Zen on PBS

[chocolate]

Thanks, PrairieGirl!, we have spotted your clips already, and I even posted (I think) one of them, or at least though of posting it on the FB page. But definitely they have been watched quite a bit.

[PrairieGirl]

Hi chocolate, glad to hear they've been enjoyed. They were such hard work to put together (NOT!) ... watching my favorite scenes of Ruf over and over and over... I've barely opened my local PBS station's magazine yet this month, what with Rufus as Zen looking ever so enticing on the cover ;-D

[rueful]

LOL! You know, that's how PBS could get more subscribers. Offer a year's subscription to a station guide with Rufus on the cover every month!

Thanks for enduring the hardship of rewatching Zen for us, PrairieGirl! It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!

[kissmekate]

Jul 9, 2011 8:45:52 GMT GreenEyesToo said:

In the Rufuniverse, fangirls gravitate around our man, but that does cause the atoms to get jumbled occasionally......

Priceless, GE2! May I borrow this for my signature?

stama said:

Mr. Sewell said he was philosophical about the situation. “There were rumblings in the air that certain people weren’t that fond of the tone and, for me, I think the tone is it.” He said he’d rather go on to other projects “than try to tinker with it.” But Mr. Harries said he hadn’t given up hope that the character could be resurrected. “I’m still working on it,” he said.

A tiny glimmer of hope left?

However, Rufus is so right about NOT wanting to tinker with the tone of the series. If they can't manage to go on from "Ratking" seamlessly with regard to mood and tone and everything, better leave it at the three episodes they did. (And God forbid they should cast anyone else as Zen!!)

[kygal]

Alot of tweets on twitter about Zen. I would love to have more episodes. If the same people are involved, I cant imagine the quality being compromised. Having read the books, I would love to see some of them made for tv. Ratking was a great one to end on if it has to be.

Thanks PG!

[chocolate]

I wouldn't worry about Rufus being or not being cast, or the quality of the show being compromised. He is commenting simply as an overall situation, but I am sure if there is an opportunity he will not hesitate to take it. And Zen as copyrights belongs to Left Bank. No one would be able to do anything without their involvement. And their involvement will be with Rufus on board for sure, no chance to cast another Zen, of course if Rufus agrees upon the contract.
At the moment we are reading just some journalists' basic writing for everyday's TV, noting is related to a specific event or possibility. Al least that is my take on what's happening.

[GreenEyesToo]

Jul 11, 2011 9:33:29 GMT kissmekate said:

Jul 9, 2011 8:45:52 GMT GreenEyesToo said:

In the Rufuniverse, fangirls gravitate around our man, but that does cause the atoms to get jumbled occasionally......

Priceless, GE2! May I borrow this for my signature?

Borrow away, Kate! ;D


Found this article:


In 'Zen,' Rufus Sewell exploits his dark, brooding side as seducer and sleuth
By LUAINE LEE
McClatchy-Tribune News Service


PASADENA, Calif. - For actor Rufus Sewell it's not the carefully orchestrated steps in life that make you shine. It's all the missteps.

"Everything I do that's a strongly held belief is based on having learnt from doing the opposite," he says in his slightly breathy British tone.

"It's how I've learned my craft is by getting things wrong. I think it's very valuable to get things wrong if you can learn what you don't want to do again."

Ever since he braved the stage as a porter in "Macbeth," Sewell has explored the consequences of his choices.

"I get more obstinate as I get older. I've just learned what makes me unhappy, and it's always my fault in the end," he says seated in a deserted bar in the late afternoon, the sun spilling a slanted shaft on the flowered carpet.

"There's always some point you can trace it back to when you said 'yes' when you should've said 'no,' when you're aware dimly of all the facts, but you choose not to look at them. In my experience there's always that place I can point it embarrassingly back to, a point when I should've done something else - and for some reason didn't."

His credits - projects like "Dark City," "Eleventh Hour," "The Pillars of the Earth," "The Tourist," "A Knight's Tale" contradict his premise.

So does his latest endeavor, the role of the smooth but determined Italian detective in the "Masterpiece Mystery!" production of "Zen," premiering July 17.

In "Zen," Sewell exploits his dark, brooding looks as both seducer and sleuth. "The worst times are always immediately after I've made a leap in my work," he says, his hazel eyes pinpointed by the sunlight.

