dressing rooms. Mostly that’s what I do.

K. Erbe Yes, exactly.

V. D'Onofrio And then if we can, if we have a moment of relaxation, like Kate said, we read or Kate walks her dog or something like that, exactly.

Moderator We have a question from Troy Rogers with thedeadbolt.com. Please go ahead.

T. Rogers When you guys first took on these roles, did you go into it knowing full well that this might become like a lifelong fulltime job … Law & Order franchise –

V. D'Onofrio Lifelong, huh?

K. Erbe I don’t think either of us thought that we were going to be doing it for eight years.

V. D'Onofrio No way.

K. Erbe No. They never would have gotten you to agree to that.

V. D'Onofrio No way. And the first – what did we do, we did 13 at first, Kate?

K. Erbe Right, yes.

V. D'Onofrio The first 13 was such a blur that I don’t think either of us was even thinking about – I don’t think it was – I don’t know, it wasn’t weighing heavy on me what was going to happen. Was it weighing heavy on you, Kate?

K. Erbe No. We had no idea. It was just getting through each day, really, trying to make it to the end.

V. D'Onofrio The first 13 scripts were really, really good scripts and maybe there was like one clunker out of the 13, but they were really good scripts and very tough to figure out how to pull the show off while we were doing them. The last thing on my mind was like – it was just a blur. I wasn’t thinking about whether the show was going to run, honestly. That’s the honest truth. And I think we knew earlier than most people do with a – when you shoot 3, right? I think we knew pretty early that it was going to go.

K. Erbe Yes.

Moderator We have a question from Amy Steele with Entertainment Realm. Please go ahead.

(Audio quality compromised)

A. Steele Vincent, … one of my favorite films. But I wanted to ask both of you what you like best … character.

K. Erbe I didn’t understand that question, I couldn’t hear it.

V. D'Onofrio What do you like best about your character?

K. Erbe What do I like best about my character? What I like best about my character is she usually has the right thing to say. She knows what to say; she’s fairly straightforward and doesn’t seem to have difficulty making choices. Nothing like myself in real life. I rarely know the right thing to say and she seems to almost have infinite courage and she’s sort of like my fantasy of what it would be like to be like that – strong all the time and know what to do all the time and have a clear idea of what the right thing is to do and that sort of thing. So I like that about her. I like that she’s a strong woman in a tough job and a scary job. I think they’re both courageous. I think most of NYPD is very courageous. So that’s what I like about her.

Moderator We have a question from Christine Zimmer with All Things Law & Order. Please go ahead.

C. Zimmer I have one question for both of you regarding your roles outside of Criminal Intent. Out of all the work that you’ve done in movies, stage or whatever, what roles do you want to be remembered for, and which roles would you like to just kind of forget?

V. D'Onofrio A lot of them I’d like to forget.

K. Erbe The Mighty Ducks 2.

C. Zimmer Vincent, what about you?

V. D'Onofrio Can I just say most of them?

K. Erbe You would not say that, you’re being sarcastic.

V. D'Onofrio Rather than name them? Because I don’t want to like insult the filmmakers.

C. Zimmer No, that’s okay. That’s all right.

K. Erbe Yes, I even feel bad that I even said Mighty Ducks 2, because some people liked that movie.

C. Zimmer That’s okay, I’ll delete it from my memory banks. But Kathryn, I do have one more question for you: Goren is always touted as being this unstable genius and the brains of the partnership, and sometimes you’re there to be like the dry witness conscience. Are you okay with this role, or do you think Eames deserves more respect?

K. Erbe Sometimes I get a lot to do, Eames has a lot to do, and sometimes she doesn’t. I’ve fought for the whole time for her to have more of an impact on the work that they’re doing, and it’s gone up and down. I like being the dry wit. I wish I actually did more of that these days. The humor has kind of gone out of the character and so I would like to find a way to bring that back.

C. Zimmer I think you guys need some more episodes like Vanishing Act.

K. Erbe Yes –

V. D'Onofrio Which one was that?

K. Erbe Was that the magician one?

V. D'Onofrio Oh, okay.

K. Erbe Was that the magician one? I think it was. I can’t Google it because I’m on my phone.

Moderator Our next question will come from Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby This is for both of you: What got you started in acting in the first place?

V. D'Onofrio I was introduced to it by my dad at a very young age, because he was always involved in community theater and stuff. So I used to run lights and sound and stuff like that for plays and things. But I really didn’t think of acting until I guess I was like 18, and then – I don’t know, it just – I just thought I’d try it out. I don’t really know why. I think it was just in my life, really. I think it’s my dad’s fault. So I just thought I would give acting school in New York, in Manhattan, a try, so I did. And then I guess I just caught the bug and went for it.

Moderator We have a question from Zach Oat with televisionwithoutpity.com. Please go ahead.

