Post by bobdoc on Jan 28, 2008 10:29:11 GMT -4
Michael interview number 50 in the last few days, at starbulletin.com/2008/01/28/features/story01.html
Apparently, "Lost" viewers aren't the only ones kept in the dark. Show writers and producers hid the shocking flash-forward that defined the end of Season 3 from almost everyone -- including key actors in that episode.
"In my script for the finale, those scenes were blank pages," says Michael Emerson, who plays the sometimes creepy, occasionally charming and always enigmatic Benjamin Linus, leader of the Others. "They were secret scenes. Only Matt (Fox) and Evangeline (Lilly) had those scripts. Of course, everybody was besieging them, because we're all sort of 'Lost' geeks, even when we're on the show. We'd get together for parties and ask, 'What's going on?' Matt got us all excited by saying, 'I can't tell you what it is, but it is the greatest development since the pilot; it is the thing that puts the show where we always dreamt it would be.'"
Emerson, a prominent participant in the season wrap-up, finally understood with the rest of the world -- when the episode aired. "One of the mysterious things about being a regular on this show is that nobody tells you anything."
That includes inside information about the writers' strike that began Nov. 5. "It's completely up to me to keep abreast of things," he said. "It's not like the producers call my agent with updates."
Crew members received pink slips, and actors under contract can't start a theater gig or sign on for a movie. Essentially, they remain on call. Emerson spends his time at home in New York City seeing Broadway shows, reading a biography of Marco Polo, catching up with friends, feeling nostalgic for Hawaii and contemplating the status of the Waikiki apartment he sublet. "I guarantee you, the day after I vacate that apartment, I'll get a call saying we're going back to work," he says.
ABC planned 16 episodes of the serial thriller this year, but only eight have been completed and as Emerson explained, "There will come a magic date in February or March when they'll just have to scrap the season if the strike isn't settled." That could lead to two longer seasons before the show ends in 2010.
Either way, the eighth episode finishes with a nice punch. "It wouldn't be disastrous to let it hang right there," he said. "It's a thrilling reveal that will lay the groundwork for a whole lot of changes."
But that's still eight weeks away. In the absence of a red-carpet premiere at Sunset on the Beach this season, Emerson says he and his wife will stay in New York to dine with friends, watch the first episode on their wide-screen TV and "be 'Lost' geeks together."
Looking ahead
An overview of the fourth season, courtesy of Michael Emerson (Ben Linus):
Who are the bad guys? "Let's check the body count at the end of Season 3!" Emerson notes in good humor. "Many slaughtered Others and very few Lostaways hurt. Who are the really bloody-minded men?"
In the final episode, Ben yells to Jack, "Making that call is the beginning of the end. Jack, please, you don't know what you're doing! If you phone her boat, every single living person on this island will be killed."
Ben returns full circle to his beginnings as a manipulative captive who provokes everyone around him -- maintaining a position of power, even from a place of apparent disadvantage.
"Now more than ever before, he's improvising. He has nothing; he doesn't even have a way to talk to anybody." Just as he did when he pretended to be Henry Gale, "it's almost like taking the physical punishment is part of his plan. It's a piece of strategy, and he doesn't really feel the pain the way a normal person does. He's happy at the end of a beating because he has provoked someone else to reveal something about themselves. Or why would he take it with such equanimity? He goes out of his way to press hot buttons! So it must be that he's getting the result he wants. Because it always comes around later that someone else is going to have to feel badly, or beholden to him. Because the beatings are never given with the full knowledge of the facts."
Down the road, Ben will be vindicated: When Ben tells Jack not to use the satellite phone to call the freighter, he means it. "Ben doesn't lie about those kinds of things. In fact, he really doesn't lie that much!" When he does, "he has his reasons."
In the deteriorating situation, Ben must learn to live by wits alone, and this test "may make some adjustments in our sympathies." Indeed, Emerson has played the ruthless yet vulnerable leader as someone who "ultimately would be reconfigured as a character who has heroic dimension."
Emerson admitted to e-mailing producer Damon Lindelof at one point to ask if he had been deluding himself about Ben's potential. Lindelof encouraged him to carry on because everything would be "recontextualized." Eventually.
Need more evidence? Listen to Jack's last words in the Season 3 finale: "I actually close my eyes and pray that I can get back," he says to Kate in the flash-forward. "We made a mistake. We were not supposed to leave. ... We have to go back!"
What to watch for: Some familiar and fresh faces spice up Season 4. Look for reprisals from Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Malcolm David Kelley (Walt). New actors include Fisher Stevens, Ken Leung, Lance Reddick, Rebecca Mader, Jeremy Davies and Jeff Fahey.
"I predict great success with this batch," says Emerson. "They tried some new characters last season, but they went to the light end of the character scale ... and I don't think the fan base was having it. But these new characters are frightening. They're eccentric and dangerous, and they're woven very neatly into the story line."
He hints that the people on the rescue ship aren't what we might expect, leading to intriguing plot twists. "Instead of two opposing forces, we're now going to have three, and the introduction of a new foe may make for new and unexpected alliances among old enemies."
