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David Alan Basche on Being a ‘Starter Wife’ Baddie

by Chandra on October 9th, 2008

Versatile actor David Alan Basche definitely isn’t wanting for work these days. Currently familiar to fans as Nico’s persistent rival Mike Harness on the NBC dramedy Lipstick Jungle, Basche will do double duty on another dramedy beginning this Friday at 9pm EST. That’s when USA Network will premiere the series version of last year’s Emmy-winning miniseries The Starter Wife, which stars Will & Grace veteran Debra Messing.

Basche has a meaty role on the second show, too. Taking over from current House regular Peter Jacobson, Basche steps into the shoes of perhaps the most hated man in the Starter Wife universe, Molly Kagan’s (Messing) brutally self-centered ex-husband Kenny Kagan, the Hollywood executive who dumped her for a younger woman at the start of the saga.

During a recent interview, Basche immediately demonstrated one reason why he’s so in demand these days as he answered questions with an easy humor that seemed almost too good to not be scripted or rehearsed (it was neither, of course). Read on for the fun and revealing Q&A.

First, Lipstick Jungle, now The Starter Wife. How did you come into roles on two prominent series that target women, and what’s it like working with so many great actresses?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: I think luck has a lot to do with it. I couldn’t be happier being a working actor. Just that would be enough. To be able to make a living in this business is tough, and to be able to thrive is even harder. To get a shot at doing some network TV is almost like the icing on the cake.

I have to tell you, I’m feeling very grateful. I try to remind myself if I get a little too big for my britches and I start asking people to bring me coffee when the coffee machine is ten feet away, I try to remember that I waited tables long enough in New York to know that I’m lucky to be on two shows at once. I’m lucky to be on one show.

How did it come to be? I had come from a few other series, and actually when I auditioned for Lipstick Jungle, I knew the two show runners at the time. They had created a show called Three Sisters that I did with Vicki Lewis and Dyan Cannon on NBC. So, that was exciting to be back on NBC with Lipstick, which was great. Then plot twists and turns in Lipstick sort of left me a little bit available, and USA being part of the NBC universal family I guess had their eyes on me and that worked out very well that I was able to do The Starter Wife, too.

It’s been quite a year. I couldn’t be happier. My wife is eight months pregnant and due on December 3rd. So, that’s going to take the cake. I’ll tell you, that’s better than all of this. That’s kind of the long-winded answer about how did it happen and isn’t it great and hey, lucky me.

The other question about the great actresses and what’s it like, I’ve been very fortunate to work in film with some great directors, some male icons of directing, and similarly, I’ve worked with some great actors. But somehow I keep getting cast in situations that are surrounded by strong, powerful, beautiful women. And, you know, that just doesn’t suck.

It’s fantastic, and Debra Messing fits right into that category, of course. She is smart, she’s witty, she’s a comic genius — I don’t think I’m overstating that — and she’s just fantastic. So, I couldn’t be happier. As a guy, when you work around all these smart, powerful women you realize that they’re a lot smarter than you are. If you’re smart, you keep your mouth shut and do what they tell you, and things go really, really well.

In the miniseries, Peter Jacobson played Kenny Kagan. Did that create any challenges? Did you watch Peter’s performance as Kenny before you came into this, or are you taking it totally fresh?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: I think the answer to that is yes, yes, and yes. I know Peter Jacobson. I like Peter Jacobson. I’ve seen Peter socially since we both started our seasons, him being on House, of course, and me with The Starter Wife. I did watch all of the miniseries, and I loved him. I talked to the producers, to Sarah and Josie [Sara Parriott and Josie McGibbon], and Debra, about just doing things a little bit differently.

So, on the one hand, I have these big shoes to fill because Peter is just so great and kind of masters the throwaway and the low-key delivery. He’s really spectacular. I think the women wanted me to be a little more broad, which is perhaps why they chose me. I like big, broad comedy. I’m comfortable with it, and a fun challenge for me is always trying to toe the line between character and caricature.

Not to make Kenny a cartoon, we didn’t want to blow him up so big that he’s just unbelievable, but we did want to make him a little bit more broad and a little bit more bold and yet we still wanted everyone to kind of shake their heads whenever he says anything stupid. That was sort of the fun challenge. I hope, when push comes to shove, that I’ve achieved it.

