Interview with Kevin Sizemore of Resurrection

Resurrection tells the story of the small town of Arcadia in Missouri, where the lives of the people living there are forever changed when their deceased love ones begin to return. We had the opportunity to chat with Kevin Sizemore, who plays Gary Humphrey on the series.

DC: To preface this, I watched the first 3 episodes of Resurrection, so I’ve been introduced to your character but I don’t know much yet. Can you start us off by telling us a bit about the show and your character?

KS: Gary Humphrey is a small town guy in Arcadia, Missouri who’s a guy who had a lot of hopes and dreams, but didn’t really get out of that town. He’s kind of the local go-to guy. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. He’s had a few issues in his life but at this point he has gotten everything back to normal. He’s a family guy. What you saw from him in episode three was a feel for who he is. He likes to go hunting, and he is on the church board with Tom and some of the other members in Arcadia. When you see him in episode four, there is an issue where we’re saying we don’t want to see these people or these “things” in our small town, because we don’t know what they are. There are some issues happening there. So what’s happening now is Gary has formed a group of people, and we’ve all gotten together at the town hall where Gary and Tom have a confrontation. That’s where Gary stirs up some things in the church and gets in a fight and when he sees Rachel in the church we know he’s up to something that isn’t good. We’ll get to that after Easter because we’re taking Easter off.

DC: The show seems to balance right on the line between a science fiction series and a religious series. Do you think those two ideas can co-exist in the same media without causing some sort of controversy?

KS: I think if we have controversy that means we’re probably doing something right. I’ve always been a guy that thinks 2+2=4, and that’s just the way it’s always been. Then someone comes up to me and says “no it’s 5”, and I’m like, “well how did you get that?” I think any time you throw science in it’s always going to be 2+2=5. Science is always perfect, but there’s always something about it that’s different and we don’t understand it, especially when you involve religion and people question it. It’s a science fiction show, but really to me it’s about moment to moment life. The only thing we’re guaranteed in life is you’re born and you die. That’s what we know as fact. Where you came from and where you go, that’s still the mystery.

So we have to play this as a normal family in Arcadia, when all of a sudden 32 years later this little boy Jacob comes back and we have no clue how he got there, what it means or how long he’s going to be there. So for that family they have to play in the moment, because that is their son. It’s the same for all of us. If this had happened to you or I neither of us would know how we would react. And knowing that as actors we can’t prepare for that, so when we get our scripts we have no clue what we’re doing and that keeps us on our toes as well.

DC: You’ve done quite a bit of TV. You did “Under the Dome” recently, and you said you just did a guest spot on “Drop Dead Diva”?

KS: Yeah my Drop Dead Diva just aired last week. It was really a wonderful time, probably one of my favourite things I’ve done in a while. I worked with a little boy named David Mazouz who was the lead actor on “Touched” with Kiefer Sutherland and he was just recently cast as Bruce Wayne on the new Gotham pilot. So I just hung out with Batman, so if I’m ever in trouble I’ll flash the light or something and he’ll be there. David and I connected from day 1 on the set, and it was powerful. It was a beautiful scene that we had. The show was created by Josh Berman and he brought me on this episode in their sixth and final season.

Kevin Sizemore (center) in ABC’s Resurrection.

DC: Do you have a preference between working in TV or movies?

KS: No I really don’t. I like to stay home as much as I possibly can. I live in Los Angeles so I like to stay home with my family. I have a nine year old son and my wife of course. Most films I’m travelling, but guess what: most TV shows are as well now. For the actual work, the process for TV and film for me is exactly the same. You just do less filming. You know, you do three to five pages of filming for movies but you might do seven, eight or nine pages of TV.

DC: I read somewhere that you’re doing some acting coaching as well?

KS: Yeah, I’ve been doing that for quite a while.

DC: You mentioned your son, who I know has done some acting. Is he one of your students?

KS: That’s kind of hard. I coach him when I can and when I’m in town I help him with the process, but there are certain times where I feel like he needs to go to someone else because I don’t want it all to be about dad. It’s hard to turn on the dad button, and the acting coach button, and the football coach, and the basketball coach… It all kind of runs together where it goes in one ear and out the other, which is understandable as a kid. But yeah, I do coach him some. Some of my students are really doing fantastic, but my son just wrapped as a guest star on “Kickin It” for Disney, which is one of Disney XD’s top shows. It’s on its final season, but they’ve been going four years. He is now the new voice of Flounder for The Little Mermaid, he does all the games. This Friday he is shooting an animated feature film with Channing Tatum and Ice Cube. He’s playing the character Ignacio and it’s called “The Book of Life”. He’s on a radio series for “Focus on the Families: Adventures in Honesty”, so for the last two weeks the kids has been on fire.

DC: You must be so proud.

KS: What makes me proud is to see him do something that he really loves doing. When he gets on a set or gets in a V/O booth he just lights up. It’s not like he isn’t like that every day. He’s a happy kid who plays music and sports and loves school and all of his friends, but he really handles things well and balances his career and school days well. It’s really wonderful to see life through his eyes and see him doing so well.

DC: Before we wrap up is there anything else you wanted to talk about?

KS: My wife is a strength and conditioning coach, Gina Lombardi, and she has a book out called “Deadline Fitness”. I’m just hoping people jump on there and catch Resurrection on Sunday nights and they can follow me on Twitter @KevinSizemore.

Catch Kevin on Resurrection, Sunday nights at 9 on ABC.