Donald Faison waits for the day when someday, people see him and they call him by his actual name. He’s had many hit series and movies, from Clueless to Josie and the Pussycats and Scrubs, and now people are calling him the “T-Mobile Guy.” Currently, he stars in Extended Family on NBC, with the first season finale airing tonight (March 26) after Night Court. With this many roles under his belt, can we start calling him by his actual name already?
In any event, on Extended Family, Faison plays Trey, the owner of a basketball team who has won Julia (Abigail Spencer)’s heart. But there’s a catch: Julia’s amicably divorced from Jim (Jon Cryer), and they still raise their kids at the family home while taking turns on who gets to stay with them. These complications cause sitcom conflict every week, and if you’d like to see past episodes of the show, it is streaming on Peacock and NBC.com.
We spoke with Donald Faison a few weeks ago at the NBC portion of the Television Critics Association press tour, and first, we learned about the earliest exposure that Faison ever had to his co-star Jon Cryer, whose Pretty in Pink character “Duckie” had a bigger impact on Faison’s life than most might know.
“When I saw Pretty in Pink for the first time, I realized that that’s the character that I was going to portray in front of people. So when I went to high school – junior high school, I should say – I was a mixture of Dwayne Wayne from A Different World and Duckie in Pretty in Pink,” Faison recalled. “I had the Duckie hat, the Duckie shoes with high platforms and everything…. I tapered my pants every day. Jon Cryer was a big part of my youth. Flash cut to my agent calls me and says ‘so, there’s a sitcom, the cast is Jon Cryer…’ And I’m like ‘yes, I’m in’!”
With that said, has Faison dressed up like Duckie again to prank his co-star?
“No, but I have completely embarrassed him in every interview we’ve ever done,” Faison admitted. “He doesn’t like it. But I’m gonna go on and talk about it forever, because he really saved my my ass as a kid. You know, nobody’s themselves in high school. Right? We all play a role, right? We all play a vision that we hope to be. I went to a school where there were a bunch of professionals and all that stuff already acting, and the one person that I thought would make it so that I can fit in was Duckie, played by Jon Cryer.”
And how does it feel to play the guy that replaces Jon Cryer as someone’s object of affection?
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m also very grateful to have this job,” he laughs. “I dreamt of this and it came to fruition. And so, look, regardless of what it is, if I was Booster Gold and he was Lex Luthor, and we were fighting against each other, I would be just happy to be on screen with him.”
Donald Faison was cast as iconic DC Comics character Booster Gold in the Season 7 finale of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and would have continued had the show been picked up for Season 8; Cryer played Lex Luthor, primarily on Supergirl. Faison has many great things to say about working on Legends and would love to play Booster Gold again, but he feels that it is unlikely, especially as the “Berlantiverse” seems done.
“I don’t know if James Gunn is gonna call me and be like, ‘yeah, you can play Booster Gold.’ I have a feeling he’s going to go with somebody more type,” he said, though he seemed very open to reprising the role if the opportunity came.
If fans want to check out Extended Family, there isn’t a particular episode that he would recommend. “I think they should watch the whole show, to be honest with you,” he said.
“We’re one of those shows that is sincerely an old school 90s sitcom. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re trying to make you feel nostalgic, and if you want a 90 sitcom, then we’re trying to bring you to that form of storytelling. There’s not a lot of that nowadays. Everybody’s trying to be edgy. Everybody’s trying to be Stranger Things, or whatever the streaming show is. We’re trying to give you what you remember; the thing that’s used to laugh at all the time, and I’m very happy with it,” he explained.
And any dream guest stars for Season 2, beyond, of course, Donald Faison’s Scrubs pal Zach Braff?
“Oh my gosh. If we can get Kadeem Hardison on the show, that would make my life. If we could get anybody from Cheers… anybody from A Different World… anybody from The Cosby Show… at the end of the day, I would love to get Skippy from Family Ties on the show! Remember Skippy? I would love him on the show. Anybody. Full House, man. Family Matters. If I can get Jaleel White on this show, I’m going for it,” he said.
And although it would be nice to be referred to as “Donald Faison” out on the street, could this author get away with calling him Booster Gold?
“You can call me Booster Gold all day,” he said.
Extended Family airs Tuesdays on NBC.
