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When Clive Standen — who’s best known for playing tough-guy warrior Rollo on “Vikings” — read the script for his new NBC drama “Council of Dads,” he cried.
“I’m a father of 3, similar ages [17, 13 and 9] to the kids in the show,” Standen, 39, tells the Post. “At the time when I read the script, my best friend was fighting cancer himself. And I just started crying. I rang my agent and my manager, I hadn’t even finished the script and I said ‘I want to take this meeting.’ I just had to do this.”
Premiering March 24 (10 p.m.), the show, which was filmed in Savannah, Ga., follows the multi-ethnic family of Scott Perry (Tom Everett Scott) a man with terminal cancer. Afraid of leaving his five children without a father figure, he recruits his friends to act as a “council of Dads” after he’s gone, to be there for them and to help his widow, Robin (Sarah Wayne Callies).
Standen, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in England, says he lobbied to play Scott. “Council”s husband-and-wife creators Joan Rater and Tony Phelan — both “Grey’s Anatomy” alums — wanted him to play Scott’s best friend, Anthony Lavelle.
“I was kind of pitching to them to play the dad. And they were like, ‘You know he dies in the first episode.’ I was scared of playing the friend of the guy who had cancer, because I was doing that in my own life. I just thought, ‘I can’t be him.’ They said to me, ‘This is why you need to play this role.’ I was scared. I think any time as an actor you’re scared to play a role, it’s a good reason to take on the challenge.”
Standen says his friend is now in remission and on the mend.
“This all ended up perfectly — but that’s why I took the role. It was time to not take another action role,” he says, referring to his roles on NBC’s “Taken” (2017-2018) where Standen played a younger version of Bryan Mills, the role Liam Neeson made famous in big-screen blockbusters.
“It was time to do something that was about a family, that somehow touched and moved some people. If there’s anything to take away from ‘Council of Dads,’ it’s about love, joy, and who shows up.”
So Standen signed on to star as Anthony, Scott’s childhood friend, a tattooed chef with a glamorous life. If that character profile sounds familiar, the writers intended it that way.
“Anthony was based on Anthony Bourdain. Our showrunners are both big fans of his work and documentaries,” says Standen. “They came up to me and said, ‘We’d just like a little bit of that swagger of his.’”
Swagger is the only quality that the affable Anthony shares with Viking warrior Rollo. There’s a possibility that Standen could reprise that role one last time, as the History epic gears up for its final stretch. Rollo hasn’t been seen onscreen in many episodes, but the character is still alive. When asked if he could make one last return before the series finale (which doesn’t have an air date yet), Standen plays coy.
“I’m not allowed to say…but Rollo never dies. Can’t kill Rollo. I think I am one of the only original cast members that can hold their hand up and go, ‘I’m still alive! Still out there somewhere in the world!’ I can say that this [‘Vikings’] spinoff ‘Valhalla’ that Netflix is doing with the same crew and the same team is going to be quite exciting. Who knows…maybe a character might appear in that show.”
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