Post by bobdoc on May 13, 2009 9:09:44 GMT -4
First, his teasers for TV Guide at www.tvguide.com/News/Lost-Finale-Emerson-1006009.aspx
Then this one at 411 Mania from www.411mania.com/movies/columns/104336
The pieces are being moved into place as ABC's Lost tees up its two-hour season finale (Wednesday, starting at 9 pm/ET). While Jack and Sayid pal around with Jughead and submariner Sawyer and his ladies somehow manage an about-face, Ben has been left to join Locke on a journey to meet — and perhaps kill — the mysterious and mighty Jacob.
Michael Emerson, who previously has described the season-ender as "explosive," shared a cryptic look at what exactly it beholds.
TVGuide.com: We have two hours left in the season. Is it going to take Locke, Ben and Richard 119 minutes to get to Jacob?
Michael Emerson: It's going to take a while. I mean, we've been making our way to Jacob for a long, long time. I think we can last a little bit longer.
TVGuide.com: Is it safe to say we will meet him in this finale?
Emerson: Jacob is certainly a character in the final two episodes. [An ABC spokesperson interjects to say, "We can neither confirm nor deny that Jacob will be in the season finale."] There seems to be a suggestion that we're moving in that direction, but what Jacob might be or how he might be revealed, if he ever is, is one of the juicy surprises of future Lost work.
TVGuide.com: Might Ben and Richard try to stage a coup to overthrow Locke?
Emerson: Ben and Richard have always seemed to me to have a somewhat fraught and edgy relationship. I don't think Ben is in a position right now to make aggressive alliances with anybody. Ben is doing well at this point to put one foot in front of the other.
TVGuide.com: But what about "My enemy's enemy is my friend"?
Emerson: Well, there's something to be said for that, and that is a philosophy that Ben has put to good use in the past. But Ben seems to be in as low a place as I have ever seen him. He seems to be shaken and no longer the general that he used to be. He is in fact no longer possibly the chess player that he used to be.
TVGuide.com: To add in yet another metaphor, are you saying he has run out of aces up his sleeve?
Emerson: That may be the case. But he isn't completely out of cards yet. No matter how whipped he is, he continues to be alert to the possibilities of every situation.
TVGuide.com: I was surprised — and I am curious if you were, too — to learn that Jacob can be killed. Or at least Locke believes he can.
Emerson: That was such an interesting statement for John Locke to make. Based on everything I ever knew about Jacob, it seems a sort of unlikely thing to say.
TVGuide.com: Right, this is Jacob we're talking about!
Emerson: Yeah — Jacob seems to be somebody that has gotten along fine for a long, long time, and seems to be impervious to the frailties of the flesh.
TVGuide.com: Ben is asked to make a sacrifice in the season finale. What can you tease about that?
Emerson: Ben has sacrificed his leadership and authority [to Locke], but he's also going to be asked to serve someone else's interests, not his own.
TVGuide.com: In your mind, if Jack were to detonate Jughead and thus keep 815 from crashing, what then? What moment immediately follows that instant? Do we cut to a plane full of mild-mannered people?
Emerson: I think it cannot be that simple, if that were a thing that happened. We're wrestling with these ideas of what can be changed with time travel and what cannot be changed. I don't thing a thing lived can be unlived. In one of the recent episodes, someone alluded to the idea that whether it's past, present or future, it is your life in the order it happens to you. I don't think anything done can be undone. This is an issue the writers and we the actors are wrestling with, and I don't have a good answer. Jack seems to be saying that he can erase the events of the last five seasons ... but I think that's unlikely.
TVGuide.com: Will you be back next season?
Emerson: Well, nothing that happens in the finale suggested to me that Ben's work was done. But like everyone else, he is vulnerable to accidents ... or injury. I'm hopeful that I will be among the actors who appear in Episode 601, but nothing is written in stone at Lost.
Well, nothing except some ancient hieroglyphics.
Michael Emerson, who previously has described the season-ender as "explosive," shared a cryptic look at what exactly it beholds.
TVGuide.com: We have two hours left in the season. Is it going to take Locke, Ben and Richard 119 minutes to get to Jacob?
Michael Emerson: It's going to take a while. I mean, we've been making our way to Jacob for a long, long time. I think we can last a little bit longer.
TVGuide.com: Is it safe to say we will meet him in this finale?
Emerson: Jacob is certainly a character in the final two episodes. [An ABC spokesperson interjects to say, "We can neither confirm nor deny that Jacob will be in the season finale."] There seems to be a suggestion that we're moving in that direction, but what Jacob might be or how he might be revealed, if he ever is, is one of the juicy surprises of future Lost work.
TVGuide.com: Might Ben and Richard try to stage a coup to overthrow Locke?
Emerson: Ben and Richard have always seemed to me to have a somewhat fraught and edgy relationship. I don't think Ben is in a position right now to make aggressive alliances with anybody. Ben is doing well at this point to put one foot in front of the other.
TVGuide.com: But what about "My enemy's enemy is my friend"?
Emerson: Well, there's something to be said for that, and that is a philosophy that Ben has put to good use in the past. But Ben seems to be in as low a place as I have ever seen him. He seems to be shaken and no longer the general that he used to be. He is in fact no longer possibly the chess player that he used to be.
