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spicedogsTHE Q&A: INTERVIEW: MICHAEL EMERSON
Maybe he's not so evil after all
rmvaughan@globeandmail.com
February 1, 2008
At the risk of losing all my pop-culture credibility, I have to admit I didn't really become interested in Lost until the hit TV show was already on everybody else's must-watch list.
The problem for me was that the actors were all too much alike. Long-Haired Hunk sometimes yelled at Short-Haired Hunk. Pretty Blond Lady took turns staring off into space with Pretty Dark-Haired Lady, while Bald Daddy competed with Korean Daddy (and the palm trees) for most wooden screen presence. The only actor on Lost who intrigued me was Jorge Garcia, the first large actor on American television not to be cast as a buffoon or a gluttonous cretin.
Then came Michael Emerson, the Broadway-trained veteran who plays Ben Linus, the leader of the evil (or are they?) The Others. With a skillful mixture of menace and glee - imagine Peter Lorre crossed with Gene Wilder - Emerson gives the opaque stoner fantasy the real-world grit it needs to keep from sliding into Twin Peaks-style meta-television solipsism. If only he would spill some Season 4 plot scoops, I would be king of the Lost nation.
I broke my rabbit ears and am a bit behind in my Lost watching. Catch me up.
Well, let's see, how did it end? It ended on a note of confusion and complication.
Oh, how surprising!
Everyone's lives are upset, both camps have had to leave their comfort zone, no one has a place to be any more, everyone's on foot, like refugees, and new alliances are being forged. And, there is a new, even more dangerous threat from the outside, from a third group.
Your character has more than one identity, yes?
Certainly that's the way the character was introduced in Season 2, but at this point we're kind of clear about who Ben is, but we're not so certain about what his mission is. But I think when the day comes when that mission is revealed, we're going to feel more favourably toward Ben.
Do you get scripts in advance?
There's not really a corporate effort to keep scripts secret. I think the deal with Lost is that the scripts aren't finished until we're ready to shoot. So, we're never more than one script ahead.
Is that hard as an actor, to not have a clear idea of the character's intentions?
Before I worked on Lost, I would have said yes, because you wouldn't have a chance to consider your backstory, the subtexts - but I find it's kind of freeing. I just stay nicely focused on the scene at hand. It seems to serve my performance fairly well.
Critics started wondering after Season 2 if Lost was getting so convoluted that it would lose its audience.
I remember there being talk about that. For my money, it was never true. I understand with shows that break out hot, like Lost did, that there's bound to be some attrition, but I think that those people who hung in have discovered that the show is darker and more compelling than it ever was.
American TV appears to be dividing into two distinct streams: smart scripted dramas, like Lost, and very dumb game shows.
I expect there is some middle ground in the programming, but there is a rash of smart writing going on in American TV. People tell me they are watching TV now with more relish than movies. That gap, between our sort of gladiatorial reality programming and our scripted programming, seems to be widening. I honestly can't account for it. The industry follows the public taste. Maybe it has always been this way. I'm sure people made the same observation in the days of Barnum. But it does show a sort of schism in the American psyche.
You've done a lot of
Law & Order time.
A lot!
Why won't those shows die?
It's really worth analyzing. The mother-ship show is in, what, its 19th season? And you look at it and you think, gee, sometimes the writing is great and sometimes not so great, and characters and performances fluctuate. ... I can only think there's a sort of comforting and predictable rhythm to that show, it has a magic formula. Although Americans like a little suspense and surprise, we are a comfort-loving people, and that show is a sort of machine.
You were in The Legend
of Zero.
Zorro.
I meant to say that.
That's an apt malapropism! It's not a very good movie.
Who spent more time on their hair, Antonio Banderas or
Catherine Zeta-Jones?
They both had a lot of fixin' going on! She was exquisitely made up, with old-school lighting, these special dazzlers on her eyes. It was interesting to watch the manufacturing of glamour, the technical aspect.
So, you're not going to tell me?
No.
When you were nominated for a Teen Choice Award, did you feel like Britney?
I don't think I knew this! Did I win?
You don't know? Where's your agent?
Ha! When he gets a working telephone, he'll be in touch with you immediately!
*****
Particulars
BORN
Sept. 7, 1954, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
A CROOKED LINE
After studying art and theatre at Iowa's Drake University and moving to New York in the late seventies, Emerson found work as an illustrator, with clients including The New York Times.
ANOTHER START
Already in his late 30s, Emerson returned to school in 1993 for an MFA program in acting through the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. From there, he built a successful career on Broadway - doing Molière with Uma Thurman and O'Neill with Kevin Spacey - and then TV.
PAGING DR. FREUD
Emerson's wife of nine years, actress Carrie Preston, has also appeared on Lost ... as his character's mother.
SOURCE: Globeandmail.com
