How did you go into acting, Tom?

Tom Cavanagh: I just always had it in me.

You mentioned about this being a personal story for Sue.  Did you talk to her or her sister or anything to get some ideas?

Tom Cavanagh: Oh, her sister Carolyn she'd be on set a lot of the time. She's been a huge supporter of the movie and I think she's extremely proud and happy for Sue. As you know, it's not a ...this is a small movie but any movie that gets made, any script that gets written is an accomplishment. Any movie that gets made and ends up in a position where people are coming to talk about it, it's not a small thing. Whether the movie does anything in terms of viewer-ship is almost beside the point. It's an accomplishment already. Carolyn is extremely proud of Sue and Sue is extremely proud of Carolyn and the end of our last shooting day there was a lot of tears and a lot of raising of glasses to the 2 of them.

Does that mean in that equation that you were playing your director? If it’s autobiographical were you based on her persona?

Tom Cavanagh: You'd have to ask Sue that question. I think Gray was the more mirror of Carolyn that was the most personal it got. You could ask Sue and she might have a different answer.

It seems like you kind of disappear in the middle of the movie while Heather is realizing her issues. Are there any deleted scenes where you would have popped up more frequently?

Tom Cavanagh: No, I don't think so. This is Heather's ....this is Gray's movie and Heather plays Gray.  The people that revolve around her contribute to her story as best they can to tell a good story. I'm one of those pieces. The better those revolving stories are the better it is for the main character.

Some performers go into meltdown when their series ends. How was that for you when Ed ended? More resilient or?

Tom Cavanagh: Well, Ed I think for us...I thought you were talking about Love Monkey which was last season and that was...

That was very short.

Tom Cavanagh: That was a little more difficult because we had high hopes of about a New York record producer and the A&R guy said we felt it was a long shot for network television but we also felt given the chance it was the kind of thing that would certainly seemed different. We weren’t picking bodies off slabs or investigating scenes. It seemed like a different kind of thing and ultimately it didn't go. I think most people who were involved with television will tell you if given a season or given a 13 episode order and getting those episodes on the air and if viewers don't come I think most people will tell you they'd walk away. They feel they were given a fair shake and if viewers didn't come they didn't come. I think a lot of people will tell you at the same time also that not getting...getting less than 13 leaves a lot of unanswered questions. You don't know if the potential was ever realized. In terms of Ed, 4 seasons was exactly what Rob Burnett and I ....in fact we talked about it...we talked about 4 being a great number because you were still in but you weren’t tired of yourself and you weren't on the down side of the slope. I think for that number of seasons for that show was perfect.

You left on a good note and were ready to move on.

Tom Cavanagh: What was nice about that ending for us is that we'd come to that…we'd already agreed that was going to be it and we knew it was going to be it. I think a lot of series don't get a chance to say goodbye.  I think that could affect people a little bit differently. Having a chance to wrap things up, to tell everyone this is going to be last 5 last 7 episodes knowing that and knowing that this is the last time as a group together. It’s really a nice thing and not a lot series get a chance to do that. Sometimes it's just a phone call in the middle of the night. This thing....there's a lot of great things to be said about getting a chance to say goodbye.

Are we going to see Ed on DVD?

Tom Cavanagh: Yeah, I guess they're talking about it.  Last I heard was they were close on season one. The stumbling block as it's like a lot of the time is the music rights. They were fortunate enough because of the clout they had as the Letterman's producers to get a lot of great music as one-offs, of course when you put those on a DVD that becomes a whole different thing. I think that's the difficulty. It would be nice; it would be helpful to have a little something to have a paper weight on the desk.

You'd come back and do commentary and stuff?

Tom Cavanagh: Gosh I don't know. That might be the death of the DVD. I'd like to hear what the producers have to say, that's for sure.

You've done TV and film.  Do you have a preference right now for the future?

