Jeffrey Donovan isn’t a real psychic, but he plays one on TV.
Well … sort of. In the world of “Shut Eye,” nothing is at it seems.
The 10-episode Hulu series, premiering Wednesday, follows Charlie Haverford (Donovan, “Burn Notice,” “Fargo”) and his wife, Linda (KaDee Strickland, “Private Practice”), LA-based scam artists who oversee a network of phony psychics targeting vulnerable, unsuspecting “marks” (victims) for easy profit.
“I hadn’t been to a psychic before [doing this show] but I went to have my cards read as research,” says Donovan, 48. “It was illuminating — not so much about my future but about how the psychic was kind of playing me … like trying to see who this person was who just walked into her parlor. What does he want? Is he repeat business or a one-off who’s here for entertainment?
“She said, ‘You’re about to embark on a new job’ and I said ‘Yes, I am.’ And she said, ‘You’re going far away’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And she said, ‘And you have family there,’ and I said, ‘No, it’s a completely new city and I have no family there,’ and she said, ‘Right, you have no family there.’
“I could see the craftsmanship that goes into it.”
In “Shut Eye,” Charlie and Linda get a cut of the profits, enough to maintain a modest house (they have a teenage son) in a middle-class LA suburb. They turn most of their earnings over to a mob-like Romani (Gypsy) family, reporting to Fonzo (Angus Sampson, “Fargo”) and his mother, Rita (Isabella Rossellini), who control the area’s psychics — and aren’t above using violence to get what they want.
“It’s like any other business — there’s upper management,” says Donovan. “The world we created was based on this idea that [series creator] Les Bohem had from visiting psychics and talking to the LAPD fraud division. There are people controlling these [psychic] parlors and a lot of them are controlled by Romanis. We’re obviously in entertainment, so we have license to make them a little more vicious than they really are. We have a Romani consultant who has [psychic] shops and does this stuff who’s been very helpful and nice.”
Donovan describes Charlie as “lost,” which gave him a foundation upon which to build his on-screen alter-ego.
“He’s a failed magician — that’s sad enough — and I think he’s just looking for something,” he says. “He has such low self-esteem and self-worth that being able to read people … and giving them a lot of hope while being able to provide for his family … makes him feel important.”
And when Charlie is beaten (it’s job-related) — and kicked in the head — he begins to see and hear things with a new clarity (with both comedic and dramatic ramifications).
“That blow to the head is an interesting thing,” says Donovan. “You start with the premise that Charlie is flawed and sees the world as a bad place, that he’s just getting his piece of the pie like anybody else and really lacks a moral center. Does the blow to the head … open up a new way of looking at the world? Is it a place where he’s going to corrupt people or save people?
“It’s an interesting premise,” Donovan says. “When you have a good angel on one shoulder and a bad angel on the other, who are you going to listen to when they’re both available?”