By Christiane Elin

Some of Necessary Roughness’s story lines are wrapping up while new ones emerge on the mid-season finale. During a conference call SciFi Vision attended with Necessary Roughness star, Callie Thorne, she shared her thoughts about the mid-season finale.

“T.K. and Dani and Matt and Nico all are sort of forced into this big fork in the road that is about choice. And not being able to figure out if there’s a right or a wrong. I think we all were in this place, we were all very excited to be and to have the show take this particular tone for a finale.”

Thorne goes on to say, “we wanted to keep everything really grounded in reality and not have it necessarily be something soap opera-ish, but much more developed in the big choices in life, the game changers.”

USA Network Conference Call
Necessary Roughness
Callie Thorne

August 23, 2012
1:30 p.m. CT

QUESTION: I wanted to know something about the path to personal wealth that awaits (unintelligible) herself. What I mean is that she asks everyone to figure out their life, including the romantic ones, sometimes. But it seems that while she knows what she wants, because I think it’s pretty clear at this point that what she wants and needed next, she won’t admit it to herself, and she has a hard time figuring out how to get there. And I know there are many complications in upcoming episodes, including Dani going to see a therapist herself...

CALLIE THORNE: Yes...

QUESTION: That we would see that in the winter. I also know that at the end season, there will be one case in particular that will be a wake up call for her in terms of, stop waiting and putting happiness on hold. The life doesn’t last forever, and you need to grab it while you can. Can you tell us a bit more about the past (unintelligible) upcoming until the end of the season?

CALLIE THORNE: In regards to the past, it’s such a good question because she is the fixer, and the idea of this fixer needing help to be fixed herself. And in regards to Matt, how we’ve seen that relationship come to such a big wall in regards to the fact that Matt definitely wants kids, and Dani makes this big sacrifice because she doesn’t want kids, and she doesn’t want to feel like she’s stopping Matt from his own dreams.

So it’s obvious that they love each other, but now they’re in this weird limbo. And it sets up her feeling vulnerable and - in regards to her relationship with Nico as well, and how they are polar opposites and always have been as men, and in her life and as we’re coming to this summer finale, we see her in her private life, in the most vulnerable in regards to her kids as well, and points that they’re reaching in her life, every which way she turns, everything feels like a question.

And she can’t answer them. And yet, where we go to in a little bit is that we finally see her reach out for help. And Peter McNichol, who plays the therapist, is genius. And those therapy scenes -- I don’t want to give anything away -- but they’re really eye-opening for her and very surprising.

But this point now, this strange limbo that can be a little bit paralyzing, leaves her to wonder whether or not she’s making the wrong decision with Matt and possibly finding herself losing the love of her life. And then because of the work circumstances, suddenly there’s this open possibility with Nico, which then throws her into mass confusion.

And the one thing that it does do, it keeps her grounded in the work, because that’s the one place that she can go to that she knows answers and she can use her own questions to help her guide her patients and help them.

But then at the end of the day, she’s still struggling and it - thankfully, that’s what we do on our show, and we don’t tie everything up in a bow. And I think it’s very interesting for the audience to be with her in the present and see that she is a woman with the relatable problems that everybody can find themselves in.

QUESTION: There’s a lot of trouble (Ray Jay) gets in...

((Crosstalk))

CALLIE THORNE: Oh, Ray Jay...

QUESTION: That’s what links back her relationship with Matt as well, right?

CALLIE THORNE: Yes. That comes up in a little bit, because Ray Jay is sort of - he’s becoming man. And he finds himself in a situation where he’s wanting and needing to make these choices that, as mother, Dani can’t come to grips with.

And, again, that’s a place where every mother finds herself at some point, whether it’s for the son or daughter. And the way the writers handle that hurdle - it is a parallel in regards to her own life and to some of the patients that come her way.

And I think that whether or not she makes mistakes, whether they’re with her love life or with her children or her own placement in her life, there all seems that - I think and hope will make others contemplate their own choices in life. I don’t think that things can ever be right or wrong, it’s just the paths that you take, the forks in your life.

