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A Conversation with Yancy Butler
(Sara Pezzini)
Q: How does this year's approach to the series differ from last year's?
A: I guess what delineates Season 1 from Season 2, in terms of all of our character development, we ended in such a brilliant way last year and kind of defied all odds of conventional television, that starting with a clean slate is great. And I think what we're seeing more, at least from my character this season, is last year was a lot about finding out how and why, before Sara really embraced this thing. I think that now she's figuring out the how and why and utilizing the Blade at the same time.
Q: How has the Blade changed Sara?
A: I think the the Blade has changed Sara in that -- just like anything that you wake up to and it's kind of stuck on your body -- I think that it's made her more intuitive, more perceptive, probably a bit more human, which is not easy to do when you're a cop. You don't want to take so many things to heart. And I think that it's made her certainly more vulnerable as time goes on.
Q: Cops are taught to trust their instincts. Is it hard for Sara, with one foot in the real world and the other in an unknown realm, to trust hers?
A: I think that Sara's learning how to trust her instincts. I think that she's always kind of trusted her own instincts, but her instincts now are unfortunately other people's voices (LAUGHS) and these images, so she's not quite sure what are her instincts and what are things that have happened or if they're going to happen. And so she's a bit confused, to say the least.
Q: Other than that confusion, how much more comfortable is she wearing the Blade for this season?
A: I think Sara's a lot more comfortable wearing the Blade this season, mainly by default. I mean she still has it (LAUGHS). She's stuck with it and I think that she's beginning to become more intrigued by it instead of just kind of wanting to do this (shakes her wrist) and get it off her wrist.
Q: So what powers does she still have to master? Will she be commanding it more this season?
A: I think my character is going to command the Blade more this season. I mean, she still can't fly or anything which is really disappointing. But I think that we're starting to see things also into the future. And we have new weapons coming out this year. So it's quite interesting. It's really cool.
Q: So we may see some different manifestations this year?
A: Yes, you will see some different manifestations of the Blade, which is interesting.
Q: People love action on the series. Is there any pressure for you to do more of your own stunts or to take it to the next level?
A: Well I like doing a lot of my own stunts. I have a wonderful stunt woman named Jeannette Roxborough, who's just great. And usually what they'll do is they'll do a wide angle with with Jeannette, so it'll look good (LAUGHS) and then they bring me in. I'm not trained in any of this, so it's not without its nicks and bruises. But I've got to try it at least once and I think that it also looks better. But, no, I have no idea what I'm doing. As I've always said -- I don't have any skill or smarts. I'm just stupid and I tend to have some brawn, so (LAUGHS) we kind of muddle through.
Q: In our very first interview you said that you were so excited about this character but that you thought people might be a little intimidated by a strong woman. Do you still feel that way?
A: I think that originally I did feel that people might be intimidated by this character. And I think that people have certainly taken notice of this character. And I think that audiences are ready for this type of character, female or not. I mean it's just a wonderful thing that it does happen to be a female. Certainly for me (LAUGHS) 'cause that would be a real career ender. But she's a real person and I think instead of being intimidating, it's turned into a beautiful kind of human portrayal that people can relate to.
Q: How does it feel to be the single woman surrounded by all these wonderful men?
A: Being the single woman surrounded by all these wonderful men, and they aren't eyesores, if we all know that . . . It feels great (LAUGHS). What, are you kidding me? I'm very lucky. The boys are just wonderful. They're a wonderful cast and I think that it's funny because I had previously said last year that they started to place bets on who was gonna, you know, bed Sara first. And I don't know if they're just getting tired of me after (LAUGHS) two years. But hopefully they still have a longstanding bet, so we'll see.
Q: You know, I was betting on Jake last season.
A: Yeah.
Q: This season I'm betting on Gabriel. I know he's a little bit young. .. .
A: Yeah, yeah. No, Gabriel and I would make an interesting couple. People say that we look an awful lot alike, so I don't know where they're going with that. But I definitely, you know, we have a suggestion box outside and please put about twenty of those in there. That'll be fine. I'll take care of the rest (LAUGHS).
Q: I want to talk about the production itself a little bit. What makes it so much fun to work on a show like this?
