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(#16 - VOICE: 15:00)
Tell me about the
character that you play on Persons Unknown.
I play Sergeant Graham McNair – a marine – who is fighting in Iraq when he gets kidnapped. I
think the most interesting thing that you’ll see about him is that initially… in the first few episodes…
is that he is Muslim. And I think that his training and discipline kind of – they create a weird
dynamic for him – they create a lot of boundaries for him to get over.
The
town that we actually see on the show; was that an actual town or a set?
It is neither… [laughs]
I mean, it’s not a real town – where people have lived before, but they did find a site – it’s not
in an actual studio if that’s what you are asking. They built it about two-thousand feet above sea
level, so we are above the mountains outside of Mexico City. Some of the scenes were shot in or around
Mexico City. It’s not on an actual lot though.
What was it like on location?
It was very cold, man… [laughs] it was very cold. You know, I think because
you’re a little higher up – like when the sun is out… it’s really beaming on you, but as soon as
the sun goes down… it is extremely cold. Those conditions were very challenging. There’s
also a lot of action stuff, and when you are two-thousand feet above sea level – so your breath is not what it would
be if you were at sea level. So it took a lot in terms of getting used to that. But
Mexico City as a whole, it was mind-boggling to me how great the city was.
While doing research for the series I found out that Persons Unknown was originally supposed to be a series for FX; do you
know whey they decided to turn it into a mini-series on NBC?
To be honest, I don’t know about the politics or the money situation. I’m
assuming that there is a chance that it will continue on NBC; I think they’ll see that it is a viable show.
It’s funny, when I was watching it – it was new to me. It’s hard to remember everything
that happened.
As of right now, after seeing the first episode last week – we don’t
know much about each character. How does character development get introduced on the show?
Will it be through flashbacks or stories being told as the show progresses?
You’re trying to
get me to tell you everything… [laughs] but I’ll just stay technical. There are flashbacks,
but it’s not as heavy as I think LOST was. In LOST the flashback element was a
major part of the show – I feel like in this it is more through what items are being brought into play from the past
– and that’s really all I can say. [laughs] And also from other characters
coming in.
When it comes down to the full story; was the cast kept in the dark during filming?
Yes,
especially at first. We got one script at a time – you may get episode two when you’re almost
done with one, and it depended on who you were. There are certain things that some people need to know
that other people don’t need to know. I think they were very specific about who needed to know something
about episode five or episode one. And a lot of times you wouldn’t necessarily get the whole script,
you would just get a part of it. There were times actually when we were getting – there was one episode,
and I won’t name it, where we actually got pages during the week.
Was that hard on you as an actor?
I think it was an interesting experiment because on one hand – I think
there’s some things that we may have done that they didn’t put in the script. So we helped
them as well – maybe they didn’t know if two characters would connect or not. I think that
happened, and I also feel like there were moments where you wanted to know more, but because you didn’t know more…
it made you make a different choice. I think, in this instance, it was better to not know.
Without giving anything away, did you have any ideas on what was happening?
I’m
scared to say. [laughs] I feel if I say something – then someone is going to show up behind me and
kidnap me for real. [laughs]
In the weeks to come, what can we expect to see in your character?
You
can expect to see a little bit of a flashback – you’ll see me in the war. I don’t know
if I should say any more than that though. Big brother is watching. [laughs]
Being so isolated like that as a cast – did you guys bond pretty well?
We
did. In some ways, being in Mexico City – I think there was really one person who was fluent in Spanish.
So you’re there, a group of English speaking people – and we were all fish out of water. We
needed a certain family or friendship that we may not have needed if we shot in L.A. or anywhere in the states.
I do think that became – we didn’t know anything about each other during the first episode, and so we really
were strangers. By the time we got to the end – we spent about six months together.
What did you guys do on set while not filming?
We did a little bit of everything.
Mexico City has – there are a lot of different areas in Mexico City that are very much like Chicago or New York
– we spent a lot of time seeing what these places were like. We went to a lot of places, and we did
a lot of things – we took a lot of trips together. If you had two days off – you either rested
because of working long hours or you went somewhere.
What else
are you currently working on?
Right now, I’ve written two scripts – one is sort of a big movie
film that I’m looking for money – you can put that in the interview if you want. [laughs] And
the other is an independent film – and I’ll be shooting that before the end of the year. And
I’m directing a play as well. That’s what I’m doing right now. I’m
just doing the things that I love to do.
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