Z. Oat I just wanted to follow up on some of the stuff you guys have been saying. Vincent, Kathryn said that if you’d known it was going to be eight seasons, they probably wouldn’t have been able to lock you into the character. Why – I guess I have to ask – how have the managed to keep you two on and interested for so long, especially you, Vincent? You’ve certainly looked for a lot of variety in your film roles. Is it a love of the characters or is it a comfort zone or are they writing you the big checks, or is it a combination of all three?

V. D'Onofrio For me it’s a combination of all three.

K. Erbe Yes, for me too.

V. D'Onofrio I have a lot of freedom because of Law & Order. I have a lot of creative freedom. I have a lot of creative freedom on the show and I have a lot of creative freedom with my own time to do other films and do anything I want, so – it’s a very good situation.

K. Erbe Yes, and it gives us a structure for our lives. I mean, as actors, I never – I was ready to give up acting because I could not handle never knowing when I would have a paycheck or where the job would be, where it would take me; and having a daughter and now my son, I just couldn’t – it was just too hard of a life. And this gives us a – when we have time off, we know that it’s time off; it’s not time out of work, looking for other work.

And it’s really such an amazing experience to work with the same people for this length of time. It’s challenging and it’s so gratifying to know everybody’s families and – it’s just a very different experience from the sort of crash and burn of going from one job to another and really never knowing – this like gypsy lifestyle, never knowing where you’re going to be when. So it’s a very different, much more stable, if it’s even possible to say that – a stable environment.

Moderator We have a question from Jay Jacobs with popentertainment.com. Please go ahead.

J. Jacobs You were just mentioning creative freedom. I was wondering, I know it’s been a couple of years now, but has moving to cable and the USA Network sort of freed the show up to do different things that they couldn’t necessarily do in the – at NBC?

V. D'Onofrio I don’t think so. I think it’s exactly the same, right?

K. Erbe Yes. Because they show them on NBC too, so –

V. D'Onofrio I think the only change that I know, I think there’s like a minute – the episodes are like a minute longer or something like that, something silly like that.

J. Jacobs All right. And we have an older interview with Eric Bogosian. I’m a big fan of his.

V. D'Onofrio Me, too.

J. Jacobs What’s he like to work with and is he going to be doing anything this season?

V. D'Onofrio He’s going to – yes, he’s doing lots.

K. Erbe Yes. We just got him out in the woods last night in the rain.

V. D'Onofrio We located a girl in the woods with the captain last night.

K. Erbe Yes. He comes out a lot more this season than he ever has, I think. He was wondering really why he wanted to do that, when we were standing out in the middle of the woods in the rain.

Moderator We have a question from Christine Nyholm with examiner.com. Please go ahead.

C. Nyholm I have another question for both of you: What kind of advice would you give to new young actors coming up as far as what kind of education they should get and how they should pursue an acting career.

K. Erbe What would you say, Vin?

V. D'Onofrio I think when I was younger I would have said go to like a private acting school or something like that, but I think that these days, the drama departments and the universities are so great that I think that’s the way to go, and unless they want –

K. Erbe Get an education.

V. D'Onofrio Get an education. Go into the drama department, whatever, film department, or just like the arts section of a university and – start there, study there. And then after that, go to the city you want to live in, like L.A. or New York and then try to be – then try to get jobs. Do theater and stuff. But when I was younger I would have said just go straight to the city and take an acting class and try to get jobs. But I think these days – I’ve been checking out universities and stuff and I know some teachers and some teachers that teach writing, film writing, and I know some drama teachers and – they’re all really good teachers, so – I’m swaying towards that now.

Moderator We have a question from Troy Rogers with thedeadbolt.com. Please go ahead.

T. Rogers Your characters have a pretty complex and interesting relationship. After all they’ve been through, what would you like to see happen between them during this season?

K. Erbe I personally am very happy because this season we’re back on the same page. I, for some reason, really like that, when they’re on the same team and they’re just on the path together. Although it makes for probably a more interesting show when we’re at odds or going in different directions, I personally like that; and this season we were working together.

T. Rogers Vincent?

V. D'Onofrio Yes, I agree with Kate, what she said. I think there’s nothing left to argue about, really. I think it depends on what the writers come up with. If they can come up with another good conflict between us, then most likely it will be cool to do. But I agree with what Kate said.

Moderator We have a question from Kristyn Clarke with popculturemadness.com. Please go ahead.

K. Clarke We’re just curious to know if you had a favorite episode or onscreen moment from the coming season so far.

K. Erbe I would have to say that in the episode that is going to be on Sunday night, Kathy Baker and Scott Cohen, their characters, when they were in the interrogation room at the end when she kind of grabbed him and –

V. D'Onofrio Oh, yes.

K. Erbe -- pressed him to her – to her chest and tried to comfort him after screaming at him, they were fantastic. It was very twisted and – I mean, we’ve had a lot, but that one really sticks out in my mind.

