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
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