Sunday July 26, 2009
Labour of love
By EVELYN TEO
It’s tough for this love god to wield his bow and arrows in good old Big Apple.
EVER since the cheesy, long-running The Love Boat sailed off into the sunset, there has not been another TV series that managed to tackle the subject of good old-fashioned love, romance and matchmaking with the same degree of success.
Alicia Silverstone tried her hand with Miss Match in 2003, a series in which she played a lawyer who discovers she has a knack for matchmaking people but it barely lasted one year before getting the boot.
More recently, the powers that be decided to give Cupid another chance. The original series in 1998 starred Jeremy Piven (Entourage) and Paula Marshall (Gary Unmarried). The updated version stays true to the basic premise but with minor tweaks from creator Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars).
Cupid’s cast of characters (from left): Sarah Paulson, Bobby Cannavale, Rick Gomez and Camille Guaty. – Photos courtesy of ABC Playing Cupid this time is Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch) and his romantic foil is Sarah Paulson’s (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) Dr Claire McCrae. How the two meet makes for quite an intriguing, funny story.
Cannavale is Trevor Pierce, who claims that he is Cupid, the Greek god of love (of course, strictly speaking, it should be Eros), and that he has been sent to New York to bring 100 romantically challenged couples together before he can return to Mount Olympus (the “home of the gods” in Greek mythology). Not surprisingly, his proclamations swiftly land him in a mental health institution. But after three months, he is deemed harmless and released into the care of psychiatrist Dr McCrae, who is tasked with monitoring his progress.
“Cupid, the actual god in Greek mythology, is always portrayed as a child. So it very much appealed to me, the fact that here is this child and all of a sudden he is living in New York City and in a man’s body for the first time. What would you do? Well, you’d have a lot of fun with that,” the 38-year-old lead actor divulges in a recent interview session with the international press at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.
“I think the character is funny. How can it not be funny? It’s a guy claiming to be the god of love who likes hanging out with crazy people. So that’s already a funny premise. And, you know, his therapy sessions with Claire are very funny.”
Indeed, Trevor’s views on love at first sight and fiery passion clash with Claire’s more pragmatic outlook on what love is. And from the get-go, viewers pick up on the fact that these two will have very interesting conversations about the subject.
With Cupid missing his bow and arrows though, matching two people up, let alone 50 pairs of individuals, is hard work, he soon realises. So, in order to accomplish his mission more quickly, Trevor convinces his employer/landlord Felix (Rick Gomez) to let him try out new ideas at the Tres Equis Cantina bar to draw in the crowds and in the process, create a more romantic atmosphere for singles. Although initially met with scepticism by Felix’s sister, Lita (Camille Guaty), his half-price margarita nights and karaoke duet sessions prove to be a hit with the locals.
Trevor/Cupid tries to get Dr Claire McCrae’s singles group to be more passionate about love in the pilot of Cupid. Cannavale did not watch the 1998 version but has done a little research on his character. “I boned up on my mythology a bit which is easy to do. It’s one of the things my son was learning while I was preparing for the show,” he says. His teenage son Jake is in eighth grade.
The actor from New Jersey particularly enjoys the dynamic between Trevor and Claire. “Just when you think maybe Claire is getting through to him, maybe she’s actually having an effect on him, something magical happens and you think, oh, maybe not. Maybe he’s affecting her. And I think the writers have done a really nice job of straddling that line,” Cannavale explains.
In the first episode, it is hinted that Claire could be Psyche, Cupid’s eventual wife according to the mythology. Could that be the end game planned for the series? “That would be the goal,” answers Cannavale.
“The important relationship in the show is the one between Trevor and Claire and that Cupid/Psyche story that comes up in the pilot ... I think Rob was very consciously writing based on that story,” he adds. “It would leave Cupid with a big decision to make when the hundredth couple gets matched up because Trevor very much wants to get home. Does he stay with her or does he go back home?”
While his character, Trevor/Cupid, may resort to extreme measures to get couples together, Cannavale does not set his friends up on dates in his free time. Sure, he believes in love, he says. His biggest romantic gesture was getting married six months after meeting his first wife. “That was pretty romantic,” he tells us. “Of course, I’m divorced now.” He was married for nine years to actress Jenny Lumet.
Nevertheless, his career has been faring quite well. His body of work on film includes the well-received The Station Agent, Fast Food Nation and the Angelina Jolie/Denzel Washington flick, The Bone Collector. He won an Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series Emmy Award in 2005 for his role in Will and Grace as Will’s boyfriend.
Last year, he received a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut performance in Mauritius. His last movie, Kevin James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop, scored big at the box office (US$180mil/RM630mil) earlier this year. And then, there was this opportunity to play the lead role on a TV series.
“I’ve never worked this much on anything before,” he says of his work on Cupid. “I’ve never had a part this big. So it was a lot of work and I had a great time doing it. I’m in almost every scene in the show. It’s not a lot of sitting around wondering when I’m going to get to work. And that was a different experience for me and one that I very much enjoyed.”
Unfortunately, his winning streak did not extend to Cupid. After wrapping just seven episodes, news of cancellation swiftly followed as not enough US viewers fell in love with the remake.
As disappointing as it may be for his first starring role in a series to be nixed so unceremoniously, Cannavale has other projects lined up already – movies Weakness and Apples, plus a three-episode appearance on TV series Cold Case. Cannavale is probably one of the few working actors in Hollywood who probably does not have to worry about waiting too long for the next job to come along.
> ‘Cupid’ premieres on 8TV at 9.30pm on Tuesday.
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