Career opportunities can surface at the most unexpected times and places; so it was for author and TV writer Jonathan Ames, who experienced one of the biggest shifts in his career path by way of one exchange.
“I got an email from my agent asking the following question: Did I want to get on the phone with Seth MacFarlane?” he remembers. “Of course I would. He said, ‘Seth is looking to do a comedy with Patrick Stewart but needs a writer, needs somebody to come up with an idea.’ ” Ames had to come up with that idea in a day.
That evening, he was both channel surfing and brainstorming when he came across a well-known cable news show. “I saw Piers Morgan on CNN with this electric blue backdrop behind him. And I suddenly imagined Patrick Stewart behind such a desk. I thought, well that could be a show.”
“Blunt Talk,” an original Starz series featuring Stewart as a troubled British newscaster attempting to make it in America, has developed a devoted following since its Season 1 premiere in August 2015 (the sophomore season begins Oct. 2). Co-starring Jacki Weaver, Adrian Scarborough, Dolly Wells, and Timm Sharp as the various producers and assistants to Stewart’s Walter Blunt, the sitcom contrasts the distinct gravitas of its lead with outrageously goofy situations.
The character of Walter is built upon such contradictions, says Ames. He’s “a cable news host, in the old-fashioned, Walter Cronkite sort of model,” but also behaves like an arrogant man-child, able to get away with anything. The pilot episode, for example, involves Walter being arrested after picking up a hooker and climbing atop his car to drunkenly recite Shakespeare. (Sir Walter Blunt is also the name of a character in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1.”)
READ: “How Shakespeare Can Make You a Better Actor”
“He’s just a very gifted artist and actor who can take the words and make them sound real and interesting, and bring all this depth to every scene,” Ames says of his star and muse. “I wrote it for him, with him in mind. Patrick kind of vetted me, got a feel for me, and away we went.”
Season 2 will find “Blunt Talk” in more serialized territory, with plenty of cliffhangers to keep viewers on their toes. “I learned who all the characters were in the first season and kind of discovered them, and saw where the actors took things or where there was chemistry. The second season was, OK, what could be a fun storyline for each character? Who do we want to pair them with? It’s kind of a big hodgepodge of notions. Then I meet with the writers and start carving that all up into stories and episodes.”
Ames’ previous series, HBO’s “Bored to Death,” came from an autobiographical place, inspired by the writer’s own stories of struggling for his art in New York. It’s not lost on him that television is seldom created the way “Blunt Talk” was. “In some ways it’s almost like it began as an assignment: ‘Come up with a project for Seth MacFarlane and Patrick Stewart.’ And I did!” How did Ames get to the point where comedy greats are banging down his door? Years of hard work and perseverance.
“My advice to any young writer or artist is you just have to put yourself out there,” says Ames. “Learn to make things. You don’t know what you do that might lead to something else, or someone you might meet, a collaborator, someone who appreciates what you do and helps bring you an opportunity.”
Performing material in downtown Manhattan for years, Ames yearned to be “discovered” without ever coming close. Then—10 years later—a regular at his shows became the booker for the “Late Show With David Letterman,” leading to an appearance on the show and many opened doors.
“There’s always going to be more rejection than acceptance,” says Ames. “Nothing happens overnight. And you never know the ripple effect.”
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