'The Waterfront': Holt McCallany shares how his own dad and Kevin Williamson's father inspired his character
From the creator of Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries, Kevin Williamson, the new Netflix show The Waterfront, starring Holt McCallany, Melissa Benoist, Jake Weary and Maria Bello, definitely leans into Williamson's success with melodrama, but with a more personal edge. While the 1998 show pulled from Williamson personal life, specifically Joey Potter's dad being in prison for drug trafficking, the writer and TV creator goes deeper into his life story for elements of The Waterfront.
The show is centred around the Buckley family in Havenport, North Carolina, who have dominated the local fishing industry. It all starts with the Buckleys boat being hijacked as two men are using it to smuggle drugs, complicating the lives of the family that's already facing mounting debt.
Harlan Buckley (McCallany) is the patriarch, who's recovering from two heart attacks, married to his wife Belle (Bello), who's tasked with managing her philandering husband, in addition to the family restaurant and fishing business, alongside their son Cane (Weary), who's married to Peyton (Danielle Campbell). But when journalist Jenna (Humberly González) returns to her hometown, there may still be some sparks between her and her high school sweetheart, Cane.
Harlan and Belle also have a daughter, Bree (Benoist), a recovering addict who lost custody of her teenage son, Diller (Brady Hepner), after her most recent relapse.
A interesting element in The Waterfront is how Bree is trying to work her way back to being in the inner circle of her own family, largely being shut down due to her addiction. In one of the show's most moving scenes, Bree has a frank conversation with Bella where she asks her mom, "When am I going to be a part of this family?" But Bella is firm that she needs to earn her family's trust back by staying sober.
"I wish you'd see me as an ally and not an obstacle," Bree says.
"Maria Bello is incredible. I've been a fan of hers for a very long time, so getting to do that scene with her was exciting in the first place," Benoist told Yahoo Canada. "I think in that moment of the story, it's something that I certainly was craving. It feels really visceral, wanting to be a part of the family more, so it was satisfying to be able to say it out loud."
"That's something that I love about Bree is that she actually does say the bad stuff out loud, the hard things to say. ... Kevin Williamson actually said something to me at one point, in one of our first conversations, that Bree's sort of like the truth teller, and I think that is a moment that she shows that side of her."
But McCallany had a particularly interesting task in The Waterfront because much of his character is based on Williamson's experience growing up with his fisherman father in North Carolina, who was a drug runner.
"I did feel a little bit of additional responsibility, because I knew that it was a very personal story for Kevin, and much of it was inspired by his dad, and then I'm playing the dad," McCallany said. "So we did talk about it."
"I remember sending Kevin an email in which I asked certain questions and presented certain ideas. And he answered my questions and he kind of embraced the ideas, and from that point forward we had a very kind of easy going, open and cordial relationship that really lasted throughout the entire season. I was happy with the dialogue that he was writing for me. He was happy with the way that I was interpreting it. And so there was no conflict in my relationship with Kevin at any time."
McCallany added that while he took inspiration from what Williamson told him about his father, the actor also took inspiration from his own dad.
"[My father] was a heavy drinker and could unreliable in certain instances," McCallany said. "You take a little of this, you take a little of that, and you kind of build a character ... by deciding what to include and what to exclude. And at the end of the day, Harlan kind of just emerged for me through that process."
And of course, with the exploration of Harlan comes his relationship with his son, with Cane often having to try to uphold a murky set of ideals he's gotten from his father.
"What's so intriguing about Cane is this battle between the idealized version of himself and who he just really is, the life that he's been given," Weary said. "To get to play with that father-son dynamic is really interesting, especially getting to work with someone like Holt too, who I think we have such a great rapport together."
"He added something to that dynamic that I think is really unique and we were able to really have fun with it. And there's ... almost like a comedic element to it, where he's almost like the straight man, and I'm the wild card. And I think that I'm really excited to see where that where that goes."
Told in eight episodes, Williamson has created a twisty story where everyone makes mistakes, and the evaluation starts to become the best way to move beyond bad decisions.
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