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By Suzanne

Interview with Mary McCormack of "In Plain Sight" on USA Network

In Plain Sight - Mary McCormack Q&A Session
April 17, 2009/4:00 p.m. EDT

SPEAKERS
Chrissy Fehskens
Mary McCormack

PRESENTATION

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the In Plain Sight conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would 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. I wanted to welcome you to the Mary McCormack Q&A session and start things off by thanking Mary for being with us today.
As you know, Mary stars in USA’s hit series, In Plain Sight, which returns for an all new season this Sunday, April 19th at 10/9 central. In a moment we’ll begin the Q&A session, as our Moderator just mentioned. All participants are currently in a listen-only mode and will need to enter the moderated question queue in order to speak on today’s call. This call is also being recorded for transcription and you’ll receive a copy of the transcript within the next 48 hours.

I’m now going to turn the call back over to our Moderator to begin the formal Q&A session, please go ahead.

Moderator Our first question comes from the line of Jamie Steinberg from Starry Constellation. Please go ahead.

J. Steinberg Hello, Mary. It’s a pleasure to speak with you again.

M. McCormack Thanks.

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

M. McCormack Well, a number of things. I mean one of the weird things about TV and one of the things that some actors don’t like but I kind of dig is that you never know where you’re headed, I mean you never know what the writer might think of next. So, unlike a film or a play where you know the entire story and you know where you have to end up, with In Plain Sight and with “Mary Shannon” I never really know what he’s cooking up. For example, my relationship with “Rafael” and my intimacy issues and all the push and pull of that; this season is completely different than it was last season. Then, there’s more development with me and with the mystery of where is my father and what happened to him. I mean there’s just so many kinds of question marks with “Mary Shannon” that that’s always a challenge, just sort of trying to figure that out.

But I’m trying to think of what else in the role is challenging. I mean trying to make her vulnerable, trying to balance the vulnerability because I don’t want it ever to be two dimensional and I don’t want her to seem, I mean even though she has sort of bad ass qualities and she’s a tomboy and all that, she doesn’t really take a lot of garbage, you have to sort of see how she ended up that way and why she ended up that way and where she’s weak and where she’s frail and where she’s girly. So, trying to make her three dimensional and complex, that’s always challenging.

J. Steinberg There’s great chemistry between you and “Rafael” who is played by Cristian de la Fuente. How do the two of you continue to maintain such great chemistry between each other and how will you continue in season two?

M. McCormack We really enjoy each other. I’m crazy about him. I’m really just crazy about him. He’s a great guy. I mean no one that pretty should be that nice as well and funny and smart. God went to town when he made him. He’s just fantastic. I get along well with his wife and my husband gets along well with both of them. Actually, his wife is guest starring in this episode now that we’re shooting right now and my husband is directing it.

Sometimes I call my husband and I’m in bed with Cristian. So, it’s all very odd. It’s a really odd relationship. But his lovely wife, Angelica, who’s a beautiful actress, is guest starring on this episode and my husband, Michael Morris, who directs many, many Brothers and Sisters and the producer of that show, is directing this episode of In Plain Sight. So, it’s all in the family with us.

J. Steinberg Why do you think people continue to tune in to see the show? What is it about the program that continues to draw the viewer in?

M. McCormack Well, I don’t know. I mean I hope it’s the same thing that draws me in. Every week I get the script and I’m excited to read it. It’s great writing. David Maples is a great writer and he writes interesting stories. Every week, you sort of meet a new witness and I always think there’s an interesting story there, but you also have this ongoing storyline of “Mary Shannon’s” family and her personal life. I don’t know, I think both things are sort of appealing.

It’s also a nice combination of really dramatic and action-y and sort of some mystery elements and then it’s really funny. I mean David is a funny writer. I mean I remember when I read the pilot; part of the thing that attracted me was I laughed out loud three or four times, and I never do that reading a script, even when I know the scene is funny. I rarely sort of chuckle out loud when I’m sitting reading a script alone, and I always do with David’s writing. I don’t know, hopefully, it’s just a fun show to watch. I hope we keep doing it.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Jenna Bensoussan from Aced Magazine. Please go ahead.

J. Bensoussan Hello. Thanks for doing this today.

M. McCormack Thanks for having me.

J. Bensoussan I really enjoy the show and I was wondering; we’ve kind of had a cliff hanger at the end of the last season. I was wondering if the show is going to kind of pick up where that left off and show them kind of getting out of the trouble.

M. McCormack No, it does. I love David Maples for this, who writes the show. He didn’t at all do that terrible TV thing of just pretending none of that happened and starting over. No, you take off the next day. In fact, he picks up right after I shot this guy. So, you meet me sort of post-stress event and you think, “Well, how’s she going to respond?” At first, I’m very, very sort of unaffected by the whole shooting and I’m just sort of like whistling my way through the day, and then as it wears on you start to see it crumble apart and all the post-traumatic stress begins.

That’s one of the things that I love about the show is that while it’s funny and it can be light at times, it definitely still has a really adult sensibility and it’s sort of tethered to reality. Even though she’s a bad ass and even though she’s tough, they didn’t make her like a superhero. They didn’t make it like there’s no repercussion from killing a man. So, I really appreciate that as an actress and I think I appreciate it as a viewer as well.

J. Bensoussan With her, she has obviously issues with her family relations. Are we going to see sort of a change in dynamic with that … things are kind of out on the table.

M. McCormack Yes, quite a bit. I mean actually in the beginning of the season - honestly, I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say or not, so I’ll just say everything. In the beginning of the season, my mother - I forget which episode, but very near the beginning of the season she hits sort of a new low in her drinking, which is extraordinary to watch and you think it’s going to be funny and it’s not at all funny. And then, she decides to try to stop drinking and she goes to rehab.

“Mary Shannon’s” never known her mother without alcohol involved, so it changes the entire family dynamic, and my sister goes back to school and she decides to try to turn over a new leaf. Because it’s television, I don’t know how long these things will last or if they’ll make it or not, but the dynamic completely changes, and then the mystery of “Mary’s” father is still floating and looming and you get some more clues as to what happened to him.

J. Bensoussan One other question before I go. Her partner Marshall is a very interesting dynamic as well. Are we going to see kind of a development in that more?

M. McCormack Yes, it develops somewhat. I mean I think it’s probably a relationship that’s been that way for a long time. So, for it to develop too quickly or change too quickly would be sort of unrealistic because it seems like, at least when we meet them, even in the pilot you feel like they’ve been together for quite a long time and comfortable in their roles. They’ve sort of grown around each other. They sort of work as two parts of a whole. But you learn a little bit more about their feelings and my relationship with “Rafael” progresses more and sort of “Mary” decides to try to take some big chances that she’s never taken before. It is interesting and fun to watch Fred Weller’s reactions to all of that.

