Campbell Scott (The Spanish Prisoner, Roger Dodger) and Hope Davis (American Splendor) are both indie-film darlings, for better and worse—they’ve won loyal fans with fantastic performances in films that few people outside a five-mile radius of Film Forum have ever seen. This season, the frequent collaborators decided to sign on for a network-television series: ABC’s slick, highly anticipated, J. J. Abrams–produced drama Six Degrees, about the intersecting stories of six strangers in the city. They spoke to Jada Yuan.
Have you ever considered doing TV before?
H.D.: Not really. But for us it doesn’t seem any different than making an independent film. Only now we’re shooting a film every two weeks. C.S.: I’ve done lots of TV, but all in TV movies and stuff. Usually those are mortgage-paying jobs and you hope for the best. But a series I had never considered. This one just fell into place.
What television shows do you watch?
H.D.: Uh-oh. C.S.: “Pause …” H.D.: I don’t … I don’t have a television right now. But I’m getting one. C.S.: Come on! Tell the truth. H.D.: We went to P.C. Richard yesterday, and my husband picked out a 32-incher. C.S.: You’re getting a huge television! And I always so admired you because you were like, “Oh, we don’t have a TV.” H.D.: I know. But that’s getting really tiring.
Will you be watching yourself?
H.D.: Eh … sure. I’ll watch the show. And I’m going to catch up on some of the other big things going on. C.S.: Like? H.D.: Oh, God. I don’t even know the names of them. C.S.: Wheel of Fortune? H.D.: Wheel of Fortune?! Is that still on? C.S.: Oh, yeah, baby.
Is that what you watch, Campbell?
C.S.: Oh, God, no. I don’t watch anything, really. I live out in the middle of nowhere. I’ve got an antenna on my roof, so I get seven channels.
Everyone is going to ask you this, but what’s your best tale of six degrees of separation?
H.D.: Okay, here’s my big one. Campbell, you know my husband, Jonathan [Jon Patrick Walker]. C.S.: I’m afraid so. H.D.: We found out, many dates into our courtship, if that word still exists, that we’d worked in the same theater. When I was doing a play in the upstairs theater, he was still finishing a run in the downstairs theater, and so, in fact, for weeks we were just a couple of feet away from one another but didn’t know it, and, you know, just this whole idea that the person you might fall in love with could be right around the corner. I mean, for us, it was true.
What theater was it?
H.D.: It was the Variety Arts. He was downstairs hopping around and screaming his head off, and I was upstairs hopping around in a negligee and screaming my head off. C.S.: [Laughing] That is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.
—Six Degrees, ABC; premieres September 21 (10 p.m.) Next: Shark Is the New House