According to British newspaper The Mirror, Anna Friel has signed a new six-year contract to remain on Pushing Daisies.
Now, if we can just get that silly writers’ strike to end, we can actually watch Friel on our favorite show!
Friel has also signed on to star in Land of the Lost alongside Will Ferrell.
It’s nice to see the Golden Globe Awards recognize Pushing Daisies, along with its two stars, for their work this season.
While we’d love to have seen Chi McBride and Kristin Chenoweth also honored, it’s hard to complain about the following nominations:
MUSICAL OR COMEDY
“30 Rock”
“Californication”
“Entourage”
“Extras”
“Pushing Daisies”
ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Alec Baldwin - “30 Rock”
Steve Carell - “The Office”
David Duchovny — “Californication”
Ricky Gervais - “The Office”
Lee Pace - “Pushing Daisies”
ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Christina Applegate
America Ferrara
Tina Fey
Anna Friel
Mary Louise Parker
Here are highlights from an interview Lee Pace and Anna Friel gave USA Today about their characters on Pushing Daisies:
Q: From your banter, you seem to get along great. Could you engage in this romantic pairing if you didn’t?
Pace: I don’t know if you could get the specific thing that Chuck and Ned have if you didn’t like each other as much as we do.
Friel: I’d be surprised. I’ve seen really great love stories and then heard through the grapevine that they actually despised each other. I don’t think I could do that, if you’re working 16-17 hours a day, five days a week. … I see more of Lee than I do my daughter (2-year-old Gracie), my partner (actor David Thewlis) and my family.
Q: What do you think of the central conceit — one touch, life; second touch, death?
Pace: It’s sensible for Chuck to move as far away from Ned as possible. They shouldn’t be in the same room together. But they can’t live without each other.
Q: To avoid contact, pie-maker Ned and Chuck have touched through beekeeper suits, plastic casings, rubber gloves and kitchen wrap. How does it feel to kiss through plastic?
Friel: It’s so hot. I highly recommend it. One of the most sexual experiences of my life (she says, laughing). The same with the plastic sacks in the car. That was thicker. Each time we do it, the plastic is getting thinner and thinner. We started with industrial strength and now it’s going to super fine.
To read the full interview, click here.
As Chuck on Pushing Daisies, Anna Friel is adorable.
But viewers don’t really see the sexy side of this British actress too often on the show. At least not like they do in the following couple photos:
For fans of Pushing Daisies, the question isn’t whether or not Anna Friel is adorable; it’s more an issue of how adorable this British actress is in the role of Chuck.
Take a look below, though, and see how closely Friel resembles another star from an ABC series, Lost.
Anna Friel and Evangeline Lily are both beautiful stars from popular ABC shows.
Chuck and Ned can’t touch lips, despite a couple efforts with beekeeper suits on and saran wrap protecting themselves.
But the same can’t be said of Anna Friel and Lee Pace.
During a recent Pushing Daisies fan event, these two actors laid a nice smooch on one another. Check it out and prepare to swoon…
Lee Pace isn’t exactly complaining that Pushing Daisies is receiving such critical praise. But there is one drawback to such acclaim: pressure.
“If I’m feeling good, I’m very grateful for that,” the actor recently said in an interview with Zap2it. “Some days, though, it makes me nervous, like, ‘Oh, God, I hope we don’t mess it up.’”
We doubt they will. Meanwhile, the actor took readers inside the character of Ned a bit.
“From the beginning moments of the pilot, (Ned has) created a place that he understands,” Pace said. “He can give people fresh pie and goodness and be a generous person within a small world.
“Then he brings Chuck back to life, and his entire world is blown open. He learns something new, I think, in every episode about how to enjoy his life, how to make other people’s lives a better place. That’s the big psychology, I think, behind his gift, in that … it’s a tricky one, one that comes with a consequence and a dilemma.”
Speaking of Chuck - or Anna Friel, the actress that portrays her - how does this British star feel about really making a splash in the United States?
