On the Road to Recovery with David Franzese

Daniel Franzese is currently starring on Freeform’s drama Recovery Road. His character, Vern, is a role model, mentor, and provides a sense of comedic relief for his fellow recovering addicts. Recently Daniel chatted with us to discuss Mischa Barton, #feelthevern and his love for street art!

Now that the story on Recovery Road is starting to unfold and fans are starting to get hooked, what has been your favorite fan response or Vern comment you’ve gotten on the show?

I absolutely love the hashtag #feelthevern. I don’t know which fan it originally came from, but it seems to have taken on an I can’t stop hashtag. Again, I think it’s funny and awesome.

The next episode’s going to have Mischa Barton in it. You said previously that you and she have been friends for the past few years.

Yes. We met through a mutual friend, a stylist, Natalie Toren, who was working with her. We started hanging out, and she came to see me do improv a bunch of times. We’ve hung out a bunch. It was really nice to reconnect and finally get to work together.

What has been your favorite part about filming with her?

There’s a certain level of intimacy that you have with people who you know. It’s really nice to play someone who you’re just meeting for the first time and have the intimacy to grow to the level that you already have. That was a lot of fun to explore with.

Speaking of Mischa Barton and guest stars, what guest star would you love to see on Recovery Road?

I don’t know. There’s so many. I would love to see either my friend, Rosario Dawson or Gabby Sidibe come and take a visit. I think that would be crazy. I would be so excited because they’re friends of mine who I’ve never gotten a chance to work with yet. It’s so fun when that happens. It’s so rare.

We get to see flashbacks of your story in the next episode. Do you think viewers are going to be surprised by your backstory?

I think so. I think because Vern is sort of a rock in the house. I think it’s going to be interesting to see him at his rock bottom.

So far what has been your favorite scene that viewers haves seen?

I really love the first scene when Maddie and Wes go sneak off past curfew, and Vern is waiting like a dad for her by the stairs to sort of give her a talking to. I think it shows how much Vern instantly cared about Maddie when she came into the house. I think it was a time where Maddie knew that people were caring about her when she wasn’t even looking out for herself. I think it’s a nice representation of the support that is inside Springtime Meadows.

How similar do you think you and your character, Vern, are in real life?

I think there’s a piece of every actor inside the characters they play, but I think Vern and I are a lot different. Even his style of dressing and the things that he’s into aren’t really what I do, but I find joy in finding the odd things that are not like me. It allows me to discover who this new person is.

What can you tease about the upcoming episode or rest of the season?

I think that what’s really great about our show is you get to see, as you’ll see in this upcoming episode, my character’s backstory, but we get to find out a lot about other people. I think there’s a lot of surprising things that people aren’t expecting to happen inside the house. I’m just itching to tell you, but I’m not allowed.

We always ask this, what do you “nerd out” about? Specifically something other than a TV show or movie?

I love street art and graffiti. I go crazy over that stuff. A lot of my Instagram, especially in the beginning of my Instagram, is some of the greatest graffitis around to the world. If I see something amazing, I like to record it. I’m definitely a fan of street art.

That’s awesome. Do you travel and look at the street art everywhere you go?

I do. Again, back in the history of my Instagram, there’s some amazing things from Detroit and Miami and Spain and just all these places that I discovered really cool street art hidden in little corners. For some reason, I’ve always been the type of person that noticed weird, little, tiny things, and thanks to platforms, I get to record them and remember them. It’s a lot of fun.

Check out Daniel’s Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/whatsupdanny/?hl=en