Jessalyn Gilsig on Friday Night Lights, Nip/Tuck and acting on two hits shows at the same time

Jessalyn Gilsig is starring in the new FOX show, Glee (I’ve heard it;s fantastic. It’s on my TIVO waiting for me to watch).

You’ve seen her everywhere from Heroes, Friday Night Lights and Nip/Tuck. Here she talks about her experiences of working on those shows.

From Movieline:

You’ve been on so many hit TV shows. How do the different sets compare — because each I’m assuming has its own culture and dynamic? Which was the most tight-knit family?
Friday Night Lights. I was doing Friday Night Lights and Nip/Tuck simultaneously one year. Friday Night Lights shoots in Austin, and Nip/Tuck shoots in L.A. So I was literally splitting my week back and forth. Those two sets are really different. For starters, the Lights’s cast is all out there in Austin together. But more specifically, it’s because of the shooting styles. They shoot all handheld, no rehearsal, you never go back to your trailer, everything is on location, and if you’re moved to say something, or do something, or leave, or literally cook bacon — you just do it. There’s no wait for set up. When they would “turn around,” so to speak, it was just three cameramen scooting around on these stools, and we’d just do it again. Performance-wise, that was the closest thing to theater that I’d done on camera.

On Nip/Tuck, I really loved working with Ryan. He is so specific, and so stylized, and the lighting is so deliberate. You could wait 20 to 45 minutes until they lit in a different direction, or switched something up. So they were the opposite ends of shooting styles. And culture-wise, Nip/Tuck was maybe more what I’m used to. But in Lights, it had literally become an extension of the show. There was a real life intimacy to the cast and the crew.

Was it hard to switch back and forth between the two characters?
They were very different, but to your original question, the environments did most of the work for me. On Nip/Tuck , I came and went over so many years, and I would walk back onto set, and immediately feel as though I’d been absorbed into the world as if I’d never left. And on Lights, they’re so adept at the style of shooting, that you basically just run to catch up. You have no time to reflect on how you’re doing, because they’re just so good at it.

When you first read her, did you have any hesitations?
When I got the pilot, the show hadn’t aired yet. I think my first episode was the third of the season. And I remember getting the pilot, and said to my husband, “Well, this show is way too cool for me.” It seemed so original, like nothing that ever came before. As an actor, sometimes you get sides, and you’re like, I don’t care what happens, I just want to read this. I want to play this part, if only for an audition. She was so well-written. But there was no part of me that was like, this is mine, it’s totally in the bag.

Did Gina ever seep into your day to day life?
[Laughs] You’d have to ask my husband. I don’t think so. I always felt that Gina was sort of amazing because she was never shy about expressing her needs, as she experienced them. And that’s not me at all. She was like, “I’m cold!” “I’m hot!” “I want you.” “I don’t want you.” She had no censor. That’s kind of exciting to play, because it’s so different from me.

But nothing about it said to you that it might not be the smartest career move, or that it might push you to do things past your comfort point?
Well, I’ve never really thought about “career moves.” I need to work. So, it was a job, and it seemed like a really interesting job. I’m not exactly the person who hangs out with their friends and makes crazy sexual jokes. That’s not me. So if you told me that I was going to do all that stuff that I did on that show, I’d be pretty surprised. The thing about that show, though — and part of the reason I’m so happy to be working with Ryan again — is that I’ve never worked with someone who has such a deep respect, appreciation and enthusiasm for everybody that works on the show. I don’t even want to suggest this is just for the actors. The culture that Ryan sets, and he sets it for the entire crew, is that you cannot fail. And it makes you braver. There was nothing that I was asked to do, that if I said I wasn’t comfortable with it, that it was a problem. There was a couple times when it was more nudity than I thought I could handle, and it was always, “No problem. No problem. How do you want to shoot it? Any way you want to shoot it to make you more comfortable.” Julian was unbelievable, so respectful, always concerned for my comfort and so prepared for what we were doing.

In some ways I felt more taken care of than on projects that maybe didn’t involve nudity but did involve something that was emotionally exposing, and you feel like you’re hanging there naked. But Ryan sets a tone at work that I think is ideal for every member above and below the line, that makes them feel like they can’t fail, and no one’s going to be left with egg on their face.