Q & A
From the broadcast on CBC
March 1999
Jane Hawtin Live
With guests Michael
Riley and Kari Matchett
Hawtin: Sexual
tension, one-upmanship and the struggle to see who comes out on top.
On Jane Hawtin Live, TV couples in a Power Play.
[They show a clip from episode 105 : The Off Season: Brett and Colleen
negotiating Brett's contract ]
Hawtin: Joining us now are Michael Riley, who plays Brett Parker, the
slick general manager of the Hamilton Steelheads and Kari Matchett, who
plays Colleen Blessed, the boss who drives him crazy. Welcome to the
show. You must have a blast playing these characters.
Matchett: It's great. Yep. It's great.
Hawtin: Do you really hate each other?
Riley: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Matchett: I hate Michael. He's an awful, terrible person.
Hawtin: Okay, now tell us more about the background of your characters
because, I mean, as a woman, you're a pretty young babe to be the head
of this hockey team.
Matchett: Yeah. I mean, there's not a woman who's a president
in all of the NHL, which is basically what we're representing.
And um... it's actually a thrill to be woman in this kind of position.
I mean this is the stuff you think of when you're a little girl. You
think, 'I want to be an actress and I want to wear beautiful clothes and
I want to have power', you know? That's an incredible thing to
play and play with and to be working with Michael and Gordon and... it's
a great theme.
Hawtin: And I bet it was your dream to grow up and play a character
who has to work for a woman.
Riley: No, I think it's kinda two sides of the same coin, you know?
Kind of a male/female versions of the same beast, you know?
Their pasts were quite similar as they come to understand in the first season.
They had some issues from their childhood that were similar. And
although they don't speak about that, I think that kinda precedes them
into every scene. So that kind of relationship they have with each
other, I think is all fueled with that stuff underneath.
Hawtin: Now the funny part is that, Michael, you don't know a heck
of a lot about hockey. You don't, do you? I mean, you didn't
play hockey as a child.
Riley: I knew it was going to come out.
Hawtin: I don't know if you're secretly not Canadian or what's the
deal with you?
Riley: No, I'm Canadian.
Hawtin: Fess up.
Riley: It was a necessary backdrop for growing up here, for sure.
But I didn't... it wasn't a sport that I kinda got into. I had kinda
a crash course... luckily the playoffs were going on when I was getting
ready, so I had lots of friends who, if I supplied the beer and pizza, they
would, you know, sit me down in front of the playoffs and I would... they
would tell me everything I wanted to know about the game, so...
Hawtin: So what other kind of prep work did you do? Cuz I
know you talked to a pal of ours, Gordon Kirke.
Riley: Yeah, Gordie. I sat with Gordon, who's a lawyer who
represents Eric Lindros. So there were two sides... I guess for me,
Brett was composed of two elements. There was all the... all that stuff,
the business side of who he was. I met with Donny Mehan, who's a sports
agent just to figure out, you know, what they do all day. Because
it's interesting, you know, because we get into these scenes in the office
and basically it's a scene going on but what are we doing? Like, who's
getting the paper from where and what are the actual business machinations
of the day? And so, just those kind of questions, they were very helpful
with. And then, just building the actual guy. The interior of
the guy. And he's pretty... because he has to sustain for a long time.
He's not very well, so...
Hawtin: So who is he modeled on, this sleazy general manager?
Riley: No one, I wouldn't say... maybe a compilation of guys.
Hawtin: If you knew more about hockey... Did that matter,
or no?
Riley: No, I don't think so. I don't think that ever matters.
There's a little pastiche, you can gleam information from different areas
but ultimately, you know, Brett is a function of who he is and from scratch
so...
Hawtin: Now Kari, you on the other hand, came from a very small
town, a 500-person small town.
Matchett: Yeah.
Hawtin: Spalding, Saskatchewan.
Matchett: Mm-hmm.
Hawtin: So, you knew from hockey, right?
Matchett: [unsure] Yeah.
Hawtin: Or maybe not. Neither of you knew about hockey.
Matchett: Well, I knew, sort of, in my pores and in my bones but
I didn't know the rules and I didn't know why they changed... why they
went on and off the ice so much.