J. Bensoussan Okay. Thank you.

M. McCormack Thank you.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby from Media Blvd. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Hello. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

M. McCormack Sure, thanks for having me.

J. Ruby What’s your favorite scene you’ve filmed this season, if you can tell us about it?

M. McCormack … the other night where Fred Weller was playing drunken chess on his computer screen because in the episode I tell “Rafael” what I do for a living and it gets Fred Weller, “Marshall Mann” gets so angry about it and I think not just because someone knows what we do, but maybe even more because I’ve been intimate and shared this secret with another man. And so it’s like involving another man as closely as he’s involved maybe and I think that’s definitely a big part of it.

In the last scene of the episode I come back into the office and he’s sitting there playing chess with an 11-year-old Pakistani girl online and he’s just loaded. He’s really drunk and she’s beating him and it’s sort of a very sweet scene between my character and Fred Weller’s character. I think that might be one of the favorites. And then, there’s some good fun shoot-out stuff with season two and I always love doing that. I like all the action stuff.

J. Ruby Can you kind of run us through a typical day on the set?

M. McCormack Oh, my goodness gracious. I get there super early. I mean a typical day for me is door-to-door somewhere around 15 hours or 15 to 20 hours usually. Hair and makeup is first and I spend an hour or so in hair and makeup and we all get ready for the work of the day and then we rehearse the first scene. Then, they light the first scene and we shoot it. We start shooting and we never leave the set and we just work all day. That’s it. That’s our day. We sort of rehearse and act all day long, move the camera and move the lights and do it again and again and again. We’ve been at it for seven months now. We have about two weeks left and we’re a tired group. If you came now, we’re almost punch drunk; we’re crazy.

J. Ruby One other quick question, I know you worked on the movie Full Frontal. What was it like to work with David Duchovny?

M. McCormack Oh, I loved working with David Duchovny and I had a pretty crazy scene with David Duchovny. It was like a full body massage and there were dildos involved and it was insane. It was an insane scene, but he has a great sense of humor and my kind of sense of humor. I’ve always been a big fan of his work and he’s a terrific guy too. So, I loved it.

J. Ruby Okay. Thank you.

M. McCormack Yes, you’re welcome.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Christine Harker from TVOvermind. Please go ahead.

C. Harker Hello. Thank you so much for doing this today.

M. McCormack My God; I’m so happy to do it.

C. Harker I have a little bit of a follow-up from a question that you were asked earlier. The way I view the show is that you essentially have three different families. You have your pretty darn dysfunctional family with “Brandi” and your mother and then you have your work family where “Stan” is the father figure and “Marshall” is a brother figure, in my opinion and then you have “Raf,” which he kind of represents the potential for what could be in a highly functional normal family life. Is that how you view it, or do you see it differently?

M. McCormack I’m pretty close, and I don’t know where this show is headed. So, I actually have no insight in terms of like if “Rafael” would be the—it certainly would be healthy because he’s kind and he’s gentle and he’s nice to her and he knows her well and he sort of forgives all of her rough edges and all that. I mean I don’t know where we’re headed, but I think you’re right. I do view it that way. I think her home family is more like the crazy cousins. I think her work family is probably her primary family. I mean I think “Stan” and “Marshall” are her actual family-family and the mother was never really a mother. I mean I think she raised “Brandi” and sort of took care of “Jinx” from when she was little.

But yes, that’s nice. I’ve never actually thought of it as broken up that way. We’ll have to see what happens with “Rafael” because it’s definitely an interesting—intimacy doesn’t come easy for “Mary Shannon.” In the second season, she certainly tries harder in that department, a lot harder.

C. Harker Well, exactly, and we had the opportunity to interview with Cristian last week.

M. McCormack Oh, good.

C. Harker He maybe spoiled something about a change in his marital status, so can you take that any further?

M. McCormack I mean I don’t even know if it’s spoiling because who knows? No one ever tells me not to say anything, but we do end up engaged.

C. Harker Oh, that’s fantastic.

M. McCormack So, who knows where that’ll go. I don’t know. We have two more episodes and then who knows what David has planned for next year. He’s crazy. I never know and I don’t even bother asking anymore because he never tells us. Actually, it’s kind of fun not knowing. It’s kind of like real life. You actually never know in real life what you’re going to end up doing, so it kind of works.

C. Harker Okay. Well, that leads to my last question and that is “Mary” is such an independent, career-driven woman and “Raf” is just very traditional. He’s a very traditional male. Do you actually think that “Mary” is good for “Raf” in the long run in terms of marriage and family, or do you think--?

M. McCormack I think they are a mismatch. My guess is that they’re sort of mismatched. I mean he would probably ideally not want her to continue with this work and she’s never going to give this work up. So yes, that’s sort of a train wreck waiting to happen I imagine, but bless his heart, he’s so kind and keeps hoping she’ll change and she never changes.

C. Harker Oh, I’m so excited to hear that she’s going to actually tell him what she does for a living. I’m really excited to see how that turns out.

M. McCormack Yes, it’s interesting. It’s a big step.

C. Harker It’s a huge step. Thank you so much.

M. McCormack Thank you.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Beth Ann Henderson from NiceGirlsTV.com. Please go ahead.

B. Henderson Hello, Mary. It’s great to talk to you today.

M. McCormack Thanks. Thanks for doing it.

B. Henderson I’m loving that so far it’s been all women asking you questions because we’re getting so much good relationship stuff. Kind of going back to something that was touched on earlier; we were looking back over season one and we see that “Mary’s” the one taking care of everyone in all three of those families, she seems to be kind of the caretaker. And now, obviously with the season finale, she has - already had baggage, but now she has even more. Is that dynamic going to change? Is someone going to start taking care of “Mary?”

M. McCormack Well, I think in some ways “Marshall” does. I mean I think at least she doesn’t have to look after him - that’s something. I guess that’s probably why it’s her best friend, because it’s the one person she doesn’t have to clean up after. I think “Rafael” in season two does- she allows him more of that role. In season two also, and I said this in interviews before because I don’t know if it’s spoiling anything, but my mother sobers up and goes into rehab and stuff and my sister goes back to school. So, there’s a little less of that- I mean a lot less of that sort of caretaking model, which actually is a little bit odd for her. I think we even touch on it in one episode. I think even “Marshall” says to her like, “Your whole identity has been about this. You’ve sort of defined yourself by their inability to look after themselves and now they’re doing it and you don’t really know who you are anymore.”

