‘How to Get Away with Murder’ Stars Matt McGorry and Liza Weil Dish on What’s Next for Bosher, a ‘Gilmore Girls’ Reunion and More!
How to Get Away with Murder is one of ABC’s newest hit series, and a large portion of the cast made time in their busy schedules to attend SCAD’s aTVFest last weekend. They met with fans, spoke with the press and even screened an episode of their popular drama.
Among the cast members that made it out to aTVFest were Matt McGorry and Liza Weil, who play Asher and Bonnie in the series (and are lovingly referred to by fans as ‘Bosher’). The pair played coy about what’s coming up in the series for their characters, but it does seem like there’s more to come from them in the future. “We have some more episodes, I think and there’s things in those episodes where there will be some more things to discover about what happens with that relationship,” Liza mentioned, while Matt chimed in “#Things.” He (thankfully) went a little more in-depth with his answer saying, “They keep getting paired up together and I think, it actually hadn’t occurred to me until later, but I think that it’s because, probably that Annalise knows that both Bonnie and Asher don’t know about the murder, so it’s easier to kind of pair them together and have them go on their way and create a little more room for everyone else to breathe as well.”
One thing that’s always interesting is what attracts actors to certain roles and characters and Matt and Liza’s reasons are no exception. “The character name for me. Bonnie Winterbottom.” Liza laughed. She continued,”[The show is] kind of like the perfect storm of good storytelling. They’re taking very interesting diverse people and putting them in extreme situations and high stakes and human drama and you get to sort of do all the things. In Shondaland, if you’re a part of one of those shows one of the things you can know for certain is that there’s not going to be much off limits in terms of what happens storywise. It’s a pretty broad canvas to how your character can grow and what these people are going to be capable of through the years so it’s very exciting to be a part of.”
Matt’s reasoning for being drawn to Asher is just as compelling. “For me, the sense of humor was a big thing that really drew me in the first place. It’s funny coming from Orange is the New Black, which is a comedy and being a bit more of the straight man on that and then going to a show that’s a drama and being a bit more of the comedic relief.
“That really appealed to me because a lot of my time on Orange is the New Black I spent working with Pablo Schreiber who played ‘Pornstache’ and I always felt a little jealous when he got to kind of go off the rails and improvise and sort of have his way – which I think is one of the joys of playing a comedic character who fulfills that role. As long as it’s in the world and makes people laugh it’s generally okay. You’re not going to get yelled at for making crazy choices, and I think that really appealed to me. I tend to be drawn to roles where I can fill in the blanks with behavior and things that are not necessarily on the page. I think it was the same for me on Orange is the New Black and I get to do even more of it on How to Get Away with Murder, in addition to the fact that the script was just really compelling and gripping. It just seemed like all factors converged to make it a really appealing project.”
As Matt mentioned (and fans probably noticed), he’s also a cast member on Netflix’s hit series Orange is the New Black and while the shows are different in many ways, he has an equal amount of respect for them both. “I had never really done network TV before How to Get Away with Murder other than the odd 3-line EMT role on Person of Interest or Royal Pains, so it was a new experience for me.
“I think that on this show, being at a 10 o’clock slot, being under the Shondaland umbrella, Pete Nowalk has been given permission to do a lot of things that haven’t necessarily been done before in network TV. I think that’s really opening people’s eyes to what is possible and what stories people really want to hear. Netflix did that as well and obviously there is less nudity and sometimes that’s a nice thing to know that I’ll never have to sign a contract where I’m going to show my butt on How to Get Away with Murder. In terms of Netflix, it’s sort of an uber-cable show and How to Get Away with Murder which is a network show, there are definitely shows that are further opposition to each other and I think that they both try to tell the stories of parts of the population that don’t always get their stories told and that’s just really gratifying.”
Many fans may recognize Liza from a little show she did back in the day called Gilmore Girls. The series is getting the reunion treatment at this year’s ATX Festival, so we had to ask what her thoughts were on the gang getting back together again. “It’s going to be a really nice reunion! I’ve worked with Amy a little bit since then because I did a couple episodes of Bunheads, so I got to see Amy and Dan. Then there was sort of a lot of people from Gilmore Girls that made the rounds through that show, like Shawn Gunn came on and Kelly Bishop was there so it was really lovely to be able to see all those people and be a fully-formed person. I felt it was really nice to revisit everybody as a grown-up, because I wasn’t a grown-up when I was on Gilmore Girls. I’m really excited! It’s been a while since I’ve seen Lauren and Alexis, and I think Keiko’s going to try to come too. It’s a really lovely opportunity for us to get together but also to be able to revisit that time together. It should be fun.”
Finally, when we asked Matt and Liza what they could tease about the season finale Matt said suggested audiences “Have your vodka on-hand!” while Liza simply left us with an “Enjoy breathing normally while you can!”
If you want to read more about what the cast had to say at SCAD’s aTVFest, head on over to our article where we chatted with Karla Souza and Charlie Weber and be sure you don’t miss How to Get Away with Murder when it airs Thursdays on ABC.
Photo Credit: Getty Images for SCAD
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