Fringe's John Noble And Christopher Lloyd

 
John Noble and Christopher Lloyd in Fringe's "The Firefly." Photo by Liane Hentscher and copyright of Fox Television.

In the season three Fringe episode The Firefly (broadcast last Friday, January 21st on Fox), an Observer makes contact with the Fringe Team to help rectify a mistake. Meanwhile, Walter (John Noble) befriends Roscoe Joyce (guest-star Christopher Lloyd), keyboardist for Walter's favorite 1970s band, "Violet Sedan Chair." Walter learns the real reason the band broke up and discovers that his life and Roscoe's, two men who have never met before, overlap in strange and unexpected ways.

Last Thursday, Fringe regular John Noble along with guest-star Christopher Lloyd spoke with myself along with other members of the press about the above episode as well as the series in general. The following is an edited version of our Q & A. Enjoy!

Christopher, can you share with us a little bit on what to expect from the upcoming episode?

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD - Oh, what to expect?  Gee, I don’t know. I’m only speaking for myself; I was very excited about the role that had in this episode. It was very interesting piece to work with. My character goes through an experience that he never realistically anticipated would ever happen to him, and [we see] his efforts to adapt to that, adjust to that, and hope for a good outcome.

John, were you excited to have Christopher guest-star as your [character's] musical hero?

JOHN NOBLE - Absolutely. I mean he’s one of my heroes anyways, so when they said that Christopher Lloyd was coming on it was like a dream come true, and of course to have him play the musician from Violet Sedan Chair, which was this creation of ours, made it even more interesting. We had an amazing time together, these two old guys, reminiscing and getting the music back up again. It was a great deal of fun.

Christopher, how much do you really know about the keyboard? Do you really play?

CL - Oh, I am not a piano player. I had the obligatory piano lessons growing up but I have not really touched a piano since then. [On Fringe] they adapted a piano so that I could pound on the keys without making any noise and sort of go with what they had written at that point for me to play and pretend I was playing it. I grew up in a household where everybody was playing the piano all the time, so fortunately I had kind of a feeling of the type of body movement that went along with it. Hopefully that helped me through it.

Christopher, having played so many great characters can you talk about what you drew from as reference to get inside the mind of Roscoe?

CL - Ahh, let’s see. Well I feel he’s a man who is sort of retired from life. He’d had some big losses in his life and his life as a rock star has faded, and he’s lonely and wants to be in a place around other people at this home. And then surprising things develop that sort of force him to come out of himself and deal with a new reality. The script really gave so much information and clues that hopefully I was able to follow him and make it happen.

Chris and John, can you talk about how dealing with alternate time and universes makes the acting experience more rich for an actor?

JN - We’re not playing the ordinary universe; it’s the real universe, so I don’t think of it as the ordinary. I think that that's provided me and the other actors in our show a great opportunity to play slightly different versions of our characters. And it’s been amazing for our set design people to be able to create a world just like ours, but slightly different, and socially slightly different as well, and we go back and we play within those roles. So from an actor’s point of view it’s been a really wonderful opportunity for us.

CL - Yes, I mean my character, I feel, had been living kind of a very introverted sort of distant life from anything. He’s kind of pulled out, retreated from society, and he has a lot of trouble grasping exactly what's going on with the things that happen in this parallel universe because they are quiet extreme and affect him very personally. It was just really a challenge and also a lot of fun to kind of play that bewilderment with the situations that came up for him, and try to make him believable, credible, and real for himself and, again, hopefully for the audience.

Christopher, I was wondering if you could discuss what it was like joining a cast that already has such a great chemistry going already?

CL - I loved it. I love working with John Noble. I mean not to say that because he’s on the phone with me here, but it was just such a pleasure. And the cast, the director, everybody was very supportive and I really felt I was being included in a very special ensemble and it was a thrill to experience that.

JN -And speaking from our point of view, we were all just pretty excited about having Christopher Lloyd join us. He was just amazing and had some huge scenes and just hit it every time. We were so impressed and thrilled that he joined us.

Will we get the chance to see your character again, Christopher?

CL - I have no idea.

JN - Wouldn't that be wonderful, Christopher?

CL - It would be wonderful, and I would so love that.

John, this episode features The Observers. How does the episode advance the mythology of the series and what do we really have to look forward to this season?

JN - Well, I think The Observers have been that one thing since the beginning of Fringe that have sort of kept us way up there. Who are these strange bold people that appear everywhere?  And so to have Michael Cerveris as the principal observer back in the 26th episode, I think, was fantastic and he got to do some really fine things.

