‘The Comeback,’ ‘Scandal,’ ‘Marry Me’ Star Dan Bucatinsky [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]: Season 2 Of HBO’s Lisa Kudrow Led Series Introduces Valerie Cherish’s Darker Side In ‘Seeing Red’ [PHOTOS]

As The Comeback is now over halfway through Season 2, the Lisa Kudrow-led HBO series has finally shown just what Seeing Red has in store for Valerie Cherish. And from the looks of it, the actress may soon find herself venturing out to bigger and better things once the series premieres. At least, so says the New York Times reporter who was to document the production of Seeing Red in this past Sunday's episode, "Valerie Is Taken Seriously."

In the series, actor Dan Bucatinsky plays Billy Stanton, Valerie's ever so loyal publicist who has stuck by her side over the past 10-year hiatus. Unfortunately, when things start looking up for the actress, his character finds himself fearing that he may lose his soon-to-be star client.

Luckily, the real life man has no such worry, because aside from appearing on the series, Bucatinsky is also an executive producer on The Comeback. Even outside of his starring roles in series such as ABC's Scandal and NBC's Marry Me, Bucatinsky admits he enjoys his time behind the camera. Together with Kudrow, the two have been producing projects for the past 11 years –– including The Comeback, Who Do You Think You Are? and Web Therapy.

Despite all of his projects, Bucatinsky recently spoke with MStars News about The Comeback, showing Valerie Cherish's darker side and how he got HBO to ask the show out on a date... again!

MStars News: We're a little more than halfway through The Comeback Season 2. Because you both play Billy and are an Executive Producer on the series, I imagine you knew the series was coming back before the cast. How did the talks begin?
Dan Bucatinsky: I did! Over the years that we've been off the air, the topic has come up, along with the desire from us and the speculation of what we would do. Lisa and I have been producing partners for 11 years, and we were well aware of the groundswell of fans and support that had built up over the years.

I think sometime around the Kick Starter campaign for Veronica Mars there were tweets coming out saying that we should do one for The Comeback. The desire for it to come back had never left Michael [Patrick King], Lisa or myself. And then sometime last year I was in a conversation with one of the executives at HBO who I'm friends with. They brought it up and I had said, "You guys broke up with us, so if you ever want to date us again you're going to have to ask us out." [laughs]

That was around the beginnings of it. They called and said they wanted more. It was really exciting to hear that news. Then Lisa and Michael hit the ground running.

MS: It's interesting that the series came back after 10 years. It's something I feel many shows would not be able to do, and do it as well as The Comeback is. Why do you think The Comeback was able to do so, and make it work?
DB: I believe it starts with the creators of it. It certainly starts with Lisa, to some degree, who created a character who you could place into any circumstance, I believe, at any point in history and find relevance, find complexity, find humility, find humiliation. I really believe you could place Valerie anywhere and find something to say. Anyone who is that eager for relevance and attention is going to be holding up a mirror to society in some way. It's no different with Valerie.

I also think that Lisa and Michael came up with such an unbelievably relevant and fantastic meta, meta way of telling the story that's happening right now. It wasn't about a reality show, which felt ahead of its time at the time; it's not about an HBO miniseries, which is what it started as, and the documentary about making that, which feels far more relevant at this point.

People who want to be famous, that never goes away. It's a timeless hunger. And Valerie will never lose that.

MS: That's a great point. The show puts a spotlight on those who want that fame, that success and those who will do whatever they have to in order to persist ahead.
DB: Correct! People who want what they want for whatever reason, whether it's good for them or not, is something I think is relatable. Whether it's fame or something else, I think that quest and hunger, and the inability to see the forest through the trees is the thing people would relate to. It's timeless, which is encouraging for telling future stories about Valerie should we ever want to do that.

MS: As someone behind the scenes on the series, how do you see Season 2 differing from Season 1?
DB: The tone of this season is darker, as it should be. On Season 1, the show within the show was a light, frothy CW-type show. And here, the show within the show is a dark, dark HBO, graphic story. We had some darker stories to tell this season and we will continue to for the next four. We have a one-hour finale that's going to blow people away.

This is a deeper, deeper, darker version, and I think it reflected on how deeply grateful we were to come back but also how much of an impact we wanted to have. I think there was a lighter feel to the first season. This season has a much heavier feel to it.

MS: I think you can notice that from watching this past Sunday's episode, where Valerie sees the dailies and notices how dark Seeing Red is going to be.
DB: Agreed! And we also get to see Lisa play not just a character who is so far from herself, but also a character who surprises herself with an ability to act, which is surprising to herself and the people around her. We see so many layers happening.

In the episode, yes, we start to get a glimpse of how dark this show really is and what kind of impact it's going to have by people who are seeing it.

MS: In watching the upcoming episode, Billy has a little break down at the thought of losing Valerie as a client. Hollywood is a rough room. Some people believe in Valerie, some don't. Was Billy genuine or was he playing a game and was just afraid of losing another client?
DB: That's a very good question. I think it's both. Everybody in show business, whether they be behind the scenes or in front of the camera, they have the ability to take things personally where their egos get in the way. Me, my ego gets in the way when I'm a producer, a writer and an actor.

I think Billy genuinely believes in Valerie. He stayed with her for 9 years and he invested in someone he believes in. When he realized, 'Oh this is just a business,' it's another reminder that everybody is disposable. Everybody in this business is disposable. It was time Billy grow up, sort of like, "Yeah, guess what. You're in the business where the best gig wins." The New York Times is going to beat whatever dot com you got her an interview on. It's not personal. It's another great mirror of how this business treats people and how invested people get personally in stuff. It's not about how much Valerie loves Billy personally; it's about moving forward her career.

In this episode you get a sense of how desperately Billy needs Valerie to succeed to bring him to the next level. People who work for the people who are in front of the cameras are often dependent on the decisions they make for their own success. So whether you want to call that parasitical or the nature of the business, it's all true. To some degree, he believes in Valerie and loves her and to some he was really bummed.

MS: Obviously everyone saw you in Scandal. How do you feel about jumping from drama to comedy and so forth?
DB: I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to do a show like Scandal and to show colors I didn't even know I had. I got to act scenes I never imagined I would ever do. But I sort of started doing comedy and that comes more naturally to me. But I absolutely loved doing [Scandal] and I love doing Marry Me now. I love improvising with Lisa for all these episodes of Web Therapy. I feel really fortunate that as a performer, an artist, the actor part of me, I get to stretch different muscle.

Each one is a new thing. It's intimidating but you push through it, whether it be comedy or drama. I feel very lucky.

MS: Both comedy and drama can be daunting genres.
 DB: Absolutely! And very different. The kinds of things we're doing on Marry Me are absolutely not the kinds of things we were doing on Scandal but both were entertaining and unbelievably relevant and important. I was definitely jumping into a new kind of landscape when I joined Marry Me. With The Comeback, I had a little more confidence doing that this time around. Some time has passed and I've gotten some more experience under my belt. It's fun as I get older to not only build a resume but also build my chops.

Tune into The Comeback on HBO Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m.