Tom Cavanagh: It's funny I've done a bit of...recently I was doing a Broadway show and I was talking to these guys about this stage thing which would be great. I love that. For me again, the idea of the "will they have you" is always important. For me if its television, if it's theater, if it's film and it's good I don't make much of distinction between the 3. I think there's only so many great stories out there. If you get the chance to be a part of one, it doesn't matter what it is.

I bet your agent makes the distinction?

Tom Cavanagh: No not really. What's nice is to have an agent that believes in that. Truthfully, I think you guys have been doing this for a while you know that the lines are a little more blurred now between film and television. It used to be the film people did the films and the television was considered...I don't know what it was considered maybe a lesser thing....I don't know. But now it seems...you see James Woods doing Shark and Ray Liotta doing ....there's a bunch it seems to me like an aura of legitimacy and I think that is for the actors because there's a lot of movies out there that maybe don't make the grade and a few that do make the grade and so there's a lot of talented people writing television. If you get to go in and tell a good story every week that's a great position to be in. The other thing is that actors like to act. I'm that way. Television offers...if you get with the right people it offers a lot of great things because you're doing it every day.

Going back to Gray Matters, what audience do you think it will play for?

Tom Cavanagh: I don't know. For us we're hoping a lot of people watch it. I don't care what walk of life they're from.  It would be nice for this movie to get attention. I think it's a very hard thing to do to have a small movie catch on.  At the risk of sounding crass, numbers would be great.  It would be great if there was a lot of people, I don't care who or where they're from.  It would be great if a lot of people watched so that more people watch the more people will watch.  That would be nice for the movie.

With regards to your possible return to the theater, is there another musical you're looking at?

Tom Cavanagh: Yeah, I don't want to jinx myself but actually one is and another one isn't, so one's a straight piece and one's a thing.  You know getting something up and running is a long road and we're not far along that road but at least we've started walking down it.

In Gray Matters, it seems for a moment that Heather Graham's character might actually get Brigitte Moynihan. Have you in your personal life ever had a hot lesbian friends block you from a date?

Tom Cavanagh: I have to run through that sentence. Any hot lesbian friends block me from a date? I know if that had happened I'd remember that. I want to say for better or worse I want to answer no but I certainly do appreciate the question. Any hot lesbian friends block..... I think that's the first time I've been asked that it's safe to say.

And here is the last bit that I didn’t record the beginning of. The question was something like… was the budget of Love Monkey any higher due to filming on location and in New York?

....the answer was no. the budget was the same as a network show and a little bit less in some ways. Sony was the producing studio and they had set a pretty tough line. We came in under that line fairly consistently.  At the end of the day we were right there which is next to unheard of. The fact we were shooting in NY it was just a funny thing because I would expect it would be a really difficult ...NY is for the big movies. It's for the Scorsese; it's that kind of thing. Not only that we were down in the East village where parking is difficult to find, locations are hard to find and we were down there nonstop for 8 months.  We were consistently on budget. You have to have a good location manager all that kind of stuff. But you also have to have people want to help you too.

I know you have to go, but I actually watched the show and I enjoyed it and I know it got put on VH1 and how....

In many ways VH1 was probably where it should have been the whole time.  There's a huge difference between wanted and not being wanted. CBS, I can't necessarily say....I think their intentions were pure but they didn't stick with it that long, whereas VH1, when we were there you could just feel them happy to have you. That's a great feeling when they're like airing it 5 times a week and you're just like slow down folks. It's nice to be wanted and truthfully I think there was a lot of talks about VH1 doing more but they don't have the budget for it but that demographic....the people watching VH1 like the 22-24 year old guys who are blogging, know the music before it gets out there. We had Nick Harcourt as our music guy and he's a gem. He's the truth, he's great. We had the upcoming music, the upcoming bands and these people are on that. We were trying to break bands on the show; The VH1 audience is perfect for that. They're right there with you. They’re right there on See Say or whatever the band is coming out and they're like it's going to be big next month but they're on it now.  That was kind of the right audience for it but you know sometimes it's hard to find the correct fit.

I know you have to go, but it was a good show.

I appreciate that. Thanks very much, I like to hear that. We had a fun time doing it.