Evan Daigle on the Diversity of TNT’s New Series ‘Claws’ [Exclusive Interview]

TNT’s new series, Claws, premieres this Sunday, and it’s a show you won’t want to miss.

Claws follows a group of diverse manicurists in South Florida in a salon where there’s much more going on than meets the eye. The dramedy is executive produced by Rashida Jones, and stars Niecy Nash and Carrie Preston.

Also joining the cast is Evan Daigle, who plays Toby, the boyfriend of a gangster (Dean Norris) who uses the salon to launder drug money.

I recently had the chance to chat with Daigle about his role on the Claws and how he got his start in the business.

“I grew up in South Louisiana in this small little town called Lafayette, and I never really grew up thinking that performing was in the realm of my possibilities, just because the place that I grew up it wasn’t encouraged,” Daigle said.

“I didn’t have any theater classes in school or anything, and so I just never was really exposed to it until I moved to California after I graduated high school.”

It was then that Daigle began pursuing painting, but realized that wasn’t the right path. “I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do for a career at all. I’m not the type of person who can just stay in a studio all day and not talk to anyone.”

After that, he returned to Louisiana an enrolled in school to study film and theater. During that training, he had the chance to audition for TNT’s Claws. “I was auditioning in film and television and going to school for theater full-time for about two years before I got the audition for Claws,” he said. “I was mainly focused on really training my acting skills.”

 

“In October of this past year, I had just finished doing a play for school, and I got an audition for a one-scene character in this pilot called Claws. When I got the breakdown, I saw that it was executive produced by Rashida Jones and Will McCormick who I’ve been fans of since I was a kid, and I also noticed that it was written and created by Eliot Laurence,” Daigle noted.

“I had seen his first independent film that he did, Welcome to Me, starring Kristin Wiig, two years ago just randomly on Netlifx, and it still to this day is one of my favorite indie comedies that I’ve ever seen.”

Daigle received a callback after his initial audition with the casting director, where he said “everything just clicked.”

“I felt like I gave the best audition that I’d given in my career. I just felt super comfortable with the character and at ease with Eliot and the rest of the producers,” he recalled. “It wasn’t until we got the green light for series that the producers for the show contacted my agent and told her that they were impressed with my callback and really impressed with the work I had done in the pilot.”

Because of how impressed they were with Daigle, they decided to make Toby a recurring character.

Daigle couldn’t go into too many details, but he did give us an idea of what we could expect from Toby.

“I’m really excited for everyone to see the series and see the reactions to the character, because he’s a very unique individual. I think that it clicked for me because Toby has a lot of gender confusion and a lot of gender issues, and gender and sexuality are something that have always been sort of ambiguous for me,” Daigle said.

“Getting to play this character has sort of opened my mind up to gender and sexuality in a completely different way.”

“I can’t tell you how insanely blessed I feel to be a part of such a diverse network television show. I am so proud of TNT for taking on this show, because we have, I think, one of the most ethnically diverse casts on network television right now. This story and this show are obviously very entertaining — very over the top — but Claws deals with a lot of stories that you don’t really get to see told [from a] comedic-dramatic perspective on network television specifically.”

Daigle also praised the diversity of the new series.

“At the core of the show, it is about these five diverse women who come together and aren’t competing with each other but helping each other to progress their lives. It’s so beautiful to see stories like that portrayed on TV, and I think this show is going to help people, especially younger people, expand their minds and realize that there are so many different aspects of humanity that we just aren’t exposed to if [we] don’t take the time to listen,” he noted.

This experience has been an interesting one for Daigle, who didn’t expect to find himself on a series so quickly, and who actually had to take time off of school to be a part of the show.

“I think at first the biggest challenge for me was accepting my situation,” Daigle admitted. But it didn’t take long for him to become comfortable.

“Having such a welcoming and mentoring cast has helped me get over some of those self-conscious issues that I’ve had in the past,” he said. “Now I feel great. I feel so at home on set, and I’m really able to do the best work that I can now.”

When Daigle isn’t busy acting, he makes time to binge some of his favorite shows.

“I just finished Bates Motel, the first three seasons on Netflix,” Daigle said. “I started watching Breaking Bad from the beginning when I found out I was going to be working with Dean Norris.”

Daigle also noted other recent favorites, such as Homeland, Girls, and Big Little Lies. “I’m obsessed with television!” he exclaimed.

Be sure to catch Evan Daigle on Claws, premiering this Sunday, June 11th at 9/8c on TNT.

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