Post by bobdoc on Feb 11, 2009 11:28:54 GMT -4
From www.winnipegsun.com/entertainment/tv/2009/02/11/8344436-sun.html
Michael Emerson doesn't necessarily look like a classic TV bad guy.
But Emerson, who plays the enigmatic and duplicitous Ben Linus on Lost, has a theory about what makes a good villain.
"I think a good villain is a person who makes the audience question their own values," Emerson said.
"The audience feels a little complicit, or has a little bit of that guilty feeling of, 'I know he's terrible, but I really like being with him.' "
So you're sayin' it's our fault? We're responsible for Ben's chicanery?
Emerson isn't going that far. But the notion of the audience being "in on it" goes back a long way.
"That's something I picked up in the playing of Shakespeare," said the 54-year-old Iowa native, who has an extensive theatre background.
"The reason Iago was such a successful villain in Othello is because he's the most charming man in the play. We like him, and the fact that he stands there and talks to us face-to-face and tells us everything he's going to do, it makes us accomplices."
Ben has a smarmy charm to him, although he certainly hasn't told the other characters on Lost -- let alone fans of the show -- what his ultimate goals are.
"One of the reasons they've settled on me for this part is I don't look like an imposing or dangerous person," Emerson said. "They like that tension between the mild exterior and the hidden agenda.
"But I think sometimes Ben's plan is chugging along so much the way he expects it, that it's not even exciting to him. He's just waiting for the next thing to fall into place. And it drives audiences crazy."
Lost, which airs Wednesdays (A, ABC) and tells the story of airplane-crash survivors on a mysterious island, occasionally has driven its fans crazy during the four-and-a-half-year run of the show. But with an end date having been set -- Lost will wrap up at the conclusion of its sixth season next year -- the story has been chugging along nicely in season No. 5.
"There's a lot of fireworks up their sleeve," Emerson said. "The stuff, to me, that's really hair-raising is yet to come this season."
As we spoke with Emerson last week, he was in California, taking advantage of a rare opportunity "to be in the same state as my wife," as he put it.
Lost films in Hawaii.
"I just finished filming a big all-Ben episode and I had a few days off because I have light duty on the following episode," Emerson said. "My wife and I try to get together every six months, whether we need it or not."
In a flashback sequence in Lost's third season, Emerson's wife Carrie Preston actually played the mother of a young Ben, making for a rather weird family circle.
Speaking of family, Emerson said simply being away from his clan has been his hardest adjustment since joining Lost in Season No. 2. Ben's role initially was a minor one, and Emerson thought he would be back on the New York theatre scene within a few weeks, but the audience's reaction obviously changed that.
"I can't remember what I was doing the day Lost called -- I should have written it down," Emerson said.
"The biggest change has just been the logistics of my life, working in the middle of the Pacific. Relatives and loved ones are growing old and changing without me being present. And I can't wait to get back to the stage.
"But one can't complain too much about having as high a visibility as I have, with a character as rich and rewarding as Ben. I do have the best of both worlds."
But Emerson, who plays the enigmatic and duplicitous Ben Linus on Lost, has a theory about what makes a good villain.
"I think a good villain is a person who makes the audience question their own values," Emerson said.
"The audience feels a little complicit, or has a little bit of that guilty feeling of, 'I know he's terrible, but I really like being with him.' "
So you're sayin' it's our fault? We're responsible for Ben's chicanery?
Emerson isn't going that far. But the notion of the audience being "in on it" goes back a long way.
"That's something I picked up in the playing of Shakespeare," said the 54-year-old Iowa native, who has an extensive theatre background.
"The reason Iago was such a successful villain in Othello is because he's the most charming man in the play. We like him, and the fact that he stands there and talks to us face-to-face and tells us everything he's going to do, it makes us accomplices."
Ben has a smarmy charm to him, although he certainly hasn't told the other characters on Lost -- let alone fans of the show -- what his ultimate goals are.
"One of the reasons they've settled on me for this part is I don't look like an imposing or dangerous person," Emerson said. "They like that tension between the mild exterior and the hidden agenda.
"But I think sometimes Ben's plan is chugging along so much the way he expects it, that it's not even exciting to him. He's just waiting for the next thing to fall into place. And it drives audiences crazy."
Lost, which airs Wednesdays (A, ABC) and tells the story of airplane-crash survivors on a mysterious island, occasionally has driven its fans crazy during the four-and-a-half-year run of the show. But with an end date having been set -- Lost will wrap up at the conclusion of its sixth season next year -- the story has been chugging along nicely in season No. 5.
"There's a lot of fireworks up their sleeve," Emerson said. "The stuff, to me, that's really hair-raising is yet to come this season."
As we spoke with Emerson last week, he was in California, taking advantage of a rare opportunity "to be in the same state as my wife," as he put it.
Lost films in Hawaii.
"I just finished filming a big all-Ben episode and I had a few days off because I have light duty on the following episode," Emerson said. "My wife and I try to get together every six months, whether we need it or not."
In a flashback sequence in Lost's third season, Emerson's wife Carrie Preston actually played the mother of a young Ben, making for a rather weird family circle.
Speaking of family, Emerson said simply being away from his clan has been his hardest adjustment since joining Lost in Season No. 2. Ben's role initially was a minor one, and Emerson thought he would be back on the New York theatre scene within a few weeks, but the audience's reaction obviously changed that.
"I can't remember what I was doing the day Lost called -- I should have written it down," Emerson said.
"The biggest change has just been the logistics of my life, working in the middle of the Pacific. Relatives and loved ones are growing old and changing without me being present. And I can't wait to get back to the stage.
"But one can't complain too much about having as high a visibility as I have, with a character as rich and rewarding as Ben. I do have the best of both worlds."