“I was a little bit frightened because I never had done quite this style of acting before, where it’s a little bit and there’s a lot of comedy involved,” she said. “But I thought, ‘I’m going to choose the thing that scares and challenges me the most.’ I loved the whole fairy-tale essence of it all, and I thought it was the most exciting script I had seen in a very long time.
“Chuck is just a wonderful character. I mean, she makes honey for the homeless and she’s been raised by these two extremely mad aunts and learned several languages and read thousands and thousands of books. That’s a great start for a character.”
In an article on TV Scoop listing five British actors bound for glory in the States, a certain Pushing Daisies star topped the rankings.
Here’s what it said:
1. Anna Friel
Still best known for smooching with a lady as Beth Jordache on British soap Brookside, Anna Friel is set to bid for US stardom in Pushing Daisies. This new offering from Bryan Fuller has been described by Friel’s co-star Kristen Chenoweth as “phantasmagorical” and she could be onto something.
Following in the footsteps of other big concept shows such as 24, Lost and Heroes, Pushing Daisies centers on pie maker Ned who discovers he can bring the dead back to life with one touch. This somewhat unorthodox party trick proves useful when the love of his life Chuck (Friel) dies.
The only problem is that once revived, Ned cannot touch the person again otherwise they will die for good.
The accolades continues to pile up for the Pushing Daisies cast.
Earlier, we reported on the honor bestowed upon Lee Pace by E! Online.
Now, it’s time for his on-screen love to receive attention, as Yahoo! has named Anna Friel (and Pace) as a Fresh Face for viewers to watch out for this season.
Here’s how her section reads in the article:
Fresh from England, Friel has been busy on this side of the Atlantic with parts in the TV movie Perfect Strangers and the feature The Jury.
But it’s her role as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles that should make her a well-known presence here. Chuck is the childhood love of Ned, brought back to life by his magical touch and kept alive when he decides he can’t send her back to her coffin for good.
Pushing Daisies was a hit at Comic-Con in July. During that time, the Televisionary sat down with a few of the show’s cast members.
Here’s a look at what Lee Pace and Anna Friel had to say:
Q: How did you get involved with Pushing Daisies?
Pace: Bryan [Fuller] created the part with me in mind. I was not looking to do TV this year but asked my manager for a copy of the script and called Bryan up, who said, “I wrote it with you in mind.” I really wanted to work with Barry [Sonnenfeld, who directed the pilot]. While the pilot is great, it just keeps getting better and better with the episodes I’ve read already.
Q: What excites you most about the series?
Pace: Really, the character’s relationship with Chuck and the psychology of the character. Getting to mine life and death in a profound way. Also, with the show’s procedural element, every eight days, you dive into a new world. The episode we’re shooting right now is a total caper with a Scooby-Doo feel.
Q: What are the challenges of playing a semi-comedic character?
Pace: Basic acting works. Ned doesn’t think he’s funny so it’s about playing the reality of the character. He’s not cracking jokes. It’s about the pathos of the moment and the idea that it’s the reality of being able to touch something and bring it back to life. There are moral obligations with Ned’s condition, an appetite for life and death. Chuck makes him feel like life is good, especially because we only have one life.
And here are a few words from Friel…
Q: Why did you decide to make the leap to American television?
Friel: I had sixteen movies under my belt, Broadway, and the West End and wanted to broaden my palette of work. I came over to LA to change agents and it happened to be pilot season. I read the pilot script and was struck by how joyful and playful Chuck was. I didn’t want to play the girl on the arm of some guy and US television creates the best hooks for its characters.
Q: How similar or dissimilar to your character Chuck are you?
Friel: I’m much more anxious than Chuck. I worry about things and certainly don’t wake up every day feeling that it’s a fresh start and a beautiful day. (Though I should.) Unlike most of the roles I’ve played in the past, I wasn’t able to channel that mood and anxiety into the character and had to get into a different frame of mind. As for similarities, Chuck lets me express the fun, quirky side of my personality. But there is one big thing that’s not similar. Unlike Chuck, I’m not American.