And the flash-forward concept? There's more where that came from. "They are going to take advantage of this new time frame and use it to good dramatic effect. It's such a stroke of genius to see that there is life after the island, and there's not necessarily a happy ending. ... There's going to be regret and guilt, misgivings and hauntedness."
"In my script for the finale, those scenes were blank pages," says Michael Emerson, who plays the sometimes creepy, occasionally charming and always enigmatic Benjamin Linus, leader of the Others. "They were secret scenes. Only Matt (Fox) and Evangeline (Lilly) had those scripts. Of course, everybody was besieging them, because we're all sort of 'Lost' geeks, even when we're on the show. We'd get together for parties and ask, 'What's going on?' Matt got us all excited by saying, 'I can't tell you what it is, but it is the greatest development since the pilot; it is the thing that puts the show where we always dreamt it would be.'"
Emerson, a prominent participant in the season wrap-up, finally understood with the rest of the world -- when the episode aired. "One of the mysterious things about being a regular on this show is that nobody tells you anything."
That includes inside information about the writers' strike that began Nov. 5. "It's completely up to me to keep abreast of things," he said. "It's not like the producers call my agent with updates."
Crew members received pink slips, and actors under contract can't start a theater gig or sign on for a movie. Essentially, they remain on call. Emerson spends his time at home in New York City seeing Broadway shows, reading a biography of Marco Polo, catching up with friends, feeling nostalgic for Hawaii and contemplating the status of the Waikiki apartment he sublet. "I guarantee you, the day after I vacate that apartment, I'll get a call saying we're going back to work," he says.
ABC planned 16 episodes of the serial thriller this year, but only eight have been completed and as Emerson explained, "There will come a magic date in February or March when they'll just have to scrap the season if the strike isn't settled." That could lead to two longer seasons before the show ends in 2010.
Either way, the eighth episode finishes with a nice punch. "It wouldn't be disastrous to let it hang right there," he said. "It's a thrilling reveal that will lay the groundwork for a whole lot of changes."
But that's still eight weeks away. In the absence of a red-carpet premiere at Sunset on the Beach this season, Emerson says he and his wife will stay in New York to dine with friends, watch the first episode on their wide-screen TV and "be 'Lost' geeks together."
Looking ahead
An overview of the fourth season, courtesy of Michael Emerson (Ben Linus):
Who are the bad guys? "Let's check the body count at the end of Season 3!" Emerson notes in good humor. "Many slaughtered Others and very few Lostaways hurt. Who are the really bloody-minded men?"
In the final episode, Ben yells to Jack, "Making that call is the beginning of the end. Jack, please, you don't know what you're doing! If you phone her boat, every single living person on this island will be killed."
Ben returns full circle to his beginnings as a manipulative captive who provokes everyone around him -- maintaining a position of power, even from a place of apparent disadvantage.
"Now more than ever before, he's improvising. He has nothing; he doesn't even have a way to talk to anybody." Just as he did when he pretended to be Henry Gale, "it's almost like taking the physical punishment is part of his plan. It's a piece of strategy, and he doesn't really feel the pain the way a normal person does. He's happy at the end of a beating because he has provoked someone else to reveal something about themselves. Or why would he take it with such equanimity? He goes out of his way to press hot buttons! So it must be that he's getting the result he wants. Because it always comes around later that someone else is going to have to feel badly, or beholden to him. Because the beatings are never given with the full knowledge of the facts."
Down the road, Ben will be vindicated: When Ben tells Jack not to use the satellite phone to call the freighter, he means it. "Ben doesn't lie about those kinds of things. In fact, he really doesn't lie that much!" When he does, "he has his reasons."
In the deteriorating situation, Ben must learn to live by wits alone, and this test "may make some adjustments in our sympathies." Indeed, Emerson has played the ruthless yet vulnerable leader as someone who "ultimately would be reconfigured as a character who has heroic dimension."
Emerson admitted to e-mailing producer Damon Lindelof at one point to ask if he had been deluding himself about Ben's potential. Lindelof encouraged him to carry on because everything would be "recontextualized." Eventually.
Need more evidence? Listen to Jack's last words in the Season 3 finale: "I actually close my eyes and pray that I can get back," he says to Kate in the flash-forward. "We made a mistake. We were not supposed to leave. ... We have to go back!"
What to watch for: Some familiar and fresh faces spice up Season 4. Look for reprisals from Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Malcolm David Kelley (Walt). New actors include Fisher Stevens, Ken Leung, Lance Reddick, Rebecca Mader, Jeremy Davies and Jeff Fahey.
"I predict great success with this batch," says Emerson. "They tried some new characters last season, but they went to the light end of the character scale ... and I don't think the fan base was having it. But these new characters are frightening. They're eccentric and dangerous, and they're woven very neatly into the story line."
He hints that the people on the rescue ship aren't what we might expect, leading to intriguing plot twists. "Instead of two opposing forces, we're now going to have three, and the introduction of a new foe may make for new and unexpected alliances among old enemies."
And the flash-forward concept? There's more where that came from. "They are going to take advantage of this new time frame and use it to good dramatic effect. It's such a stroke of genius to see that there is life after the island, and there's not necessarily a happy ending. ... There's going to be regret and guilt, misgivings and hauntedness."
