As Season 3 of USA Network's In Plain Sight heats up, the stars of the series, Mary McCormack and Fred Weller, discussed how they met and if their on-screen relationship will heat up.
Will Mary and Marshall Hook-Up?
For the first two seasons on In Plain Sight, the lead characters Mary Shannon and Marshall Mann have had a buddy-buddy and sometimes flirtatious relationship. Like many TV partners, that tension is typically a subplot that keeps viewers guessing. Fans are wondering if these two will progress to a romantic level.
Mary MCormack claimed ignorance, saying, "We never know. That’s a weird part about being on... TV… You just don’t know what the writers have in store. I guess I could ask our show runner, but I never do because it’s kind of fun not knowing. For me it’s fun not to know what they have in store. It’s a little more like life. But certainly there’s chemistry."
Fred Weller had a slightly different opinion about the future path of their characters. He added, "I think that it’s a situation that has been set up considerably and I think there will inevitably be some payoff to it. We’re teasing it with the fake kiss in Season 1 where you were just trying to smear... my face and I started kissing you. There are a few little hints here and there. I think there’s a lot of setup for it. Certainly, obviously I’m upset when you were engaged to Raph last season. So there’s a fair amount of setup."
How Shannon and Mann Met on In Plain Sight
But the two partners in the Witness Protection Program have not always been so close. A recent episode included flashbacks to when the pair first met. And it was not pretty. Fred said, "We didn’t get along at all when we first met."
He continued, "All the kind of latent abuse that we have in our current relationship is just out in the open, totally… Mary is on the fugitive task force, kicking down doors and thinks if I’m in with witness protection I might as well be playing hop scotch."
Mary interjected, "Yes, babysitter."
Fred wrapped it up by saying, "And the course of the episode is how she winds up changing her mind about that. I think it’s a great episode."
How Mary and Fred Met in Real Life
So how did the actors meet in real life, and was the meeting as contentious? Mary started the trip down memory lane by saying, "I can’t remember when we actually met. We’ve known each other a really long time, just not very well. We have many mutual friends. My husband directed Ali, Fred’s wife, in a play back in 2000."
Fred recollected, "Mary and I did an indie film together in ’97. We had no scenes together, but we hung out a little bit watching dailies... And then I met you once I was doing a Richard Greenburg play down in… Orange County with Eileen Getz.
Mary now remembering added, "Eileen, yes. And then I saw you do Take Me Out in London and I came backstage and I said hello. Fred and I have had a lot of friends, we have many, many mutual friends from the theatre community in New York and so we’ve known each other probably since the mid ‘90s maybe, but not well at all. So then when we got to work together, when they said they’ve cast you, Fred, I was so excited. Then we got to working together and I’d say we were fast friends right away."
Watch for new episodes of In Plain Sight on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. on USA Networks.
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