So, it’s interesting because it’s that whole thing of when you care-take, when that becomes your role, if people get better and they don’t need you anymore, who are you? I think it’s a pretty adult theme, but it’s a theme I think anyone who has ever done any of that in their life, either side of that coin, knows about.

B. Henderson Sure. That’s going to be fun to watch play out because it’s going to be kind of a big change for “Mary” as well.

M. McCormack Yes, a big change. Yes, she likes to bitch about it, but at the same time her own addiction is sort of looking after people.

B. Henderson Right. Yes. Along those lines, is there a particular assignment that you would like to see “Mary” get?

M. McCormack Oh, wow. Geez, Louise, I’ve never thought of that. Who would I like to protect? I don’t know. Golly. I don’t know. I’m trying to think of like some gorgeous man that I should-- I’m trying to think of a clever answer. I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m out of cleverness. My kids are down for an hour nap, so I don’t know where my brain is.

B. Henderson All right.

M. McCormack I’m just happy the house is quiet for a minute.

B. Henderson Yes. All right, well thanks so much.

M. McCormack Sorry.

B. Henderson That’s okay.

M. McCormack Okay. Bye.

B. Henderson Bye.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Sheldon Wiebe from Eclipse Magazine. Please go ahead.

S. Wiebe Hello, Mary. Thanks for doing this.

M. McCormack Hello. Thank you for having me.

S. Wiebe I’d like to follow-up a little on the comment of your having on the show three distinct families and how “Mary’s” dislike of change affects the way things go there specifically in regard to her current uncertainty in regard to “Raf,” the changes where her mom and sister have started to smart up but haven’t really gotten to a new level, and also in the return episode, the premiere, new people in the workplace and “Marshall” looking after “Mary.”

M. McCormack Yes, I think “Marshall” even says in one of those episodes early on, “Mary hates change.” I think he even says it, yes, and she does. I think anyone new is sort of a bummer to her. It’s just because she figures things out and likes the way they work, even if it’s bad. Even in the unhealthy family dynamic, at least she was used to it. She had been living in it since she was a little girl and she knew it. Now, her mom is all AA slogans and her sister is sort of in a healthy relationship, which is just confusing. Everyone’s just a little bit different and even “Rafael;” halfway through the season he makes a big, big, big change in his own life, a career change and it completely freaks “Mary” out. It’s his own life, but she has to redefine her relationship with him.

Change does not come easily. I think it’s a bumpy season for her and “Eleanor” is a huge change for her because that dynamic-- I mean the dynamic with her work family was so comfortable for her because she was adored. She’s adored by “Stan” and he lets her sort of have run of the ship. “Marshall’s” her best friend and they’ve grown around each other like vines and trees. I don’t think there’s anywhere where she’s more comfortable than work. And so “Eleanor” coming in; another woman coming in and a woman so unlike herself, is a huge adjustment. Here we are right at the end of the season and she’s still annoying the hell out of her.

S. Wiebe It also strikes me that she’s introduced at a specific point in time where “Mary” has to kind of reevaluate her relationship with her own self because of all of the crap that’s gone down in the last few days of her life. How do you feel that’s going to affect your performance in regard to the individuals that you encounter both in the workplace, at home and the various witnesses?

M. McCormack My own post-traumatic stress stuff, you mean; how does that affect it through the season?

S. Wiebe Yes.

M. McCormack I think it’s the kind of thing-- for a few episodes it affects it a lot, especially the first one. I don’t know what you’ve seen; if you’ve seen any--

S. Wiebe The first two.

M. McCormack Yes, okay. So obviously, at first, she’s all like “Life is beautiful” and trying to seize the day. You know the way you are when you have a near death experience, I mean everyone talks about sort of smell the roses and live in the moment and all that stuff, and then just how long does that last is the question. It doesn’t seem to last that long. She sort of slips back into old patterns. But, I do think she takes a chance with “Rafael.” I mean I wonder how much of that is based on her near death experience. I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. She definitely goes further down the intimacy road with “Rafael” than she’s ever been. So, maybe that’s due to that.

S. Wiebe Thank you.

M. McCormack Thank you.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Joel Amos from SheKnows.com. Please go ahead.

J. Amos Hello, Mary.

M. McCormack Hello, how are you?

J. Amos I’m doing great, thanks. We have a nice little holiday coming up here - Mother’s Day - and I think one of the better portrayed on screen mother/daughters in you and Lesley Ann Warren. I’m a big fan of her over the years. What was it like initially meeting her and then as an actress, working alongside her now for a couple of years?

M. McCormack Initially meeting her was fantastic. So like, I was a big, big fan. It was daunting, but thrilling because I just love her work. We both worked with Steven Soderbergh. So, I remember our first conversation was about our mutual love of Steven Soderbergh. And so, I think once we had that out of the way, we knew we were going to work similarly because Steven works in a very specific way and not every actor would dig it. I mean a lot of actors obviously dig it a lot, but it’s just very specific and we were sort of having a lovefest gush session about how he works and how he is.

And so, I think from that moment on, we sort of knew we were going to work in a similar enough style that we could get along great and we have. We’re both really lucky actually. I’m crazy about her husband. She loves my husband. It’s all very comfortable. She lives down the street from me in LA. She comes over at Christmastime and spoils my girls. She’s great. She’s the best.

J. Amos Well, that must be a professional and personal thrill then.

M. McCormack Yes, it’s so nice. It’s fantastic.

J. Amos I wanted to also ask; my mother actually was a teacher of yours at Trinity College.

M. McCormack What?

J. Amos Yes, seriously.

M. McCormack Wait a minute; what does she teach?

J. Amos She did a lot of music and she did theater.

M. McCormack Who is it?

J. Amos Naomi Amos.

M. McCormack Oh, my gosh. How funny.

J. Amos Yes. I’ve actually seen you there in a thing or two I’m sure.

M. McCormack Oh, my gosh. Please tell her hello.

J. Amos I will certainly do that.

M. McCormack Is she still at Trinity?

J. Amos No. She’s actually down in the Lynchburg, Virginia area working at Randolph College.

M. McCormack Oh, Trinity’s loss.

J. Amos Yes, very much. How did that theater experience train you for working in both television and film so effortlessly?

