John Hawkes (Sol Star in Deadwood) speaks about Milch and Deadwood.
JH: I think that was the best job I've ever had. Amazing group of actors, and [creator] David Milch is a genius. I don't know how else to put it. He's by turns intimidating and altruistic; it's all a bundle of contradictions. He's never mean or anything, but he's just such a smart, confident man. It was great. It felt like he really knew how to tell a story. He really oversaw all the writing on the show, I would say. Although a lot of people's names are on scripts, I think every line of dialogue on that show went through his filter. All the story points and things like that.
He would come on the set and—I guess he's legendary for this from other shows he's been on—he would "Milch it." He would come on the set and watch a scene, and then he'd quote Blake, or tell a story of trying to wrongfully sue a casino, or a joke about a drug buy, or he'd recite a piece of a Shakespeare sonnet. You just never knew what it was going to be. I know every actor on that show has the experience of getting the scene they're about to do the next day, making some decisions, figuring out what they were going to do, and then having David come in and just by telling an anecdote that seemingly had nothing to do with the scene, everything would change. The dialogue wouldn't change, but suddenly the scene would mean something totally different to you that you never ever could have imagined. It's kind of thrilling, the way he works. And then he would leave, once the scene was in a place he wanted it to be. At first it was like, "Well, we've got one director, and now this guy's coming on the set and messing with things." Then later, we'd be freaking out if he wasn't showing up right before the camera was rolling. We wanted him there.
AVC: Between the sets, the cast, and the writing on Deadwood, it probably wasn't so hard to get into character.
JH: You could just put on the wardrobe! It was so amazingly done by Jane Bryant, who does Mad Men now. She's one of the most amazing wardrobe designers I've ever met. You'd get your stuff on, and if you were lucky, you had an early call. I think it was Molly Parker who said that if you walked out on that street before anyone was there, and the sun was just rising, there was a strange, palpable sense of transportation to another time. I know that myself, sometimes I'd shoot for 14 or 15 hours, and then I'd go back to my home in the armpit of Hollywood and walk to the 7-Eleven with cars screaming by on Sunset, and even at 35 miles per hour, it felt like they were going 90. It felt loud and crazy. [Laughs.] I'm not a Method guy, but sometimes I'd come home from work and feel like I'd been displaced and dropped from an old time to a new time.
It was just an unbelievably great job. I don't have anything but positive things to say about that cast and that whole experience. Great cast and great stories and great crew. The Perfect Storm was an impressive set—and I've worked on a lot of Hollywood movies with bloated budgets and big sets—but Deadwood was a set unto its own. It was several blocks of deer carcasses hanging and bleeding, and horseshit everywhere. People would come to the set to visit, and if they wanted to watch a scene, they had to walk through mud and urine. [Laughs.] A lot of people made short visits. It was just fantastic. We shot, I think, 25 miles north of L.A. on the old Gene Autry Melody Ranch, and I never once drove onto that set without a smile on my face.
AVC: It's too bad the show ended so soon.
JH: Yeah, man. I agree. That one would have been a lovely feature film, I think. It's too bad they didn't make one of those. Wrap it all up in two hours. But I don't think that's happening. The sets are all gone. [Laughs.] Even though not a week goes that someone doesn't ask about it still, years later, wondering if it will come back.
Quoted from:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/john-hawkes,41960/
JH: I think that was the best job I've ever had. Amazing group of actors, and [creator] David Milch is a genius. I don't know how else to put it. He's by turns intimidating and altruistic; it's all a bundle of contradictions. He's never mean or anything, but he's just such a smart, confident man. It was great. It felt like he really knew how to tell a story. He really oversaw all the writing on the show, I would say. Although a lot of people's names are on scripts, I think every line of dialogue on that show went through his filter. All the story points and things like that.
He would come on the set and—I guess he's legendary for this from other shows he's been on—he would "Milch it." He would come on the set and watch a scene, and then he'd quote Blake, or tell a story of trying to wrongfully sue a casino, or a joke about a drug buy, or he'd recite a piece of a Shakespeare sonnet. You just never knew what it was going to be. I know every actor on that show has the experience of getting the scene they're about to do the next day, making some decisions, figuring out what they were going to do, and then having David come in and just by telling an anecdote that seemingly had nothing to do with the scene, everything would change. The dialogue wouldn't change, but suddenly the scene would mean something totally different to you that you never ever could have imagined. It's kind of thrilling, the way he works. And then he would leave, once the scene was in a place he wanted it to be. At first it was like, "Well, we've got one director, and now this guy's coming on the set and messing with things." Then later, we'd be freaking out if he wasn't showing up right before the camera was rolling. We wanted him there.
AVC: Between the sets, the cast, and the writing on Deadwood, it probably wasn't so hard to get into character.
JH: You could just put on the wardrobe! It was so amazingly done by Jane Bryant, who does Mad Men now. She's one of the most amazing wardrobe designers I've ever met. You'd get your stuff on, and if you were lucky, you had an early call. I think it was Molly Parker who said that if you walked out on that street before anyone was there, and the sun was just rising, there was a strange, palpable sense of transportation to another time. I know that myself, sometimes I'd shoot for 14 or 15 hours, and then I'd go back to my home in the armpit of Hollywood and walk to the 7-Eleven with cars screaming by on Sunset, and even at 35 miles per hour, it felt like they were going 90. It felt loud and crazy. [Laughs.] I'm not a Method guy, but sometimes I'd come home from work and feel like I'd been displaced and dropped from an old time to a new time.
It was just an unbelievably great job. I don't have anything but positive things to say about that cast and that whole experience. Great cast and great stories and great crew. The Perfect Storm was an impressive set—and I've worked on a lot of Hollywood movies with bloated budgets and big sets—but Deadwood was a set unto its own. It was several blocks of deer carcasses hanging and bleeding, and horseshit everywhere. People would come to the set to visit, and if they wanted to watch a scene, they had to walk through mud and urine. [Laughs.] A lot of people made short visits. It was just fantastic. We shot, I think, 25 miles north of L.A. on the old Gene Autry Melody Ranch, and I never once drove onto that set without a smile on my face.
AVC: It's too bad the show ended so soon.
JH: Yeah, man. I agree. That one would have been a lovely feature film, I think. It's too bad they didn't make one of those. Wrap it all up in two hours. But I don't think that's happening. The sets are all gone. [Laughs.] Even though not a week goes that someone doesn't ask about it still, years later, wondering if it will come back.
Quoted from:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/john-hawkes,41960/