There's the whole question of finding out what the role of these Observers are. I mean, do they stand outside of the universe? Do they stand outside both universes? Are they observers or should they be hands-on? And I think what we’ve discovered is that if they do become hands-on at any stage then they wreck the natural order of things, and then they try to correct it. One of the founding premises of Fringe is that because of the interference of an Observer, we ruptured the two universes. That happened because one of them interfered in an issue. So it’s really interesting to have them return and try to repair the damage, try to put things right. At the end of the episode, The Observer has the last scene and he says something incredibly telling, which I’ll leave for you to see, but it just demonstrates how much danger and drama there is ahead.

John, have you ever considered the possibility that Fringe’s real universe, you know the one that you’ve spent most of your time in thus far, is in fact yet another alternate universe?

JN - Absolutely, my friend, absolutely. It’s interesting that when I’m playing in the other universe and playing the character of Walter in the other universe, obviously this universe is the alternate universe. We have the other universe, and I imagine from whichever hill you stand on, the opposition is standing on the other one. So yes, I’ve thought about that quite a lot, and if there were more universes, and there could be, they would all be alternate to the one you’re standing in.

John, I wanted to know if you have any personal favorite kind of crazy science fiction moments over the course of the series, either for your character or just to see realized on the scene?

JN - Now let me tell you, and it’s not because Firefly airs tomorrow, but probably the best scenes I've had is the stuff with Chris Lloyd because there were these two crazy old guys just trying desperately to communicate with each other. We had a lot of laughs and there was the common thread of trying to find the music again because Christopher’s character had forgotten how to play the piano. So we go through this journey of bringing the music back to him and the thrill to Walter. This happens all the way through this very complicated episode, but in terms of pure joy in the lab I think it’s probably the episode you see tomorrow night was the one.

John, in what ways would you say your character has further grown and developed in your eyes this season, and what continues to make Walter both exciting and also challenging for you to play?

JN - A bunch of things happen this season. Walter came from a very big fog when we first knew him and slowly he’s put the pieces back together and rebuilt his life, and that’s all history. Then he went through the terrible second season of realization that Peter (Joshua Jackson) had to know, had to find out, so we did that. We start the third season with this rift between the two men, and that causes a great deal of loneliness and frustration in both men.

The major problem Walter faces is that he thinks he's no longer capable of solving problems because he’s been ill and had part of his brain removed, so it’s this incredible struggle. He keeps saying, “I’m not smart enough to do this anymore,” and Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) keeps encouraging him to do it.  And through the course of this season you’ll see him finally accept his limitations but also he accepts his strengths, which are more than enough to deal with situations here. It’s a beautiful journey really of acceptance for Walter, and he goes through all the emotional stages to get there, but a gorgeous journey of accepting where he is and then moving forward.

Chris, I wanted to find out what would you say makes a career in this industry rewarding for you so far?

CL - Well, certainly the fact that I’m still working at the moment, but I’ve been able to continue working means a lot to me. I’ve always admired actors who may have their moment of flash and great success but above all keep sustaining their work, doing their work. Fortunately, being an actor does not have a cutoff time. There’s not a retirement age. You just keep going and keep going until you can’t go anymore, which is fully what I intend to do and hopefully the work will be forthcoming.  It’s just sustaining a career today and keep working, which I love doing so much and discovering new roles and discovering yourself in the process is very rewarding.

Christopher, with one of your most famous characters, Doc Brown in Back to the Future, you were able to create this over-the-top and comedic character, and yet you were able to make him seem like a real person. Now you’re in a science fiction program that’s more dramatic, and there’s still very outlandish scenarios going on. What would you say is the secret to sort of bringing these outlandish characters or outlandish scenarios and making them seem real?

CL - I don’t know. I feel like I’ve witnessed a lot of people in my own life who were pretty much on the edge at one time or another and I just try really hard to find the reality of a character. How he perceives things. The way he feels about things and try to put that all together and create a person, a character and it’s something I do kind of whatever the role is. It’s just a matter of the way I work and I know a lot of other people that work the same way. So no matter how outlandish or far out the character is there is somewhere a line of reality, which I try to connect with and hope for the best.

John, are there any tidbits you can give us on the alternate universe and Walternet? Are we going to be seeing more of that?

JN - Sure, I can give you a few tidbits. We can’t resist the alternate universe and having created it we have to go back there because of this huge conflict. We all go back. The character of Walternet [Noble's character in the alternate universe] will be developed, I think, at this stage he’s seen as sort of a nasty cold man. We’ll give you a little bit more background on why he’s like he is over the course of this season, and we spend a few wonderful episodes back in the alternate universe. So I think you’ve got that to look forward to as the season continues to unfold.

As noted above, photo by Liane Hentscher and copyright of Fox Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks! 

Comments

[Deb G]

Thanks Steve,
I really enjoyed this one!
Deb G