Alexandra Chando (left) as Deb and Andrew West (right) as Hunter star in “Rockville, CA,” a new music-driven romantic comedy for TheWB.com. (Photo Credit: Pamela Littky/Warner Bros. Television Group)
Next up in our series of interviews with folks involved in Rockville, CA, is a chat I had with the Seth Cohen or Chuck Bartowski of Rockville, Hunter (portrayed by Andrew West). There was something immediately relatable about the character, and I had the same feeling in my short chat with Andrew.
TakeFiveGal : I saw the first four webisodes, and I’m way into it!
Andrew West : I’m happy with them, too!
Why did you want to do this role?
During the audition process, I got a chance to see the first two scripts, for the first two episodes, and what struck me immediately was sort of the fast paced dialogue and the writing. It was just fantastic. My character, Hunter, when I read the first two episodes, his personality just kind of popped out at me. It was a character that I thought was really fleshed out, that I really kind of just got, immediately, which isn’t always the case when you read scripts. Sometimes characters can seem skeletal, or you just don’t get who they are, but that wasn’t the case with Hunter. It was all right there. It was really fun, really well written. It seemed like a high octane, fast paced character to get involved with and it sounded like a lot of fun, so that’s what initially attracted me about it.
It seems like Hunter is a character that people are going to relate to very easily.
He’s kind of an underdog, so people can always relate to that. He’s a pretty dynamic kind of guy. He’s really intelligent but at the same time he’s a little socially inept. He needs a little help in the romance department. Even though he’s a sweet guy, he can come off as a little abrasive because he’s so opinionated, especially about music. You want to root for him, but at the same time, his flaws are very apparent. I think it’s like any person, I guess, which helps make him relatable.
Why do you think people should tune in, and will tune in?
I think that the medium, it being a web series, and what not, makes it very accessible, because you can watch it at any time. It’s on the web, you can go to the website and watch it any time. The episodes are short, it’s not a time consuming kind of thing. They’re broken up in such short segments that you don’t need to invest a lot of time in one sitting. But aside from that, not only is it a really funny, interesting romantic comedy with a narrative thread, and a fun little story, it also heavily revolves around live music. If you wanted watch a music video online or TV or you wanted to watch a live concert online. Every episode features a band playing life. It’s a nice little hybrid form of entertainment.
Is this the kind of music that you would listen to?
Absolutely. It definitely was the type of music that I listen to, which was another thing that was so attractive about it. As far as the genre of music, all the bands on the show can basically be categorized under the large umbrella of rock, which makes sense because the show’s called Rockville [laughs at himself], but as far as rock goes, it kinds of spans the spectrum of all variations of rock. You get all different kinds of rock bands on the show. That is basically the kind of music that I listen to. All different kinds of rock. Actually, having worked on Rockville, the show introduced me to a lot of bands that I hadn’t heard of previously that I can’t stop listening to since I worked on the show and got a hold of their albums. Since I saw them play and what not.
Josh [Schwartz] and Alexandra [Patsavas] have a way of doing that with their music. You listen to someone once, and you don’t know them, but you can’t stop listening once you have the CD.
I don’t know where they find these bands. They’ve got great taste. They’re really good at picking these up and comers, or these great bands that the public hasn’t really been made aware of yet. It was exciting. The iPod definitely grew after this job!
I know that you have done some writing. Is that something that you want to continue doing?
I think maybe eventually. Not any time soon. When I first started, kind of getting involved in this line of work, I didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue acting and writing, so I sort of tried to do both in the beginning to see where my talents lied, and my interest, and acting definitely won out. I think I quickly realized that I enjoyed acting more, and I feel like I was probably better at it than I was at writing. I mean, writing is definitely something that interests me and that I like to do, but I don’t think that it’s necessarily where my sensibilities lie, but I think eventually, I may like to get back into it. It’s something that I always do, I just don’t know if I could really do it professionally.
Whose career would you love to follow in?
Oh jeez. Goodness. I mean, there’s a lot of actors that I really adore. Some of the classics of course like Marlon Brando or Henry Fonda. The kind of work that they did was inspiring to me, it still is. More in my generation, I really have a lot of respect for Ryan Gosling and the kind of stuff that he’s doing. The kind of projects that he’s involved in are what interest me.
What else besides Rockville do you have coming up?
I did a handful of episodes on Greek, and that new season is going to be airing at the end of March. I am doing a recurring role on this new season. I’m going to be popping in and out throughout the season. Aside from that, I’m going to be making a little appearance on Nip/Tuck coming up a little later this year.
Rockville, CA Premieres March 17, 2009, on TheWB.com