A: I've never worked this hard for this long but it's great fun working on this show. . .And I'm just so behind the show. What makes it fun is we have an amazing crew, I mean just an amazing crew. The cast gets along famously. And it's material that I believe in. I think when the pendulum swung to good TV, which was probably about seven, eight years ago, that the quality of the writing went up and it's just easier to connect the dots for everybody. But it's just a great show. I don't just say that; I really like watching it. I like playing it. I like being a part of it. It's innovative and people are just gonna be blown away by the first couple of shows of this new season. . . .I know I'm working on something good as, I've said before, when I'm blown away. And I was kind of around for a lot of it. We continue with the same great music and great ideas and the visual effects that we're doing are amazing. And we've gotten some really great guest stars. And one thing that I'm really excited about is that my father, Joe Butler, was cast in the first episode as a surprise to me, given by Ralph. Ralph had said, "I got this great guy to play this Arnold Buck character," and I said, "Okay, who cares?" (LAUGHS) 'cause he only has two scenes -- they were good scenes. And he says, "Don't you wanna know who it is?" And I went, "Well not particularly, but okay." And he said, "Well, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he was in the cast of Hair." And I went, "Did you just cast my dad!?" And it was a wonderful, wonderful experience, and I'm really proud of him. So that's a nice little added surprise for everybody. It certainly (LAUGHS) was for me. Thank God he did okay. But yeah, so people have got to stay tuned. It's just a great season.
Q: What is a typical day like on the set of WITCHBLADE?
A: A typical day on the set of WITCHBLADE for me is getting hair and makeup done and wardrobe, and we work a good fifteen hours on the set, easily. And then I go home and memorize lines for the next day or talk to Ralph Hemecker about the script or talk to the director. It's hard. I remember last year Eric passed my trailer, Eric Etebari, and he saw the director from a previous episode 'cause we were doing some re-shoots, a director from the present episode, and the one from the next one waiting outside to talk to me. And it was a bit fragmented but I dig doing stuff like that. But that's a typical day.
Q: So you have a lot of input into the scripts?
A: I think that the-powers-that-be have given all of us a great amount of input into the scripts. Ralph, I truly believe, is a creative and visual genius. And the writers that we've hired this year, we just have a great open dialogue with them and they'll tell us when we're out of line. But we don't ask. It's mostly on the page already. But they've definitely been open for feedback, which is nice.
Q: Why does everybody love Ralph so much? I've met him. I think he's wonderful. And in every interview people keep talking about how wonderful (LAUGHTER) he is. Why? Why is he so wonderful?
A: I think probably 'cause Ralph paid us to say how wonderful he is (LAUGHS). I'm kidding. I, for one, definitely love Ralph. I mean originally I took this job, I didn't know if I wanted to do television right then, at that point in my life. And when -- I have to be honest (LAUGHS) -- when I read the script, I thought 'she gets out of the shootout and what's on her wrist and it turns into what? That's the stupidest thing I've (LAUGHS) ever read in my life!' And I met with Ralph and he tweaked the script so well that I think that's the reason that he's earned the respect of every member of this cast and this crew, is that he's accessible. He's a genius. This is his baby. He created it. And I think that we're really blessed to have a captain at the helm who's so in tune and just so open and pleasant to be around.
Q: What's the biggest difference or even the biggest challenge of working on a series versus a film?
A: People often ask me if I prefer doing a series as opposed to doing films, and it's not one or the other -- it's just exercising a different muscle, you know. When you're doing movies, you tend to only work -- I'm making huge paintbrush generalizations -- but only work like twelve or thirteen hours and and you spend a lot more time on one given scene. Whereas this is more of an (LAUGHS) assembly line, fast paced. So it is quite different, especially if you're in every scene all the time.
Q: How do you keep it real on the set when everything around you is so surreal?
A: I think I try to keep it real on the set. People look at me being number one on the call sheet, whatever that means, to set a tone. And you know it's a given that we're all tired and cranky (LAUGHS) and have no lives, so why go over there? And so I think that I take the attitude of -- and I mean this honestly -- just because I'm the visual part in a huge wheel called production, it doesn't make me anymore important. Unfortunately I can't call in sick ever and have somebody -- I don't have an understudy. But of course it's real. It's just a job, you know. And really we're telling a story. It's not anything more than that.
Q: What happens when the cameras aren't rolling?
A: Oh, we're all kidding around with each other in between takes and playing practical jokes on one another. Or, you know, Will Lee will be sitting right next to me and he'll text-message me and my butt will kind of vibrate for a second, which I really think is fun actually (LAUGHS). And then he'll be sitting right there and we just, we all have a blast. We really do. Thank gosh.
Q: Two characters this season will be more prominent then they were in Season 1. What can you tell me about them?
A: Vicky Po, played by Kathryn Winslow, she's just amazing. I just love her. And it's nice for Sara. They haven't gone out and had tea yet or anything or gone shopping for dresses. But it's nice to have a female to bounce off of that's not an adversary or somebody that wants this Blade. That's actually a good story idea. But Gabriel Bowman, played by John Hensley, is just wonderful. I think that he did put it aptly when he said that he's really interested in Sara and not this Blade. And it's a wonderful relationship. Whereas Nottingham kind of tells her what this thing is about and what it can do, Gabriel's job has become one of historical kind of lineage and mythology. And it's wonderful -- two wonderful additions to our cast. I couldn't be happier.
Q: Why is Gabriel such an important ally for Sara?
