The Envelope Round Table: How six actors size up TV’s modern American family

The modern American TV family comes in all shapes and sizes — and species. Some hail from vampire kingdoms. Some from biker gangs. Some from traditional families. Others must cope with an alcoholic patriarch or a barely lucid grandmother who parades around in her bra and colorful stretch pants. The really unlucky are unaware that a sibling has a habit of killing people.

With the Emmy race in full swing, six actors gathered for an Envelope Round Table last week to discuss the elastic definition of “family” on television — or at least they tried to when panelist and funny woman Cloris Leachman wasn’t interjecting. The actors spoke about what drew them to their role, the identity of their characters in relation to others and how their own lives have been informed by their performances.

Following are edited excerpts from our chat — moderated by Times television critic Mary McNamara — with Emmy Rossum (“Shameless”), Katey Sagal (“Sons of Anarchy”), Denis O’Hare (“True Blood”), Peter Krause (“Parenthood”), Cloris Leachman (“Raising Hope”) and Jennifer Carpenter (“Dexter”). To see video clips, go to TheEnvelope.com.

What was it about your particular TV family that drew you to the show?

Rossum: “I was raised by a single mom, and I grew up in New York City in a tiny, little apartment building. I was always really jealous of all the people around me I saw who had a mom and a dad and a fence around their house and a golden retriever, and I thought that I would never be happy until I had that. And then I grew up and realized that families have changed and that that definition of family does exist but it doesn’t have to exist to create a family. So when I saw this show was about kids really raising themselves — the parents didn’t need to be there and the kids looked out for each other and they formed that kind of resiliency together — that really spoke to me.”

O’Hare: “Within the ‘True Blood’ world, there are human families, there are werewolf families, fairy families and there are vampire families. Funnily enough, if you think about it, Sookie Stackhouse and her brother Jason, they’re the only siblings — aside from Tara and Lafayette. But for my case, Russell Edgington was about 2,900 years old. And he found his lover in 1300 and they were together about 700 years. I love the fact that the most intense relationship was between two vampires. I thought it was fantastic; the only stable relationship. And the thing about vampires is we make our family.

Is it harder to do episodic TV than film because you didn’t really know who your character was all the way …

Leachman: “When we did ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ everybody knew who he was … and we all related very specifically to the rest of the cast and were determined and defined by the rest of the cast, so that when I had a spinoff called ‘Phyllis,’ they had the worst time trying to write a script for me because, who was I? I wasn’t who I was without Mary and Rhoda and Ed and everyone. Each week, I’d say, ‘Who am I this week?’ It was very tricky.”

Krause: “That’s very true with families too, about how we create each other in the family or how we don’t want somebody to change later in life. When I went to NYU, I went back home to Minnesota and I was lying on the floor doing some Alexander technique stuff. I had some phone books in my hands, had my head propped up. My father and brother got some M&Ms from the candy dish and started throwing them at me as I was trying to do my acting thing. It was funny. But it was also them being uncomfortable with this new behavior I was bringing into the home. We do create ourselves also on these shows with the other actors —the way that Craig T. Nelson treats me as Adam or the other siblings treat me also gives hints to the writers as to how to write the characters.”

Sagal: “I was on a show where people never changed. ‘Married … With Children’ stayed the same from Day One ‘til the end.” [laughs]

Do you draw on your own family? Your own experiences?

Sagal: “I draw from my experiences a lot. I have three children. I’ve never experienced love or loyalty [like it]. Now, the character I play would shoot you over her children. Literally, she’d put a bullet in your head. And I ask myself, ‘Would I?’ I have the instinct. I think we all have the instinct. I don’t have the gun. But I definitely draw on that maternal pull for what I am required to do on my show, ‘cause that is her deal. She is the mother of all mothers in terms of her family — and you don’t cross her family. Period. End of story. So that comes from what I know about my children.”

Rossum: “You always draw on your life. Any time something that a character goes through, you have to really put yourself in that situation, whether it reminds you of something that a family member has gone through, so you use your imagination. Or if it reminds you of a pain that you felt, or a happiness you felt, you just go there and you dig around. You pop the zit and watch it bleed, and you enjoy it. It’s really messy and fun.”

Carpenter: “I also think there is some real estate in keeping certain things sacred. Some things are off limits.”

Leachman: “Like what?”

Carpenter: “Death. I don’t see [Dexter] kill. And I have to have a certain numbness to it when I’m on a crime scene.”

Have experiences your character goes through informed you in your own life?

Krause: “I can say that working on ‘Parenthood’ has actually made me a better parent because … playing a parent on the show, we deal with various issues with kids. The decisions that the characters make on the show aren’t always the best. But working on the show made me think about some of the decisions I make with my kid — how much is too much when I smack him? I’m joking! I’m joking. I don’t hit my kid. But it does come into play when you think about how restrictive you are, how protective you are. I certainly made the effort to give my son a lot more space … to not be on top of him as much. That was from doing the show.

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