"I haven't worked since 'Zen' and that was months ago. That's kind of self-imposed. But not that self-imposed. I'm a fussy beggar, but not all that fussy. There's plenty of things out there that I would've done if they'd come my way, but I think I have to turn the ship around in harbor and that's never going to be a nimble move. I periodically have, every couple of years, and that is because every time I do a particular type of role - for some reason - people think that's the kind of role I ought to do," he shakes his head.

"Well, the expression of that role is me having done it. And I didn't want to do something else. So I'm sort of moving from one typecast to another. It's like having a varied career except that every four years I'm offered the same kind of role. It's fine, it just means I have to be prepared to be unemployed and sometimes that's really hard."

The father of an 8-year-old son who lives in England, Sewell has been married twice. "My biggest priority is him," he says. "I live in Los Angeles because my girlfriend's here. But one week out of every month I go back. I was with him a couple days ago so I see him every couple of weeks. I try to have a three-week rule."

Sewell's dad, who was an animator from Australia, died when Rufus was 10. "That was an enormous event but in ways that I didn't get to hear about until I was a fully grown man," he says.

"You suddenly realize that why you did something yesterday has to do with something that happened 16 years before. I don't know what it's like for that not to happen. My mother's response changed me. Because it's quite possible that people can be very, very damaged by parents that stay together. That can be the source of people's misery, and what screws people up when you have parents living in the same house.

I came from a not very well-to-do background but we were enormously privileged in many ways, just because of who my mom was, who my dad was. It was a very alive, culturally interesting place. I've become a survivor I always was because of the way my mum brought us up."

In spite of all his concerns about being typecast, Sewell says he's not so sure he actually likes acting. "You only need to like it once - when you decide what you're going to do for a living," he says.

"And after that it's a job, isn't it? I like it but because I'm determined to like it. That's why I sometimes have to sit and wait. Because if I only did the stuff I was offered, I would not like it. If I wanted only to do films, for example, then I'd always play the same kind of character and would I like it? No. So I should do something else. If I want to keep this job the thing that I always wanted to do, I have to be a lot more tenacious, dogged and stubborn and that means sometimes forcibly being unemployed until something good comes along."

www.kansascity.com/2011/07/11/3007355/in-zen-rufus-sewell-exploits-his.html

[megagem]

Thanks for your vids, PrairieGirl! I let out a fangirly squeal when 4 new vids appeared in my sub box yesterday!

GE2, thank you so much for posting this interview. It's fantastic! I can hear him in my head saying every word, and I love it

[judypatooty]

Thanks, GE2! Always good to hear what Rufus has to say.

But doesn't it appear that this interview was actually conducted this past spring,
before he started work on ALVH? "I haven't worked since 'Zen' and that was months ago."

[chocolate]

GE2, as always, hugs and kisses for this.
It was one of the most moving interviews I have read lately (without any intention to underestimate PGG's thread). Like megagem said,
"I can hear him in my head saying every word" for some reason, and also I can relate to his work situation based on my experience. I wish him a lot of good luck and more opportunities, so that he can feel happy doing what he loves.

[robela]

Thanks for posting this article GE2. Very interesting to hear Rufus' viewpoint on the work he is offered and the work he takes. Must be very frustrating for him sometimes when he doesn't get offered the kind of work he wants. I totally empathize with him! Can't really understand why he is not inundated with offers though with his enormous talent!! Here's hoping some quality work turns up for him soon.

[GreenEyesToo]

For all we know, he IS inundated with offers, Robela - just not the ones he wants!

[GreenEyesToo]

Hey, I LIKE the way PBS is selling this:

Take the multilayered, bestselling Aurelio Zen novels of Michael Dibdin, add in actor Rufus Sewell as a character he seems born to play, film it all in the dazzling streets of Rome, and there is no denying an extraordinary new series has been born.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/zen/bts.html#

[walt]

Great interview - thanks for finding and posting it, GE2!

And I agree, it really looks like it was taken quite some time before it was published as Rufus said that Zen was his last filming.

PS I can't see the Zen videos of PBS , but I suppose they are the same as on the dvd?

[kissmekate]

Thanks for finding and posting this wonderful interview, GE2! You can really hear him speak when you read it.

Jul 11, 2011 22:25:39 GMT GreenEyesToo said:

Take the multilayered, bestselling Aurelio Zen novels of Michael Dibdin, add in actor Rufus Sewell as a character he seems born to play, film it all in the dazzling streets of Rome, and there is no denying an extraordinary new series has been born.

Ahhh, beautifully said!