Molly’s New Man: Hart Bochner Talks ‘The Starter Wife’

by Chandra on October 10th, 2008

Debra Messing, Hart Bochner/The Starter Wife When The Starter Wife begins tonight, there will be a new man around for Molly: Hart Bochner’s Zach McNeill. The series website describes the character as someone Molly will get the hots for when she joins the novelist’s writing class. Well, a woman could definitely do worse.

In support of the series premiere, Bochner recently answered questions about his latest television role. Read on to find out more about Zach, a neighbor of Molly’s ex-husband Kenny in an apartment building filled with divorced fathers, and the actor who plays him.

[And, if you haven’t already done so, take a moment to enter one or more Starter Wife giveaways underway and win fab prizes: Get Glam Giveaway and Sujean Rim & Poster Giveaway]

All about Zach McNeill

HART BOCHNER: He’s a very successful screenwriter and he’s a very successful guy who got started out as a journalist and won a Pulitzer in his late 20’s and then became an overnight success in Hollywood. The first screenplay that he wrote was turned into a film, and he got nominated for an Oscar.

Not that it’s been downhill from that point on, but he sort of has reached a point in his career now where he’s somewhat blocked creatively, and he’s in the process of writing a novel. By virtue of the fact that he’s having trouble freeing his creative juices, he decides that he’s going to have a writers’ workshop, which I think he does as a way of not only giving back, but as a way of looking for a way to free his creative flow.

So, he has about a half a dozen published authors come to his place once a week, where they discuss process and start working on various projects that they’re writing. One of the characters is Debra Messing’s character who is a purported published author. It turns out she’s written a children’s pop-up book, so she doesn’t carry the legitimacy of the other writers in the workshop.

But she very quickly discovers her own voice by virtue of revealing this journal that she’s been writing. It’s quirky and idiosyncratic, and under my guidance she writes a screenplay, which gains a certain amount of momentum. And by virtue of what she reveals in herself through her writing, my character, Zach, becomes intrigued by her.

We’re sort of kindred spirits in the fact that we’ve come out very difficult marriages. We’d been married to high powered people in the industry. My wife is, while I don’t want to call her, my ex-wife, a shrew, she’s a ballsy woman who is a powerful agent. She runs an agency. That’s then hard on my psyche by virtue of the fact that we have a seven-year-old daughter and I’m looking for someone who is supportive of me and she’s anything but.

Debra’s character, Molly, is coming out of a marriage where she was with a man who wasn’t particularly there for her. They also have a seven-year-old daughter. So, the two of us are somewhat wounded and gun shy about getting back into real relationships, and yet we sort of take baby steps towards one another and we find ourselves, as the show evolves, becoming more and more involved.

The most rewarding thing about Zach

HART BOCHNER: I think the fact that the character has a complexity, which makes him not just the romantic interest per se. He’s flawed. I think all the characters in this show, as funny as the show is and as quirky as it is, I think what makes the show compelling is, is that everybody is a bit neurotic and flawed. The fact that I’m not looking to find a woman that mirrors the relationship that I’ve just come out of — which is having been married to a very blustery, successful business woman — I want somebody who’s going to nurture me.

And like all men, this character needs a woman in his life to champion him and to motor him, and that’s what’s been sorely lacking in his life. And what he finds in Debra’s character, and Molly is someone who has the glowing eyes that feed him, but also someone who challenges him. I think what is most surprising to my character is, I’ve been having dalliances after having come out of this tough marriage with women that are inappropriate, but eye candy, younger, hotter, but ultimately not very satisfying intellectually, and Molly comes along and surprises me.

I think that there are various things that I can bring to my own experience to this character. I am a writer as well. I have gone through periods where I’ve been blocked creatively, as I guess all of us have, so the rhythms of the character felt close to me. Although we had different backgrounds, it, in many ways, it felt very relatable, and so that was a lot of fun. Just sparring with Debra everyday was great because it’s like when you play tennis with somebody who’s a master, it elevates your game, and I feel that way about her, so that’s really been a joy for me.

