by R.J. Carter as seen in The Trades
You’ve seen him on North Shore, Mad Men, and in a host of guest appearances on several hit television shows. Now Kristoffer Polaha is taking a leading role in the highly anticipated CW offering, Life Unexpected, as a “Peter Pan” bachelor who is suddenly forced to grow up when he learns he has a daughter he never knew about.
The nutshell premise of the show is that your character, Nate “Baze” Bazile and Cate (played by Shiri Appleby) had a baby in high school, whom they gave up to the state system, and are only now having to truly deal with the ramifications of having a family. But that barely scratches the surface of things. Maybe you can expound a bit more on what viewers can expect?
Yeah, that’s really the tip of the iceberg. That’s the catalyst of the whole show. To clarify, Baze gets Cate pregnant in high school. Cate tells Baze, “I’m pregnant,” Baze doesn’t take any responsibility for that, and she goes ahead and gives the baby up for adoption, and Baze has no idea that now there’s a baby out there in the world that belongs to him.
So sixteen years later this little girl shows up at the door, and it sets up a whole course of events into motion. What you see in Baze is this really immature, sort of proverbial man-child who doesn’t want to grow up, and all of a sudden he’s confronted with adulthood and taking responsibility for his actions and dealing with the consequences. And what you see in Cate’s side is someone who had this baby, gave it up, and has been pushing people away for the last sixteen years of her life, never really wanting anything for fear that it would go away, or that it wouldn’t work out for her. So she pushes friendship, love, and all sorts of stuff away. So now she’s dealing with having to opening her heart. So the viewers can watch these two people grow up, and watch this little girl whose had to be grown up her whole life learn how to trust and how to be a kid again — or, rather, learn how to be a kid, period.
It’s fairly obvious from the pilot — and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here — that Nate and Cate still have feelings for each other, despite Cate’s engagement to Kerr Smith’s character. Is this going to be one of those stretched-out sexual tension things that can never be truly resolved without ruining the dynamic? I think you’ve nailed it on the head. I think there’s a lot of unresolved sexual tension that’s going to be stretched out for hopefully seasons to come.
You and Shiri both have pre-CW stints on your resume, back when it was still The WB — you were once a hardcore masked vigilante on Birds of Prey, and you once guest-starred Shiri’s show, Roswell. I did! I had one episode — I don’t think we shared any screen time together, but I worked with Katie Heigl and Adam Rodriguez, but I saw Shiri off-set a couple of days and got to know her, so that when we saw each other at screen tests for Life Unexpected, it was like old friends.
How would you say Shiri’s changed since that job, if at all? I can’t answer that, because I didn’t know her well enough to know who she was then. But I can speak to the fact that I’m having a blast working with her now. She’s a really professional actress. She comes to the set with her A-game every time, and we just have a lot of fun. Kerr Smith, Shiri Appleby and I went up to Whistler last weekend and celebrated Shiri’s birthday, and just had a blast! So the fact that we’re enjoying each other’s friendship off-camera as well as on speaks to the nature of the project and speaks to the chemistry on-set between everybody. It’s good stuff.
Of course, Life Unexpected hinges on the character of Lux, the just-turned-sixteen year old daughter, played by Brittany Robertson (who’s really 19). Is there a noticeable generation gap when you, Shiri and Britt are hanging out between takes, or is there even time for that? There is! I’m 32 years old, and I’ve never felt like an old man. When Britt is hanging out with her other teenage co-stars, it’s like, “Wow, these kids are really…” It’s just different. (Laughs) You know? Because I still fancy myself a hip, cool, with it catch who’s like, not too far off from having been what all the markets are advertising towards, and that’s not the case anymore. Especially, I think, with technology. There really is a tangible difference between the generations; I think I caught the tail end of the X Generation, and Britt’s in a completely different generation. That doesn’t stop us from actually getting along with her — Shiri and Brittany live together, and you can see their bond. There’s a lot of respect and a lot of mutual love between those two, and you can see it play on-set — on camera and off camera.
Brittany and I really have a great relationship also off camera. She’s a really smart kid. She’s a wonderful actress — I call her the “wonder kid.” She’s a teenager, and she’s able to bring so much heart, so much wisdom, so much “old pro” experience to the set every take. So there’s a lot of mutual respect on all parts.
At times her character seems like the adult in the series.
Yeah, I think that’s a part of it. And Cate and Baze are the children that have to grow up, and she needs the chance to “grow down.”
You’ve gone from playing a well-organized hotel manager to a sort of “arrested development” bar owner (with a brief stint as the Greek god of love). In that range of characters, where do you find yourself in real life — more managed or more hangin’ loose?
I think I’m more akin to Baze than I am to Jason Matthews on North Shore. And I’ll give a shout out to Valentine — when I read that script, that character was… there are a lot of similarities between that character and Baze. He was just this person who sort of runs really, really wild, and bigger than life, and doesn’t really consider or weigh the consequences out before he takes his actions. He just kind of goes through life. So I kind of feel like I’m a little more Baze than Jason. It took some — when was North Shore, 2004? It took some time for the casting directors to see that, but… (Laughs).
You have two boys of your own, aged 5 and 3. Has playing the father to a teenager given you any pause for consideration about what you’ll be facing in real life ten years down the road? Well… I don’t have daughters. I have two little boys. So I think that my life is going to be a touch easier for that fact alone; because if I did have a daughter, a teenaged daughter, I would be the most overprotective, overbearing, shotgun-in-hand father you’d ever want to meet.
I always feel that way towards Brittany. You know, here she is — she’s a young woman, and she’s fully capable of taking care of herself. But on set I’m totally her dad, and if I think somebody’s acting inappropriately I’m all, “Hang on a second. What’s happening over here?” (Laughs) And she’s fully capable of taking care of herself, but I’m playing dad, so I can’t imagine being a father to a daughter. But my kids… God, I hope that we’re doing a good enough job right now that they stay out of trouble later.
Does your work on Life Unexpected preclude any future appearances by your character on Mad Men? I don’t think that it will, depending on shooting schedules. Matt [Weiner] tends to start in March, and if we’re still on our hiatus there could be a possibility for Carlton to make a little appearance. And I think Matthew likes bringing him back. They’re always these short little things, but it’s such a joy for me, because that set runs so amazingly well. It’s really interesting to see how that show runs, to see what a mensch Matthew Weiner is — he does such an amazing job of commanding that whole ship. And it’s been an interesting parallel to watch Liz Tigelaar… she doesn’t know Matt, but she’s doing really similar things. Her sort of vision of Life Unexpected… she’s basically created an atmosphere for collaboration where we’re all filtering ideas, and she’s a part of that every step of the way, and that’s a lot like how Matthew is on the set of Mad Men. Every prop, every hairstyle, every outfit goes through him, and it’s really similar with Liz.
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