And that’s really where we find the - in the season finale, is it’s about the forks in life, and that there’s no right or wrong, it’s just the way that you handle yourself and following the truth that you find yourself in. And that’s just struggle. That’s hard to do, but it makes everything that much more worth it.

QUESTION: You just talked a little bit about Dani’s evolution, but I want to speak a little bit about your own evolution through the character. I wrote an article about Necessary Roughness when you were nominated for your Golden Globe. And I called your portrayal “achingly beautiful.”

CALLIE THORNE: Yes, I remember, which I thank you for tremendously. That is ingrained in my mind.

QUESTION: Well, the words say it all and I want to find out how you evolved as an actress through playing these really powerful, strong female roles that seem to be a little bit rare nowadays with shows like The Closer going off the air.

CALLIE THORNE: Yes. I feel very, very lucky to be in this place, especially jumping from Rescue Me with a role like Sheila into the role of Dani, and they are polar opposites. But one is not easier than the other.

And I remember that we spoke about stuff like that before. But, especially through the second season, and especially now, with the mid-season finale, as an actress and as a woman - though I have a lot similarities with Dani, how she is at work and the drive that she has to follow a path for her patients and follow a path for herself, and that she has guts, or at last will fake it until she makes it.

And I try to live myself that way. The fact that she’s a mother and also the place where she is in the triangle in her life and the idea of possibly losing the love of your life, those are things, at least right now, I know nothing about in my real life.

And it makes playing this character one of the richest times of my life because I have to do my homework. I have to sit and think. Sometimes with a role or with a scene, it’s something that you can just say, “What would I do in this moment,” and you just stay honest and you follow through on your connection with the other actor.

But there are a lot of moments in Necessary Roughness where I have to take a time out. I can’t joke in between takes, which we are all wont to do. I have to separate myself, and whether or not that means listening to a particular song or remembering conversations that I’ve had with other women that are in places like that.

It’s why you (unintelligible), it’s why you become an actor. You want to find those places and tell those stories as honestly as you can, but it’s putting yourself through that thought process that will then, hopefully, elevate my real life and how I handle myself in my real life.

I can’t think of another job that would ever let me do that or ever lead me down those paths and I feel very grateful.

QUESTION: I’d also like to hear a little bit about the fan feedback that you receive. I know that you don’t have Twitter and the social media aspect of getting that instant feedback, but are people still coming up to you in Atlanta where you film?

CALLIE THORNE: In Atlanta, we are incredibly well-received as a cast, and I don’t have a lot of free time, but that free time I do spend with the boys, whether we’re going to movies or going to dinner, or sometimes with our crew because we’re such a tight-knit family that even though we’re together for 12, 13, 14 hours a day, they’re also the people that you want to go laugh with after work and dish and giggle about the good and bad times.

And here, wherever we go, people - it’s really funny, because they may not know our real names, but everywhere I go in Atlanta, somebody is yelling out, “Hey, Doc,” which always makes me giggle.

And I love it. For Rescue Me, people always yelled out “Crazy Sheila,” right? And here, it’s “Hey, Doc.” And I even went on vacation over the Fourth and I was in Savannah and it’s something that really warms my heart, because whether or not people are connecting with the story lines or connecting with a certain character, I love that people are comfortable enough to come up and talk to me, and ask me questions about who I’m going to end up with.

And all of our fans, no matter how old or young, men or women, everyone is always really very elated. I love that people want to ask questions. It isn’t always like, “Will you sign this,” or “Can we take a picture?” People want to talk.

And they’re always like, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother you,” and we’re all like, “Oh my God, you’re not bothering us.” This is a joy, because it’s easy to forget sometimes that the show is airing because we’re in Atlanta. We’re not in New York or L.A. where you’re doing more press because that’s where a lot of the press is. And so it actually feeds our egos, obviously, but it also feeds us running back to work and wanting to continue telling good stories.

QUESTION: I want to talk a little bit about the summer finale specifically, if you can. Obviously, there’s so many different things that are pulling at Dani’s focus right now, from family to [TK’s] addiction, now this new trouble with her job. Can you talk a little bit about her mindset in the beginning of the episode and where her focus really is throughout the episode?

