https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9LprgaaUDM
The Arrangement is E!’s hot new drama that we just can’t get enough of, and tonight at 10p Megan’s past comes back to haunt her. Will it be enough for Kyle to call off his planned $10 million marriage arrangement with her?
While that question I cannot answer, there are several that Josh Henderson (Kyle), Christine Evangelista (Megan) and Creator Jonathan Abrahams recently answered about the show during the NBC TCA Winter Press Day.
Is The Arrangement about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes?
Abrahams: Not at all. I kind of just saw this as for what we feel is a truly unique story that takes place in Hollywood, and our characters are very unique in their own right.
OK, so it is not about them, but is it about religion?
Abrahams: Well, it’s not a religion. I mean, it really is not a religion. And I don’t mean that coyly. Like, this is not a show about faith. You know what I mean? That’s not sort of the underlying theme of do you believe or do you not believe and what’s — there are shows out there that examine that and they do it really well. But, for me, it was really about Hollywood is such an aspirational town, right? And these self help organizations are about aspiring to a higher way of living. To being having more success in your profession and more success in relationships and having a more fulfilling life. And there’s a real promise to it, that “Come join our thing and do our program and spend X amount of dollars for the weekend intensive and you can change your life.” And, to me, that’s not really about faith. It’s about hope. You know what I mean? Or aspiration. So definitely not a religion.
What was it about Josh Henderson that made Abrahams cast him in the role?
Abrahams: When we went into casting, I was terrified of casting the role of Kyle West because honestly because there’s a lot of great actors out there, but there are very few people who walk into the room and have the kind of charisma where it kind of knocks you back a little bit, and that’s what this part needed. And it was myself and Jimmy Fox, my partner, we were in the casting room. We had seen a lot of guys and a lot of good actors. And Josh walked in the room, and it was literally the first line he said, and we did that, like, look at each other like, “Yes, this is happening,” because he’s just kind of like an unfair version of a human being. Do you know what I mean? Like, he’s incredibly good looking, yet he’s not like your typical action hero who is shut down emotionally. Right? Like, he really has access to his vulnerability. He can sing. He can dance. He’s an incredible athlete. It’s like I envy him on every level.
So that was the challenge of casting Kyle West. And I just felt like we got really lucky. He walked in the room fairly early on in the process, and we knew right away. And then on the other side of it, casting, you know casting the role of Megan, who is an unknown, somebody who is on the fringes of Hollywood, trying to make her way, we needed to find somebody who you would buy, you know, could be that person. So she’s somebody who is kind of slipping through the cracks. In real life Hollywood, there are a lot of people like that, great actors who just aren’t quite they haven’t had the right break or met the right person or whoever, and it took a really long time to find somebody who kind of fit that whole very complicated checklist.
How does Henderson see Kyle?
Henderson: I guess in this industry and what’s interesting for me about playing Kyle West is that he’s four, five, six different people in one character. He’s the guy on set. He’s the guy in front of the camera. He’s the guy behind closed doors. He’s the guy with the girl. He has a past, but he also has an image that he has to keep up that he relies on. There you are.
How does Christine Evangelista see Megan?
Evangelista: How you do that, yeah. But I don’t think she’s really sacrificing herself in any way. But I think what Jonathan did so well was normalizing something like this, where her biggest mentor and her agent is sort of saying, you know, “This isn’t the most uncommon thing. This happens in life. And this is a way for you to get to this point.” And it’s sort of like, okay, well, I could use this in a way to advance myself, and I’m being told that this is acceptable on some level. But I think there’s this thing between the two of them. I go back to this connection where she wants to believe that this could be something more, that this is someone that she could trust. But, yeah, I think it was difficult for such a strong woman to put herself in such a vulnerable position, and I was very interested to see how she navigates through that and how she comes out of it and if she sacrifices her character in some way because of it. That was very enticing for me.
Does Henderson have anything to hide like Kyle?
Henderson: I don’t think I have anything to hide, I guess. But, again, you know, this life, you kind of check your privacy at the door when you become an actor, especially if you have some success. And then playing a role like this, it’s a weird thing, an actor playing an actor and kind of having to live Kyle West’s life and not try to, you know, I guess, refer to my life in a way.
