INTERVIEW: Carly Sullivan gets ‘Happy!’ on Syfy
Photo: The sixth episode of Happy!, titled “The Scrap Yard of Childish Things,” stars, from left, Carly Sullivan as Gala, Ritchie Coster as Blue and Christopher Meloni as Nick Sax. Photo courtesy of Peter Kramer / Syfy / Provided by NBC Media Village.
For her latest project, Carly Sullivan entered the bizarre world of Syfy’s Happy!, which recently aired its inaugural season. On the TV show, the actress plays Gala Scaramucci, wife to the big bad guy of Francisco Scaramucci, or Mr. Blue (Ritchie Coster). The two try to outwit and outsmart the efforts of Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) and his imaginary blue horse, Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt).
This is not your grandparents’ type of television.
The arc of the Gala character was profound for audience members tuning in each week, and Sullivan seemed to love her role. However, it almost never happened for the accomplished actress.
“It’s been such a pleasure working on it,” Sullivan said in a recent phone interview. “Basically back in January of 2017, I was asked to audition for the pilot, so it was a very formal audition. I went in. I think probably about a week later, my agent was like, ‘You’re one of the top picks.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ And then a couple days later he called me, and he’s like, ‘Unfortunately they’re going to pass on you because they’re going to go with somebody who has more of a name,’ which I have heard many times before in this industry. And I was like, ‘OK, no worries.’ And then a week later, he called me, and he was just like, ‘You got it. I don’t know what happened, but it’s all yours.’ So that was kind of the process of getting the part.”
When she secured the Gala role, Sullivan was excited and intrigued by the potential of the character and the offbeat series. Right before the audition, she acquainted herself with the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson.
“I had read the graphic novel actually probably the day before I auditioned,” she said. “I was familiar with Grant Morrison, but I had not read the Happy! series. And when I read it, I just thought, how are they going to do this? It’s a really out there graphic novel, and it’s so different. And I was like, wow, this is really exciting stuff, so, yeah, I was very, very, very excited. And it turned out to be all the things I thought it would be and more honestly, so very cool.”
Sullivan’s character of Gala is not in the original graphic novel, but Morrison and showrunner Brian Taylor decided to branch out from the source material and fill in some narrative blanks.
“So when I read the graphic novel, I was like, OK, I don’t see Gala in it,” Sullivan said. “It’s interesting, too, because in my audition, I think it was like maybe only two pages of [dialogue], so I didn’t have a real in-depth understanding of my character. But I could tell from just those two pages, I got a sense of who she was and what her marriage was like with Blue. Blue is the main bad guy this season, and I thought, wow, there’s a lot I can do here, a lot. And it’s interesting, I watched Big Little Lies this year [on HBO], and I remember Nicole Kidman’s character. I was like, you know, I feel like there’s part of Gala here, and so Nicole Kidman’s performance not only excited me but really inspired me. I was like, OK, I can do a lot here, and I can bring this repressed woman to life. I don’t know why. It just really excited me. I feel like it’s the perfect time in our environment to kind of play these women who are in abusive relationships and then become very empowered, so, yeah, I was very excited when I realized what I would be doing.”
Sullivan said that even if she wasn’t involved in Happy!, she probably would be watching the show. She counts herself as a “sci-fi nerd,” and she loves TV, especially in this time that she calls the “golden era” of dramas and comedies.
“I just loved the structure of it,” she said. “I love the longer work schedule because I love to work. Even if I was not in it, I would love to watch it, and I’m not just saying that. I like shows that push boundaries. I like shows that make you think. Happy! has that element of everything is connected, fate, there is no such thing as coincidence. And it reminds me a little bit of Lost or The Leftovers, two of my all-time favorite shows. Yeah, I definitely like shows that are out there, and I love comedy. I mainly work in comedy, and this is definitely a very dark comedy.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Carly Sullivan stars in the first season of Happy! on Syfy. Click here for more information.
