Unofficial Scott Cohen Fansite

Cult Times 
April, 2000 
Cohen Strong 

Fairy-tales have always proved a solid basis for Fantasy TV, as you can see in the epic 10-hour series, The 10th Kingdom. We trapped the wolfy Scott Cohen to ask what he did with Grandma. 

By Thomasina Gibson

If you tune into what’s going down in the woods from April 16th you’re sure of a big surprise, and it has nothing to do with namby-pamby teddies stuffing themselves silly. No way! For once you enter The 10th Kingdom, Simon Moore’s magical extravaganza will make everything you’ve ever thought about your favourite fairy-tales disappear, turn inside out, then reappear as if by…um…magic. Central to this amazing state of affaires is a very wolfish sort of hero called, appropriately enough, Wolf. Looking like a cross between a young Tom Conti and Al Pachino, Wolf is actually a cross between a human and the four-legged Red Riding Hood terrorist variety of lupine and is played to perfection by 10th Kingdom native, Scott Cohen.

Possessed of the dry wit for which New Yorkers are famed, tempered with a childlike sense of innocence and a cub-like sense of adventure, Cohen romps through the enchanted forest like a two-legged version of the Andrex puppy.

When we speak it’s not even eight am but driven by as much zest for life as the character he portrays, Cohen is bouncing about ready to enthuse about his latest project. “The first few nights have just aired in the United States and though I’m not sure what all the ratings and numbers mean demographically or anything like that, I do know that around 12 million people watched the show – which is a good thing.”

It’s a great thing! The 10th Kingdom is a ground-breaking phenomenon that manages to cross the boundaries between what happens in Fantasy land and what occurs in real life, then mesh both worlds into a totally believable universe. Cohen is understandably proud of the achievement. “When I’ve been talking to people about the show, I’ve been trying to focus not just on the Fantasy part but on the story itself. That’s one of the most appealing things about The 10th Kingdom for me and the more I watch it, the more I realize that Simon (Moore) has produced an entirely new fairy-tale by kind of using the classic stories to create a new tale about a young girl’s journey to herself. I am totally inspired by it. It’s one of the best things I have ever done.”

About to launch onto our screens, Sky’s 10th Kingdom tells the story of waitress Virginia (Kimberly Williams) whose mundane existence in the Big Apple (you’ll smile at the significance once you’ve watched the show) is changed forever when, accompanied by her father Tony (John Larroquette), the dashing Mr. Wolf and a golden retriever, she is forced to traverse the Nine Kingdoms of Olde in order to save a Prince (Daniel La Pine), find her true self and prevent a wicked tyrant from ruling the land. The whole production is beautifully presented from the stunning title sequence, through glorious waterfalls to magnificent lake scenes, and the costume colour and quality of the actors’ performances give the series the look and feel of a much loved storybook. “That’s what I try to tell people,” agrees Cohen. “It’s a very literate piece of television that can withstand people sitting in front of the TV night after night because at the end they are going to come away feeling like they’ve read a book.” Continuing, he suggests, “I don’t know what the majority of people are like, but for myself, when you read the first 100 pages of a book it’s like the set-up and you have to sit and concentrate until you the to the point where things start to change and your life starts to change. I think the first two hours of The 10th Kingdom are very much like a ‘set-up’ then the show actually sails from that point in. The really great thing is that you don’t start to get the intricacies of Virginia’s story until then.”

Passionate about the fact that Simon Moores’ writing depicts so much more than a light-hearted tale of adventure and romance, the actor acknowledges that “On the surface, the tale of the 10th Kingdom is gripping, funny, touching and exciting on one level, but when you stand back and look at it from afar, so many other facets start to shine through.”

Without wishing to spoil the story in any way, Cohen nevertheless feels it’s important to know that for all its delightful twists and turns, The 10th Kingdom basically tracks Virginia on a quest to find her mother. Sharing more than most actors do about their personal circumstances, Cohen is refreshingly open about his own feelings with regard to the deeper aspects of Moore’s tale. “There are a couple of things I personally relate to…on is that my mother died about three years ago and when somebody dies you search for them again in your entire life. There’s never a time when you can do without them. You need them back. The other is that my wife lost her parents when she was four years old, and though she was lovingly raised by her aunts and uncles, for a little while she was a orphan. Though she’s a much older woman now, her whole life was shaped by those events and much of her time was spent trying to work out what happened all those years ago. Coming to terms with losing someone is a huge never-ending challenge.”

