Wat-Not Staff
Working alongside Hanks, 68, in the 1996 film That Thing You Do! at the start of his career, according to Schaech, gave him a level of professionalism that has allowed him to continue acting for thirty years and counting. “I always tried to maintain that level of work, even though it was at a very high level,” Schaech explains. “Blue Ridge marks my first experience having my own television show. I’ve always imagined myself to be a leading man, just like him, and that I could carry a series. He consistently instilled hope, and that is what has truly sustained me throughout the years.
Jonathon never thought he’d work again
After relocating to Nashville to raise his two children with wife Julie Solomon from Los Angeles, Jonathan Schaech never imagined he would work again. “I departed from everything,” 54-year-old Schaech says to PEOPLE. I would wake up terrified every day, wondering what I had done. I continued trying to let God and the cosmos find my path again, to not believe that I could control it. Then all of a sudden, I received an offer for Blue Ridge.
In the 2020 crime drama, Schaech played Sheriff Justin Wise. The film later served as the basis for a TV series on Cowboy Way Channel. “It was obvious from the beginning that the film could become a series,” he explains. Since it was a procedural, you had to determine what was wrong when something went wrong. I was eager to delve more into this character each week. To create his Blue Ridge persona, the actor took inspiration from his father, a Baltimore police officer.
Schaech claims, “I was truly embracing an old school police officer mentality like my father, so I was playing my father.” In fact, Schaech’s father has a brief cameo in Sunday, September 1’s Blue Ridge season 1 finale. “I asked my showrunner if we could cast my real father in the small role of the elderly gentleman that was in this finale, and he agreed,” Schaech explains. He scribbled all of his lines on his hand, but he was unable to read them after his glasses were taken away. He was ready to go, though, for by then he had committed his words to memory. Thus, I had to do his work and he had to do mine.
Schaech talks about his experience working with that thing you do costars
Schaech’s That Thing You Do makes another entertaining cameo appearance in Sunday’s finale! Ethan Embry, costar. Schaech remarks, “Having him out there was an honor.” “We had extremely challenging stuff to cover—very edgy and hardcore—when he arrived on the set. Working with Tom Hanks instilled a strong work ethic in both of us. After all these years, we developed a really strong sense of brotherhood and affection for one another, and we became highly professional. He was outstanding. He completely stunned everyone.
Working alongside Hanks, 68, in the 1996 film That Thing You Do! at the start of his career, according to Schaech, gave him a level of professionalism that has allowed him to continue acting for thirty years and counting. “I always tried to maintain that level of work, even though it was at a very high level,” Schaech explains. “Blue Ridge marks my first experience having my own television show. I’ve always imagined myself to be a leading man, just like him, and that I could carry a series. He consistently instilled hope, and that is what has truly sustained me throughout the years.
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