Uinterview | U Q&A

U Q&A

Kim Zolciak & Tracy Young

She's no desperate housewife on the Bravo cult hit Real Housewives of Atlanta. Now she's got a major club hit with "Tardy For The Party" which she's just remixed with superstar DJ Tracy Young.

Q: How did you two connect on the song? - Uinterview

A: TRACY: Let's see, a mutual friend of Kim's actually contacted me back in August when the song was first coming out and, we finally connected in December of this year to work on the remix. Came to L.A. and I met with her, sat down and talked about the song and ideas and where we wanted it to go and bada-bing.

Q: Tracy, why did you think it would be a great dance song? - Uinterview

A: TRACY: Well, when I originally heard the track, I mean, it's obvious, "Tardy for the Party," and I mean, it was for me a no-brainer. I just wanted to bring it to clubs, I was so excited when I heard it the first time. KIM: You're sweet! TRACY: I was, Kim! And I mean, I was in radio for ten years and my job in radio was to pick these freaking hits, and I knew it was an instant hit, and I just knew it, I felt it. In my career I've always tried to align myself with hit records, so it was really a no-brainer to me, and look at what the song has done, now the remix has come out and has given it new life really.

Q: Now, you both have gay followings, are you going to market it to the gay community and go to gay clubs? - Uinterview

A: KIM: Am I going to go to gay clubs? Not necessarily. I just think, they are my biggest followers. However, that's working out, but I think it's ultimately a club song. TRACY: I mean, dance music traditionally is definitely more gay based but it also can transfer to Europe and South America and all those other countries where the people may not know "Tardy for the Party" because, it's a hip-hop track, or an R&B track or pop track, whatever, in those countries. So I think it's just giving Kim more exposure in her music career really.

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Ben McKenzie

He graduated from The O.C. to a serious dramatic role as rookie cop on the critically praised Southland, which was canceled last fall to make way for Jay Leno. Now, with Southland returning to TV on TNT, Ben McKenzie speaks exclusively to Uinterview here.

Q: What was your reaction when you heard about the cancelation of Southland by NBC. - Uinterview

A: My reaction was ‘WTF OMG?’ And I said it that way. I honestly thought someone was kidding. I didn’t understand. I thought it was an elaborate gag or something because why would you renew a show, order 13 episodes, give it a time slot, wait until two weeks before it was about to premiere and then cancel it? Very peculiar. It was a bit of a frustrating situation. In part because shooting the show was a fantastic experience. I think the entire cast feels that way, but the drama behind the scenes has been bizarre and never-ending. No matter what we did, we needed to bear the brunt of a lot of changes in corporate strategy at NBC. But now that we are back on a different network, on TNT, I hope that it’s going to actually work out.

Q: Will the show be different now that it's on cable? - Uinterview

A: TNT bought the episodes from last year that aired on NBC and the new episodes that we had shot before we were canceled that were still ordered under the contract. We haven’t shot new episodes for TNT yet, but it will all depend on whether the ratings are good enough for them to renew it. In terms of the different content, well, part of the reason we were canceled is because of a disagreement between the network and the producers over what the show is and when we had to move to 9 o’clock to accommodate Jay Leno, they promised we would be able to write the same show, but as we got closer and closer to it and they started seeing the show put together. They started having a lot of problems with the content.

Q: Was it too violent? - Uinterview

A: Yeah. Exactly. Although they were given the script, so I don’t know why they didn’t figure it out until that point. Anyway, I’m not going to get into that. There’s always a problem with content. Now that we’re on TNT, we can use whatever footage we have. We can unbleep some things now that we’re on cable. And I think the show doesn’t pull a lot of punches. There’s one thing that actually got us into trouble, interestingly enough, in that first episode. Shawn Hatosy and Kevin Alejandro do an interrogation of one of the gangbangers on a toilet. They thought that was way too crude. And you know, things like that, where you and I would say,'Who cares? That’s what you object to? Didn’t you see the rest of the show?' Things like that, where I’ll just say it’s better situation to be on a network like TNT. Certainly, if we go forward and the ratings are good enough and TNT picks us up, I think you’ll see us fully push the envelope. I don’t think we’ve had to back off too much. Maybe that’s why we got canceled because we should have backed off more. But at the end of the day – I’m glad. If it was a choice between compromising the vision of the show drastically vs. getting canceled and risking not being picked up, I’m glad we didn’t compromise it. It certainly is unusual to be picked up by another network, and we’re fortunate. But in the long run, maybe it will work out for everyone. Our gritty show, maybe we’ll find somewhere for it to be on the air.

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Esai Morales

He's the hot activist-actor who plays an attorney with ties to the underworld on SyFy's cult hit Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica.

Q: Eric Stoltz, who stars on Caprica with you, when he had first received the script for the show, had it stolen out of his hotel room and that was when he really realized how fanatical the fans of the Battlestar series are. When did it dawn on you how fanatical people are about this franchise? - Erik Meers

A: Well, it’s interesting because I’d heard about it. When I mentioned that there was a prequel to Battlestar – a quarter to half the people I told, their ears were perked up. 'That’s a big show, you know.' And I thought, especially, when we went to [the comic convention] Comic Con, we were one of the biggest halls there with like 5,000 people, and it was filled up for the presentation of Caprica. The attention put on it was pretty heavy.

Q: Were you a fan of Galactica? - Erik Meers

A: I wasn’t aware of it no, but I knew about the 70’s show. And then I asked if I should go out and study it, and they said, “No, no, no, it’s not necessary.” Subsequently, I’ve become much more familiar with it. But if you give me too much information, it loses its mystery.

Q: Did you prepare for the role in a certain way to try to get into the character? - Erik Meers

A: Every role you do you approach in your own way and different roles require different preparation. What I realized about this is that the show’s very analogous to our lifestyle here, so I didn’t have to go out and study life in other worlds as much as it’s home as far as the arc is concerned. So emotionally every character I play, I’m doing parts of myself. Which parts precisely depend on the requirements of the role. I don’t really know how to answer that without giving too much away.

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