M. McCormack I came into Trinity singing a lot. In high school, I sang a lot and I sort of classically trained. And so I sang at Trinity a lot. So, I did more musical theater than any other kind and a lot of voice and stuff and music classes and stuff. I don’t know. It just continued my love of it. I think more than anything, I just thought, “Well, that’s where I had the most fun is in the arts building.” When I graduated, I thought, “I guess your goal in life is if you can make a living at something you actually enjoy that’s probably the most ideal thing.” So, I moved to New York and started studying acting a little more seriously and just continued doing off, off, off, off Broadway plays and working my way.

Probably just being in the arts building and having it be a small enough college that I could actually find my way to the stage and find professors who cared and all that. Trinity was actually lovely for that because it’s not a school that’s famous, famous, famous for performing arts, it was actually a nice place to sort of get a chance-- if you really wanted to do it, there was room for you to do it, which was nice.

J. Amos The name Jerry Mochelle pops in my head for some reason.

M. McCormack Jerry Mochelle comes to see everything I do still.

J. Amos You’re kidding?

M. McCormack No. I was doing Boeing Boeing this summer on Broadway and I did Cabaret some years ago. He still comes to everything. I’m still in touch with Jerry.

J. Amos God bless you.

M. McCormack He played at my wedding. He played piano at my wedding. Ron Rifkin sang “Married” from Cabaret because I did “Cabaret” on Broadway with Ron, and Jerry accompanied Ron.

J. Amos Oh, my God. What a moment.

M. McCormack I know. How funny.

J. Amos Well, Mary, I don’t want to take up any more of your--

M. McCormack That’s all right. It’s nice to meet you.

J. Amos It’s nice to meet you too. All the best.

M. McCormack Please send my regards to your mom.

J. Amos I sure will.

M. McCormack Okay. Bye.

J. Amos Bye.

Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Courtney Hedberg from Pass The Remote. Please go ahead.

C. Hedberg Hello, Mary. Thanks for doing the call today.

M. McCormack Thank you for having me.

C. Hedberg I love the show. I love your character so much and I just feel it’s some of the best stuff on TV. I was just curious; for you, what’s been the most rewarding part about doing the show and getting to play somebody like “Mary”?

M. McCormack Golly. I mean I love the way David writes. It just feels like a really, really comfortable fit for me and I like that she’s kind of grouchy. I mean I love the character so much. There’s one episode, and I reference this often because it just struck me when I read it as so unusual for a woman to say something like on TV, she sees a little baby and out of the blue, and pertinent of nothing else, she doesn’t sort of continue the thought, she goes, “What’s with babies? I don’t get them.” You never hear women say stuff like that on TV. I just think David has a really fresh approach to, I guess, writing this woman because it’s certainly not representative of any other woman. She’s a complex part and I like that she’s allowed to be sort of grouchy and a little bit angry, angular. I don’t know. It’s a comfortable fit for me. I’m not proud of that, but it is.

C. Hedberg Well, it does seem like that as a viewer, it just fits you really well.

M. McCormack Yes, and I get to work with great people and I like the stories and I think it’s also an interesting backdrop for a show. We’ve never seen witness protection and certainly the only thing I knew about witness protection before this was what I knew from Goodfellas, which isn’t a lot. I mean it’s a crazy world to think that people just up and leave. They do leave like food on the stove and walk out of their house and never call and never talk to their families again and never turn back. So, it’s a very dramatic world. It’s like high stakes and pretty emotional.

C. Hedberg Yes, I didn’t know anything about witness protection either and now I’m all of a sudden very obsessed with it.

M. McCormack I know. It’s crazy. They don’t actually even get to tell their families where they’re going. We have a technical advisor and one time I was grilling him about this because I just couldn’t believe that they didn’t get to say good-bye. He said once in a while if they felt the person would be like better, like if it was so emotional, they would stage a good-bye, like arrange a good-bye in a safe place. Can you imagine that scene? We have to do that scene. Can you imagine that scene? I mean what a scene. Often, they don’t even get to do that.

I said, “Well, how does the family know they’re not just dead?” What’s to stop the family just from having a funeral or mourning forever and ever or committing suicide or who knows what you’d do with that kind of grief? He said that they contact the family and let them know. They don’t say the exact words, but they’ll say like, “They’re not going to be back, but they’re safe” kind of thing. I mean what? It’s too much to think about. It’s crazy and all for testimony. But, I guess people, when faced with you’re going to die or starting over, the will to live rises up I guess.

C. Hedberg Well, life or death kind of situation.

M. McCormack Yes.

C. Hedberg Maybe along those lines, in playing “Mary,” have you learned anything new about yourself over the course of doing this show, portraying her either personally or just in sort of the technical of working on a show like this?

M. McCormack I’ve learned a lot. On that side of it, I’ve learned an enormous amount. I mean I’ve worked a lot over the years and I’ve done even a lot of TV, but I’ve never been in every scene almost. I have two kids under the age of four, so that and 15 to 20 hour days of work everyday, I certainly have learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about stamina and rest and balance and forgiveness in terms of my own guilt about where I’m falling short in my life. Certainly, I’ve learned more than I ever thought I could learn about that stuff.

I guess I learn from the character too. I mean I have some similarities to “Mary Shannon” and so as I investigate things like codependence or what her abandonment issues are and her father leaving, and my father didn’t leave, but I mean just in terms of any kind of loss, how that affects how readily available you are for intimacy and stuff. I mean I definitely learn about myself through some of the storylines she’s dealing with.

C. Hedberg Yes, there are parts of you in her and parts of her in you kind of a thing.

M. McCormack Oh, for sure and some of them are just little things, like little, little details that are just coincidences, but are spooky. I mean David Maples wrote it without me. In fact, he didn’t even know who I was, but her name is “Mary” and she’s from New Jersey, and I’m from New Jersey. There are so many little things. She calls her sister “Squish” and I called my oldest daughter “Squish” when she was little.

C. Hedberg Wow.

M. McCormack I know and they’re just obviously tiny little coincidences, but the first time I picked up the script, I was like, “This is odd.” It feels like it was actually written for me.

C. Hedberg Well, it’s fantastic. I really enjoy watching it every week. Best of luck with the rest of the season and here’s for season three let’s hope.

M. McCormack Yay, knock on wood - I hope so.

C. Hyper Have a good one.

M. McCormack Thank you. I appreciate it.

C. Fehskens We have time for one more question.

Moderator Our final question will come from the line of Troy Rogers from thedeadbolt.com.

