Thanks to TomIfor the heads up. And here starts the annual Michael Emerson 5 Million interviews :). Not that I'm complaining as I don't think he's ever done a bad Interview.
With season five of "Lost" just around the corner, I had chance to catch up with Michael Emerson who plays Benjamin Linus as the clock ticks down to the premiere.
Q: Last time we talked you professed your hope to get back to the stage. Have you had the opportunity to do any theater recently?
I haven't because of scheduling. I'm beginning to think that there will be no stage work for me until Lost is over. We have such a narrow summer break. We have three months but it's a very particular three months. I have a certain amount of visibility now so if they are gonna put me in a play it will probably be a substantial part which will entail a longer commitment. So I'll just have to settle for drips and drabs of things I guess until then.
Q: When you get the opportunity to act on stage now is it work or a chance to recharge your batteries?
It's exciting you get back to that more primal anxiety of a live performance. No rewind, no outtakes. And it's far more rewarding. When you get the emotion on the spot like that, there is no feeling like it.
Q: You told me that before last season's finale, three endings where shot for the final scene. What was your first reaction when you realized it was Locke in the coffin?
I said, "Yes. Of course it has to be that." The writers have an instinct to find the highest possible stakes. You say "It can't be John Locke." So the writers think alright let's make it Locke. Lets find out how that works. They constantly meet you and raise you.
Q: In season five we find you right where we left you, over Locke's body standing next to Jack. Do you think Locke is truly dead?
Well, he's dead there. There are many places in the space/time continuum In one place we are one thing. In others we are something else.
Q: Headed to the new season will we get any new clues as to who Ben is and what he wants?
What is his uber-purpose? I think in a year we are gonna have this same convo. The answer to who and what Ben is part of the answer to the whole thing. It will continue to be reconceptualized. Ben's past, his future. I think this is question that will be answered in the last three episodes.
Q: This season, the show has seemed to ditch the straight flash format and has moved on to something else.
I think everything is flash now. Flash forward flash back flash present flash other present. Other time zone other geographical zone. They've done what they do every year which is crank it one more notch in terms of narrative device. Every year they invent a device to tell the story they want to tell. It's chaotic but stimulating.
Q: I read that Sterling Beaumon who plays Young Ben is back this year? Is that true?
I've seen him on the set. We should get a little more back story.
Q: In the first episode of the new season Ben tells Jack to pack anything he wants because he never coming back. What do you get from that?
That's one of those things Ben says that I think we should take at face value. Based on his knowledge, they pasded through some kind of window and wont be able to go back through it.
Q: You've said before that you believe Ben is free floating through time and space. What did you mean?
When these wormholes are passed through, I don't think they are purely temporal. They are temporal and geographical. When Ben pushed the donkey wheel and moved the island, he moved in time and space. His next waking moment he's in his parka in the middle of the Sahara. And that's not only a great distance but he calculated it was like a year and a half later. But I don't think he has any control of that.
Q: With your wife getting a "Lost" role, any chance we'll see you on her new HBO show, "True Blood"?
It's a great show. I hope they show her off a bit more. I don't know. I would love to make an appearance on "True Blood." I would want to be something else though. Maybe a vampire, I dunno. I don't know what there is left to be done.
Q: Any Ben-patented cryptic hints you might be able to throw us about what we can look forward to this season?
It would be safe to say that Ben has not yet lost his capacity to take a licking.
There's more but I don't want to be spoiling anything. I'll give it to you after the premiere.
Source: Three8Six
Michael Emerson - Season 5 Interview
(Comments: 21)
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21 Comments:
I AM GLAD WE GONNA SEE MORE YOUNG BEN. Maybe we will see him contacting with jacob and richard.
I was first time first :-)
is this the E! interview from Kristin? or an older one
is this the E! interview from Kristin?
Sorry I don't follow?
wow, a really nice interview. But i'm a little sad because we don't know for sure that Ben will be in the whole season. The most horrible thing of all is if Michael disappeared for good and instead, the young Ben takes his place. Horrible!
I mean, what if Ben isn't in the show after epi 7,8 or something because he can't return to the Island?!
Please, Dark, do you have any information about Bens future?
They are taking questions right now for an interview that is taking place today with Michael Emerson, didn't know if this was that interview or one from before today
Great questions. I've read in another interview that Emerson said that Ben went forward a year and a half in "The Shape of Things to Come." Am I missing something? Didn't the island move at the end of 2004 and he arrived in Tunisia in October 2005? That's like 10 months.
I noticed the same thing, Jonathan. Perhaps Emerson's script originally stated that he went forward a year and a half?
There might be significance to Emerson saying that he saw young Ben on set. Maybe they both shot scenes on the same set, so maybe Ben has scenes back on the island at some point?
This all but confirms that we will see Young Annie again... ;)
Ben = Annie
so is this or is this not the interview done today with E!online, if not when is it from?
It says at the bottom of the article the source, like every article we post :)
^^ LOOOL
Flash forward flash back flash present flash other present
*needs some paracetamol*
Emerson is such a gracious interviewee. I like to hear his insights. Does Matt Fox ever do interviews? I never read about that.
-The writers put the person at the center when everybody doesn't think about that person - that's what Emerson implies talking about "Locke in the coffin." But isn't that unprofessional to put someone while somebody else is on thought? If it were not to be Sawyer (that has not been thought in the coffin), would he be inside of there?
- "He's dead there." Means that Locke is not dead, just 'literally', although we've seen im in the coffin.
- He talks about the flashes (forward, back, present), but not the transitions like how we move from the present to the past island events...
- And Ben is able to travel in time and space by calculating (consider the deleted scene where he finds his stuff inside of a rock), but he can't even know what happens when he moves, he has no control. Does this mean that he will take O-6 back to the island, but in different time and space? The north place (Emerson mentioned a few interviews before about visiting in season 5) to go back to the island, after he transported onto the desert? Does this have a relationship with the polar bears? Transporting them to the island from the north pole, and then sending them to the desert?
A great season, and a great Ben portrait from Emerson (as I expect!). :)
"It would be safe to say that Ben has not yet lost his capacity to take a licking."
I take it by that he is going to get another good kicking then? wooohoooo!
I need this season to start NOW!!
"It's chaotic but stimulating."
That's so Emerson.
Hurley throws a sandwich at him, Sayid probably beats him up, Kate gives him at least a verbal lashing and Sun probably threatens to shoot him. Sawyer and Jack have both beaten him up in the past and Juliet is either repulsed by him or frightened of him. Which is all setting up nicely for when these characters suddenly realize they're meeting sweet little innocent boy Ben in the past.
reply to P...
Soo wrong...yet so true. It would be pretty badass if it happened but it would hurt continuity wise, if young Ben saw them, why would adult Ben say nothing....yet again Ethan seems to be holding Locke at gunpoint and years later he infiltrates the beach camp only to see him again...younger than when he saw him the first time...
Which is all setting up nicely for when these characters suddenly realize they're meeting sweet little innocent boy Ben in the past.
THAT would be wild! If it were to happen, I would love to hear Sawyer's wise-cracks.