TVGuide.com: To add in yet another metaphor, are you saying he has run out of aces up his sleeve?
Emerson: That may be the case. But he isn't completely out of cards yet. No matter how whipped he is, he continues to be alert to the possibilities of every situation.
TVGuide.com: I was surprised — and I am curious if you were, too — to learn that Jacob can be killed. Or at least Locke believes he can.
Emerson: That was such an interesting statement for John Locke to make. Based on everything I ever knew about Jacob, it seems a sort of unlikely thing to say.
TVGuide.com: Right, this is Jacob we're talking about!
Emerson: Yeah — Jacob seems to be somebody that has gotten along fine for a long, long time, and seems to be impervious to the frailties of the flesh.
TVGuide.com: Ben is asked to make a sacrifice in the season finale. What can you tease about that?
Emerson: Ben has sacrificed his leadership and authority [to Locke], but he's also going to be asked to serve someone else's interests, not his own.
TVGuide.com: In your mind, if Jack were to detonate Jughead and thus keep 815 from crashing, what then? What moment immediately follows that instant? Do we cut to a plane full of mild-mannered people?
Emerson: I think it cannot be that simple, if that were a thing that happened. We're wrestling with these ideas of what can be changed with time travel and what cannot be changed. I don't thing a thing lived can be unlived. In one of the recent episodes, someone alluded to the idea that whether it's past, present or future, it is your life in the order it happens to you. I don't think anything done can be undone. This is an issue the writers and we the actors are wrestling with, and I don't have a good answer. Jack seems to be saying that he can erase the events of the last five seasons ... but I think that's unlikely.
TVGuide.com: Will you be back next season?
Emerson: Well, nothing that happens in the finale suggested to me that Ben's work was done. But like everyone else, he is vulnerable to accidents ... or injury. I'm hopeful that I will be among the actors who appear in Episode 601, but nothing is written in stone at Lost.
Well, nothing except some ancient hieroglyphics.
Then this one at 411 Mania from www.411mania.com/movies/columns/104336
Michael Emerson has been nominated for two Emmys for his portrayal of Benjamin Linus on the ABC series Lost. He is an accomplished stage actor who previously won an Emmy for his role as serial killer William Hinks on The Practice.
Al Norton: Good afternoon. I appreciate getting the time with you.
Michael Emerson: You get the award for the best name blog of the day! It's fabulous.
Al Norton: Thank you very much. I only get you for five minutes so I'm going to jump right in here…Since Ben is a character who thrives on being steps ahead of everyone, has it been more fun to play him this season since he is frequently behind?
Michael Emerson: He's very much behind now, isn't he? He doesn't even lead the march. He's sort of bringing up the rear these days. It's sort of sad, he's been sort of stripped of his tools and resources and I can only assume he's meditating on some recent traumatic experiences and trying to figure out what his relationship is with the new John Locke.
Al Norton: When you read the scripts do you find yourself trying to figure out if Ben is telling the truth or lying in certain scenes, and does that effect how you play him?
Michael Emerson: When I first came on the show I used to think about truth and lies; I don't even think about it anymore, I just think about delivery. I assume that the business of whether I'm lying or not is my business as an actor, that's a judgment call for audiences and writers (laughing). I like that it's so simply now; I just play it straight.
Al Norton: You mention playing it straight; this season Ben's had more than his share of lines that have generated much laughter. The "I'm not that easy a person to like" line with Hugo, when he stops the car to yell…Obviously you are playing it straight but it must be fun to know people will be laughing.
Michael Emerson: I enjoy it and Ben has always truck me as a kind of droll character. They haven't always let all the drollery met the final cut but Ben is dry, he has a sense of humor, and I'm glad that it shows a little more. I sometimes think if we looked at the show just somewhat differently we would think of Ben as a comic character.
Al Norton: The time travel storyline this season has been polarizing for many fans. What did you think when you read the scripts and how do you think it's come off on screen?
Michael Emerson: I think I thought like everybody else, I thought, "how do we make sense of this?" It's an awful lot to follow. When we were jumping all the time, that was tricky and it demanded a lot of attention and possible rewinding. I thought it played better when it aired than it did when I read the script. I thought they did a really good job of making sense of it, of making it logical. Our show is meant to be challenging. I do a lot of rewinding and I am on it (laughing).
Al Norton: Have you ever given any thought to what you think Ben would have been like if he'd grown up off the island, in a more traditional household?
Michael Emerson: I know people probably have a fond notion that Ben would have been a better person, a more normal person, but I'm going to go the opposite and say Ben's extraordinary circumstances have kept him from being a monster. Ben is actually a better man for the strange upbringing than had he lived otherwise. He might have been too smart and too cold to be a successful person.
Al Norton: Actors dream of getting a part like this but is there a worry that if you get too closely associated with Ben than all the parts you get offered will simply be spins off of him?
Michael Emerson: Well, most of the offers are going to be spins off of him, for a while, and part of my job is to be judicious about the work I do next. Every time you play a character successfully, they are going to want to pigeon hole you. You can't have a career avoiding identification with a role because those are your successes. You just hope you get to do it more than once.