T. Rogers Hello, Mary. Thanks for taking the time.

M. McCormack Yes, thanks for having me.

T. Rogers How much will post-traumatic stress affect “Mary’s” job performance when the show returns on Sunday?

M. McCormack I’m trying to think about-- it’s interesting. I wonder how much of her job is affected by it. Certainly it is for a few episodes, which is spread over weeks and weeks. I wonder how much of that continues. I’m trying to think. I guess there’s a whole thing that happens in the end. We’re shooting the two-part season finale now. The first half is being directed by my husband and the second half is being directed by our show creator, David Maples. So, we’re in the thick of it right now. I know there’s a big even that happens that will be questioned and brought back to the finale of last year. I mean they’ll be linked to that meaning did that affect this kind of thing. It will be back. It will rear its ugly head again, whether I’ve put this thing behind me or not, this near death thing and the fact that I killed somebody for the first time.

T. Rogers How much would you like to see your character’s relationship with your mother and sister evolve? Is there a certain way that you’d like to see it go?

M. McCormack I don’t know. I mean I think about that a lot actually because this year, my mother is sober. My sister is still drinking, but my mother has gone to rehab and it’s sort of 12-steppy. That’s interesting because there are all kinds of different tensions, but I liked it the other way too because there was a lot to play with that.

I can’t imagine that she doesn’t slip at some point. I think just in terms of being realistic and knowing “Jinx” at all, I can’t imagine that she doesn’t return to the dark side soon. But, we’ll see. I could be wrong. David Maples surprises me all the time.

T. Rogers How do you see the show as compared to other police dramas?

M. McCormack I don’t know. I mean I think our show is pretty special for a number of reasons. One, I just think witness protection is pretty interesting and you don’t see it in many other police dramas. I mean it’s definitely a singular backdrop. But also tonally, I think our show is unusual. I mean it’s not strictly a drama. It’s also really funny and finding the balance is sometimes tricky for us. We have to really think about like when the scene changes. Sometimes it changes within the scene and sometimes it changes scene-to-scene, but I don’t know. It’s an odd tone, our show. And so, I think it’s different for that.

Also, a lot of cop shows are just procedurals. I mean we’re not CSI. We’re not what’s the Katherine Morrison show. There are procedural shows where every week you have a mystery and then by the end of the hour; all the Dick Wolf shows, in the end of the hour, the mystery is solved and next week you have another mystery. Ours has that, but we also have the ongoing story of my life and my relationships and my work relationships, my boyfriend relationship, my family relationship. So, I think our show is pretty special for doing all that within the hour and hopefully doing it well. I mean that challenge is making sure we do all of it well.

T. Rogers Good luck, Mary and good luck with the show.

M. McCormack Thank you. I really appreciate it.

C. Fehskens I’d like to, once again, thank Mary for being with us today and remind everyone to please tune into In Plain Sight this Sunday at 10/9 central on USA Network. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Moderator That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation.

Interview with Cristian de la Fuenta of "In Plain Sight" on USA Network

In Plain Sight - Cristián de la Fuente Q&A Session
April 9, 2009/2:00 p.m. EDT


SPEAKERS

Cristián de la Fuente
Chrissy Fehskens

PRESENTATION

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the In Plain Sight - Cristián de la Fuente Q&A session. At this point, I'll turn the conference over to Ms. Chrissy Fehskens. Please go ahead.

C. Fehskens Hello, everyone. This is Chrissy Fehskens from New Media Strategies. I wanted to welcome you to the Cristián de la Fuente Q&A session and start things off by thanking Cristián for being with us today.

As you know, Cristián plays the role of Raphael on USA's hit series, In Plain Sight, which will premiere an all new season on Sunday, April 19th at 10:00/9:00 Central. In a moment, we'll begin the Q&A session. As our Moderator just mentioned, all participants are currently is a listen-only mode and will need to enter the moderated question queue in order to speak on today's call.

The call is also being recorded for transcription and you'll receive a copy of the transcript within the next 48 hours. With that, I'm going to turn the call back over to our Moderator, John, to begin the session. Please go ahead.

Moderator Thank you. First we'll go to the line of Jamie Steinberg with Starry Constellation. Please go ahead.

J. Steinberg Hello, Cristián. It's good to speak with you again.

C. de la Fuente Hello. How are you?

J. Steinberg Good. I hope your arm’s doing okay.

C. de la Fuente Yes. It's much better, thank you.

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

C. de la Fuente The first thing that challenged me was playing baseball. I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile where the biggest sport is soccer. We don't play baseball here. I think baseball stops in Venezuela, that's the farthest you go by playing baseball. And also working with a great cast is always challenging, because you have to really give your 180%, but mainly the baseball part. The rest at the beginning was scary, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to work with Lesley Ann Warren and Mary McCormack," but then when I got to meet them then that was the best part of the job, not the hardest one.

J. Steinberg Why do you think people continue to watch the show?

C. de la Fuente First, I don't think there's a lot of female driven shows and in this case In Plain Sight follows the life and work of Mary McCormack's character, Mary.

And on the other hand, I think what's very unique about this show, we have a lot of cop shows, law shows, Law and Order, or all the CSI's, but they all tell one crime or they all investigate one crime or one suspect or they have one story. In this case, Mary has to protect the witness every week, but she also has a personal life. She has to deal with her mother, with her sister. She has to deal with her boyfriend. So there's a lot of the personal life of Mary that we see and I think that's unique. That really makes a difference in the show.

J. Steinberg Great. Thank you so much for your time.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Hello. Thanks for talking to us today.

C. de la Fuente No, thank you.

J. Ruby So how did you come to get this part? Did you audition for it and why did you decide that you were going to take it?

C. de la Fuente I auditioned for it and my agent sent me the script and I read it and I loved it, but Raphael was first written as Devin and was supposed to be an American. And I called my agent and I said, "You know, I love this role. Can you call them and see if they could see me, because you know I think I can play this role." Besides nowadays if you look at all the baseball players, probably 70% of them have Latino names, so then it's not a big stretch to go from Raphael Ramirez to Latino. But I said, like maybe let's try to give it a shot, and then I got this job and then they changed it from Devin to Raphael, because it had to be more believable than me named Devin, I don't think it would have worked.

J. Ruby What do you like most about your character?

C. de la Fuente Raphael, I think goes against all the stereotypes. It's like he's not the typical Latin lover. He's not the typical Latino. As a joke always I think we've made history in television and film, because on the last episode of the first season, on the season finale, I think it's the first time that you see a Latino character with a lot of kilograms of drugs and instead of starting dealing them, he threw them away. I think that's the first time that's happened in TV, that Latinos are not portrayed as drug dealers but people that you know they have good hearts and they want the best for their family and their loved ones. And I think that's the beauty about Raphael, he's really in love with Mary and he's a nice guy and I think he's going to do always the right thing and it's great to play those kinds of roles nowadays.

