Joe Morton as Eureka's Henry Deacon. Photo by Eike Schroter and copyright of the Syfy Channel.
It was supposed to be just another day on the job for Eureka's Henry Deacon. In addition to being the town's mayor as well as one of the top scientific minds at the local think-tank, Global Dynamics, he also owns his own garage and is the resident Mr. Fix-It. So in the opening teaser of the show's fourth season premiere, Founder's Day, it is not unusual to find Henry tinkering with a vintage car that he is trying to repair in time for the upcoming festivities. What is unusual, however, is what the scientist discovers when at one point he looks up from under the hood of the car. For actor Joe Morton, who plays Henry, it was actually a nice little surprise.
"As we've done in past seasons, we've sort of shifted things around this year and some of our characters find themselves in different situations for what will become a very obvious reason once you see the season opener," reveals the actor. "The episode is spectacular, and without giving too much away, we go back to 1947, before Eureka became Eureka. As a result of that, Henry finds himself in a set of personal circumstances that are both unexpected as well as interesting and he has to deal with them.
"I thought the idea of traveling back in time and seeing where it all began was a great way to return for our fourth year, and the way that that idea evolves is quite wonderful as well."
The break in production between Eureka's third and fourth seasons was a lengthy one - almost 14 months - but despite the extended hiatus, it did not take the actor long to get back into the swing of things. "Stepping back into the Henry role is, for me, kind of like returning to your favorite home away from home, in all aspects," says Morton. "For example, the apartment I stay in here in Vancouver is the same one that I've stayed in for the past two seasons. Vancouver is a city that I've come to know pretty well, so getting back to Eureka and playing Henry is like putting on a very old and worn pair of shoes that I feel comfortable in.
"In terms of acting challenges with the role, I don't think there's anything new this year. Because Henry is kind of the beacon of science on the show, it's always been about the research for me. It's making sure that whatever it is that I talk about as my character, that I'm fully invested [in it] one way or another, and that it's not just scientific jargon tripping out of my mouth. That continues to be the trick with Henry, to keep the science not simply science, but personal as well.
"As for the character itself, Henry isn't as 'dark' as he once was. He seems to work better with people than he did in the beginning and he's formed solid relationships with other characters, especially Sheriff Jack Carter [Colin Ferguson]. The two of them are best friends and they tend to share each others' ups and downs. As this season goes on, we learn more about all the characters as well as their relationships to one another, and I feel that's one of the best parts of the series - the constant discovery of who these characters are to each other."
In Founder's Day, Henry has the unexpected opportunity to meet theoretical physicist Dr. Trevor Grant, who was the linchpin to establishing Eureka back in the 1940s. The two scientists work together on a solution to Henry's and his friends' current predicament, and that collaboration continues even after they manage to find their way back to the present-day Eureka. Former Battlestar Galactica castmember James Callis plays Dr. Grant, and Morton has enjoyed having him on Eureka.
"James is great," he says. "He brings a really nice other flavor to our story, and what Dr. Grant and Henry share is this reluctance to become involved with anything that has to do with weaponry. That's something that the two of them end up really seeing eye to eye on and, on a certain level, form an alliance based on that common belief.
"It's also nice on a technical level for us to finally hook up with Battlestar, even though James isn't playing the same character, but just sort of obliquely through him as an actor. That's fun, and you'll find that we've done the same thing this year with Warehouse 13 as well. Neil Grayston [Douglas Fargo] went over to that show this season for an episode [13.1], and then a member of that cast, Allison Scagliotti, came over to our show as her character [Claudia Donovan, in the Eureka fourth season episode Crossing Over]. Allison is just terrific. She's very cute and vivacious and she and Neil seemed to get on really well and they made a wonderful little duet together.
"I think that we should do more of that type of crossover storytelling between our two shows, where we go to their warehouse because of some anomaly that's taken place in Eureka and vice versa. It should feel like both shows exist in the same universe as it were."