CALLIE THORNE: In regards to the episode that aired last night, I think that it’s a perfect lead in to this heightened state of her life and everybody’s life because of T.K. being the main connection between our main characters. And when he struggles, we all struggle.

And I think because Dani is in vulnerable state in her own personal life with what’s going on with her kids and Ray Jay specifically and the trouble that he is most probably leading himself into. And as a mother, Dani can’t, as much as she wants to control it, she can’t. And she can’t control her feelings. I mean she made the sacrifice to let Matt go, but that doesn’t mean that she feels solid with herself. She feels like she did a solid, but it leaves her in this very wondrous question mark.

But I think, as is true in many other people’s lives, it then becomes easier for her to zone in on the work, to zone in on T.K. and not turn away, not let things go, and even though Matt and Nico at first were not so sure about whether or not there was a real problem with Terrence and a possible addiction, she was not going to let that go, she was continue, whether it was doing it on her own or being able to convince them.

And that path that we see them all go on next week is - very all of a sudden life goes into fast forward, and everyone’s in a place where you’ve got to make a choice. And whether or not she is trying to help T.K. make the right choice in regards to himself and being honest with himself, it’s hard for her to do that on her own, but it makes it easier to help someone else see the light.

And it also helps to drive others around her and it was fun, even though we were shooting some really heavy stuff, those scenes were really - we were also shooting at a very fast pace because there were a lot of locations and you’ve got to make your days, and so it was a really crazy couple of weeks, but an enormous amount of fun because everybody’s separate story lines are so rich that we all were chomping at the bit. And that was pretty damn cool.

QUESTION: Okay. And how close will she get with Nico before the end of the little finale, the little break?

CALLIE THORNE: I don’t know how to answer it without getting in trouble. I think that it’s sort of a blindside. She gets a little blindsided because it’s all of a sudden, how she has been trying to not deny her personal, but, like I said, it’s much easier for her to head in the work mode.

I think that certainly with Nico, because they are so focused on T.K., that the fact that anything personal pops us is sort of mysterious and in itself a surprise. And also because we know so little about Nico as a man and as Dani gets a little bit closer to the inner Nico, I think that it’s perfect for the audiences to also get into the inner Nico.

QUESTION: I feel like Dani is ultimately going to be like Mary Louise Parker’s character from Weeds in the rest of the season, I had that feeling watching last week’s episode, and I was like, oh, that’s what Ray Jay’s going to do.

CALLIE THORNE: I haven’t, because of our schedule here, I haven’t been able to keep up in the season of Weeds, but anything that could be compared to anything Mary Louise Parker does, even if it’s just the story line, is a jackpot. That’s very kind.

QUESTION: So I want to know, for you personally, sizing up Matt and Nico, because the fans are very divided. They’re either Team Matt, he’s her true love, or now you’re getting a lot of fans who are like, no, I’m Team Nico because that’s what works right now, they’re really working together.

CALLIE THORNE: I know. I love it, I love it, I love it, because that idea of Matt being this very - he is the solid, good man do-right, and he’s like a hug, do you know what I mean? He’s like a delicious, romantic hug, and then Nico is the bad boy that you can’t figure out and all you want to do is figure him out, which of course is just as sexy as the good guy.

And I was very excited that the writers leaned a little bit more towards the triangle because I want to know, as Callie, I want to know where, or what she’s going to do and how she’s going to do it. And so if it’s that much more exciting it’s making me as an actress be like, “Come on guys, give me a little hint,” because sometimes you don’t want to know the end result as an actress, and there are times when you’re just a fan yourself.

And you want to know, but I’ve been waiting a little bit for it to reach this point in the show. And so I love that there’s any kind of Team Matt, Team Nico, I think that it’s crazy and exciting.

QUESTION: Definitely. Do you swing one way or the other, or are you just as split as the fans?

CALLIE THORNE: I’m split as a fan because it literally happens scene to scene. If I’m a scene with Marc Blucas, I’m like, “Oh, she’s got to end up with Matt, she has to.” And then if I’m doing a scene with Scott Cohen, I’m always thinking, “Oh, no, no, no, she’s got to be with the guy that she’s got to try and put together like a pule.”

