A conversation with Ryan McPartlin
On April 8, The WB will premiere “Living With Fran,” starring Fran Drescher (“The Nanny”) as Fran Reeve, a divorcee with a live-in lover, Riley Martin, who is a contemporary of her two grown children. While the arrangement suits Fran just fine, it doesn’t sit quite so well with either her medical school-dropout son, Josh, played by Ben Feldman, or her former husband, guest star Charles Shaughnessy, Drescher’s “Nanny” co-star. Ryan McPartlin (“Passions”) stars as Riley Martin, who feels his situation with Fran is the best of all possible worlds. And Fran agrees.
Ryan McPartlin, who co-stars as Riley Martin on Fran Drescher’s new series for The WB, “Living With Fran,” says it’s strange how things work out.
“My first professional acting job was as a guest on ‘The Nanny.’ It was a great experience. As you might guess, I was pretty nervous, but Fran was wonderful and made me feel at ease. Fast-forward a few years, and here I am, not only working with Fran again, but I’m playing her lover.”
McPartlin says he’s aware that although the older woman/younger man relationship is a familiar theme in drama, as well as in real life, “a lot of people aren’t comfortable with it. Maybe it upsets what they think is the accepted norm: older man/younger woman. And it doesn’t matter to them how much older he is or how much younger she is. But the fact is, age shouldn’t be an issue one way or another. It’s the people in the relationship that count.”
On the show, Fran and Riley obviously enjoy being with each other and find that their age differences work for them.
“Fran knows a lot about a lot of things,” McPartlin says, “and Riley appreciates learning from her. Riley knows a lot about how to enjoy life, something Fran is finally learning for herself after years of putting her family first.”
Some of the great love stories in history have involved older women and younger men: For example, Cleopatra and Marc Antony, and composer Frederic Chopin and writer Amandine Dupin, better known as George Sand. More recently, we have Madonna, who is 10 years older than her husband, Guy Ritchie; Courtney Cox, who is seven years older than husband David Arquette; Demi Moore, 40, and Ashton Kutcher, 25; and John Corbett, 41, and Bo Derek, 46.
“When you take a really close look at these relationships,” McPartlin says, “you realize that it goes beyond the physical attraction. These people have found in each other something that completes them. And while you don’t doubt for a moment that Fran and Riley have a great sex life, you also know that everything else is great as well.”
McPartlin says that after years of doing mostly dramatic work, he was a little anxious about doing comedy. But once again, Drescher put him at his ease.
“She’s one of our great comic talents,” he says, “and just watching her work is an education in what doing comedy is all about.”
If Ryan McPartlin had a crystal ball to consult, what would he see Fran and Riley doing several years down the line?
“Pretty much what they’re dong now,” he says, “making each other happy.”
In Focus
The WE series “McLeod’s Daughters” has been picked up for a second season. The Australian series focuses on the McLeod sisters, who inherit a ranch and manage to overcome many obstacles to make a success in what is normally considered a man’s world.
Lisa Chappell, who plays Claire McLeod, says, “All of us on the show knew this was a very special series: beautifully written, wonderfully directed and with exceptionally fine actors. But we also knew that we might have a problem overcoming a male-oriented culture that might not accept women as being in a so-called man’s world (ranching), let alone succeed in it. But we did. And, we’ve obviously found an audience in the States as well, I’m happy to say.”
Chappell says being on the WE (Women’s Entertainment Network) has been a gratifying experience. “I’ve heard from a lot our American women viewers how much they love seeing the girls do as well or better than the boys.”
Chappell says she looks forward to the new scripts for each episode.
“There are surprise twists that we might have seen coming, but somehow didn’t. We love when that happens, and so does the audience.”
As for the sisters’ love lives in the new season, Lisa Chappell says, “I’m sure the writers have something they’re working on, and I look forward to finding out what they have planned for Claire.”