Exclusive Interview with Deanna Russo Part 2

RUSSO: Sarah is an assistant professor although it¹s not quite exactly stated what she teaches but it has something to do with nano-technology. She’s also the daughter of Charles Graiman, played by Bruce Davison. And the two of them built the initial algorithms for KITT. But then they kind of had a falling out. Sarah and Charles haven’t spoken for some time, and in that time Charles developed KITT. And bad guys find out about this amazing technology Charles Graiman has made, and they want it. Or they’re actually hired; we don’t know who’s hiring them. They first try to kidnap Charles and he gets away, and then they come after me because they know that I'm next in line. But she hasn’t spoken to her dad in years. She's literally crossing campus and all of a sudden all these bad things start happening. Because Sarah and Mike grew up together, Mike is the only one that Charles trusts. So part of KITT¹s programming is to ensure my safety. And the only person he trusts to help with that is Mike Traceur. As soon as I’m rescued, the next thing we do is go find Mike Traceur, who coincidentally I haven't spoken to in years either. In fact, it left kind of awkward. I don’t even know if he¹s alive anymore and he kind of broke my heart. So of all the people to have to rely on, for it to be this guy, this unrequited love...

RUSSO: She would definitely be a technician of some kind. But I also have requested a training montage so that Sarah could kick some butt as well and go on missions (laughs). Just because. There are fight scenes, and I¹m like this is so cliche, I’m standing here and watching two dudes go at it. Come on! This is 2008. A girl can get in there and pull some hair or something.(laughs).

RUSSO:(laughs) Oh, no no no... And besides, I haven’t had the training yet. Safety first of course.

RUSSO: Yeah, and he did a lot of training for that role. You should see him. He’s a bad-ass. Off-camera he’s just this normal dude. Well not normal. He and I geek out together, often. Just laughing about how cool this and silly little things. They call Action, I don’t know WHAT kind of magic happens but Justin suddenly becomes this action hero. It's just so believable and real. I get caught up in it and oh my God. Where does that come from? That’s not you? You could seriously do some damage (laughs). And that specific day when Justin got injured I remember all of us were impressed because we finally got to see serious hand-to-hand combat that he had been working on. It was amazing. He was just full of energy and power and he took one faulty step and boom, he went down. I haven’t seen the clip though, I’m told they got it on tape.

RUSSO: Is it still on your site?

RUSSO: OK cool I'll check it out.

RUSSO: No, I've only seen that fifteen second teaser, with the lights from underneath the sheet.

RUSSO: Yea, I do. I spent a lot of time hanging out with KITT, driving away from bad guys. It was incredible, not only do we have one on one conversations, where he psychoanalyzes me, but also it just cracks me up the stunt driving techniques they invented for this show.

RUSSO: There is several versions of KITT for filming purposes. Which is cool from our side of it, but I have yet to seen the inside of what KITT looks like cause they're going to put that all together in post production. What they were able to do was rig a dune buggy essentially on the roof. The driver on top is a puppeteer, he has a chain linked from his steering wheel to the other steering wheel and the breaks and gas, so he's basically driving the car from the roof. And with his cage they are able to attach lights and cameras so that with HD it's pretty incredible the flexibility you have with filming because you don't have to worry about the fragile quality of film so you take bigger risks. When you see these high speed chases, I am really in the car. This is all a very well choreographed high speed chase. Even when I was doing it, I knew I was totally safe but there is that second that "Oh my god! This is better than Disneyland!" (laughs) The first time we ever rode around me and Justin for the first time, we were in a remote controlled version in this underground garage scene, where we a trying to get away and every where we turn there is another car coming at us with headlights. Now I don't know if you've ever been on Mr. Toads Wild Ride, basically it’s the same thing, you're trying to get away and every time you make a turn there are these headlights coming at you. It really just felt like the Fast and the Furious meets Mr. Toads Wild Ride. (laughs) They should totally make a theme park ride out of that because it was just too much fun. I had the best job on this whole shoot because of how much time I got to hang out with KITT.

RUSSO: Oh yea, girls don't forget, girls want answers! There is definitely a lot of sexual tension between Mike and Sarah. That's another story line for the future is "will they or wont they?" They have all this history together, and yet they just keep butting heads. I love their relationship it's really entertaining to watch. Well I haven't watched it I just acted in it and tried to perform it!

RUSSO: We finished that this week, and we'll probably be going in to cover some audio tracks that weren't good during recording - ADR to do. Then we just get to stick back and wait for the premier! People do pilots all the time in LA, and the majority of them never see the light of day. This is a really unique situation where we get to film some thing and while we are filming it we start to do publicity for it. We were doing press events and everything because they were that excited about putting it on the airways. It's pretty cool! I'm proud of it, this is the first project that I'm really stocked about. Everything else has just been like super fun and a learning experience but now with Knight Rider this is a show that if I had nothing to do with it, I would tune in to watch.

RUSSO: We are all kind of in love with each other. We don't hang out in our trailers we were just on set the entire time watching each other be badasses.

RUSSO: I think she should know some Kung Fu, that is where I want to go with it.

RUSSO: No, we don't even get a wrap party. (laughs) Everything is just happening so fast for the studio. I don't know if you know but CGI alone takes forever. The fact that they were able to turn this around and spit it out so soon is pretty remarkable. I don't know, I'm probably going to go over some friends house that has HDTV and watch it.

RUSSO: Well I'm not sure if I am the one to break the news, but did you hear about Will Arnett? He's not on board anymore.

RUSSO: Yeah. He's got a very prominent voice over career. I didn't know this because he's so good at crafting his voice that you don't even know that it is him. Apparently he had a contract with GMC for all this time. When they signed on everything was cleared and everything was fine and then all of a sudden for some reason, nobody understands how this happened, but he's not cleared from his contract. So GMC is basically waiving their big stick at Will Arnett saying you can't be the voice of a Mustang.

RUSSO: No - they haven't found a replacement. The good thing is that because it is just voice over it can be a last minute thing. Honestly nobody really knows, so I don't know if you want to release this just now (laughs) because there is still trying to keep it on the down low while they figure out what to do. I think it would be great if Tracey Morgan did the voice. (laughs) But that is just my own personal favorite.

RUSSO: Dude, I know. But what about William Daniels? I don't know why that hasn't even been considered.

RUSSO: That would be awesome. (laughs) There is nice little nuggets for the ultimate fans in there. Just nice little tips of the hat. Rainne Willson and Steve Carrell were like the first two and Will Arnett was the third idea. I don't know why, there is alot of reasons it maybe didn't move forward; maybe it was availability, maybe it's contract, maybe its a million different reasons. We were really excited for Will Arnett, so I'm sad that I don't get to be on a show with him, I'm such a fan. Everything will be fine and awesome, but because everyone was really gearing up for it. Like you said, they have been airing trailers with his voice. Hey did they do a trailer with Mike and a Valet?

RUSSO: Cool! I heard about that; I haven't seen it but I'm told it's really funny.

RUSSO: I'm such geek, that is so cool! It's just not like everybody is a good person to spend time with. But it just so happens that these people are really talented and imaginative and they want to have the most fun possible making this show. I think with all of that in mind it has just been this amazing experience for me and I've never been so excited for anything to air on TV before. I'm just so excited for you guys to experience it for yourselves as an audience. It's so cool! (laughs) I'm sorry I am such a nerd! I love that you have a website for this, that is awesome.

RUSSO: Sure! Thank you!