MeeVee Exclusive: Interview with Law & Order: Criminal Intent Executive Producer Warren Leight
Law & Order: Criminal Intent returned this season facing an uphill battle: new night, new timeslot, and new cast members. If fans were nervous about all of the changes, just imagine how executive producer Warren Leight must be feeling.
Fortunately for us, Leight took time out of his hectic schedule to give MeeVee.com an exclusive interview. He reveals everything you're dying to know about the cast changes, what's coming up in weeks ahead, and how in the hell the show snagged Liza Minnelli as a guest star.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview, Warren. You're talking to the biggest Law & Order: Criminal Intent fan you can find.
Good. Great. What a relief! (laughter)
The episode "Masquerade" is amazing.
I'm very happy with it. Isn't she [Liza Minnelli] great?
How did you get Liza on the show?
It's a long story.
About 16 years ago, I was set up on a blind date with her. That wasn't
going to necessarily work out, I don't think. But it was how we first
met. A friend, Kevin Aucoin, a great makeup artist who
passed away, knew us both. So I met her originally a long time ago.
Word had gotten to me over the last few months that she was a fan of
the show, and she would be interested in doing something on the show.
When you hear that, you think, "What would be the right part for her?"
I had in the back of my mind, "She's great, but you have to find the
right part." You don't want to murder her early on; you want to see
her all the way to the end of the episode. So I kept that in the back
of my mind.
When [John Mark] Karr surfaced in Thailand a couple of months ago, it reopened the whole JonBenet Ramsey case. I thought, "We have something." I thought to write the part for Liza. You don't know if you're going to get her, but it's there if you do get her. We've never done that on the show before, written a part for a guest star. I thought, "Write it for her. If she can't do it, you've at least created an interesting character." But she jumped on it, which I was thrilled about.
I was going to ask about all the references, from Karr to Thailand, and how you recreated the story step by step. Why?
The
original news conference [with Karr] was chilling. I thought how we're
changing our openings; our openings are a little different this year.
In the past, you never saw the detectives in what we call the teaser,
the opening before the first commercial. I thought it would be kind of
interesting to see that. I think that's the first time in the history
of the show that we've seen them in that first part. It's sort of fun.
I knew the guy who plays Fife in the episode -- he's an actor that's done
some readings for me awhile back in New York. I ran into him when the
Karr story broke and said, "We may be doing something [on the Karr
case].” You don't want to say based on, but "ripped from the headlines." He
said, "I'm obsessed with that guy." Now he's doing a play in L.A., and we
flew him in on his two days off to shoot. We flew him in from LA and
flew him back on a Saturday; we did that twice to keep him. Bill Irwin,
who I've also done some play reading with, plays Nate, the father. He's
just great. There are two Tony winners in the cast: Bill Irwin and
Liza. The kid who plays Jamie was on Broadway this spring. It's a very
strong cast, I think.
To be honest, fans were a little anxious going into to this
season with all the cast changes. How does that affect you as a
producer?
I think a lot of people were. (laughter) Well, I'm
aware that the fans of the show are loyal and very dedicated. It's
scary to think things might change. We're doing a little more delving into the detectives' personal lives. We're doing things
differently, and we more or less have to. The show has to change or
we'll disappear at the end of this. I think we all understood that. We
were a late pickup last spring and we didn't know what our status was.
We're in a very competitive slot, against shows like The Unit. Now House is up against us, as is Dancing with the Stars. It's a little bit of a high-wire act this year.
Dick Wolf is notorious for voicing his opinion about NBC's timeslot
changes. Were you nervous about the new competition, even though Criminal Intent has a large fan base?
Oh, sure. Last year, The Unit was the most successful new show by the end of the year, and House has an incredible fan base. I didn't even know about Dancing with the Stars.
But I didn't know I was going to be a producer until mid-June or so.
Rene Balcer, who ran the show for five years,
calls it a battlefield commission. At a certain moment, it just didn't
work out between NBC and Rene. I was like the guy standing in the
foxhole next to him. It was like, "Okay, you're on." Normally we go into
the season with four episodes in the tank, and maybe three months to develop
some episodes. We had six weeks before we started shooting. On the bright
side, I haven't had time to panic. It's been a lot of 19-hour days,
back to back to back.
Are you still working on this season's episodes?
Oh
sure, we're still filming. We get a little hiatus at Christmas, which
will give me -- I hope -- the chance to get just a little bit of a cushion
between when we finish writing and when we begin shooting. (laughter)
Criminal Intent seems to fly under the media's radar,
except when there's a change in casting or reports questioning Vincent
D'Onofrio's health. How does that affect the show?
I think it
suffers a little bit. I don't know why, but I have my theories. I'll put the show up against anybody's show this year. I
wouldn't in years past, but this year, we're doing things and taking
more chances. We've had Rip Torn and Brooke Shields and Liza on the
show. In the next Goren episode, we have Fran Drescher and Rita Moreno.
We're beginning to catch a little, and people are beginning to become
interested in appearing on the show. It's another good way to get
attention for the show, because these are such good actors.
The addition of Eric Bogosian gives Criminal Intent an especially strong cast.
Eric
Bogosian is doing a great job. He and I go back; he's probably my
oldest friend in the business. I've known him since both of us were in
miserable apartments in the Lower East Side when we were both starting
out. I think he's done a terrific job; I think everybody misses
Jamie and Courtney, but Eric has really stepped in. It also gives you a
chance to write about what it's like when there's turnover in your
workplace.
There's a lot of animosity and tension between Goren and Ross.
They're
feeling each other out. It's tricky. If you're the boss of both Logan
and Goren, it's not easy. Those are two good, sharp, talented cops (and
actors), and they don't define compliance.
How many years have you been with the show?
This
is my fifth year. I wasn't there for the first year of
the show, but came in for Season Two.
What inspired all of the changes in the show this season?
At times, the notion of Criminal Intent
got a little bit lost, where we would focus on the
arcane way the criminal covered up his crime. I like the episode we did
this season with Martha Plimpton. That's kind of terrific, because
you've gotten to know a little more about Goren because you met his
mentor. At the end of it, I think you feel something for Martha
Plimpton's character even though she's killed three people and kidnapped
Eames. You feel compassion for her. After five years, I've
talked a lot to Katie and Vince and said, "Look at how your
relationship has changed in real life; how you relationship has changed
and grown over the years. Don't you think that should be reflected in
the show? Imagine if you were cops covering real murders every week,
how does that isolate you from your family and friends over time? Who
can you talk to about this stuff?" Five years in, it's about time we let
people in a little bit more on your process; on how you emotionally
deal with this."
Part Two of this exclusive interview appears next Tuesday. Law & Order: Criminal Intent airs Tuesday nights on NBC. Check MeeVee for details.
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I love the episode with Lisa in it. Her and vincent were great together. I tape all the episodes and watch them over and over.
Keep up the good work. They are all good as long as vince is in them! Why does logan have to be on the alternate week?
Posted by: Toni Koreny | November 05, 2006 at 07:57 PM
Is it possible that you can tell Warren I am trying to contact him? He knows me from college but he did not attend the recent reunion.
Andy Kerns
Posted by: Andy Kerns Regan | February 05, 2008 at 05:11 PM