We had a great time speaking with the squared-away, Detective Tommy Sullivan, played by Mark Valley on ABC’s Body of Proof. You may have seen Mark on Boston Legal, Fringe, Human Target, Harry’s Law with Kathy Bates and other TV shows or even recently in the Oscar nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty. This three time SAG Award nominated actor is not just “nice to look at” but he’s really got a great personality and it was hard to keep to our allotted time. (Hint, we’d like to interview you again Mark!)
One of the things that makes Mark so “squared away” is his earlier in his career, Mark was in the Army joining after graduating West Point.
We asked him if that has kept him from certain roles…
Mark said that in the case of “Boston Legal” they didn’t know he was in the military and in Zero Dark Thirty, director, Kathryn Bigelow, told him ‘he needed to be more military’ but it is something that he has wondered about.
We also asked Mark if he wanted to do more comedic roles…
Mark told us that he has been doing stand-up for the past few years and even hosting events so he can “break” the type casting that might be happening.
Roles come up because you’ve worked with other actors and your chemistry was great on screen and then roles come up for casting selections.
Mark tells us that he was just finishing up Harry’s Law and was looking for something different to play than another lawyer, and when he was approached about this role, his gut instinct told him to take it. He said he loves to play a detective and wanted to work with Dana Delany again. But he also picks the role for different reasons, cast, crew and character.
What’s it like on set? Do you have time between takes to “hang out”?
On the Body for Proof set there’s not a lot of time between takes, Mark tells us he and Megan are a lot alike – they like to work and make sense of the scene. They take their work seriously.
How much input do you have with your character?
Mark tells us that he actually has provided input, especially since his character, Tommy, is getting a lot of rejection from Dana’s character, Dr. Hunt. He thought his character might start looking like a stalker, being so obsessed with getting back together with her. He thought it might draw attention away from the character and story, so they made some adjustments and balanced it more. Mark says you need to pick your battles.
This week’s episode deals with Zombies, so you know we had to ask.
He said that the episode is very interesting and finds the thought of zombies ‘fascinating.’ But not enough to want to be on “The Walking Dead” because he likes the illusion of the show and doesn’t want to spoil the “suspension of disbelief” by seeing what happens behind the scenes.
Of course, we can’t wait to see Dr. Megan Hunt deal with zombies and how this episode entitled “Skin and Bones” with guest star, Luke Perry, plays out.
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Megan and Tommy investigate the savage murder of a young woman, which leads them to her neighbor, who bites Tommy and is diagnosed with rabies. When another rabies fatality comes in without any bite marks, Kate calls in the new health commissioner, Dr. Charles Stafford (Luke Perry), to help Megan uncover the truth.
Photo Credit: ABC/RICHARD CARTWRIGHT
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