Thanks to DocArzt for the following interview with Michael Emerson.
Michael Emerson has surprised and captivated everyone with his portrayal of the Notorious Ben Linus on ABC’s Lost. First as his nebulous and sinister alter ego Henry Gale, then as the dapper leader of “The Others.” Despite his extensive stage and screen credits, Emerson’s Ben is probably his most recognizable role, earning him an Emmy Nomination opposite co-start Terry O’Quinn last year. Emerson joined me for a two part interview this week. The second part, oozing with Lost Season 4 secrets, will be published when Lost returns in February.
Hey Michael. First of all, are you still over in Hawaii?
No, we shut down production in thanksgiving time so I’m back in New York City enjoying a sort of enforced long holiday break. We usually break after the first of the year. Despite the ‘dire’ circumstances it is nice to be in New York City this time of year, I have been missing it the last couple of seasons.
Quite different from Hawaii though…
Yes, it is. The weather is so agreeable, and the people of Hawaii are probably the most hospitable people in the world. Still it’s a long ways from home, a long way from loved ones and from the world of the theatre, which is really where my heart is.
Are you looking at doing any theater again in the near future?
No, no. I can’t do any work outside of Lost for the near future. Although it did, at one point, with Lost doing shorter seasons it looked like the summer breaks would be long enough to actually do something on stage. But now, with the strike it’s all up in the air. I’m hoping there’s a chance to do some stage work this coming summer.
The “Lost Missing Pieces” are out now, and they are impressive. They ‘look’ like full out productions. Are they at the same level of production detail?
The only difference is the medium it is shot on. Those are full blown shoots, I mean it is a full crew costume, hair, and wardrobe. I have to say the writing has been really strong, in the mobisodes. The ones I worked on, I thought they were delicious.
Yeah, “King of the Castle” was highly symbolic, with the chess game and the fact that Ben was always one move ahead, apparently, and it reflected into their conversation as well…
Yeah, it’s more than just a feeling of it being an out-take, or a deleted scene, or a lost scene. The shortness of it and the sort of peripherality to the major story line allows them to sort of play around with them, and make them even more metaphorical than the show already is.
I have to ask you, I got the Blu Ray of Lost Season 3 this week. Are you experiencing any of that anxiety that televisions actors report about being seen in 1080p for the first time?
[Laughter] See, I’m so not up on technological things that I don’t even know what this is. But no, I don’t worry about greater or lesser definition. [Laughter]
The Blu Ray really brings out the beauty of the natural locations.
I’ll have to see that. I have like a ten year old television, and that’s what I watch Lost on, when I go into an electronics store and see clips on these big screen hi-def TV’s I’m just in awe. What better show for that technology than Lost? I don’t think there is a show that rivals us in terms of location shooting. It’s one of the un-remarked miracles of this show and that is the amount of location work we do in jungles, at night, with the sun, and the insects.
There is some talk that Lost may be forced to end on Episode 8 for the fourth season, and some questions of how that may effect the audiences sense of frustration with the story.
Well, yeah, that would be a shame. I can see from what we have done already that they are going in some really interesting new directions. I made a mental note to myself that the ending of episode 8 is a pretty great cliff-hanger. If the show had to go away for an extended period of time, it wouldn’t be a bad way to go. It’s a shocking and exciting development in the program.
Ben always seems a step ahead, and all indications are that the new threat coming to the island is a universal one. Could we be seeing Ben taking a heroic turn this season?
That’s what I’ve always expected would be the long arc of this character. It fits in with the way these writers use misdirection and play with our value system of good and evil. So it wouldn’t surprise me at the very least for them to make us question how we evaluate Ben on an ongoing basis. Just when we think he is the Antichrist, then they’re going to do something to make us say “oh, maybe I was wrong.”
Source: TV Blog
