Post by bobdoc on Jan 18, 2008 18:51:11 GMT -4
This time he talked to the Palm Beach Post, at www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2008/01/the_eyes_thats.html
The eyes.
That's the first thing you notice when you look at Michael Emerson, the Emmy-winning actor who plays creepy Ben, leader of The Others, on Lost.
Emerson's peepers certainly get your attention. They're piercing. Hypnotic. They pop out of his head like two marbles.
With Lost's fourth season set to begin Jan. 31 at 9 p.m., I caught up with Michael to chat about the new season, that mind-bending flash forward and why he's always playing creepy guys. Here's a sneak peek at my Q&A. Look for the entire chat in The Palm Beach Post on Jan. 30.
Question: What have you been up to?
Answer: Getting anxious at home. (The time off) had a certain charm to it in December. It was sort of like a long Christmas vacation or being home from school. Now that the new year is here, some of the charm is wearing (thin) and you begin to wonder, 'What am I going to do with myself? 'When will I next make a living?' We're in limbo and can't really take any other work because the phone could ring any day and they'd call us back to Hawaii.
Q: What are you being told by ABC about the season?
A: You don't ever really hear directly from your employer. What I get second or third hand is that ABC is still committed to completing the season. Having said that there will come a magic date somewhere probably in March where they'll say we just have to give up and scrap the season.
Q: How do you think the strike will affect the show?
A: We have eight great episodes. The quality of the show is as high as it's ever been and the fourth season isn't going to be any kind of letdown at all. It's strong, dark, bloody material and extra complex based on the new device they introduced in the finale last year.
Q: What can you tell me about the upcoming season and what's going on with Ben.
A: What we're gonna see in the show in general, no one has a home anymore. The castaways camp is destroyed. The Others have abandoned their village. Everyone is sort on foot and wandering the island like refugees in small bands. It's unclear where leadership is or what their mission is. In Ben's case, he's a man without resources. Previously he had access to money and weapons and he had his own army and now he has none of that. Ben's challenge will be how can he affect events around him using nothing more than his wit. He's fairly well beat up at all times also.
We also have the introduction of some new and very frightening characters, which will alter the sympathy landscape of the show in very interesting ways.
Q: How many new characters are joining the show?
A: I've seen four or five new actors on the set regularly and I've had scenes with several of them. The characters they play are challenging and serious and very dangerous.
Q: The flash forward really stunned everybody last season. What is that going to add to the show this season?
A: It really stunned me too. Even though I worked on that finale, those scenes were blank pages in my script. They were kept secret. I didn't know what was going on until I saw the telecast the same way that you did and it made my hair stand on end.
Q: Originally you were only supposed to be in a handful of episodes, but your character is so intriguing and so mysterious, you were made a regular cast member. Tell me how that came about.
A: It happened very gradually. If they would've told me when they first called me that they wanted me to become a serious regular, I would've been a bundle of anxiety. As it was, I thought I had a little job, it'll take me to Hawaii for a few weeks in the wintertime and that'll be pleasant and when I get home I'll look for work. At first it was three episodes, then it was six. Then it was stick around you're in eight and nine and I just never seemed to be able to get home. Eventually someone decided to make me a regular if I was going to be in every episode anyway.
Q: How do you view Ben? Good guy? Bad guy? Misunderstood?
A: I think misunderstood. I have always had a notion that eventually circumstances will reveal Ben to have been more heroic than we ever thought. Ben is clearly a man in the middle of war, but we don't know who the enemy is yet and until we know what the stakes are and who the enemy is and what he' trying to save or protect, we are hard-pressed to judge his behavior. If Ben is the only thing that stands between the human race and annihilation, then we can forgive him more than if he's just a petty island dictator.
Q: You've been known to play a lot of creepy characters. What’s up with that?
A: It's a mystery to me. Only in television. Everywhere else in my career, I've been the funny guy or the dopey guy or the wiseguy. I'm not really sure why unless it is somewhere along the line people decided they liked their danger to come in an un-dangerous-looking package. They like the misdirection of that. But how much longer can we play that card? Everybody know what to expect.
