With a new season of hit TV drama ‘Brothers and Sisters’ premiering on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 10pm on Star World, it is the perfect time to catch up with three of the cast members to discuss their roles on the series. Three actors portraying Walker family members shared their views on the show – Matthew Rhys (who plays Kevin), Rachel Griffiths (who plays Sarah) and Dave Annable (who plays Justin).
Q: Do you like the direction it’s taking, your characters, all of you?
Matthew Rhys (MR): Yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, a lot is happening very quickly, and I don’t – you know, I don’t really know how the big bad machine of television works, whether or not they have to keep an audience engaged by throwing big storylines. And you sort of hope that it’s not an overload. That’s my own – that’s my only concern, but for us, it’s great because it’s diverse, it’s dramatic, it’s conflict and it keeps us engaged. So, if it does the same for the audience, then so much so the better.
Q: Do you guys think the Walker family is typical of an American family?
Rachel Griffiths (RG): Yeah, they’ve just got the biggest kitchen in America.
Dave Annable (DA): I’ve actually asked to move in there quite a few times. They won’t let me.
RG: Well, typical rich wife maybe.
MR: I mean, I think – you know, we’ve had some criticism that we’re in this smaller social spectrum in America, but I think what we deal with is pretty much – is applicable to any person.
DA: Yeah, they’re all common themes and relationships. And, you know, all these problems that these characters face – every family all over the world faces these. And so I think that’s why, you know, our show has become successful, is people can sort of relate to either a character or a storyline or something, and it helps them, sort of relate.
RG: I think there’s a general criticism at the moment that really only the upper middle class features on television. I kind of think that’s true! Like, even the cop seems to be driving a million-dollar car. And I’m like, “Why do we have to be so rich? Why can’t we be working class or middle class?” And now, I realise it’s all about fitting the film crew in the kitchen. It’s just, like, the scale. No, it’s true. It’s true. If you’re, like, shooting in one – you know, a little 600-square-foot house, if we were that family, you’d have to take the whole walls off to shoot. They’ve got to figure that out. Maybe we could do one season where it’s, like, the poor Walkers, where the family line split and one brother made a lot of money and the other one didn’t. And then, we all change character and do the other, like the poor Walkers. I’ve got, like, nine kids and never got my career off the–
Q: David, do you like to see your character, Justin, become as successful in his career as his other brothers and sisters?
DA: Absolutely, and that was something I was just sort of wondering about today: I think so, yeah. I’m really excited, and they have sort of tossed around ideas that are – that are pretty exciting to me in sort of that next step in his life after, you know –
Q: What would you like him to do?
DA: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, um, you know, I – I think, you know, Justin was a medic, so maybe a doctor, going to med school, something like that would be pretty cool