Hawtin: The blue line and all that stuff.
Matchett: So I had to figure that out and my husband was very helpful
in doing that but, you know, growing up in a small town, I mean skating...
the ice rink is the biggest fixture besides the grain elevator in the town
so, you know, I would go and watch the hockey games and I've skated since
I could walk so it was a very natural thing to learn about and interesting,
you know? It was sort of about time that I got to know the reasons
behind the hockey.
Riley: And I think that the thing. It's not so much the actual
playing of the game. Like I say, it's a backdrop of growing up and
like in the show, it's not a show about hockey. It's a show set in
hockey, so, just the whole romance of the game. And Bill, one of our
executive producers, Bill Laurin had this great line about growing up and
being able to stay up, wrapped in a blanket and watch the third period as
a kid, you know? And just these kinds of... those Ken Dryden-kind of
home games and that warm kind of... it is a mythical underpinning of the
country, for sure.
Matchett: Yeah, it's poetry for many, many people.
For men, for years. And now women are starting to play hockey, which
I think is great. I mean, I wish I had but it wasn't really the thing
to do when I was growing up but now... Figure skating was the thing
that girls did but now it is and there's a real poetry to that.
Hawtin: You know what I love about the show? I love how Canadian
it is. We've had so many years of Toronto and Vancouver being
disguised as various, you know... Seattle or New York or whatever.
Man, this is Hamilton.
Matchett: Yeah, we go to Hamilton to film it too.
Hawtin: So tell me about that and the decision behind doing that,
having that kind of attitude.
Riley: Well, I think, as you say, we've always disguised our Canadian
cities as some metropolis. Maybe set in Toronto but it's not really
talked about so it could be anywhere. And this is definitely, you know,
Hamilton is a character in the piece. It's Hamilton, Ontario.
Bill was saying, I guess you could call it a destination piece. Like
Hawaii Five-O was a show where every week, they took you to Hawaii and
this is a show where every week, they take you to Hamilton, Ontario.
I think that's... it's a great idea. It is like a character in the
piece.
Matchett: And therefore, to Canada, you know?
Hawtin: Let's have a look at what we're talking about here.
Gordon Pinsent, who plays the owner, and I guess you're like a surrogate
daughter to him, is that the deal here?
Matchett: When I was... when Colleen, my character, was fifteen,
her father died and Gordon... Duff sort of took over taking care of me
and putting me in leadership camps and sent me to university and... of
course I was a brilliant student. And I became the president of the...
Hawtin: So he brought you back to be president of the team.
Matchett: Yeah, exactly.
Hawtin: Because it's his team and he can do whatever the hell he
wants.
Matchett: And I'm so smart.
Hawtin: This is Gordon Pinsent as Duff, showing Brett's girlfriend
around Hamilton.
[They show a second clip from episode 105 : The Off-Season: Duff is showing
Andrea a parking lot, which used to be the "Milky Way Ballroom"]
Hawtin: So what's the reaction been from people as to how Canadian
this is? [Long pause, Kari and Michael laugh.] No reaction
at all.
Matchett: No, there's been tons of reaction. People, my family,
and it's not just because I'm in it, but people love it. People on
the street stop me and tell me how much they love it and how important it
is that there's finally a show in Canada that represents hockey and does
represent Canada, as we were saying before. I think that's really important
to Canadian viewers to see images and likenesses of themselves.
Hawtin: What is that? Does that mean we're maturing?
That we can actually be on King of Kensington, a show that actually shows
Canada, talks about Canada. We had it with This Hour Has 22 Minutes
and those are in comedy and that kind of thing but to have a drama?
Riley: I do think it's important. Yeah... I don't know. [He
doesn't really answer the question.]
Hawtin: Well, let's talk about your character. That's okay.
We can forget about it.
Riley: Very Canadian of me.
Hawtin: Okay, we want to establish a bit more about your character,
how sleazy he is. Tell the story. There's been a fight.
The Steelheads have been in a fight in a bar and you've got a bad situation
that you need to fix.
Riley: Oh, that's right. One of my players has broken his
hand in a fight, with the cops, in a bar and so I get one of my other players
to break his hand in a practice that the press is attending so that they'll
see that it happened actually on the ice and not in the bar.
