The Dreamy Eric Close Ditches Procedurals for the Bright Lights of ABC’s Nashville
You know Eric Close from his roles as Martin Fitzgerald on the widely popular procedural Without a Trace and most recently as Travis Tanner on Suits, but get ready to see a different side of Close as Connie Britton’s husband on ABC’s highly anticipated drama Nashville. (You can watch the pilot here). Snakkle caught up with Close at the Television Critics Association press tour and got the scoop on how he snagged the sought-after part, and whether he thinks his character is the stand-up guy he seems to be, and so much more! By Erin FoxSnakkle: Can you talk about the casting process? Did they have you come in and read with Connie specifically, or were you reading for casting directors and they liked you on the spot?
Close: No. I actually just sat down with (casting directors and producers) in the room. I started talking and I said, “Okay you’re not going to ask me to sing, are you?” And then director R.J. Cutler said, “Wait a minute, you don’t sing?” Then Callie said, “Oh no no, he’s here to meet about Teddy.” And Cutler goes, “Oh okay.”
Snakkle: Did you have a minor heart attack?
Close: I think he was trying to mess with me. I said, “Hey, brother, if you want this show to be successful, don’t ask me to sing.” We were just having a nice joke about it. And then we talked about the characters. And then the next question was “How do you feel about living in Nashville?”
Snakkle: That’s fast! So you guys are gone? You picked up and moved there?
Close: I loved the script and said, “Let’s go.” And that’s really all it was.
Snakkle: When I first saw the promo for Nashville, my first thought was that it seemed like soap opera… but a bit deeper. What was your take on the script when you read it the first time?
Eric Close: I kind of found it was like that. It definitely has that kind of nighttime soap feel— a lot of drama and relationships, but it’s got this incredible backdrop that we’ve never seen before. I know people have tried, but I don’t think that they’ve really captured the essence of Nashville. I think they’ve actually sort of created a stereotype as opposed to the reality of it. But (creator) Callie Khouri has lived there and really has her pulse on the music industry and Nashville as a whole—which is not just music industry. It’s got all kinds of stuff going on there. It’s a really thriving city, and it hasn’t been affected by the economy the same as a lot of these cities, so it’s very vibrant. But really what people are going to respond to are these characters and their relationships. It’s pretty good.
Snakkle: Were you more excited to learn that the Callie Khouri created this show, or that your character is married to Connie Britton? You just can’t go wrong!
Close: Exactly. You just named two of the reasons I was excited about this show. I’m a fan of Connie’s, and when I read the script that Callie wrote, it was just fantastic and I saw the potential. [During pilot season] I always look for things that I’ve never seen before, and so when I read Nashville, I said, “Okay, I’ve never seen this before. This has a great shot.” Connie’s involved and then Callie, and then to know that Hayden [Panettiere] and Powers Boothe were involved, I was excited about it. And also, I’ve never played a politician before, so I’m excited about the character that’s going to be going into politics.
Snakkle: But at first, when we meet your character, you’re kind of like the sweet dad taking care of the home front while Connie is a country superstar. Then all of a sudden you’re thrust back into this political arena. Can you talk about that?
Close: My character comes from a family of politicians, and so that’s what he ran away from. That’s what he didn’t want to be a part of. He’s trying to make it on his own, but he’s had some failures, and now I think he’s coming back to what’s in his blood. And now he’s embracing it.
Snakkle: And that’s causing a lot of friction between you and the wifey.
Close: Oh, yeah, big-time. Just think about how hard it is in Hollywood for two very successful or famous people to sort of share the limelight. And these two people are going to have to do that because he’s going to be running for mayor and she almost has to step back a little bit and stand by his side when he’s been doing that for her. My character, Teddy, has been doing that for her for a long time because she’s s superstar. That’s hard on a couple.
Snakkle: Do you feel like your character jumping back into the political world will tempt him to not be the family man that we thought he was?
Close: I would say if he’s really human then yeah, he will. Yes. And I hope that’s the case, because I think that just makes him more interesting and authentic. I like playing characters that have flaws and have struggles to overcome.
Check out the Nashville series premiere on Wednesday, October 10, at 10/9c on ABC.