Stepping in mid-series

HART BOCHNER: Well, this show is sort of its own entity in that the mini-series was about marriage and the demise of that marriage. This picks up really from an entirely a new place, which is Molly trying to find her sea legs and declaring herself and finding a career for herself. So, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not like— I didn’t take over for another actor. It’s a new character. It’s a brand new relationship for Molly.

It was nothing but terrific. I can’t say enough good things about the show, my experience or working with Debra. She’s just an absolute joy, and I’m just crazy about her. We finished last night, and it was all very sad for everybody. We’re very much hoping that we’re coming back, obviously, and we have high expectations for the show.

But nonetheless, we shot ten episodes and it became like a family. It became a family really very quickly. It was the nicest group that I’ve ever worked with. A lot of that is due to Debra and the fact that expression “the fish stinks from the head.” Well, she’s just delightful and adorable and incredibly gifted, and we had so much fun everyday.

What I find so remarkable about Debra, while everyone calls her the Lucille Ball of her generation is, she’s also brilliant dramatically. She can turn that on a dime. And so for me, it was just really a question of showing up and being in the moment because most of my scenes, all of my scenes are with her. So, it was really quite easy to see and feel that relationship evolve just by virtue of being there with her everyday.

Memorable moments on-set

HART BOCHNER: Well, we do these fantasy sequences in every episode, which are really interesting. They’re segments from various movies, sort of seminal movies: Body Heat, A Few Good Men. We just did Basic Instinct.

Debra has this uncanny ability to sink into these characters, and I think that’s been a great joy for her. But watching her, when we did Hello Dolly̬ We did a version of Hello Dolly, and we were shooting downtown at the Los Angeles Theatre, which is one of these great, old iconic theatres of the city. I walked on the set and this Carol Channing figure is smiling at me and I thought, “Who the hell is that?”

And it was Debra, completely done up. And then I walk on the set the other night, and there she is as Sharon Stone. I was playing the Tom Cruise character in A Few Good Men, and she was Jack Nicholson, and there she was. Look, she doesn’t look like a man or Jack Nicholson, but the demeanor and the way she attacked the sequence was just astounding.

I’ve had a blast all the way through. But I think the fantasy sequences are so unique and hilarious and well observed that I guess that would have to be the part of the show that I’ve gotten the biggest yucks from.

Which is best: directing or acting?

HART BOCHNER: Well, it’s interesting. I really, really always wanted to be a director. So, when I started, for me, it was like really fulfilling a dream. Acting was something that I kind of got into accidentally when I was about 19 years old.

I was discovered at an open house at the American Film Institute, because I wanted to go to film school, and this woman came up to me and asked me my name. And a couple of months later, I got a call from Paramount, and six months after that, I was playing opposite George C. Scott in this Hemingway movie called Islands in the Stream.

So, it took me about 16 years to get behind the camera, but when I started directing, after I directed PCU and High School High, I thought if I could continue doing this, that’s a pretty good deal for me. Those movies, quite frankly, didn’t hit the number that studios need to show their shareholders in order to hire you again, and I found myself having to reinvent myself as a filmmaker.

So, I had various projects in development that took a nosedive, and then I had another movie that was good to go and that fell apart. Then I got this movie made, but in the interim I went back into acting and did some pieces, but I had taken several years off from acting because I wanted to be taken seriously as a director.

And then I started missing acting. And getting back into it now, especially after I’ve had years away from it, it’s much more fun now. I also think that for a man, once you grow into yourself, the words that come out of your mouth fit in your body better as you mature. I find that that has been a really interesting process. It makes the work a lot more pleasurable, I have to admit.

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

Photo: USA Network

Tags: Debra Messing, dramedies, fall 2008, Hart Bochner, Interviews, Spoilers, The Starter Wife, usa, usa network

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