I like the fact that Kenny drops the divorce bomb on Molly just shy of their 10th anniversary and just before the prenup expires. Is that par for the course in Hollywood?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: It’s really fascinating that Kenny drops this bomb right before the prenup expires. He’s not a stupid man. I frequently make fun of the character of Kenny and really like to, but he’s by no means unintelligent. He’s a very, very successful billion-dollar box office Hollywood producer. So, think what we may of those people, they usually don’t get where they are without having fairly strong intelligence.

So, Kenny knows most of the time exactly what he’s doing, unless he’s distracted by food or sex. This, unfortunately in my experience, is a little bit on the nose when it comes to Hollywood. Unfortunately, it’s been my experience having grown up on the East Coast and come out to L.A. to work — which I’m very grateful for and I actually kind of like L.A. — but sometimes you run into people in the business that are certainly much more interested in the perks of the business and the money and the fame and the allure and much less interested in decency and honesty and loyalty and good karma and saving the world and changing the world and making it a better place. So, I think certainly The Starter Wife has a little bit of both, but in terms of Kenny, I’m there to represent the bad side of Hollywood.

What type of research did you do for the role? Is there a little bit of Mike Harness in there as well?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: Well, in terms of research, I just had lunch at the Ivy and listened to all the conversations around me that I could, and that pretty much did it. There is a little Mike Harness in Kenny and there’s a little Kenny in Mike Harness.

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago, I think it was, and I hadn’t even realized that there sort of was an inspiration for me for Kenny, and I didn’t really recognize it, maybe because I don’t want to give the guy credit. He was an old agent of mine many, many years ago. He used to wink at me, and he used to say things like, “I’m your biggest fan,” and then he’d wink and point at me.

He said that to me right before dropping me and never speaking to me again, dropping me as a client. So, I think there’s a little bit of him in there. Hopefully he’s going to read all these blogs and know that it’s him and be pissed off that I haven’t given him credit by name.

We’ll see a lot of interaction between Kenny and Molly, but what about Kenny and Jaden, father and daughter?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: There is some wonderful stuff with the characters of Kenny and Jaden and some really fun, I think, a fun take on this father/daughter relationship in general and maybe even specifically on the father/daughter relationship involving a divorce.

Again, we poke fun at Hollywood, we poke fun at the Hollywood type of, in particular, of kind of a high-powered, very wealthy man who feels entitled to just about everything in his life and doesn’t show much respect to anyone and doesn’t seem to have much of a backbone. But that’s one area in particular where we may actually get to see Kenny do the right thing.

He’s certainly an idiot sometimes and self-focused. I’m really running out of adjectives to negatively describe him, but when it comes to his daughter, there’s no question that he really is able to put her first and recognize the love and attention that she needs. Though he can’t always communicate well with her, he certainly tries. I think people are going to find it very interesting.

Your wife Alysia Renier also has a role in the series (Cindy). What is it like working with your wife on set?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: It was spectacular working with Alysia on The Starter Wife. She’s in the first few episodes, and then she had to go back East to do some theater and some other work, so she wasn’t available after that. But we hope the producers will bring her back. They’ve indicated that they might, so now we’ve said it in print. So, hopefully they’ll read it.

It was great being on the same set with her. We met doing theater, and we’ve since done a lot of theater together. We’ve done some film work together. We’ve never been on the same television set. So, for us, it was really a treat. It was just very, very exciting to be able to do that together.

We had a ball, and she and Debra got along great. I actually know Debra’s husband a little bit from back in the day. We’ve since seen each other, and we’re kind of planning a dinner, the four of us, in New York. So, it’s been a wonderful thing to have both artists in the same house working and involved on the same project.

Could you share anything about what’s ahead for you outside of or after your current TV shows?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: You know, if I had that crystal ball, I would be a happy man. All I know is we premiere October 10th, and with any luck, the show will be well received. Then after that season, you know, we never know. Our fingers and toes and everything we can cross are crossed for Bonnie Hammer at USA and the rest of the gang there to pick us up and give us a shot at a second season. We’re having so much fun.

Other than that, career-wise I do some voice-over work and some other things that kind of keep me going in the meantime, which is great. But it’s working out well schedule-wise for me because we’ve just wrapped on The Starter Wife. We finished our 10th episode last week. Then I’m in L.A. but headed back to New York to settle in and really just to nest and get ready for our first baby.

So, I get to take a little time off and really just take care of my wife and be there for her. That’s very lucky. Not a lot of people get to do that, to take a few months off and just be home and kind of help set up the house and get ready. So, I’m very lucky.

The Starter Wife premieres on USA Network Friday, October 10, at 9pm EST.

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POSTED IN: David Alan Basche, Interviews