Post by bobdoc on Feb 2, 2010 9:34:34 GMT -4
Michael also gave an interview in his former residence of Jacksonville, at jacksonville.com/entertainment/tv/2010-02-02/story/tv_tonight_former_jacksonville_actor_michael_emerson_enjoys_being_
Don't ask "Lost" star Michael Emerson how the show will end: It's not so much that he doesn't want to tell you as that he can't.
" 'Lost' never goes the way I think it's going to go," Emerson says. "I work on the show, and I'm one of the world's worst predictors of what's going to happen next."
Emerson, who is shooting his final episodes as Benjamin Linus, the malevolent leader of the Others, doesn't know all that much about the man he portrays, either, even if he has won an Emmy for the role.
"I don't know what [Ben's] mission is. Maybe his mission is something fantastically important and essential to the survival of mankind," he says. "I have ideas about his psychology. I think like most people, whether they're villains or not, he thinks that he's doing the right thing, that he's doing good work."
The show's final season premieres tonight, and fans are both anticipating and dreading the conclusion of the twisty tale of plane-crash survivors stranded on a supernatural island. A recap show airs at 8 p.m. on ABC, followed by the two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m.
For Emerson, the show's end has an upside.
"I look forward to ... being able to be in the same place as Carrie, my wife, without having to make huge logistical plans. As it is, New York is home, she works in L.A., I work in Honolulu, and we are doing a lot of flying back and forth just to have some shred of a normal marriage."
"Carrie" is Carrie Preston, the actress who plays redheaded waitress Arlene on HBO's "True Blood." She also appeared in a "Lost" episode in Season 3, playing Benjamin's mother. The couple met when Emerson was a graduate student at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Preston flew in to play Ophelia in Hamlet.
Emerson studied acting at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival after spending seven years in Jacksonville, where he performed at Theatre Jacksonville and Players-by-the-Sea and taught at Flagler College. From Alabama, he headed to New York and eventually landed roles off and on Broadway. That, in turn, led to work in television and film.
Benjamin Linus, he knows, is the role of a lifetime. And that makes him OK with the fact that the words "creepy" and "Michael Emerson" often appear in the same sentence.
"[Ben] makes people uneasy, and always has, and that's a fun thing to play. It's always good to play a character who's mysterious and whose motives are unknown, or unknowable or vague."
Emerson speaks slowly, searching for just the right words. And when he talks about the downsides of life on "Lost" - such as the extra hours he has to spend in the makeup chair in order to play the man he calls "the most beaten character in television history" - he is always quick to add that he's lucky to have such problems.
He is leaving "Lost" with incredible memories.
"I will never forget the day we shot the hanging of John Locke," he says. "It's one of the most powerful days of my working life, those scenes where Ben Linus talks him down and then strangles him. That's a pretty good scene in the broadcast, but the day we shot it was unforgettable.
"And there are other days like that. I'll never forget the day that Sawyer and Ben stood on the edge of the cliff at Makapuu here in Oahu and looked out at sea at another island and quoted from Steinback's 'Of Mice and Men.' That was a great mixture of unbelievable scenery and literature and a great character relationship all sort of blended into one."
But when "Lost" ends, you'll likely see Emerson return to his first love: theater.
"I'm looking forward to having my life in the theater back. I don't just mean doing plays. I mean going to plays, or being involved in readings, or being able to audition for things or do voice-overs or have the chance to do an audio book - all those things that used to be part the day-to-day fabric of my acting life."
Again, he adds with a laugh, he is not complaining.
"Boohoo - everybody should have the problem of working in the middle of the Pacific on a hit series."
" 'Lost' never goes the way I think it's going to go," Emerson says. "I work on the show, and I'm one of the world's worst predictors of what's going to happen next."
Emerson, who is shooting his final episodes as Benjamin Linus, the malevolent leader of the Others, doesn't know all that much about the man he portrays, either, even if he has won an Emmy for the role.
"I don't know what [Ben's] mission is. Maybe his mission is something fantastically important and essential to the survival of mankind," he says. "I have ideas about his psychology. I think like most people, whether they're villains or not, he thinks that he's doing the right thing, that he's doing good work."
The show's final season premieres tonight, and fans are both anticipating and dreading the conclusion of the twisty tale of plane-crash survivors stranded on a supernatural island. A recap show airs at 8 p.m. on ABC, followed by the two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m.
For Emerson, the show's end has an upside.
"I look forward to ... being able to be in the same place as Carrie, my wife, without having to make huge logistical plans. As it is, New York is home, she works in L.A., I work in Honolulu, and we are doing a lot of flying back and forth just to have some shred of a normal marriage."
"Carrie" is Carrie Preston, the actress who plays redheaded waitress Arlene on HBO's "True Blood." She also appeared in a "Lost" episode in Season 3, playing Benjamin's mother. The couple met when Emerson was a graduate student at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Preston flew in to play Ophelia in Hamlet.
Emerson studied acting at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival after spending seven years in Jacksonville, where he performed at Theatre Jacksonville and Players-by-the-Sea and taught at Flagler College. From Alabama, he headed to New York and eventually landed roles off and on Broadway. That, in turn, led to work in television and film.
Benjamin Linus, he knows, is the role of a lifetime. And that makes him OK with the fact that the words "creepy" and "Michael Emerson" often appear in the same sentence.
"[Ben] makes people uneasy, and always has, and that's a fun thing to play. It's always good to play a character who's mysterious and whose motives are unknown, or unknowable or vague."
Emerson speaks slowly, searching for just the right words. And when he talks about the downsides of life on "Lost" - such as the extra hours he has to spend in the makeup chair in order to play the man he calls "the most beaten character in television history" - he is always quick to add that he's lucky to have such problems.
He is leaving "Lost" with incredible memories.
"I will never forget the day we shot the hanging of John Locke," he says. "It's one of the most powerful days of my working life, those scenes where Ben Linus talks him down and then strangles him. That's a pretty good scene in the broadcast, but the day we shot it was unforgettable.
"And there are other days like that. I'll never forget the day that Sawyer and Ben stood on the edge of the cliff at Makapuu here in Oahu and looked out at sea at another island and quoted from Steinback's 'Of Mice and Men.' That was a great mixture of unbelievable scenery and literature and a great character relationship all sort of blended into one."
But when "Lost" ends, you'll likely see Emerson return to his first love: theater.
"I'm looking forward to having my life in the theater back. I don't just mean doing plays. I mean going to plays, or being involved in readings, or being able to audition for things or do voice-overs or have the chance to do an audio book - all those things that used to be part the day-to-day fabric of my acting life."
Again, he adds with a laugh, he is not complaining.
"Boohoo - everybody should have the problem of working in the middle of the Pacific on a hit series."