Ready to play the parts
By Jeanne Millsap Correspondent August 2, 2012 2:16PM
Morris actor Colin Egglesfield gets a kiss from co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt in "The Client List." | Submitted photo
The sexy Lifetime series “The Client List” debuted this year and has just been picked up for a second season, thanks in part to a local actor who had a big part in heating up the show’s scenes.
Colin Egglesfield, who was raised in Crete and now visits his parents in Morris several times a year, is one of the lead actors in the show and the love interest of actress Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character. Unfortunately, Hewitt’s character’s long-lost husband, who is also Egglesfield’s character’s brother, returns to town in last spring’s season finale, causing mixed emotions and fireworks all the way around.
The slight soap opera feel of the show is fine with Egglesfield, who formerly starred on the ABC soap “All my Children.” He’s comfortable with television in general, having played roles on “Melrose Place,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Brothers and Sisters” and “Nip/Tuck,” among others.
During his break from “The Client List,” he’s busy with a recurring role on “Rizzoli & Isles,” as well.
Egglesfield has also been a hit on the big screen, starring opposite Kate Hudson last year in, “Something Borrowed,” and in previous years in “The AuPairs” and “Must Love Dogs.”
‘Great being on TV’
But to be one of the leads in a popular series is a huge boon to the Illinois actor.
“It’s been a lot of fun to work on,” Egglesfield said, “and it’s great being on TV again. Nowadays a lot of the really dramatic storytelling is being done on TV. That’s why you see a lot of really great and talented actors doing TV now.”
Egglesfield cited Kevin Bacon, Sigourney Weaver, and Alec Baldwin as examples. Actress Cybill Shephard is one of his co-stars on “The Client List.”
The show is about a young Texas mother, recently abandoned by her husband, who took a job at what she thought was a traditional day spa. But the job, she quickly found out, offered a little more to its clients than the usual back massage.
Egglesfield said he is enjoying working with Hewitt.
“Jennifer’s a lot of fun to hang out with and to work with,” he said. “She’s just great. She makes sure everyone’s taken care of.”
Gossip rags have linked Egglesfield and Hewitt romantically this past year, but Egglesfield said that’s not quite true.
“We’re really good friends,” he said. “We’re not dating … We have good chemistry and just really like each other.”
Dueling accents
For the show, Egglesfield also had to transform his Midwestern, slightly Chicago accent to Texan. The series is filmed in Los Angeles, so he made do with watching a lot of Matthew McConaughey movies. He found he enjoyed the macho way of talking.
“I think Texans seem more comfortable with their manliness and being men,” he said. “They don’t have to pretend to be something they’re not, and they’re very proud of who they are.”
It hasn’t been easy for him to switch back and forth from a Texan to a Bostonian accent, though, with acting in the two series at the same time this past year. Right before some of his “Rizzoli & Isles” scenes, he would put on a DVD of the Boston movies “Goodwill Hunting,” or “The Town” to get the feel of the accent again.
Egglesfield said being given a second season for “The Client List” is a blessing to him in more than one way. Although his early modeling career took him all over the world walking the runway for such superstar designers as Versace, Calvin Klein and Armani, his acting career has had its ups and downs.
“There’s been some lean years,” he said, “then luckily I would book a commercial, or I would have to borrow money … This takes a lot of pressure off financially. I can’t complain. All the hard work I’ve put in over the years has paid off.”
Egglesfield said the second season of “The Client List” begins filming in October with episodes airing in early 2013. He is also working on his clothing line, Shout Out, which offers T-shirts with Velcro letters that wearers can change to create their own personalized messages. He hopes to return to Illinois to visit Morris in August and run the Chicago Marathon in October.
