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CS4U Talks to ROSEWOOD’s Morris Chestnut and Todd Harthan About What to Expect This Season, Tonight’s Winter Premiere, and Much More! – Read the Q&A!

March is finally here which means our favorite sexy pathologist is making his way back to our television screens! That’s right, the winter premiere for FOX’s ROSEWOOD is tonight and we are head over heels for what’s to come!

CS4U recently caught up with the talented Morris Chestnut who plays none other than the suave Dr. Beaumont Rosewood and the mastermind behind it all, Todd Harthan (Creator, Writer, and Executive Producer). Check out the Q&A!

Picking things up right where we left them, search for the serial killer takes an unexpectedly personal twist as Rosewood and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz ) must piece together the clues before another innocent life slips through their fingers and falls into the murderer’s hands. The love triangle thickens between Villa, Rosewood and Mike (guest-star Taye Diggs) while Donna (Lorraine Toussaint) finds herself between a rock and a hard place when she decides to give Pippy’s (Gabriel Dennis) estranged mother a piece of her mind.

Don’t miss the all-new winter premiere episode “Paralytics and Priorities” airing tonight Wednesday, March 2nd at 8/7 c on FOX!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkF3osWQRes

Q: Morris, this isn’t the first time you played any kind of doctor, but has previous experiences helped you with this role, and what preparation do you go through to play it?

Chestnut​: “Yes, I’ve played a doctor before. However, I was okay with medical terms, but I believe with this particular job, it’s just the complete volume of words and jargon and workload that I have that makes it much, much more difficult. The last doctor I played was on Nurse Jackie to where I was in a guest starring role, maybe working two days a week, maybe three days a week, and the brunt of the dialogue and medical terms weren’t upon myself.

With this, it just makes it really difficult, just the complete volume of everything that I have to deal with and dialogue. The preparation, unfortunately, after I got the job, I didn’t have time to go get my Ph.D., so we have a lot of consultants on set each time, each time we have to do some type of medical procedure.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaJPxsh_WU

Q: So, the fall finale left us with a lot of questions that still need to be answered. What can we expect from the winter premiere of ROSEWOOD?

Harthan: ​”You can expect a great deal of personal things happening with not just Rosewood and Villa, but also with the other characters: TMI; Pippy; Hornstock, the matriarch of the family; Donna Rosewood. So, there’s some cool personal things coming and surprises, be it with Villa’s relationship with Taye Diggs, who has a role in our premiere, and how that further complicates Villa’s relationship with Rosewood. That’s coming for sure.

I think that we’ve pulled off a pretty surprising, satisfying conclusion to this case that we’ve teed up and who is committing these crimes and how Rosewood and Villa catch them in a surprising and satisfying way. So, I think it’s a combination of explosive personal stories coming, and also a really cool way in which we’re solving the case.”

ROSEWOOD: L-R: Morris Chestnut, Jaina Lee Ortiz and guest star Taye Diggs in the "Paralytics and Priorities" episode of ROSEWOOD airing Wednesday, March 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Tyler Golden/FOX
ROSEWOOD: L-R: Morris Chestnut, Jaina Lee Ortiz and guest star Taye Diggs in the “Paralytics and Priorities” episode of ROSEWOOD airing Wednesday, March 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Tyler Golden/FOX

Q: This is a question for Morris, you’ve had such a longstanding career in TV and in movies. What do you attribute that to? Some actors, you know, have a hard time sustaining their careers, but you’ve had such a long career. Why do you think that is?

Chestnut: ​”Wow, I think there are a number of different factors. I believe, for myself, I try to be a nice person. I come to work on time. I try to be prepared. But I think first and foremost, is I always try to get better. I still see acting coaches. I still go to acting classes. Even if I’m not in them, I go to watch them, because, I think as an actor, the more experiences we have, the more we need to be able to incorporate them in our work and use them for our work.

​I know a lot of actors, once they get a movie or once they get a show, they think that, that’s it. They’ve made it, they don’t need a coach, they don’t need an acting class, they’re good, but I feel that every actor can always continue to get better. I mean, Tiger Woods, the best golfer in the world, he had a golfing swing coach. Michael Jordan had a coach. So, you know, I would say first and foremost, you’re just continuing to try to get better each day.”

ROSEWOOD: L-R: Domenick Lombardozzi, Jaina Lee Ortiz and Morris Chestnut in the "Paralytics and Priorities" episode of ROSEWOOD airing Wednesday, March 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Tyler Golden/FOX
ROSEWOOD: L-R: Domenick Lombardozzi, Jaina Lee Ortiz and Morris Chestnut in the “Paralytics and Priorities” episode of ROSEWOOD airing Wednesday, March 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Tyler Golden/FOX

Q: I’m curious, does Rosewood have any secret, personal failures that weren’t explored last season that will be highlighted this season. And when I mean failures, failures that will, perhaps, help change or shape the way he processes or solves crimes this season?

Chestnut: “I definitely understand the question, but I would even ask that same question of Todd Harthan, since he’s the guy with the pen, and I find out everything him.”

Harthan: ​”Yes. I think what we’re always challenging ourselves to do in the writer’s room is peel back more layers of all the characters. Obviously, Rosewood is the title character, and we usually start with him.

The answer is yes. There are—I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s certain things in his past. It’s not like he has any deep, dark secrets. But, what we try to do is with each case that comes up each week, there are certain challenges within those cases that sometimes can expose a moment where Rosewood thinks he’s made a huge mistake, and a mistake that could hinder their chances of solving a case. Those are things that weigh on him and would cause him to question whether or not he is the absolute best at what he does.

We have a pretty cool episode coming up, without tipping anything, where he has to go up against another really great private pathologist, and that challenges him. That makes him, sort of, analyze whether or not he is the best at what he does. So, it’s more of like secrets and challenges or—it’s not really secrets, it’s really challenges within cases and stories we’re telling present day rather than secrets of his past, if that makes sense.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ve17s5x10

 

Q: This is for Todd. Fans enjoyed a lot of guest appearances in Season 1. Can you tell us who will be the will make guest appearances this season?

Harthan: ​Yes. Well, we have one more episode, I think it’s one more with Taye Diggs, so we’re kicking it off with him. And then, we know we’re bringing back a couple of our favorites from earlier in the season. There’s going to be another Joo Joo appearance.

And then we’ve added a member of the cast, an actor named Sam Huntington, who is on Being Human, and he’s a great young actor. We’ve just added him to the fold and he’s shooting his second episode now and I think the audience is going to be excited about the dynamic he brings to the show.

And we have Sherri Shepherd, she’s doing an arc as medical examiner. That’s exciting and she’s been hilarious and a blast to work with. And you never know, everybody you met in those first ten episodes we aired, we had a lot of great guest stars, and I think a lot of those people might be coming back in and having some surprising appearances in future episodes.”

 

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