A Few Minutes with Mark Valley:
A conversation at the Paley Television Festival, March 2005
by Dana Greenlee

Dana: We love you over at Boston-Legal.org. Have you ever checked out the website?

Mark: I haven't checked it out yet. I've heard some good things about it. I've been looking for it.

Dana: It's a fan site.  We're doing all we can to support the show.

Mark: Oh, that's great. Oh, nice.

Dana: I really wanted to ask you one thing about Brad Chase. In "Head Cases", they promised us a push-up contest between you and Denny.

Mark: Yeah, right.

Dana: And it didn't happen. We didn't see it. We saw pictures of it.  What happened and what was the setting for that?

Mark: Well, um - feel kind of, feel kind of they pulled a fast one on me. In the rehearsals, we were doing real push ups, but when we had to perform, he was actually down on his knees the whole time. He was doing them so fast - I thought, "My God, how can he do that." I was pumping pretty fast trying to keep up with him.

Dana: So you're saying you were worn out.

Mark: I was a little worn out. Yeah.

Dana: Why did they cut it?

Mark: Why'd they cut it out? I think we were just doing some push-ups. It wasn't a contest.  It was just a chance for us to sort of bond from our army experience - our military experience. Denny Crane claims he was a Marine, but I don't think he was. I think he just says he was.

Dana: Paul Lewiston has come in, taking Brad's position as the ethical guy. Do you find that you're sort of missing from a few episodes?

Mark: Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of people that have come in. But it keeps the show interesting. I like having guest stars show up.

Dana: It's fun for you - and, of course, Dana Delany [1x6: "Truth Be Told"] and Philip Baker Hall -

Mark: Philip Baker Hall was there. [1x1: "Head Cases"]

Dana: Your family member from "Pasadena". Do you have any scenes with Rupert Everett?

Mark: Actually, Jason Brooks - I worked with him on a soap opera once - "Days of our Lives". He's going to be doing an episode, working tomorrow or the next day, so I'm excited about that. Rupert Everett, I've worked with him before and he's going to be in this episode. [2x2: "Schadenfreude"]

Dana: Do you have any scenes with him?

Mark: He's just going to be walking around. He'll be in the halls.

Dana: We think the reason we're not seeing more Brad is he's been working in the casting office booking all his friends for the show.

Mark: Yeah, exactly. What has Brad been up to... ? Brad's been surfing - that's what he's been doing.

Dana: Or the military reserves.

Mark: He's in the reserves, yeah. He's spending some time in the reserves. At least one episode he's over in Iraq doing some special consulting for the Marines.
 

This interview took place at the Directors Guild of America March 15, 2005, an hour before the Boston Legal panel discussion with cast and show creatives. Audio and a full transcript of the panel discussion are available at our Events page.