As spilt in
Luke Macfarlane's interview Season 3 of
Brothers & Sisters starts on M-Net on Thursday (13 August) - after Season 2 ended with a first-time sibling smoochery between Justin and Rebecca.
"Mmm, this is soo wrong but I MUST."
Both
Luke (who plays Scotty) and
Dave Annable (who plays Justin) were in town recently - to semi-holiday and chat about the show.
I caught up with each of them to get the goss on the new season and find out more about them.
Here's what Dave had to say:
People's Sexiest
Tashi: Being an actor on such a mega-hit show that’s won so many awards and has so much hype and being on People’s Sexiest Man Alive list (I can repeat that if you want!) - I can’t imagine what that would feel like - how has it all impacted on you? How has your life changed?
Dave: It’s definitely life-changing. Getting this part and having the success - I mean I’m in South Africa when my parents haven’t even been out of the US.
Before you wonder “Will anyone ever recognise me?” and then you end up going to the furthest places of the world and being recognised - it’s just ... awesome. I grew up in such a regular humble family and I think I can appreciate this.
Every morning I wake up and say “Wow, I’m so lucky,” I never want to take any of this for granted and I hope I never will.
Tashi: Do you get asked for autographs a lot? Can you go out? How does it work?
Dave: Yes the past couple of years - what’s really great is that my parents love it. They’ll walk a couple of feet behind me and when people recognise me they go “Look,” it’s really sweet.
It’s at a really great level right now - I’d be terrified to be this huge star because then you can’t leave your house without being mobbed.
Sometimes it can be pretty scarey, where you get a bunch of people coming up to you or people who’s lines are a little fuzzed and they’ll come up to touch you - they think they know you ‘cos you’re in their homes every week but I couldn’t imagine being all over the place, who wants that? - I got too many secrets for that to happen.
"No don't tell me! I don't wanna know."
Tashi: Could you tell us what a day on set is like?
Dave: We get to work, we know what scenes are happening that day, first of all it rocks to be sitting next to Sally Field in hair and make-up, I’m like “Hey Sal.” You never get used to that.
Work is just fun, I go to work and try to have a blast every day and learn every day. I’ve only been acting for six years so for me it’s like going to school every day. Sally’s won two Oscars and Ron Rifkin’s won 20 awards and Rachel’s been nominated for an Oscar - it’s mind-boggling, it’s great.
Tashi: Has there been something that you’ve done that’s been really cringeworthy where you’ve gone like “Eeeeuw, I can’t believe I did that!”
Dave: Absolutely. You know you have scenes where you’re like "Mmmmm - eeeeuw”. I think every actor has scenes you’re more proud of than others.
Also you have to try to keep your private life separate - if you’re going through a break-up or heard bad news about your family, you have to try to separate things, which can be hard not to be distracted.
Walker No-Walls
Tashi: Do you start filming at the crack of the dawn?
Dave: Yes we shoot about four scenes a day and if you’re in all four you get there at about 6am and work until 22h00 or 23h00. I’m not complaining though ‘cos in between you go to your dressing room where you have your X-box, you know what I’m saying.
Tashi: It’s all filmed on the Disney lot?
Dave: Yes, we have four stages - we have the Walker house and the various settings. It’s crazy because it looks so real on TV but you’ll be in the Walker house kitchen and there’s no wall over here but cameras.
People come on set and go “Wow, this is fake.” My family arrived and were like “Oh,” - it’s beautiful but people can put up sets and take them down the next day and put them back up.
We have very few location scenes but they’re always fun when you go out in the world. I keep pitching for “The Walker’s go on Vacation” - to South Africa.
To Be Or Not To Be?
Tashi: With Justin’s drug abuse, the war trauma - do have to have been through it all to act it convincingly?
Justin: There is that sort of method acting - I’ve never been in the military, I’ve never had a substance abuse problem so you have to fake it. As an actor you do your research, you investigate it to make it convincing .
With the intervention last season I had to do that - I’ve never been in one, none of my friends have so you have to try to talk to people who’ve had a substance abuse problem.
Also, when I was researching Justin going to war, I spoke to a lot of veterans to find out how them and their families handled it. So my job is to fake it as realistically as possible.
Tashi: How do you that convincingly? Is it what you think? What you feel?
Justin: Everyone has their own sort style - for me I just try to put myself in that position.
Our job’s creating - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and that’s where your director comes in. He’ll be like “Okay, that was ...
interesting - I think you should try it this way.”
That’s what’s so scary - you’re putting yourself out there. Even though you’re playing a character, that’s you in millions of people’s homes each week. But that’s our job. For me I just try to put myself there, in that moment, in that time, say these are my family members and hope for the best.
13-hours 'til Chill-Out
Tashi: What’s your most difficult scene of the first two seasons?
Justin: The intervention scene. I had a lot of dialogue in it and got the script the day before. I stayed up all night learning the lines because when you’re acting you don’t want to be thinking about your lines - you want to emotionally connected to everyone in the scene.
Also there were so many people watching who maybe have been through an intervention you can’t be worrying about your lines and you want to do right and do it justice.
We did that scene for 13 hours so by the end of the day, with all the yelling and crying I had no voice left, because they do the scene from everyone’s angles and you have to give the same performance.
You want to be generous to the other actors so even when the camera isn’t on you still you want to get an honest reaction out of the actors.
It was exhausting - sometimes in your life, in whatever field you’re in, you surprise yourself and I was proud of it and ended up winning an award for it so it was pretty cool.
Season 3 Sneak Peak
Tashi: Who's Justin’s fave sibling?
Justin: Oooh - well his favourite non-sibling's Rebecca. *laughs* You know when I first got the job and we were talking about our characters - Justin was always really close with Kitty. She was his maternal sibling, took care of him, she was the one who’d sit him down to talk to him about the war.
I don’t know if it’s panned out as much as they said it was going to but I know they do want to get back into that.
Tashi: What can we look forward to in Season 3 from Justin?
Justin: He has an interesting road because he’s figuring out his relationship with Rebecca, whether it’s gonna be romantic, or they’re gonna be friends - “Is she my sister or isn’t she?” He’s sort of got that ride - which isn’t an easy ride for him.
Justin and Rebecca are soul-mates, whether they’re friends or lovers for the fact that they need each other. It’s a really interesting relationship to explore - I think people will enjoy the ride, I hope.
Related linksTVSA's Brothers & Sisters Season 3 Show PageDAVE'S SNAPARAZZI GALLERY: 
B & S Starter Kit - a 5-minute recap of Seasons 1 & 2