Chemistry stands test of time for ‘Dr. Quinn’s’ Seymour and Lando
Though it has been 21 years since actors Jane Seymour and Joe Lando co-starred on the drama series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” they’re back together and say it’s like they’ve never been away.
The two have remained best friends since they tamed the Wild West in “Dr. Quinn” in the late
’90s. And they find themselves paired again for a classic Christmas movie, “A Christmas Spark,” premiering Nov. 27 on Lifetime.
Eight years ago they reunited in a comic bit for “Funny or Die,” but since then they have gone their separate ways. Lando, 61, starred in projects like “The Untold Story” and “Paloma’s Flight,” and he performed a stint on “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Seymour, 72, is shooting her second season of “Harry Wild” for Acorn TV, managed a turn in “B Positive” for CBS, and co-starred in “The Kominsky Method” for Netflix. But when she first read the Christmas script, she says she didn’t think of Lando as a co-star. “I thought, ‘Joe’s my best friend.’ And I didn’t think of him being in it,” she says.
“I just thought, ‘I wonder what he thinks about what I’m about to do?’ And he read it, and he said, ‘Well, Jane, you’re going to have so much fun on this one — this is one of the best Lifetime movies I’ve ever read.’ Then somebody got a really good idea and thought of offering it to Joe. And I’m so grateful.”
“I knew we could just be ourselves at times,” adds Lando. “And that’s what I really clicked down to this one and loved about it. And I think Jane felt the same way. We used some of our
‘chemistry,’ ” he says.
That chemistry is something indefinable, insists Lando. “Chemistry is something that you can’t manufacture, and you can’t go, ‘Oh, that person looks like they’d be great with that person . ... It happens. And it’s happened with Jane. And I’ve had that opportunity with just a couple other people in my career. And I think that’s why we keep going back to that well of chemistry.”
Seymour recalls, “I remember the first day I worked on ‘Dr. Quinn’ and had just come through a terrible circumstance and a terrible marriage, and
I’m looking at Joe, and I’m thinking, ‘No, that’ll never happen.’
“And it’s 32 years later, and we’re reasonably inseparable. Joe and his family are always at my house. We are an entwined family — Joe and (his wife) Kirsten and I — we all get along really well. There’s just a chemistry. We have it, and hopefully we always will, and we’re also best friends. And there’s an excitement because you can act without a safety net because you know you can throw something out there, and he’ll catch it, or I’ll catch it, and we’ll play with it.”
Seymour is thrilled with the variety of offers that keep rolling her way. “I
love acting, and I’ve been getting the most amazing roles . ... I think because I’m not trying to be an ingenue or very young or any of that — I can play my age to 85 — and comedy and drama. I love working and am so grateful to have such beautiful quality work and work with such great people.”
So what are the chances of another “Dr. Quinn” as a movie or limited series?
“I would only do another ‘Dr. Quinn’ if it was going to be as good if not better,” says Seymour. “It’s got to be something really, really special, and I’m not quite sure how that happens. Also at the moment, we haven’t found anyone who actually wants it.”
“I think Jane and I and a few other folks would be very on board if we found the script,” adds Lando. “And sadly the town we shot in burned down a couple years ago — completely to the ground — so it would be like starting new. Whatever we came up with would have to be something very different from what we saw before, but still keep the same parts and maybe I’d like to see these people get together and bond with one another in something that’s really inspirational. Hopefully that will come together soon; I still have to be able to jump on a horse.”