J. Ruby Where do you draw your inspiration from when you play the character?

C. de la Fuente Well I try to draw the inspiration the way I would like to be. I think how would I like to be if I was like the perfect guy? And the perfect version of me, that's Raphael.

J. Ruby Okay.

C. de la Fuente The non-perfect one, that's me.

J. Ruby Okay. Thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And next, we go to the line of Kristyn Clarke with Popculturemadness.com. Please go ahead.

K. Clarke Hello. Thanks so much for doing the call.

C. de la Fuente No, thank you.

K. Clarke What should fans be expecting to see in store for your character this season? Are there any big surprises?

C. de la Fuente Yes, there are big surprises. Let me see, how can I say it without ruining it? There's going to be a change in my career. I can say that. I'm going to get closer to, however, changing my marital status.

K. Clarke Okay.

C. de la Fuente So those are the two biggest surprises.

K. Clarke Where are you hoping to see Mary and Raphael's relationship go? Are we going to see him kind of run out of patience with her indecision with things?

C. de la Fuente Mary's very hard to deal with, Mary the character, because Mary McCormack, I love her.

K. Clarke Right.

C. de la Fuente I also love the other one in different ways, but Raph would like to marry her and have a family, but it's tough. Mary is hard to get and she's a little bit afraid of commitment. In the ideal world, which doesn't exist, not even in fiction, Raphael would like to marry her and have children and be happy. But he's going to try to do everything in his power and hopefully Mary's going to try to do something too.

K. Clarke Great. Thank you.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we'll go to the line of Chelsea Wiley with Sugarslam.com. Please go ahead.

C. Wiley Hello. I just have a few questions. I know that you guest starred on Brothers and Sisters and I just wondered what that was like working with that cast, and yes, just getting to work with Sally Field?

C. de la Fuente When I got the call, I was really surprised. My first reaction was, "You want me to play that role? Are you sure you've got the right guy?" Every time you work with a great cast, it's something that’s not only good for your resume, it's good for your soul working with people that are talented and that have been around. It's always a good thing. It was a great experience and it would be great if we do it again in the future.

C. Wiley I was also wondering, what is the cast dynamic like on In Plain Sight? How do you guys all get along?

C. de la Fuente I'm going to answer you the truth, which is that we all get along very well and we have a great relationship with each other, and even though that didn't happen, I would never say it. But in this case, I'm saying the truth, I'm not lying. Sometimes you don't get along and you still have to lie and say, "We really get along," but I'm happy to say that on this occasion it's true that we all get along very well and we act together.

Of course, you have a better relationship with those that you work more often, with Nichole Hiltz with Lesley Ann Warren and with Mary. I'm not involved in all the cop scenes with Fred Weller or with Paul Ben-Victor. I don't get to do a lot of scenes, but sometimes we go out to dinner and sometimes we go on the same plane back and forth from LA, especially with Paul, so we all have a great relationship. And that's good, because I spend more time sometimes with them than with my family.

C. Wiley And just one last question, if you could work with any actor, if you guys could have any guest on the show, who would you have?

C. de la Fuente I would love to have Al Pacino, but I don't think he would go to our show. I'm going to apply to see if I can serve him coffee on the set of his movie. Maybe that will work.

C. Wiley Okay, thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator We do have a follow up from Jamie Ruby with Media Boulevard. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Hello, again. How did you get started in acting in the first place?

C. de la Fuente I got started 17 years ago in Chile where I am right now, thanks to the technology, I'm having this conference from Chile. I've always wanted to be an actor and my dad wanted me to be a civil engineer because actors don't make money here in Chile. They don't ride in limousines and live in big mansions. Actors here, we live in normal houses and sometimes there are actors that have to ride the bus, because they don't have a car. You do this because you love it. It's not, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to get to make $20 million a picture." So my dad was really afraid of me being an actor.

But then I got to a point that I decided why am I going to be an engineer if that's not what I really love to do, and that's when I decided to go to a network and apply for a job doing a show and I was part of the show. And then after that they offered me the option of studying all the afternoons while I was working in the mornings to start studying acting and I did that and that was how it really started.

J. Ruby That's good that you get to love what you do. That's always important.

C. de la Fuente Yes. I'm blessed and happy for that.

J. Ruby Would you ever be interested in writing or directing for In Plain Sight? I know you wrote before, not for this, but for something else, but would you ever be interested in that?

C. de la Fuente Yes, I've written some stuff and I love to write. I have to get better at that and I think it's a process. But the only way I think to learn is just to write and write and write and maybe in a couple years I'm going to come to something that is better than what I've written before. But it's a process and the only way to do it is to start it at some point. The first thing that I wrote wasn't good. The second was a little bit better, and now I'm getting, not that I'm great, but I'm getting better and better every day. And even if I write a book that my daughter is going to read, I'll be happy. But yes, I would love to write. I would love to express in other ways than just acting.

J. Ruby Do you ever get to offer input on your character?

C. de la Fuente We do a meeting before the season, we meet with all the writers, and there are a lot of things about myself that are in character. And one of the things that I really appreciate and I'm very thankful from the show, and especially for David Maples, the creator, is that in many jobs that I've done, they always say, "Okay, you have to take care of your accent," and I can work on it. I can go to an accent coach and speak more Mexican or speak less Mexican or speak normal or try to even do a neutral.

In this case, In Plain Sight, David was like, "No, you can embrace your accent." And even there are some episodes that other characters like especially Brandi played by Nichole Hiltz, she makes fun of my accent and she doesn't understand some of the things that I'm trying to say. And besides that that I was able to embrace that and to let it go and be more natural instead of trying to hide it, that's something that I really appreciate from the show and from David especially.

J. Ruby Great. So what has been your favorite scene to film so far, either past or future that we haven't seen yet?

C. de la Fuente Well from the first season, there was this scene in the last episode when I go to Mary's house and I'm drunk and I'm trying to convince her to have a better relationship with her sister, with Brandi. That scene I think especially was challenging, because to play drunk is tough and not going through a cliché of really being drunk and playing the drunk and also it was very emotional.

And on this season there was a very beautiful scene in one of the episodes towards the middle of the season where I proposed again and where I explain to Mary why I want to marry her and why I feel the way I feel towards her. I think that was really nice, mostly like the scenes when the character is vulnerable, I think those are beautiful scenes that you can really open yourself and do a better job.

J. Ruby Yes, definitely. Okay, thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we'll go to the line of Christine Harker with TVOvermind. Please go ahead.

C. Harker Hello. I absolutely love your character on the show and I absolutely adore seeing a positive Latino role model on the TV show. So thank you very much for that.

