NiceGirlsTV Talks with Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk
August 7 begins the final season of Monk. After eight years, Adrian Monk will be solving his last cases, including the one that has eluded him from the first season, Trudy’s murder. I was fortunate enough to take part in a conference call, recently, with Tony Shalhoub and other journalists. Tony reveals what we can look forward to, including who will return in this last season, and what will come next for the actor himself. I have watched Monk from its premiere episode, and I’ve enjoyed Tony’s work for years before that. Who could forget Antonio from Wings, Fred Kwan in Galaxy Quest or Jack Jeebs in Men In Black 1 and 2? My children have enjoyed him in two Spy Kids movies and as the voice of Luigi in Cars. He’s a chameleon, blending into every project he’s in.
Adrian Monk has become a comfort zone for me over the years. With all his issues, his fears, his low self esteem, and evening with Monk is like a sigh after a hard day at work. Sounds strange, I know, but Tony explains it better when he said, “Sometimes people’s problems or neuroses are really the things that are kind of a blessing in disguise, and even though there’s, you know, sometimes there’s pain associated with these things that sometimes in the face of adversity with obstacles to overcome, people can really kind of soar and find their higher selves and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do on the show is we’ve portrayed this character as someone who turns his liability, his liabilities into assets per his life. And that there’s – and I hope that when we get to the end – I don’t know this for sure, but I hope when we get to the end of season eight that we’ll have seen some real healing from Monk, and I believe in that. I believe that there is healing and that there is change, and that all of those things are – they are just really, really key to all of our lives.”
Looking ahead to this season? “What the writers have in mind is to do, you know, as you said, our normal standalone episodes for the first, I would say, 11, because we’re doing 16, as usual. So the first 11, I would say, are going to be standalone, and then the last 5 is when we’ll be kind of connected. They’ll have a connected tissue, and we’ll start to get into the wrap up, not just of Monk, but of some of the other characters as well. Then what they want to do is the final two episodes, number 15 and 16, it’ll just be one story, a two-part, you know, aired in two segments. Just to follow – that episode, I mean that two-part will involve the wrap up of Trudy’s murder, you know, the solving of Trudy’s murder.” On that, Tony doesn’t want to give away too much right now. “I think it’s going to be a lot more interesting for people to discover things as we go along.” Trudy’s murder has hung over Adrian’s head for eight years. I often wondered why he wasn’t able to solve it. Monk was always so brilliant in solving crimes that the question was always, why couldn’t he solve this one case? When I heard that this season would be the last, I knew they would let him finally wrap this one up. “ It was always part of Andy Breckman’s agenda to save the wrap-up until the end, I think the biggest reason being that it keeps Monk in a bit of a fog, and it keeps him on his heels, this unresolved, this one case that he just cannot figure out, and that he’s just too close to, to figure out. And so I think it was always part of his plan.” I’m stocking up on tissues right now. I just know it will be a tear-jerker. 
We’ll see a couple old faces from previous seasons returning. Of course, you can’t say goodbye to Monk without Sherona, so Bitty Schram will be visiting. “Bitty Schram is going to come back for episode – I believe it’s episode number 12, which will start shooting in September. And they want to bring that character back and kind of wrap it up and kind of give that a good send off. A lot of people really missed that character and the dynamic between Monk and Sharona. And so we’re all looking forward to that. Of course, we’ll see Harold Krenshaw comes back, one of my favorites. He’s the other OCD patient who is always kind of in competition with Monk, played so brilliantly by Tim Bagley. He’s going to return for at least a couple of episodes. And well, that’s it. I mean, of course, Dr. Bell, the psychiatrist will be in a number of episodes. I don’t think – people have asked if we’re going to see Ambrose. I don’t really think that’s in the cards simply because that’s … John (Turturro) is so busy. It’s difficult to schedule him in. I mean, if I had my way, we’d do kind of what Seinfeld did and bring back almost every guest star there ever was on the show, but ours is going to go in a different direction.”
Many wondered what would happen to Monk after solving Trudy’s murder. Would it be closure, finally, for him? Or would having that one thing out there that he couldn’t solve, push him even deeper into his OCD issues? “I think it will give him some – I think it will actually help him, and it will give him some kind of peace and some kind of – and in that peace, his OCD symptoms will begin to, you know, significantly drop away. And when that happens, I think he’ll be able to move forward in his life. You know, he won’t feel so paralyzed. He won’t feel so – he won’t have such an aversion to being with other people. He might even, who knows – I don’t know because the writers haven’t revealed this to me, but he might even be able to find love and romance in his life again. All those things, I think, remain, you know, all those things are on the table and are good possibilities.”
What’s next for Tony, after closing credits of the finale? “I’ve been a producer on Monk from the very start, and that’s been such a great education for me, I have a couple things in mind that I want to produce that aren’t necessarily vehicles for me. But I think it’s time for me to branch out into producing. And then I would also like to do some directing. I’ve done a little of that in the past, but it’s something I’d like to do more of. But, of course, I would never consider giving up acting. I still want to keep that alive. But because of the experience that I’ve gained and the contacts that I’ve made now, I think producing is definitely in my future. I don’t want to take too long a vacation, although I do think I need a break. I start to – whenever I take too long a break or don’t work a while, all my demons start to resurface, and I go a little nuts. And I did work on an independent feature this past winter, which I hope will be coming out soon called Feed the Fish, a movie that I acted in, but also co-produced, and a really nice … so we’re looking for distribution to sell this picture, so people should look for that. But beyond that, I want to really, really take some time for myself to decide which direction to go next. I might do some theater for a year before I do any more television. I think I need a break from hour long episodic for a while.”
Of course, for some it’s just too hard to say good-bye forever, so the inevitable question, then, is could there be a Monk movie in the future? A Mr. Monk Returns? Tony doesn’t think so right now. “I’ve given that a lot of thought. I feel like I’m ready to put this character to rest, but by the same token, I never say never, and circumstances could change, and I could change my mind. Certainly I’ve been known to change my mind. I just think time will tell. I would never ever rule something like that out. I hope that answers your question.”
Monk returns to USA Network Friday, Aug. 7, at 9/8 Central.
0 comments