QUESTION: Yes, I’m sure Scott and Marc have like a pool going.

CALLIE THORNE: I think that they do, and I think that they really dig the idea that fans are divided. And we joke a lot about it on set, there’s a lot of teasing. There’s a lot of joking. Even with the crew, and it helps to make the day more fun, for sure.

QUESTION: Definitely, well, I’m going to get my Team Matt shirt ready for next week.

CALLIE THORNE: I love it.

QUESTION: This midseason finale is really unbelievably dramatic, and I was just wondering, did you have any parts in it that are your favorite, without giving too much away? Ad how is it working with the fish?

CALLIE THORNE: Little Dude, as I call him. I think that any of the stuff that we ever shot with Little Dude was always - I sort of treated him as the third man in my life, which made those scenes that much more fun to play.

And, yes, the midseason finale, in regards to how Necessary Roughness, we think of it as a drama with a really good dose of comedy, but this place that T.K. and Dani and Matt and Nico all are forced into, this big fork in the road that is about choice.

And not being able to figure out if there’s a right or a wrong. And I really think we all were in this place - we were all very excited to be and to have the show take this particular tone for a finale, because we want the audience to try and figure out along with us was part of the M.O.

And whether or not something ends with a gunshot or with this gigantic, heightened level of fear, excitement, love, whatever it is, we wanted to keep everything really grounded in reality and not have it necessarily be something soap opera-ish, but much more developed in the big choices in life, the game changers.

QUESTION: Can you talk about one of my favorite aspects of the show, the Dani relationship with T.K.? Can you talk why that pairing is so successful as therapist and client, and how hard has it been for Dani to see what’s been going on with T.K. lately?

CALLIE THORNE: I think that the relationship between T.K. and Dani is - because it is the central thing, that from the beginning of the show, from the pilot, T.K. is the character that really connects to everybody.

Sometimes people say that my character is who connects everybody within our world, but more often I feel like it’s T.K. And because he holds so much an amazing spot in her heart, I think that, especially when we get to shoot those scenes, Mehcad and I, we also have a very different and separate and special friendship. I think that was developed in the pilot.

He and I really got on from the get-go and we have the same drive to tell a good story within the show, but we laugh and laugh and laugh. We have such the same sense of humor and he can break me in a scene faster than most people I know. I try to pride myself on no matter what’s going on, I’m not breaking, but, man, Mehcad will come up with the craziest improvs, and it doesn’t matter, sometimes I’ll just have to walk off camera, I’ll have to walk off set and go compose myself. But because of that chemistry that we have as friends, I think that it comes across on camera.

And whether it’s a parental connection that Dani has with him, or whether it can’t be categorized because he’s never met a woman like Dani and she’s never met a man like him, and so I think that there is this real sense of trust and there is a real sense of being -- well, previous to where we find ourselves now, there has always been a place where they can let, and especially T.K., let his defense down.

But where we find ourselves now is this moment in time where parents might be going backwards, and so Dani trying to zone back into that place that they had gotten to, is, I think, very complex and interesting, without giving anything away.

QUESTION: Seeing how your character is a therapist, I was wondering how much research does it take to get into the mind of a therapist?

CALLIE THORNE: I’m very lucky in that because the role is based on a real woman, her life story and how she got this particular point in her life. I have always had her, since we made the pilot, I’ve always had her to turn to in regards to things that could get confusing to me, whether it was about a particular issue or disorder, or how you handle yourself within sessions.

And I have had a lot therapy experience in my life myself. I love therapy. I’ve been going to therapy forever, and so I think that because I am so fascinated myself with the idea of always trying to figure yourself out and always trying to be honest with yourself, that you can make strong choices in your life, then it makes me that much more interested in the other side of it.

And so I am always learning. Even if it’s just me doing my own research. And I’ve not been able to play a role like that before, but the main point being that I have Dr. Donna to turn to in times of great confusion or question. And for that I am blessed.