Cristina Rosato chats with Dog O’Day about her role on Turner & Hooch
On August 18, Cristina Rosato made her Turner & Hooch debut as Olivia, Marshall Xavier Watson’s fiancée. And we had a chance to chat with her prior to her first episode dropping on Disney Plus.
In her debut episode, “Road to Smell Dorado,” we learned about Olivia and her relationship with Xavier, which for some, may have been a bit of a surprise. And one of the things we learned is that she is also in law enforcement, even if she is not a part of the Marshall’s service. While Rosato’s Olivia is a recurring character, after the seventh episode of the season, “To Serve and Pawtect,” it was nice to have her dropping in once again. In fact, her scene with Xavier was a rather romantic moment between the two of them.
Olivia is a fierce woman. She is also clearly in love with her fiancé, which is always something we love to see. After the character returned in episode 7, we knew now was the perfect time to share with our readers the interview we did with Cristina Rosato prior to her arrival on the Turner & Hooch scene.
Dog O’Day talks to Turner & Hooch’s Cristina Rosato
This interview was edited for length and clarity:
Dog O’Day: What is it like working on a series like Turner & Hooch?
Cristina Rosato: “Oh my God it’s so fun. I mean, it’s been a while as I haven’t worked on sort of a comedy, and also an action show. I’ve done a lot of dramas and that’s just such a different pace. The writers are on set, always trying to improve and make it funnier and make it more surprising and more dynamic. So that was like a really fun challenge, and working with animals on set was really fun because you’re gonna have an idea of how you’re going to do something, and then animals sort of dictate that that’s not how they’re going to do it.”
DOD: Have you ever worked with a dog on a set before? Or was this like a first time thing for you?
CR: “Yeah, it was the first time. I mean my character doesn’t have that many scenes with the animal, but it definitely was my first time working with animals on set and it was pretty special.”
DOD: Since you mentioned your character, can you tell us a little bit more about Olivia, and what inspired you?
CR: “When I found out about the role, all I really knew was that she was a cop from the Midwest and that she was dating Xavier, on the show. And when I started reading the scripts, she just jumped off the page because she’s like this very bubbly, girly sort of like kooky person, but really can turn it on when she needs to be a cop. She’s like a pretty badass cop when she needs to be. So it was really fun to get to play both of those dynamics within one role.”
DOD: Were you a fan of Turner & Hooch before the series or did you kind of learn more about it when you maybe audition for the role or how’d that work?
CR: “I was definitely a fan of the movie growing up. I mean that was just my era you know. I was young and I loved animals and so that was sort of one of the movies that was in heavy rotation before bed at night. It was one of the ones I used to love watching. And so when I found out they were going to be using this to like jump off and make a TV series, I was just thrilled about the opportunity of joining it.”
DOD: Are you a dog person or more of a cat person?
CR: “I definitely am more of a dog person. I also love cats, but we don’t have a pet at the moment just because our lifestyle has been a lot of traveling and it didn’t feel right to have a pet that would either be alone or have to travel all the time. But I grew up with pets at home so I definitely know we’ll have a dog at some point.”
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From Turner & Hooch to her own dog owning plans, chatting with Cristina Rosato gave us a lot of insight into not only this character, but also what it is like to work on a project like this. And honestly, this interview just made us love the series even more. (Cristina was so much fun to chat with and we love that she was a fan of the Tom Hanks movie as much as we were.)
To see Rosato and the rest of the Turner & Hooch cast in action, you can watch the first seven episodes now on Disney Plus. And new episodes drop every week on Wednesdays.