When asked if he could divulge any specifics about Henry's story arc this year on Eureka, Morton is politely vague in his response. "Again, it's hard to talk about because I can't really give anything away," notes the actor. "However, there are a couple of episodes where Henry does some startling things in order to gain the trust of another new character to the show. I found that lots of fun to do and, again, it'll be very obvious when you watch it. I guess it's around episode six or seven, in a story called Stoned, where my character makes a commitment to someone, which he's been wanting to do, but up until now couldn't figure out how to."
One of the highlights so far this season on Eureka for the actor has been getting back behind the cameras to direct an episode, the previously mentioned Stoned. He made his directorial debut on the show last year with Have an Ice Day, in which a centuries-old mutating fungus in the form of ice infects Zane Donovan (Niall Matter) and threatens to engulf the entire town. "I had a fantastic time directing that one," recalls Morton. "Obviously we had to build all the ice for the interior shots, which was a wonderful challenge for our designers and they did an incredible job. We also had to create the illusion of the ice plug, which was meant to be almost infinitely long, as well as the illusion that Eureka was being taken over by this viral ice as it were.
"What's great about this show and its production team is that you ask them for the impossible and they deliver it. We shot 18 episodes last year and this one was number 15, so it was near the end of production, and it's always amazing at how much work you're able to achieve in seven-and-a-half days of shooting. The biggest joy for me with this episode was reintroducing the Jim Taggart character back into the show. Having Matt Frewer [Taggart] back was just a real pleasure and a great deal of fun. The prep process for this particular story was interrupted by our Christmas hiatus, so I did some prep at home and then finished up when we returned to Vancouver. Prep for television is a very fast and furious process because we have to do so much in so little time, but I still enjoy it.
"This season, the episode they gave me to direct, Stoned, allowed me the opportunity to play in a slightly different way, which, again, you'll see when it's aired. It's a joy to work with the actors on this show because they're all highly-tuned and we've been working together for so long that the vocabulary is right there. You don't have to say too much to get people to do what you're asking them to do. The same thing is true of this crew. We've worked with these men and women for so long that we pretty much talk to each other in a shorthand that makes the process go much faster. Plus this year, Rick Macguire, who's our DOP [director of photography], was given more of a hand in terms of how to structure the lights, so in this season's stories you'll see a much different type of lighting together with a lot more color, vibrancy and depth of field. I really think that it's going to be a good first half of our [fourth] season."
As someone who likes keeping busy, Morton had plenty to occupy his time prior to starting work this year on Eureka. "Before I came back here to Vancouver, I did several episodes of The Good Wife, playing Chris Noth's [Peter Florrick] attorney [Daniel Golden], which was just delicious," says the actor. "It's a terrific show and both Chris and Julianna Marguiles [Alicia Florrick] are wonderful in it.
"Prior to that I did a very short stint on Brothers and Sisters [playing Peter Madson], and while I was in Los Angeles I also worked with a friend of mine, Francesco Lucente. He's a director/producer and a couple of years ago we did a film together called Badland. He's in the process of doing two more films, one of which is a big splashy type of fantasy called Star Bright. It's about a young girl who has basically separated herself on a farm with her grandparents because of events that took place in her past, and she realizes and is frustrated by the fact that she has not lived her life. One night she makes a wish, and an angel appears, played by James Earl Jones. He grants her wish and sweeps her out into a world of adventure and romance and she discovers herself. I'll be acting in this movie as well once we've got everything all set, which should be this fall, and I'm a writer/producer on it, too.
"The other film is called Dry Lightning, which we hope to start shooting in 2011, and it's about a young man named Joe, a Good Samaritan-type who helps this homeless man. He thinks that all he has to do is take him back to the hospital, get the man situated and that'll be it, but, instead, it turns out to be quite a long sojourn. It's primarily a story about loss; Joe's parents are in the process of losing their farm, and he's already lost his. When he sees this lost individual on the street and decides to lend him a hand, Joe winds up having to go a lot further in helping him than he first thought. That's when he realizes that that is what we're meant to do as human beings - help each other. I'll be a producer and writer on this movie as well, and I'm looking forward to working on both these projects."
Season four of Eureka premieres Friday, July 9th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on the Syfy Channel.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo by Eike Schroter and copyright of the Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