Al Norton: I assume after you finished The Practice you got offers that were very similar to William Hinks.
Michael Emerson: I did, and I think The Practice indirectly led to my being on Lost. The two of them are at least in the same temperature zone (laughing).
Al Norton: Did I read somewhere that you'd love to join your wife (actress Carrie Preston) and appear on an episode of True Blood?
Michael Emerson: That would be so much fun but I don't know what kind of character I would play. I think it's a cool show and I really like Alan Ball and his writing. If I had an opportunity to do something on that show it would be fine. It would be nice if it wasn't something that was too Ben-like. I don't want to play the mysterious leader of the shape shifters. I would rather be a strange comic character or something odd, a character who doesn't talk. Something really out there would be fun.
Al Norton: What can you tell me about the finale? Will the audience have a better feel for how the final season will play out, or at least where and when the final season will play out, by the end of the two hours?
Michael Emerson: I think the opposite, I think the audience is going to be left with their jaws on the floor saying, "how can there even be a sixth season?" I think what, and where, and when the sixth season even takes place will be up in the air.
Al Norton: Good afternoon. I appreciate getting the time with you.
Michael Emerson: You get the award for the best name blog of the day! It's fabulous.
Al Norton: Thank you very much. I only get you for five minutes so I'm going to jump right in here…Since Ben is a character who thrives on being steps ahead of everyone, has it been more fun to play him this season since he is frequently behind?
Michael Emerson: He's very much behind now, isn't he? He doesn't even lead the march. He's sort of bringing up the rear these days. It's sort of sad, he's been sort of stripped of his tools and resources and I can only assume he's meditating on some recent traumatic experiences and trying to figure out what his relationship is with the new John Locke.
Al Norton: When you read the scripts do you find yourself trying to figure out if Ben is telling the truth or lying in certain scenes, and does that effect how you play him?
Michael Emerson: When I first came on the show I used to think about truth and lies; I don't even think about it anymore, I just think about delivery. I assume that the business of whether I'm lying or not is my business as an actor, that's a judgment call for audiences and writers (laughing). I like that it's so simply now; I just play it straight.
Al Norton: You mention playing it straight; this season Ben's had more than his share of lines that have generated much laughter. The "I'm not that easy a person to like" line with Hugo, when he stops the car to yell…Obviously you are playing it straight but it must be fun to know people will be laughing.
Michael Emerson: I enjoy it and Ben has always truck me as a kind of droll character. They haven't always let all the drollery met the final cut but Ben is dry, he has a sense of humor, and I'm glad that it shows a little more. I sometimes think if we looked at the show just somewhat differently we would think of Ben as a comic character.
Al Norton: The time travel storyline this season has been polarizing for many fans. What did you think when you read the scripts and how do you think it's come off on screen?
Michael Emerson: I think I thought like everybody else, I thought, "how do we make sense of this?" It's an awful lot to follow. When we were jumping all the time, that was tricky and it demanded a lot of attention and possible rewinding. I thought it played better when it aired than it did when I read the script. I thought they did a really good job of making sense of it, of making it logical. Our show is meant to be challenging. I do a lot of rewinding and I am on it (laughing).
Al Norton: Have you ever given any thought to what you think Ben would have been like if he'd grown up off the island, in a more traditional household?
Michael Emerson: I know people probably have a fond notion that Ben would have been a better person, a more normal person, but I'm going to go the opposite and say Ben's extraordinary circumstances have kept him from being a monster. Ben is actually a better man for the strange upbringing than had he lived otherwise. He might have been too smart and too cold to be a successful person.
Al Norton: Actors dream of getting a part like this but is there a worry that if you get too closely associated with Ben than all the parts you get offered will simply be spins off of him?
Michael Emerson: Well, most of the offers are going to be spins off of him, for a while, and part of my job is to be judicious about the work I do next. Every time you play a character successfully, they are going to want to pigeon hole you. You can't have a career avoiding identification with a role because those are your successes. You just hope you get to do it more than once.
Al Norton: I assume after you finished The Practice you got offers that were very similar to William Hinks.
Michael Emerson: I did, and I think The Practice indirectly led to my being on Lost. The two of them are at least in the same temperature zone (laughing).
Al Norton: Did I read somewhere that you'd love to join your wife (actress Carrie Preston) and appear on an episode of True Blood?
Michael Emerson: That would be so much fun but I don't know what kind of character I would play. I think it's a cool show and I really like Alan Ball and his writing. If I had an opportunity to do something on that show it would be fine. It would be nice if it wasn't something that was too Ben-like. I don't want to play the mysterious leader of the shape shifters. I would rather be a strange comic character or something odd, a character who doesn't talk. Something really out there would be fun.
Al Norton: What can you tell me about the finale? Will the audience have a better feel for how the final season will play out, or at least where and when the final season will play out, by the end of the two hours?
Michael Emerson: I think the opposite, I think the audience is going to be left with their jaws on the floor saying, "how can there even be a sixth season?" I think what, and where, and when the sixth season even takes place will be up in the air.
