Summer is still a little ways off, but in Georgia right now the heat is signaling that it’s pool time. Summeralsomeans the return ofRay Donovan’s fifth season – but don’t expect anything particularly sunny from it. Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down withDonovanstarLiev Schreiberrecently to talk about Schreiber’s upcoming turn inChuck, where he plays the “real” Rocky Balboa, but he was able to get in a few questions about the actor’s mysterious fifth season of the Showtime series as well.
In Season 4, we saw Ray dealing with a lot of dark and difficult things, per usual, but there were also a few lighter moments – singing karaoke (against his will, but in the best Southie karaoke accent ever put to film), and even one bright family moment with Conor (Devon Bagby) and Abby (Paula Malcolmson) playing video games. Those moments don’t last long, though, and Schreiber tells us to brace ourselves for a dark season to come:
“I’m in the middle of Season 5 right now, and it’s a shocker. It really is a shocker. I’m afraid that I can’t tell you more than that because there are such critical plot things happening this season […] but it’s a very dark year for Ray.”
What could that shocker be? With this show honestly I have no idea. The family was really fractured through most of the season, so it could be something that brings them closer together again, in they way they were in the Season 4 finale (which I thought wasnice even though it wasn’t completely earned). And even though I think sometimesRay Donovanis stronger when it’s not facing up against a single Big Bad, I am pretty excited about the news thatSusan Sarandonis joining the cast. Though we don’t know much about her character so far, Schreiber revealed: “Susan Sarandon plays someone who Ray comes to work for, who has a very, very, very profound effect on shifting Ray’s life.”
Towards family? Away? Shifting how he works as a fixer? Again, it could be anything. Bring it.
Schreiber says he had no idea the show would go on for this long, but he’s fortunate it has – though it does take its toll: “You’re basically shooting half a movie in 10 days. It’s intense!” But he added, when speaking in praise of the cast and crew,
“I know people say this all the time, but you can believe it from a curmudgeon like me, because I don’t often say nice things. But they become your family, they really do. So the fact that we’ve been able to go 5 years is just terrific.”
The family has always been the strong aspect ofRay Donovan, and it’s not surprising to hear the production as a whole has bonded. And I’m still hoping, despite the comments about how dark this season is, that we’ll get some lighter family moments again as well. Just a few! (We also need a premiere date).
RayDonovanalso starsJon Voight(do you think he and Sarandon talked politics on the set?),Eddie Marsan,Dash Mihok,Steven Bauer,Katherine Moennig,Pooch Hall, andKerris Dorsey.