That's the first thing you notice when you look at Michael Emerson, the Emmy-winning actor who plays creepy Ben, leader of The Others, on Lost.
Emerson's peepers certainly get your attention. They're piercing. Hypnotic. They pop out of his head like two marbles.
With Lost's fourth season set to begin Jan. 31 at 9 p.m., I caught up with Michael to chat about the new season, that mind-bending flash forward and why he's always playing creepy guys. Here's a sneak peek at my Q&A. Look for the entire chat in The Palm Beach Post on Jan. 30.
Question: What have you been up to?
Answer: Getting anxious at home. (The time off) had a certain charm to it in December. It was sort of like a long Christmas vacation or being home from school. Now that the new year is here, some of the charm is wearing (thin) and you begin to wonder, 'What am I going to do with myself? 'When will I next make a living?' We're in limbo and can't really take any other work because the phone could ring any day and they'd call us back to Hawaii.
Q: What are you being told by ABC about the season?
A: You don't ever really hear directly from your employer. What I get second or third hand is that ABC is still committed to completing the season. Having said that there will come a magic date somewhere probably in March where they'll say we just have to give up and scrap the season.
Q: How do you think the strike will affect the show?
A: We have eight great episodes. The quality of the show is as high as it's ever been and the fourth season isn't going to be any kind of letdown at all. It's strong, dark, bloody material and extra complex based on the new device they introduced in the finale last year.
Q: What can you tell me about the upcoming season and what's going on with Ben.
A: What we're gonna see in the show in general, no one has a home anymore. The castaways camp is destroyed. The Others have abandoned their village. Everyone is sort on foot and wandering the island like refugees in small bands. It's unclear where leadership is or what their mission is. In Ben's case, he's a man without resources. Previously he had access to money and weapons and he had his own army and now he has none of that. Ben's challenge will be how can he affect events around him using nothing more than his wit. He's fairly well beat up at all times also.
We also have the introduction of some new and very frightening characters, which will alter the sympathy landscape of the show in very interesting ways.
Q: How many new characters are joining the show?
A: I've seen four or five new actors on the set regularly and I've had scenes with several of them. The characters they play are challenging and serious and very dangerous.
Q: The flash forward really stunned everybody last season. What is that going to add to the show this season?
A: It really stunned me too. Even though I worked on that finale, those scenes were blank pages in my script. They were kept secret. I didn't know what was going on until I saw the telecast the same way that you did and it made my hair stand on end.
Q: Originally you were only supposed to be in a handful of episodes, but your character is so intriguing and so mysterious, you were made a regular cast member. Tell me how that came about.
A: It happened very gradually. If they would've told me when they first called me that they wanted me to become a serious regular, I would've been a bundle of anxiety. As it was, I thought I had a little job, it'll take me to Hawaii for a few weeks in the wintertime and that'll be pleasant and when I get home I'll look for work. At first it was three episodes, then it was six. Then it was stick around you're in eight and nine and I just never seemed to be able to get home. Eventually someone decided to make me a regular if I was going to be in every episode anyway.
Q: How do you view Ben? Good guy? Bad guy? Misunderstood?
A: I think misunderstood. I have always had a notion that eventually circumstances will reveal Ben to have been more heroic than we ever thought. Ben is clearly a man in the middle of war, but we don't know who the enemy is yet and until we know what the stakes are and who the enemy is and what he' trying to save or protect, we are hard-pressed to judge his behavior. If Ben is the only thing that stands between the human race and annihilation, then we can forgive him more than if he's just a petty island dictator.
Q: You've been known to play a lot of creepy characters. What’s up with that?
A: It's a mystery to me. Only in television. Everywhere else in my career, I've been the funny guy or the dopey guy or the wiseguy. I'm not really sure why unless it is somewhere along the line people decided they liked their danger to come in an un-dangerous-looking package. They like the misdirection of that. But how much longer can we play that card? Everybody know what to expect.
