“Hawaii Five-0” fans are about to understand a little more about Danny “Danno” Williams when they meet his mom, played by Melanie Griffith, this Friday night on the CBS drama.
“If you know Danny… yeah, he’s a little [tightly] wound… and I think you wanna believe that a lot of that could’ve come from her,” “H50” Executive Producer Peter Lenkov told AccessHollywood.com.
There wasn’t far to go to find the right actress to play Clara Williams. Lenkov said he realized how perfect Griffith would be after watching her act opposite “H50” star Scott Caan on the stage.
“Scott wrote a play where Melanie played his mom. I went to see them together. I thought the chemistry was amazing. I totally believed her as his mom and it was as easy as that,” he said. “I knew I was going to have to cast the mom and I just knew that she was gonna be it. The minute I saw them together I said, ‘I can’t have anybody else.’”
Clara will be flying into Honolulu, and Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) will be part of the welcoming party for Danny’s mom and her rather enormous pile of luggage.
“I think he finds her very charming,” Lenkov said when Access asked about Steve’s reaction to Clara. “I think Danny was very suspicious of McGarrett’s mother, but I think [Steve] finds [Danny’s] mother very charming.”
As for what brings Clara to her son’s doorstep, it turns out to be romantic troubles with Danny’s dad, who is being played by Tom Berenger. It’ll be a shock for Danny, who will deal with his parents’ potential split over the course of Melanie’s three-episode arc, but Steve will be there to lend him some advice.
“[He] wants Danny to cut her a little slack. She’s an adult, she’s making a decision. You can’t decide for her how her life’s gonna go. And you’ll see a lot of that dynamic play between them in the three episodes,” Lenkov said.
Lenkov said to expect some emotional material when it comes to this mother and son pair.
“Her big thing is trying to get her son to understand — and Danny relates to it because he got divorced. He knows what his daughter went through. There’s going to be some emotional stuff. We like to wear our heart on our sleeve sometimes, and you’re gonna see a lot of that in [Danny] coming to terms with the fact that his parents may divorce,” Lenkov noted.
“Hawaii Five-0” airs Friday at 9/8c on CBS.
— Jolie Lash
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