Hawtin: Pretend it happened on the ice. This is from Power
Play.
[They show a clip from episode 108: Purple Hazing: "Terminal" Todd breaks
Chartrand's left hand instead of his right one.]
Hawtin: Is that character named Ty?
Riley: No.
Hawtin: That's what is sounded like... So in developing the story
lines, do you guys have anything to do with that or is it like magic when
you see the script.
Riley: It's magic. Little elves bring the scripts and...
Matchett: And angels descend from above. The writers are
great on the show and the stuff that comes out of them is incredible.
So every once in a while I will bring up something that I think wasn't addressed
or just doesn't make sense to me and they've always, all of them have been
very open to listen to that but for the most part, the scripts were all
great and very intact.
Riley: It's a real dream scenario that way, you know?
As an actor, you get into a series and I was a little gun-shy about getting
into a series because it's a long time, one character. You want a
character that's interesting. You want great writers. You want
people that you're going to work with and know there's no animosity.
And this, all the way down the list, right the way through, it really is
kinda a dream job that way. If you're going to spend seventeen, eighteen
hours a day with people over the long run, you want the material to be good
and the work situation to be good and creatively, for it to be great, and
it fulfills all the stuff so I feel lucky.
Matchett: Mm-hmm. I do too.
Hawtin: That's great. Then we'll talk about the steam, shall
we? Up next, we find out why this couple is practically melting
the ice on Power Play.
[Another clip from 108: Purple Hazing just before the commercial: Colleen
and Brett are stuck in an elevator]
[After the commercial, they show a third clip from 108: Purple Hazing, Brett and Colleen "cooperate".]
Hawtin: Yeah, and that's when things started heating up on Power Play.
Our guests are Michael Riley, who plays Brett Parker, and Kari Matchett,
who is the boss of the Hamilton Steelheads. Now this must be... take
me through the progression. Right from the beginning, these two characters
have the hots for each other or what?
Riley: Let's see.
Matchett: Yeah, yeah.
Riley: No. Exactly.
Matchett: Typical. So typical. No, I think Colleen
has a pretty strong sense that she's attracted to him but go there.
Admits it, knows it, won't go there. She know what kind of person
he is and doesn't want to put herself there.
Riley: And I think Brett denies everything, even to himself.
I think he knows he's attracted... sure, she's an attractive girl but all
that stuff is kinda subliminal and he... to be intimate with anyone would
be kind of a psychological death to him, so I think he kinda just, you
know...
Hawtin: So this is a kind of Moonlighting thing, right?
Matchett: Yeah, there's that energy there for sure.
Hawtin: With these two strong characters who hate each other but...
Riley: Like they say: they don't cooperate, they compete.
Matchett: Yeah.
Hawtin: But things progress through the season for this particular
couple...
Matchett: They certainly do.
Riley: It's so weird to be so far away from it but just think back
on it but yeah. We started in the beginning where we're on the same
side basically.
Matchett: Yeah, in the very first episode.
Riley: We're trying to sell the team to Houston. We
both are.
Hawtin: You're trying to get out of this. It's a money thing.
Matchett: Yeah, we've made a deal.
Riley: We've made this deal and something happens with Brett, there's
pull back into Hamilton and the hockey. He's kind of emotionally
pulled back to the town and that puts him on the other side of the fence
where now he's going to stay and become GM and that puts them at odds.
Matchett: Yeah, that ruins the plan so it's all over, in terms
of Colleen.
Hawtin: And then?
Matchett: And then, just throughout the rest of the episodes, there's
sort of slight comings-together and then pulling apart. There's almost,
like almost glimpses of humanity with Brett's character, Colleen almost
wants to go there and then he does something just awful. I think
there's even a time or two where you [speaking to Michael] approach Colleen.
Riley: There's always kind of a... they've never arrived at the
same place, except for the beginning and the very, very end, where they're
both... the doors open at both times.
Matchett: Yeah, there's a lot of hits and misses.
Riley: She'll come... Colleen will come and say she is attracted
to Brett and he'll be like 'no, that's not...' and then by the time he
thinks about that for a few days and goes back and wants to get together,
it's too late.
