Interview: Lee Pace On “Pushing Daisies”

by Todd Gold
Oct 6th, 2008 | 5:30 PM | Comments 0

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Last Wednesday night “Pushing Daisies” made its highly anticipated second season premiere after a shortened debut season due to the Writer’s strike.

But the show returned none the worse for wear to The Pie Hole, the shop where Ned the Pie Baker (Lee Pace) whips up his one-of-a-kind fruit pies in between solving mysterious murder cases with P.I. partner Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) and rookie sleuth Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel).

Complicating matters are Ned’s unusual gift (bringing things back from the dead for one minute) and his love for Chuck, the girl he must never touch again (if he wants her to stick around for a while.) It makes for one of the most unusual TV shows ever to hit prime time and I had the good fortune of catching Lee Pace on the phone just before he was set to shoot scenes for episode 10.

FC: Lee, thanks for talking with us today.

Lee Pace: My pleasure, thanks for taking my call!

FC: It’s MY pleasure to be covering your show “Pushing Daisies” for Fancast. I would be watching anyway because the show is just great. Congratulations on your success!

Lee Pace: Thanks. It’s a really sweet show and I’m really proud of it. It’s turned out real well this season.

FC: It’s my favorite.

Lee Pace: It’s good because it offers a lot that’s not on TV right now.

FC: I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.

Lee Pace: Yeah it is very different and in a time when people can watch movies on demand the same same way they watch TV, it’s good that ABC and Warner Brothers are offering something that’s a little bit more like movies than TV, but with the bigger arcing storylines. I love working on the show. I’m really proud of it. I think that Bryan Fuller is doing an amazing job creating this world.

FC: With writing like that you really can’t go wrong. How did you feel when you first saw the script?

Lee Pace: I know Bryan from a show I did called “Wonderfalls” and so I read it to show my support and it made me feel good, I thought “this is special” and it’s better than a lot of the movies that I’ve been reading. So I called Bryan and that’s how we got the ball rolling on the possibility of me playing Ned. I just thought he was a special character and the magic of who he was is a lot deeper than, “he touches dead things and brings them back to life.”

FC: Yes, it’s much more elaborate the way the story is spinning out. Another aspect of the show fans find appealing.

Lee Pace: It becomes so much more about who he is and why he’s so attracted to his soul mate Charlotte.

FC: It’s like a modern update of the classic “look-don’t-touch” Hollywood love story.

Lee Pace: Exactly, it’s old fashioned. It’s like the old fashioned movies where they go through the whole movie and it’s not until the end that they get to kiss. Only there is no kiss in this version.

FC: From the looks of things, we’ll be seeing more inventions that allow them to touch without touching.

Lee Pace: Yeah we have done that. They get very crafty and creative about how they go about touching.

FC: Can you reveal anything new to me on that score?

Lee Pace: Well we’ve figured out a way to get close with this plastic divider on the bed. It’s got a plastic sleeve built in so I can put my arm around Chuck.

FC: I see a lot of room there for invention.

Lee Pace: There is but we’re very limited on what we can get away with at 8 o’clock on Wednesday night.

FC: That’s true but I like the sweet nature of the show. I was wondering if you could give me a scoop?

Lee Pace: Hmmm. Well…

FC: I’ll just ask: does Ned have a last name?

Lee Pace: We’ve brainstormed last names, but right now there’s no last name that we can release. He’s just Ned.

FC: Just another of the endlessly intriguing aspects of this character.

Lee Pace: That’s the fairy tale quality of it, you know. He’s just this funny guy.

FC: He’s just Ned the Pie Baker. Have you gotten good at baking pies? Did you bake pies before this show?

Lee Pace: No, I never baked a pie before this show. I’ve learned how to do it and it’s much more complicated than I would’ve thought. But I don’t really bake much anymore because when you do the show, you’re doing just a little baking and you don’t really get into it.

FC: Are they real pies?

Lee Pace: Certainly the pies we’re eating are real, but when we do a scene at The Pie Hole there’s a guy who’s a real pie maker who fills the whole sound stage up with pies.

FC: How does that guy feel when he bakes the pies and you get all the credit?

Lee Pace: Hey, that’s the job right?

FC: So you’re not worried about him?

Lee Pace: No, he’s not gonna do anything to my pies.

FC: So the show is a critical success, the ratings are building. Have you any news yet on another season pick up?

Lee Pace: We haven’t heard yet. It’s such a wierd season with last year’s Writer’s strike. We’re trying to figure it out. Everyone is really behind the show and wants it to work and wants it to last for a long time, so they’re just figuring out the best way to do that.

FC: Because one trend that I notice lately is shows that are really popular are getting picked up right away. They’re not waiting until the last episode to get picked up again.

Lee Pace: Well we’re shooting episode 10 right now so if they want us to go past show 13, they better start ordering soon, so we’ll see.

FC: Are you on the set now?

Lee Pace: No, I’m home but I’ve got to get over to the set soon.

FC: That’s great. I can’t wait to see this next episode coming up. The first episode really delivered on the promise of the first season.

Lee Pace: Oh good! I really like how this season is shaping up. I like the cases and I like the love story between Ned and Chuck. And we really get into their history with their fathers. It becomes a bigger story.

FC: We’ll be finding out more about Chuck’s mysterious death I hope?

Lee Pace: Yes we will. All answers are coming. The first episode is always about setting up what we’re gonna be getting into this year. Like the end of last week’s episode. You saw that Ned’s father was actually in The Pie Hole.

FC: Looking a little like the old ’30s villain with the shady hat and a cape it looked like.

Lee Pace: Yep.

FC: And the romance is heating up with Chuck.

Lee Pace: And with Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth) too. We get into the whole love triangle with her.

FC: Yeah because she’s unrequited over Ned. But she still has her hopes up right? Even though she’s in a convent now?

Lee Pace: She’s in a convent now but we actually go to the convent to help her solve a case.

FC: Oh that’s great. Is that this week coming up?

Lee Pace: No it’ll be next week. This week we’re at the Circus.

FC: So it’s really going well and we’re all looking forward to it’s being even better.

Lee Pace: Good. I hope you like this week’s episode.

FC: I’ll be eagerly awaiting it.

Lee Pace: Okay, cool. Thanks for talking with me today.