Crush: Hollywood’s Next GenerationMeet ‘Jane By Design’s’ big brother
David Clayton Rogers is a 34-year-old married guy, so he knows he doesn't exactly fall into the demographic for his show "Jane by Design." Still, he's a softie who knows just why viewers love the series so. "It's sorta like life. There's a lot of comedy and then there's some heart," he says in an interview with omg!. This season, as fans have seen, there's more family drama than usual courtesy of guest star Teri Hatcher. She plays the mother of Rogers' character, Ben, and his younger sister, Jane (from the title), who abandoned the kids when they were young. (In case you don't know the back story, Ben quit college to take care of his high school-age sister Jane after their dad died.) "Ben's been the resident parent-who-acts-like-a-kid in the Quimby house and then all of a sudden in pops 'Mom,' and she tries to take over the reins in both the parenting aspect and the 'hey, I'm so much fun!' vibe," Rogers explain. "Naturally, Ben resents this. And on a deeper level this woman abandoned him and his sister and that wound has never really healed. Scarred over maybe, but never really healed. So there [are] definitely some fireworks between the two."
Clearly, Ben's a family man! And in real life, Rogers is just as focused on his family, which includes his wife Sally Pressman, who stars on the Lifetime series "Army Wives."
Here are a few other fun facts about Rogers:
Rogers and Pressman, who swapped vows in Santa Barbara, California, last September, were a couple for about six years before that. In 2010, he popped the question by surprising her and getting down on one knee while she was working out at celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson's studio in L.A. Aw!
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While theirs sounds like a storybook romance, the truth is that the two have had a long-distance relationship over the last few years thanks to their work schedules. Her show films in South Carolina, while he's been in L.A. and other locales filming his series and TV movies. The key to keeping their love strong? Skype. "The ability to see the person with whom your speaking makes a huge difference," Rogers says. "As anyone in my life can attest, I'm incredibly sketchy when it comes to phone communication. I sort of treat my cell phone like a home phone. I'm constantly losing it, it's constantly running out of juice. Setting a time to Skype, where you sit down, speak face to face without the distractions you typically deal with while running around and talking on your phone almost substitutes for real face time. [The app] Draw Something has been a good way to check in with each other also."
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Rogers is a big fan of the Pelican State, where he shot the Lifetime movie "Pregnancy Pact" and the ABC Family movie "Revenge of the Bridesmaids." "I love Louisiana," he notes, adding that he has family in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. "I had a crawfish boil a couple of years ago [in L.A.], and I called my cousin to see where I could get an outdoor burner from, and she goes, 'Well, anywhere. The gas station on the corner sells them.' Yeah, not my gas station [in L.A.]!"
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While Rogers explains that he'd like to add a little one to his fam eventually, for now he and Pressman treat their Maltese/Yorkie mix Sophie like their baby. "Our dog is a member of our family," he says. "She has equal voting rights and gets to go everywhere with us. I often refer to her as my hairy little daughter. That being said, we'd love to add a human daughter or son in the very near future." For now, Pressman's Twitter account includes lots of pics of the pet and comments like, "My dog can stare at me so intensely for so much time..what does she always WANT?!"
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The flip side of all those chick-flick movies and TV shows on his resume — yep, an episode of "Gilmore Girls" is there, too! — is the upcoming sci-fi web series, "H+." Bryan Singer, the director of "X-Men" and "X2" will produce the futuristic show in which the surviving humans have their minds linked to the Internet. As the show's lead, he's probably a little biased, but he calls it "a game-changer." For the record, Rogers insists, "There's nothing wrong with chick flicks!"
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"Jane by Design" airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT Tuesdays on ABC Family.
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