C. de la Fuente We both have to thank David. I just play the character. David was the brilliant mind that was able to do it.

C. Harker I will send him an e-mail then and thank him for you.

C. de la Fuente Yes, thank you.

C. Harker But I'm really curious about, well I'm curious about a lot of things, but Mary is very headstrong, confident. She's very independent, and do you feel that, I know that Raphael really loves Mary, do you think though that ultimately marrying Mary would be good for Raphael?

C. de la Fuente Yes, I don't know what's really going happen in the future, because one of the things that David likes to do is like to keep the show like real life.

C. Harker Right.

C. de la Fuente We kind of have an idea what's going to happen tomorrow, but we really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, and the same thing happens in the show. We kind of have an idea what's going to happen in the next episode, but we have no idea to really what's going to happen. I think Raphael really wants to marry Mary, but in order for that to happen Mary would have to change, and I don't think she's really willing to do it.

C. Harker Yes.

C. de la Fuente Because many times in relationships, and that has happened to me myself in personal life, we fall in love with somebody and there are things we don't like about that person and hope that they're going to change at sometime and it never happens ...

C. Harker Right.

C. de la Fuente ... and then at the end of the day is the reason why you end up breaking up with them. So I learned that the things that you don't like about somebody, they have to really be so little that you're willing to live the rest of your life with them.

C. Harker Exactly, or you magnify the problems over time.

C. de la Fuente That's what needs to happen. At this moment, the things that really bother Raphael about Mary are not that big and at the end of the day he knows that she's this beautiful, sensitive woman under that tough uniform and the tough job and the tough personality. So if she allows to be loved, then I think they can be really happy.

C. Harker Okay. My next question is, I love that in the finale Raphael is the one who saves the day. I read the scene as he showed up at Mary's house pretending to be drunk and that's how he got the drugs in the first place to save the day, to save the Shannon family. Am I reading the scene wrong?

C. de la Fuente Yes, no, I was drunk. Raphael was really drunk.

C. Harker You were actually drunk. So how did Raphael get the drugs?

C. de la Fuente The drugs were a couple of scenes before that. He takes a bag when he's in his house with Brandi and Brandi has a bag with the drugs and then Raphael switches the drugs.

C. Harker So that's how he did it.

C. de la Fuente Raphael switches the drugs and he put towels inside the bag and then he puts the drugs inside his bag and he ... and then Raphael's leaving the house, and Brandi says, "Can I help you with the bag?" and he says, "No, no, no don't worry, I'll keep it," because he has the drugs.

C. Harker I see, that's when he did it. Okay, I was really curious as to whether or not he was actually drunk or if that was the moment when he ...

C. de la Fuente No, no, he was drunk.

C. Harker Okay.

C. de la Fuente It took a lot of guts to go and to talk to Mary like that, but yes, he was drunk.

C. Harker Mary, in my opinion, has two families. She has her work family, which is very stable with a father figure and a brother in Marshall, and then she's got her completely dysfunctional family with her sister and her mother. Where does Raphael fit in to her family?

C. de la Fuente I think as you said, she has a very dysfunctional family with her mother and her sister. She has the other substitute family with the father figure and the brother figure.

C. Harker Right.

C. de la Fuente I think Raphael is the family that she needs. She needs a husband and then she needs to start a whole family again. Because once you marry and you have kids, that becomes your family and then the rest are relatives.

C. Harker Right.

C. de la Fuente When you're single and you're living with your mom, that's your family.

C. Harker Right.

C. de la Fuente But once you get married, you have a new family and the other one becomes relatives.

C. Harker Well I personally hope that we get to see that happen, but I guess I won't know until we keep watching. Well thank you very much ...

C. de la Fuente Well I still don't know. We're in the same boat, trust me.

C. Harker Okay, okay, well thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we'll go to the line of Courtney Hedberg with Pass the Remote. Please go ahead.

C. Hedberg Hello, Cristián. Thanks so much for taking the time today.

C. de la Fuente Hello, how are you?

C. Hedberg Good, thanks. I was just, if you could maybe tell us the biggest difference between the first and the second season, either with the show on the whole or just in your character and your relationship with Mary?

C. de la Fuente Well with my character, he's going to switch his career. He's going to start working with something different, and in the relationship with Mary we’ll get to a point that Mary's going to have to decide that if she wants to get married with Raphael or not. So I think those are two big changes that is going to happen to Raphael in the relationship and to Mary also.

C. Hedberg Okay, and I was wondering, I think you might have answered this, but you said you had a favorite scene already. Do you have like a favorite, what have you enjoyed most about the season? Are you still filming the second season or are you guys done?

C. de la Fuente No, we're not done yet. We have three episodes left still.

C. Hedberg Okay.

C. de la Fuente So I cannot say what's my favorite from the second season, because there's one that I really loved is when I go and propose again.

C. Hedberg Yes.

C. de la Fuente But maybe there's one coming that I haven't shot yet. And from the first season I think the last episode when Raphael goes drunk and talks to Mary, I think that was a very beautiful and nice scene between the two characters.

C. Hedberg Okay. We're looking forward to it and we really love the show, and the relationship with you and Mary is really fun to watch.

C. de la Fuente Thank you. Thank you very much.

C. Hedberg Yes.

Moderator And we'll go to the line of Christine Nyholm with Examiner.com. Please go ahead.

C. Nyholm Hello, Cristián. I was just wondering, you mentioned that your father didn't really want you to go into acting. Did he ever turn around and become proud of you? What does he think of it now?

C. de la Fuente I think one of the biggest compliments that I had from my father was the day that he died. He was in his bed, he was sick and they asked him, “Do you want me to turn the TV off?” And he said, "No, I want to watch Cristián and then I want to fall asleep." So he watched my show, then he turned off the TV and he passed away. So I think that at the end of the day was the biggest compliment that I can have from my father.

C. Nyholm That truly is. And then my other question is, what would you advise for somebody who wanted to go into acting as a young actor? What kind of advice would you give them now?

C. de la Fuente I would give them two, as a friend of mine says, life is too short and then you die. So you have to do everything that you want even if people tell you that you're crazy, that that's not for you, that it's hard, or all the bad things that they can tell you, you just have to do it.

And then the second advice is, you need a lot of patience. You need a lot of patience, because there's a lot of things and a lot of times that doors are going to be closed, that people are going to say, no, and you just have to keep believing in you, believing your dream, and just keep going. Keep going, keep going, because one day you're going to make it.
Maybe you're not going to make it huge, big, maybe you're not going to be the star of a big action movie, maybe you're going to do a play in a theatre, maybe you're going to do a local TV show, maybe you're going to do a national TV show, but you're going to do it, and that satisfaction of having a dream and really being able to accomplish it that's priceless.