V. D'Onofrio Yes. He turned into this big baby right in front of her eyes. It was awesome.

K. Erbe Oh, such a baby. Yes.

V. D'Onofrio It was really good. So I guess it was somebody else’s screen moment that we liked most.

K. Erbe I guess. Can you think of one that was ours?

V. D'Onofrio No, I can’t. I think you’re exactly right, that was very entertaining.

K. Erbe It was very entertaining.

Moderator We have a question from Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Would either of you ever be interested in writing or directing for the show?

V. D'Onofrio No.

K. Erbe I don’t think I would, no. Not writing, definitely not writing. And I don’t think I would – being a director, I don’t know whether I have it in me. Maybe for something else.

J. Ruby Do either of you have any new, I guess, acting projects coming up?

K. Erbe You have lots, right, Vin?

V. D'Onofrio Lots?

K. Erbe You did like 17 films on the last hiatus – directed, starred.

V. D'Onofrio That’s good, I’ll talk about that. I directed a film over the summer, a kind of new genre that I invented, slasher musical. I just finished it, and we’re taking it to L.A. in a week to sell to a distributor, so it’ll probably be out sometime, I hope, soon. I have a movie, The Narrows, coming out, and a movie called Staten Island coming out that I acted in – both of those. And that’s all.

K. Erbe And I have a movie with Edie Falco and Elias Koteas called Three Backyards.

Moderator We have a question from Christine Nyholm with examiner.com. Please go ahead.

C. Nyholm Vincent, I have a question about the very end of the last season, after Vincent or Goren realized that his nemesis had been killed and it was for his benefit – do you know what I’m talking about? – and he’s sitting with that professor. And you kind of looked at the end, when he said, “I did it to free you,” basically, and you got that look on your face like, you got it. And I was wondering if we’re going to be seeing now in this season a change in you or a kind of a freeing in your character because of this action.

V. D'Onofrio It’s nice that you saw it that way, because that’s the way I wanted you to see it, so it’s – yes. I wanted it to kind of be a freeing thing so that I could treat the next season fresh, so it could be a guy trying to keep his stuff together, do his job; and so what’s interesting about this kind of storytelling is that we always have that – like, the audiences that watch our show, if they’re fans of the show, then they know that that’s part of the learning. So even if we don’t mention it or I just show this kind of earnest cop trying to do his thing throughout the season, the season previous to that or other things in the previous years, they’re still present, because people are fans of the show and they know that that’s the guy they’re watching that went through all that stuff. So, yes, that’s what I did, and that’s what I’m doing now.

Moderator We have a question from Loring Judge with Reel Blog. Please go ahead.

L. Judge Thank you for sharing your time with us. The question is, how do you feel about the new writing team this season? Are you pleased with your episodes?

V. D'Onofrio It’s tough to – always tough when we switch writers to – it’s all – these last eight years have been just experience after experience, learning experience after learning experience, and it’s quite a business. To be a performer on a television show, you get a lot of curve balls thrown at you and you have to deal with them, and you know that the show has to be shot so you do your best to contribute and make it the best show you can. But you get thrown curve balls, like a new writing crew, and – who have never written for you and they’re trying their hardest to get it right, and they’re in a position where they have to get it right fairly quickly, because there are shows to shoot and to air, and so it’s tough. It takes a while.

But the great thing about is that they’re all talented people and everybody’s scripts are getting better and better, and what we’ve been talking about for the last few minutes is these great things about this season already. So there have been some amazing things already this season. But it’s tough. It’s tough to get new writers. And they’re great people and so we’re – this show is – this last show that we did was great, and it’s a good season so far, so we’re happy.

K. Erbe Yes.

Moderator We have a question from Christine Zimmer with All Things Law & Order. Please go ahead.

C. Zimmer One more quick question. The show seems to have completely dropped the law end of it, is that ever coming back? Or has it just kind of gone by the wayside?

K. Erbe We miss Courtney. But we haven’t been in court at all this year, not once. I didn’t even think about that.

V. D'Onofrio No, it’s been just straight out catch the bad guy, political – we’ve been involved in politics of big corporations and stuff like that. It’s that kind of season. But we haven’t been – no, I think we do less of the law part, I think you’re right. I mean, as you know, it never really focused on that very much anyway, but – one of the cool things about having an ADA in the show is that you have to actually answer to somebody. Because there’s this kind of tension between the captain and the two detectives, but there’s a certain kind of tension between the detectives and the assistant district attorney and that’s fun to play. So we don’t get to do that often anymore.

K. Erbe Yes.

Moderator We have a question from Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby I just want to ask Vincent, what’s the name of your slasher musical, so we can look out for it?

V. D'Onofrio It’s called Don’t Go in the Woods.

J. Ruby Okay, that sounds interesting.

K. Erbe It is. It’s very good.

C. Fehskens I’d like to once again thank Vincent and Kathryn for being with us today.

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