Matchett: That's a line from the show too.
Hawtin: But this is what happens in the last episode.
[They show a clip from episode 113: Waked at the Forum : Brett and Colleen
say their good-byes.]
Hawtin: Great scene! What are you going to do next season, though?
Wasn't it Moonlighting where it killed that show when the two
of them went to bed together? That show was killed by that.
This is risky thing.
Riley: There's so much more to go. That's not the only dramatic
tension on the show. It's going to be like in the first thirteen
where there's going to be circles within circles of them coming back and
forth, I'm sure.
Matchett: This is not the beginning of a great relationship, in
terms of romance and traveling together or anything like that. I think
it's the beginning of another series of...
Hawtin: So we're not going to get happily married and have babies
or anything like that.
Riley: No, that's the thing about series. As soon as Brett
is well enough to have a relationship like that, then the series is over.
Then there's no where to go. I gotta keep him as self-blind and dysfunctional
as possible.
Hawtin: And jerky.
Riley: Yeah, for as long as possible.
Hawtin: So what's the experience been like for you, working on
a series, because you're well-known for the other kinds of work that you've
done, with the Geminis and the Genie nominations. It's a little different
for you to be in this.
Riley: Yeah, it is. And I think that's the thing... the metabolism
of a series is you do have to kind of put on the blinders and just deal
with one guy for that long, so the prerequisite when you're working on it
and choosing the material... and that's what was so great about this writing,
of course is that you're... the necessity is that it has to be multi-faceted.
It has to be something where I can wake up every morning and keep interesting
and, you know, for me, as well as for an audience. And he is a character
like that. There's just so many territories to go with him.
And so that was important to me. But it is a strange thing just to
stay inside one thing. I think it would be... therapy for me would
be to play another character, at least in the hiatus, like one other thing
to jump out and play.
Hawtin: And will you have time to do that? I mean with the
accolades from Win Again. You wouldn't want to be turning down stuff
like that.
Riley: No. You get to the end and, I mean, thirteen episodes...
it is quite a work load. You get to the end of that and you do kinda
want to just shut down for a little while, for sure. But I couldn't
ask for a better opportunity. If you're going to do a series, and
like I say, I was a little gun-shy, this would be the one. So I'm
really happy about that.
Hawtin: Now what about you, Kari? People should know that
you're playing older than you actually are. You're only in your twenties,
right? And you...
Riley: Really?
Hawtin: You're an old guy, compared to her. That Michael
Douglas theory.
Matchett: Remember that, Michael?
Hawtin: But with your background in the Moscow Theatre and all
of this, this is gotta be... is this where you planned to go?
Matchett: Well, I didn't say 'when I'm in my twenties, I want to
be the president of a hockey team I'm playing on TV' but it was a great
gift to get. I was thrilled. It's funny actually. I was
sitting with a friend at a restaurant the day I got the call to audition
for Colleen and she said 'what do you want to happen next in your career?'
and I said 'you know, I guess I want to be the lead in a series. That's
what I want. I want that experience. I want that time to work
with one character. I want that.' And then I got a call.
Bill Laurin called my agent that day. And we clinked our glasses to
that and her name was Colleen.
Hawtin: And the interesting part was that you originally auditioned
for the part of Brett's girlfriend. Isn't that right? And so
you ended up getting... I gather they had to re-write the character for
you because the character was supposed to be an older woman.
Matchett: They had originally written it for a woman who was ten
years older than me. So they changed the backstory and made it more
suitable to me and sort of aged me up a bit to early thirties and presto.
Hawtin: And how do you like the stardom?
Matchett: Um, I don't know. .. Stardom?
Riley: It's Canada, remember?
Hawtin: I know, but you still get recognized already, right?
Matchett: Yeah, that's happened. It's great.
It's an amazing thing to know that people are seeing the show and that
it's reaching people. It's an incredible feeling.
Hawtin: Well, congratulations. And I'm glad the show has
been renewed and we'll look forward to it in rerun.
Riley/Matchett: Thanks.
Hawtin: Michael Riley and Kari Matchett of Power Play.