Cohen ventures that the reason Virginia is such a great character is because, “she is a young girl who has armoured herself for her life but she’s still depressed and suppressed. She has not concept of what she is capable of doing. I think one of the greatest lines Wolf has is ‘You must do something great with your life because the hurt is so great.’ That to me expresses things so wonderfully because Wolf is capable of seeing what’s inside Virginia and she doesn’t. She doesn’t even realize the pain inside her is so enormous that it’s all she can do to survive, and it takes an animal to reveal that to her.”

Asked if he feels Wolf has so much intuition because he’s only half human brings a wry smile, “Oh yes, Wolf’s still in touch with this bestial side,” quips Cohen. “Actually, I think Wolf’s animalistic side is a terrific complement to his human side.” Pausing slightly to find the right words to describe his character’s “dual personality” the actor finally decides: “His human side is the nutty side, and the ‘pure’ side is the wolf part of his being.” Conjuring up a scene from the show, where Wolf asks if all the nocturnal activities kept her awake, Wolf is astounded that the heroine claims she heard nothing when he “was enthralled by the sounds of the trees, the animals, the birds…This guy even loves the dirt,” insists Cohen. “This is his Universe. He loves it and embraces it with pure unadulterated emotion.”

“Wolf takes such joy in everything, yet panics at everything too. His levels of emotion are so extreme, but that makes it so much fun for me because most of us want to express ourselves the way Wolf does.” Portraying such exuberance raised its own challenges for the actor. “One of the hardest things I learned to do was express joy and make it believable. As a performer, I can express anger, sadness, all those kinds of emotions, but joy is something else. For example, when Wolf is sitting eating a bacon sandwich it’s just such a big deal for him. It’s just the most wonderful thing in the world. Even when he’s spending money he shouldn’t even have he gets such joy from doing it.” It certainly lends a new slant to the New York mantra ‘shop till you drop.’

One of the funniest scenes in the first two episodes of The 10th Kingdom is when a very hungry Wolf finds himself seated in a restaurant faced with the task of choosing a meal from the menu. The sheer delight he exudes as he drools his way through descriptions of lamb, pigs and poultry is absolutely hilarious and a perfect foil to how everyone else in the restaurant behaves. “What I love about that scene is that Wolf was there to do one thing and ended up doing something else but in never bothered him once. He has total faith in destiny and believes completely that wherever he is at any given time is where he’s meant to be. I absolutely want to live that way.”

Asked if he is anything like the character he portrays, Cohen dissolves into laughter protesting, “Definitely not!” Qualifying that a little, he says, “I guess I am in some ways, I am neurotic. I always need to be over there when I’m actually over here. I’m one of those people who’s never in the right place at the right time.” Another difference between Cohen and Wolf is that the actor does not spend his time with his nose in self-help books. “There’s no book that will help me.” He grins, “I’m totally lost. However, I do like reading incredible novels because my imagination is so much better that my reality.”

Cohen also reveals he finds himself attracted to children’s books. “I feel really odd saying it, but most of the philosophy that I abide by is children’s book related.” His interest in children’s literature also extends towards children’s illustrators and Cohen admits that while doing the research for The 10th Kingdom he found thousands of books with illustrations of the fairy tales that explained more to him than the stories themselves. “Artists like Arthur Rackham had such clear vision about what these fairy tales meant.” In fact, Cohen kept one illustration with him throughout the entire shoot. “It shows Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. He is up on two legs and when I saw it I thought, ‘This is it! This is how I should be.’ There’s a look in the wolf’s eyes that has malicious intent alongside his recognition of the beauty of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s like he has this conflict of interest in that he knew the enormity of what he was going to do.”

To find out whether or not this Mr. Wolf does the right thing and lives happily eve after means you’ll have to find your way to The 10th Kingdom. Having watched the story right to the end, I promise it’s a dream come true.