This is an article and interview with Bernard from iFmagazine. Not alot of Lost stuff here, but hey how often do we see an interview with Bernard.
Fans of LOST may be familiar with Sam Anderson as one-half of the island’s true love story between – Bernard Nadler and Rose Henderson (L. Scott Caldwell).
While Rose is sick and given only a short time to live – the island has allowed the couple (who were separated by the plane splitting into on different sides of the island) to finally get back together and SURPRISE – to discover – she is disease-free when on the island.
While this is one of LOST’s happier stories, Anderson gets a chance to go to the dark side with “The Snow Job,” this week’s episode of TNT’s new hit series LEVERAGE airing tonight at 10:00 p.m.
In the episode, Anderson plays a ruthless owner of a construction company who is unlawfully foreclosing on innocent families. Playing the baddie isn’t anything new to Anderson, who, coincidentally enough once worked with LEVERAGE’s co-star Christian Kane on Joss Whedon’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER spin-off ANGEL. Anderson was his boss Holland Manners at the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart – now the table’s are turned on LEVERAGE and the Anderson gives iF the exclusive scoop on his latest role.
iF MAGAZINE: Can you talk a little bit about your character on LEVERAGE?
SAM ANDERSON: I play a ruthless contractor and with my two sons, we go into disaster areas and offer to fix people’s homes, rebuild them, don’t do the work and when the people don’t pay us, we put a lean on their houses and take them. So the Leverage team is contacted by a young family that has just been through this with us and decide that they are going to jump in full force, because we’ve got over 400 homes we’ve managed to take from people. They decide it’s going to be on such a big scale they’re going to try to get all of the houses back. They play a great game of divide and conquer, with me and my two sons. Of course, we’re going to get what’s coming to us.
iF: In many ways, the show is almost wish fulfillment for all the Americans wronged by big and small corporate thieves everywhere.
ANDERSON: In this particular climate, which I hope changed as of last Tuesday, we read all the time of how much corruption there is everywhere. Pick a business. Talk health. Talk real estate. Talk investments. It’s a good thing for LEVERAGE, because they have a million things to draw on and it’s a bad thing for us because we all have to live with this.
iF: Did you have any nods to ANGEL since you were working with Chris Kane again?
ANDERSON: Chris suggested in one scene he was just going to look at me and wink and the ANGEL fans would laugh their heads off, because he was my protégé on that show.
iF: Did you do the wink?
ANDERSON: Yes. I’ve seen the cut, but I can’t remember if they kept it in. I’m not sure it is. I think we did a little trimming at the end, when I’m getting my comeuppance, but Chris and I know it’s there.
iF: LEVERAGE seems to teeter on the line of comedy and drama – how over-the-top were you allowed to play your role?
ANDERSON: I think the boys and I walk the line in terms of that humor. They’re kind of broad characters, but they’re really broad people and we still try to ground it in reality. I’ve certainly met people who are similar, and I certainly didn’t want to spend a lot of time with them. It’s very fun, but at the same time, it’s about what’s going on with the issue. So you love to see these people fall. You want them to fall and I have a great joy in watching how they do it. In a different way, it’s a similar way to how I felt about watching MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – the original series. Are they going to see through the disguise? It’s great.
iF: Bernard and Rose hadn’t been around on LOST awhile, until last week’s episode – did the producers ever give you a reason for their long absence?
ANDERSON: Last season they went in a different direction, so Rose and I weren’t there for a lot. We were in both parts of the premiere last week. I know the show really responds to the fans. When we’re not there, they seem to miss us, which is great.
iF: Are you always worried you’re going to pick up a script and it says, “Bernard dies.”
ANDERSON: You always read a script just peaking at each page, but no, there’s no flaming arrow in my back, though I haven’t been back [to shoot something] since last week’s episode
iF: Do you get recognized by LOST fans?
ANDERSON: It’s been phenomenal. The response to [L. Scott and I] has been phenomenal. When people come up and want to talk, which is a lot, it’s pretty genuine and very emotional. For an actor, that’s very heartening. You can tell they’re responding to the work in an emotional way and not just “guess who I saw.”
iF: Where would you like to see Bernard and Rose end up by the series conclusion?
ANDERSON: It’s hard knowing where the island is going to end up and knowing it would be hard for them to leave. When Rose is there, she’s cancer free. When she’s back in the rest of the world, she’s probably not. I see them on the island in the middle of a little grass shack, watching the sunset, perfectly content.
iF: Holland Manners on ANGEL was such a delicious role to play – did you ever think the show would have gone on to have such a devoted and rapid following?
ANDERSON: I didn’t think it at the time, I don’t think anyone was thinking about that. We were just doing the best work you could do. The writing was so spectacular. When I first got the role, here's a guy who runs a major corporation and lines up his employees on a carpet, has two shaved head psychics to show him who in the group might be lying or cheating or doing something against the company and he calmly has a guard shoot them in the head. And he is sort of upset, but he’s upset there’s a stain on his carpet. You gotta love playing that. When I came home from work, I used to say to my wife, “how fun is this, where else do you hear an A.D. say ‘flaming vampires to the stage.’” It was just a hoot.
iF: Who is more ruthless – Holland or your character on LEVERAGE?
ANDERSON: I would say, they both may be ruthless. Holland is incredibly smart and always a step ahead of everyone and easy in his manipulation -- until he died. My character in “The Snow Job” is much more of a big, old good guy who has lot of energy. He loves deals and loves listening to money stories. He might not be the sharpest tack in the shed, but he’s shrewd. He’s certainly not honest, but much less lethal.
iF: Since ANGEL was one of Chris Kane’s first big gigs, did he ask you for advice when you were on that show together?
ANDERSON: He asked me something one day, I mostly said, “the thing about actors, we always sometimes get way too focused on ourselves and there’s a whole big world out there you can draw on, and you never know you.” I always wish I listened more in my science classes in school, because I’ve played so many doctors and I’ve had to bone up. For ER, I feel like I practically went to medical school.
iF: You do a lot of series television, how did working on LEVERAGE compare to other shows?
ANDERSON: The thing I love about that place, you go into work and a lot of shows it can be very stressful, but you walk on to the LEVERAGE set and everyone is saying “hi, how are you doing?” They want to talk to you and are happy you’re a part of it. As a result, it’s one of the happier work places I’ve seen. It makes you relax enough to give your best. I admire that work ethic a lot -- it’s genuine and not put on.
No comments:
Post a Comment