C. Nyholm That's excellent advice. Thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we have a follow up from Kristyn Clarke. Please go ahead.

K. Clarke Hello, again.

C. de la Fuente Hello.

K. Clarke I know we had mentioned earlier about who you would like to see as a guest star on the show. Are there any special guest stars booking up this season we can look forward to seeing?

C. de la Fuente Yes. I don't have the complete names and lists of the guest stars, because most of the guest stars, they always come on the side of the witness that is being protected and I don't get the privilege of working with them. But I can guarantee that there's going to be some big names and big people guest starring. We're doing 16 episodes and we have kind of like more than half like kind of 10 big names that are going to be guest starring on the show.

K. Clarke Good.

C. de la Fuente So be prepared for a lot of big actors.

K. Clarke And I do have a question, do you feel that keeping a bit of humor in the show kind of breaks up tensions between some of these relationships that we see? I've noticed that happening a lot on shows. You have these drama shows with the tension and the relationships and I think that added bit of humor can add something to it.

C. de la Fuente Yes, I think we don't live in a black and white world. It's like we live in a world when even the most dramatic moment again on the days they're funny. When you see an old lady that falls on the street, sometimes you start laughing. It's funny, but it's a drama for her, and it's funny for you.

K. Clarke Right.

C. de la Fuente So at the end of the day even drama or sometimes in my life I've been in problems and I'm trying to make things work and then at the end of the day I just laugh, because there's only so much we can do. So I love when drama has that bit of humor and comedy, because that's life. Life is not all drama or all comedy. It's a mix of both. Sometimes more from one than the other, but at the end of the day it's a mix of both.

K. Clarke Right. Well thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we have a follow up from Jamie Ruby. Please go ahead.

J. Ruby Hello. Can you kind of give us a run through of a typical day on the set?

C. de la Fuente A typical day on the set for me ...

J. Ruby Yes.

C. de la Fuente ... is landing the day before from LA, because I'm still living in LA. So the day before I have to work I have to travel. That means going through the airport, which it used to be nice. Now they assume that everybody's a criminal or a terrorist, so they ask you to take your shoes off, take your everything, and it's like that's kind of the bad part of it.

Then finally I land, I arrive in Albuquerque, and then the day starts with breakfast, very early, around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning; then we rehearse the scene with the director and with the crew; then we go for makeup and hair, which for me takes five minutes, thank God, where the girls will take a little longer.

And then we go back and we shoot the scene. We do that for six hours; then we break for lunch, and then we do it for six more hours again. Sometimes it's six, sometimes it's seven or eight or even nine more hours, which after six we have a snack, which is called second meal for people to eat.
And then we finish the day. Then we go rest. We have a 10 to 11 hour turnaround where we can rest and sleep, and then the next day, we start again in the morning and then we try to shoot all the scenes, and then when I'm done after three or four days, I get on a plane and I go back to LA to see my family. And then Mary stays in Albuquerque, because I think she's in 99% of all the scenes. She has to do that for seven days straight. I do it only for three or four.

J. Ruby At least you get a break then.

C. de la Fuente Yes, ... she's very happy that she's going on hiatus and she's going to have a break now.

J. Ruby What would be your ultimate dream role?

C. de la Fuente I've always wanted to do like a modern version of I Love Lucy. What would happen today if a guy like Raphael married an American? How would they live and all the issues that they have to deal with? I think that would be a nice role to play.

J. Ruby That would be cool. I could see that. So do you have any new projects coming up?

C. de la Fuente Not yet. My biggest project after the show is done is vacation with my wife and my daughter, try to spend some time with them, because thank God, I've been working a lot, and then start looking for the next one. Try to see if we can squeeze in a movie or two and keep our fingers crossed and hopefully have a third season of In Plain Sight, but that depends on the viewers. So hopefully, they'll watch the show, they will like it and then we'll have a third season.

J. Ruby Okay, great. Thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

Moderator And we have a follow up from Christine Harker. Please go ahead.

C. Harker Hello. I don't think there's any doubt you're going to get a third season. You guys have been doing fantastically...

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

C. Harker ... in the writing for the network. I am absolutely fascinated with the fact that you were a firefighter in Chile and also that you were and maybe still are in the Chilean Air Force and apart of the Aerial Acrobatic Troop. What exactly do you get to do being part of an Aerial Acrobatic Troop?

C. de la Fuente I think I have a thing for uniforms, as you can see. The firefighters, yes, I used to be a firefighter and then I had to quit, because I moved from Chile and then if they call me for a fire, the time that it gets me to go from LA to Chile, the fire will be already burned.

C. Harker Yes.

C. de la Fuente In the aerobatic team, I help them with all the public relationships, with all the PR, because every time they have a presentation and I can, I try to fly with them. I'm trying to do all my best to, they're going to an aerial show in Texas in May and I'm trying to see if I can meet with them and be there.

C. Harker Really, what part of Texas?

C. de la Fuente When we do it like while the guys fly, I'm on the ground explaining everything through speakers. I'm in the tower and I'm talking to the people and everybody explaining to them what they're doing, all the maneuvers that they're doing and how they're done and the history and a little bit of the background about the aerobatic team. And then I get to fly with them once in awhile and train and be able to do some aerobatics on my own, but I just fly on my own. They fly in formation, which is very dangerous and they have to ...

C. Harker Yes.

C. de la Fuente ... work and train every day. That's why I don't fly at the presentation, because I would have to do it 24/7 and be my main job. But mainly I help them with the public relationships and I get also to fly, but by myself.

C. Harker Well, if they let you fly and do some tricks, that sounds like a lot of fun.

C. de la Fuente Yes, it's great.

C. Harker I know that in the past you were interested in scoring the role of Joaquin Morietus, have you had any luck shopping that around the Los Angeles area or even in South America?

C. de la Fuente Yes, as I said before, they asked me what's one of the advice that I would give to somebody that wants to be an actor, and one of the ingredients that you need is patience. I'm still in the age range to play Morietus, so I'm still waiting for the perfect time and the studio or the production company or somebody that would be interested in doing it. We were making the script better. We're fixing it and waiting for that time to come.

C. Harker I am looking forward to that. Thank you very much.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

C. Fehskens I'd like to once again thank Cristián for being with us today. Remember to tune into an all new season of In Plain Sight, premiering Sunday, April 19th at 10:00/9:00 Central on USA Network. Have a great day, everyone.

C. de la Fuente Thank you.

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