Tonight marked the premiere of Global TV’s new drama series Remedy, and we have a real treat for you – a chat with star Dillon Casey. If you’ve seen the first episode, I’m sure you’ll agree that he steals the spotlight more than a few times. We discussed his character, Griffin Conner, particularly where we find him when the series begins, the journey that Griffin is about to embark on, and the differences between this role and his role as Sean Pierce on Nikita.
What can you tell us about Griffin Conner?
I think Griffin is very impulsive. He has good intentions, his heart’s always in the right place, but he’s also very impulsive. He wants to help people, but he doesn’t really think it out. As much as he has the mind to be a doctor, that scientific way of thinking, Griffin acts on his emotions. He does what he feels is right, and that gets him into trouble because he really puts himself out there and into situations that most people would have nothing to do with. Griffin would be the first person to step up and try to help, not really thinking about the consequences of what might happen. He really wants to be liked and he really wants to do the right thing, so that’s kind of what’s guiding him. I think he needs to step back and maybe start thinking things through a little bit. His heart is in the right place but he has to start using his head a little bit more.
Right from the beginning, we see the strained relationship that Griffin has with his family. It’s not exactly a “welcome home” party when he arrives in the Bethune ER. Tell us a bit about how he fits – or rather doesn’t fit – into the Conner family.
What’s interesting is the relationships that Griffin has with each person – his father, his older sister, his younger sister – they’re all so volatile. There’s so much behind everything that’s said, behind every look they give each other. Just him coming back into the hospital, to want to work there, automatically stirs up a whole bunch of resentment from Melissa (Sara Canning), who has done the right thing her entire life. Sandy, Sarah Allen’s character, is the caregiver, so she’s just happy that he’s alive. And his father is, you know, the prodigal son has returned, so he accepts him and wants to help.
I have a family that’s the same size, two brothers and a younger sister, so I can relate to a lot of these things that these characters are going through. The fact that I went to Los Angeles and then come back, my family always jokes that I’m the prodigal son, so it was nice that I could play a character that I could kind of relate to directly.
What can you tease about Griffin’s journey during this season?
Griffin is very reactive and he knows how to get what he wants … but he’s a very short-term thinker. As much as he’s dealing with the fact that he has to work at the hospital, he has to be around his family, I think he’s focusing on the small things, just day by day. Whether or not he’s going to make any actual growth is a question that is hard to answer. Griffin is in a new situation and I think that he fails to really address what made him screw up in the first place. He just tries to let his past go and move forward. When he was in med school, he became a drug addict, and he got kicked out of med school. He hasn’t really addressed what made him a drug addict in the first place. He just tried to drop it and move on. So now that he’s working at Bethune, he’s sober, but he hasn’t really dealt with his issues. He still doesn’t know what he wants to do for a living. He’s not going to be a porter; this is transitional, he’s still floating. He still has a tough time getting close to people, he still harbors a lot of resentment towards his father for – and his dad didn’t do it on purpose – but for pressuring him to become a doctor when it wasn’t really something he wanted to do. Griffin is just in another situation where if he doesn’t take a good hard look at himself and see that he’s repeating the same mistakes that he’s just going to end up back where he was.
In working as a porter, we see Griffin struggle, almost like a fallen prince. How would you describe how his new co-workers see him?
As much as Griffin is a good guy, he’s a spoiled brat. He basically has the entire world handed to him on a silver platter. Think about what his problem is: “Oh poor me, I don’t want to be a doctor.” What kind of problem is that? There are people in this hospital with real problems. The guy he works with, Bruno (Diego Fuentes), who shows him the ropes, he’s got some real problems. When he sees a guy like Griffin who is this rich white kid who’s getting straight A’s in school and left med school because his dad was pressuring him, it’s like get over yourself.
Griffin really needs to take a look at himself and realize that it’s a bit narcissistic the way he acts, that his problems are so big and not so unsolvable that he has to disappear thinking that everyone would be better off if he left for a while. You have to think pretty highly of yourself to think that would be a way to solve everybody’s problems. He really needs a reality check.
Was that chemistry that I saw between Griffin and Zoe (Genelle Williams)? There was definitely a spark. What can you tell us about that relationship?
Well, they’re both runaways. Griffin took off, disappeared for 2 years. When Griffin left med school, he disappeared to Thailand. Zoe’s a runaway, too. She ran away from her foster home. So right away, they notice each other and something definitely starts to grow. Griffin needs someone who is going to push his buttons. Griffin’s a smart guy, a stubborn guy, but he needs someone who’s going to call him on his bullshit. And Zoe’s pretty tough.
What can you say are the differences between playing Griffin, and your role on Nikita?
If you look at Sean Pierce on Nikita, there’s definitely a big difference stylistically. Sean is a very choppy character – he comes in, he says a line to solve a problem and then he leaves the scene. He comes in with a gun, he shoots the bad guy, he leaves the scene. There’s not much of a flow to him. In Remedy, Griffin is in almost every single scene. Everything he does has an impact on everybody in the show. There’s a flow to Griffin. You see his journey, whereas Sean Pierce really jumps around a lot – emotions and feelings and thoughts. For Griffin … there’s a different style of acting there for sure. I’ve learned a lot from being on set of Nikita and I was able to bring that confidence and knowledge to Griffin. I continue to study and train in LA, so I was able to bring more to [Griffin] not only because there is more written, and also because I think I am in a better place as an actor.
Catch Dillon Casey on Remedy, Monday nights at 9pm ET/PT on Global TV.
(Photo Courtesy of Global TV)