A: I think Gabriel is an important ally for my character because he genuinely cares about her, as opposed to this thing. And he doesn't want anything from her. And she needs somebody that's outside of that whole realm. She can't say to Danny, "well, I'm seeing all this stuff," because he'll just think she's a freak, no more so than he already does (LAUGHS). And she can't really go to Nottingham because Nottingham at any given moment, he wants to cut off her hand or, you know, wed her. So she doesn't know what's going on. And I think that Jake just is totally beyond that realm as well and she needs somebody to talk to about this stuff who has some information. It's kind of a haven for her. Talismaniac has become this kind of safe place for her to be. So it's a good, good thing.
Q: Do you think this season she's got a lot more people in on her knowledge of it, the fact that this is something more than just a bracelet on her wrist?
A: I think this year that she she's more open to talking about it with the people that do know about it. I mean imagine, just yourself, you can't go walking down the street (LAUGHS) going 'I'm seeing this weird stuff. . .and then my ring turns into an eggbeater.' I mean, people would think you're insane. So she's trying to kind of just glide through life and but certainly people know about it. I think that certainly with Nottingham she's trying to tap more into that knowledge that he has.
Q: How do you think her job will directly affect her understanding of the Witchblade?
A: I think that it's through my character's job as a homicide detective that she's understanding the Witchblade. It's not showing her images, necessarily, about her (LAUGHS) at the moment non-existent love life. Or how many children she's gonna have. It's showing her snippets from her work life in the realm of crime. So, in that respect, I think that it's showing itself and actually how far it's powers go through the workplace.
Q: On TNT right now we show Law and Order, WITCHBLADE and NYPD Blue. What do you think it is about cop dramas that attracts such a huge following?
A: It's very funny, because I have actually done all those shows (LAUGHS). So I would have to say I think they're pretty good. I think that people like cop shows, people like action and people like reality. And you can't get much more real, unfortunately, than crime that's going on. Specifically, also, what those three shows have in common is all in New York. And being from New York I can certainly attest to that. People like real characters. And I think that it just comes in the form of cop shows. Somebody could be filming us now, I don't think they'd find that as interesting as solving a crime. Figuring out -- it's tangible. People like when people solve things. There's too much unsolved in people's lives already.
Q: What are some of the most dramatic aspects of a cop's life?
A: I think some of the most dramatic aspects of a cop's life are, having talked to a gazillion cops and being fortunate enough to have their help, mostly the NY Police Department for a lot of shows that I've done, it's a tough life, man. I mean, for their families, worried all the time. A lot of it is similar, and obviously their job is a lot more important than ours (LAUGHS), but a lot of it is similar to acting, which is hurry up and wait. And then everything happens all at the same time. Unfortunately their life is on the line. Where I might be blurry in a take and that's about as much as that goes. . .These people are potentially losing their lives. So I think that it's the stakes -- they don't get much higher than your life. So the stakes are high.
Q: What's so dramatic about justice?
A: I think what's dramatic about justice and why people are intrigued about justice is there're so many unjust things that happen in this world, unfortunately, that when people watch people really fighting and giving their all, whether it be real or not, in the storytelling that we're doing, for the right things, for the right people, to just do the right thing, that people like seeing that. You know, it's good.
Q: What do you think drove the success of WITCHBLADE's first season?
A: There are a lot of shows out there that are dealing in the supernatural, if you will. . .But one of the things that makes it that much more potent is we're a reality-based show. I wouldn't even really say we're an action show. But when you've juxtaposed reality and the supernatural and comment on the supernatural in a reality world, it makes it that much stronger. And look at our characters. I think it's got a little something for (LAUGHS) everybody. I talk to kids that are twelve years old that love the show and then people my grandparent's age in their early eighties. And I think that we have men and women watching for various reasons. I know a lot of women certainly relate to my character, and, once again, those boys aren't eyesores, so that's why I took the job (LAUGHS). But it's been amazingly well received, which is really, really nice.
Q: How important is it to you that you have such a strong fan base?
A: It's extremely important to me that I have a strong fan base. Otherwise, I could act in my closet but (LAUGHS) I can't really pay my bills that way. But more than just the necessary part of my job, to story-tell, you've got to be talking to somebody. I love making people excited. I love making people cry. I love having an effect on people -- through my work. I don't (LAUGHS) like to actually sound like a Machiavellian, I don't like to make people cry; I like to make people feel. And for somebody to come up and say, 'I really enjoyed your work on so and so movie or WITCHBLADE.' Or 'this was a great scene and I can relate to that and it led me to do this in my life.' Or seeing something and saying, 'it made me call my best friend who I haven't spoken to in years.' And it's just such a wonderful -- that's all I need at the end of the day. It helps me get up in the morning. It's a beautiful feeling to have.
Q: Thank you so much.
A: Thank you!
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