Thomas Sadoski charmed us on the Aaron Sorkin addictive drama, THE NEWSROOM and captivated us on THE SLAP this time around he’s looking to make us laugh on his hilarious new comedy, LIFE IN PIECES. I caught up with the immensely talented actor about his new show, transitioning from darker work, and everything we need to know about his character, Matt on the new CBS comedy.
How was it for you coming off of intense dramas like THE NEWSROOM and THE SLAP and transitioning into a light comedy like LIFE IN PIECES?
Thomas Sadoski: It’s been a lot of fun! To show up everyday with the sole purpose to make people laugh, that just feels really nice. Especially just coming of off super intense work and doing some pretty heavy lifting on THE NEWSROOM and THE SLAP it’s fun to have a good time with this stuff and it’s also challenging. I don’t think it’s something that I feel overly comfortable with, the idea of that comedy format. So it’s a great challenge and that’s part for the reason I took it because I want to continue to challenge myself and push myself and I have the opportunity to learn from some of the greats in the business. Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Colin Hanks, Dan Bakkedahl, Betsy Brandt, Angelique Cabral, Zoe Lister Jones, they are amazing talents in their own right and they are very good at this stuff. I get to challenge myself and learn and grow and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. There was no down side to that.
What drew you to the show?
I loved the format of it, I thought it was brilliantly written. Then they started to talk about the cast they were assembling and it was a no brainer. I think at that point they had Dianne, Colin, and Zoe and I was like, “I’m in!” The opportunity for Dianne Wiest to play your mom, I’ll do whatever! I love the show I loved the script, I had a great talk with Justin (Adler) our writer and Jason Winer our executive producer and it made a lot of sense to me. We share a lot of the same world views in a lot of ways and it felt like it was going to be a good time, that we were going to have a lot of fun making.
What can you tell us about your character, Matt?
Matt is a man in his late thirties, who due to circumstances that are outside of his control has found himself having to live back home with his parents. He has a job that his father helped him get at a company he doesn’t particularly care about. However, he has met and is starting to fall in love with his boss, who is also going through some tricky stuff too. She has recently called off her engagement but because of her financial situation is forced to live with her ex-fiancé. So, they are trying to figure out how they can date given the nature of the boss and employee relationship but also fact that he lives at home with his parents and she lives with her ex-fiancé. Matt is the middle child in this large family, and all of the amazing-horrible stuff that goes along with being the middle child in a family of very successful people.
There’s a hilarious scene with Matt’s father that takes place at his fake funeral. What can you tell us about that scene? How was shooting that?
(Laughs) That was one of our last days on the Pilot, we had so much fun with that. That was the first day that we were all together as a group because we had broken off and shot our own individual stories over the course of the week that we were making the Pilot. It was the first time we were able to get together as a family unit and spend time together and it just clicked right away. You could feel it in the room once we were all in there together and everyone started doing their thing and everyone was laughing at everybody’s scenes. Everyone was so respectful of everyone else’s work, it was fantastic. The sequence just took off because of that. That was a really good day!
What shows are you loving on TV right now? Any shows you are binge watching?
You know, I’m not a binge watcher. I’m probably just too old for it but if I watch too much of the same show back to back I start to forget what makes the show so special and exciting. It just becomes this thing that I’m immersed in and I’m living through for the next couple of days until I get to the end of the series, then I get to the end of the series and I need a break. Rather than looking forward to it and being able to clock what makes it special and unique. I’m really excited for the new season of FARGO; I’ll definitely be checking that out. I’m really excited about BING BANG THEORY and to see what they do this year.
You can watch Thomas in the series premiere of LIFE IN PIECES tonight at 8:30 on CBS.