SciFiAndTvTalk

Q & A with Fargo's Martin Freeman

Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard in Fargo. Photo copyright of FX.

When we were young, we were always told never to talk to strangers. As adults, perhaps we should sometimes head those words. In the new FX Network TV series Fargo (based on the 1996 feature film of the same name), a much-harried insurance agent, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), ends up in a hospital emergency room after a surprise reunion with an old school bully. While waiting to be seen, he strikes up a conversation with Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), a drifter who recently arrived in the small town of Bemidji, Minnesota. The two men discuss Lester’s unfortunate situation, and Malvo decides on his own to settle the score for him. His actions spark off an emotional response in Lester and leads him down a dark path that he probably would not have taken had he never spoken with Malvo.

Best known to moviegoers as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit film franchise, including the upcoming The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and on the small screen as Dr. John Watson in the updated Sherlock TV series, actor Martin Freeman recently spent part of an afternoon chatting on the phone with me as well as other journalists about his work on Fargo. The following is an edited version of our Q&A. Enjoy!

What originally attracted you to this part?

Martin Freeman: Well, just the fact that it’s well-written. The first episode, which is what I based my decision on, was such a lovely episode, and with Lester, I just got the feeling that it was going to be a role where I could play a lot of different things.

Even in that first episode, the range of stuff that my character experiences is really interesting and I knew that he was only going to grow and expand over the next nine episodes, which proved to be the case. In all 10 episodes I get to play as Lester pretty much the entire gamut of human existence and human feelings. He does the whole lot, and that’s exactly what you want to do as an actor.  (Series creator/executive producer) Noah Hawley treads that line very well between drama and comedy as well as the light and dark, and I like playing all of that.

Martin, could tell us a little bit about your character’s relationship with Billy Bob Thornton’s character in the show and how it develops over the 10 episodes?

MF: Again, it was those initial scenes with Billy that really attracted me to doing this series because I thought they were just mesmeric. It was like doing little two-handed plays, and, without kind of saying too much, their relationship develops a lot off-screen.  There are moments of onscreen development, but throughout the series it’s sporadic.

Lorne Malvo is, I suppose, a constant presence in Lester’s life because of the change that my character undergoes as a result of meeting him.  So everything that Lester does and every way that he develops as a character, both good and bad, you could say is kind of down to that initial meeting with Lorne Malvo So there is development, and I think Billy and I both really loved sharing actual space together as well as working together. We don’t get to do as much of that as we would want, but there is more to come.

One of the interesting things that Billy Bob was saying about your characters in the show is that he kind of had to expand his ego a  bit to play “Lorne,” and you kind of had to, I guess, bury your personality a bit to play “Lester.”  Can you talk about that?

MF: To a certain extent, yes. I’m a more confident person than Lester and not quite as “upset” as that. It’s just about tapping into those insecurities that we all have, and kind of magnifying them a bit. I find that stuff fun and interesting to play, especially if you can make it real. Obviously it’s not shot documentary-style or anything like that, but you want it to be believable and really resonate even though it’s within a heightened world.  Noah’s writing is extremely good and it’s slightly heightened as well, rather like the Coen Brothers (who wrote the script for the 1996 Fargo movie).

So basically to answer your question, yes, I think I did have to slightly rein my gigantic ego in for a while (he jokes).

I was wondering how your understanding of Lester changed over the course of filming the show, because when we meet him he’s one type of person, but then a series of events happens in the first episode that turns him into someone quite different. So how did your core understanding of Lester change from when you first started playing him to where he ends up?

MF: Well, you have to go a lot on trust, really, because, again, I signed up just on the strength of the first episode. I kind of saw a rough character outline that Noah wrote, but it wasn’t specific or detailed. It was just a general idea of where he wanted to go with it. Noah certainly knew a lot more than I did and a lot more than he was telling me, and he was quite careful with what he leaked out, do you know what I mean?

So I didn’t really have any particular clues as to what was coming. We’d all kind of get drip fed the scripts when Noah had finished them and was ready to show them to us. Like all writers, he didn’t want to show anything until he was absolutely happy with it. As far as the stuff that Lester would be doing, unless Noah kind of hinted at something, which was rare, it was all a surprise to me. So I would read, say, the script for episode four and think, “Oh, my God, that happens.”  Then I’d read the next script and think, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

So it was all a surprise, and in that sense you have to just be ready to go with it and not prepare too much ahead of time, but rather just be open and set to move in whichever direction this character is going to go in, because you, as the actor, don’t dictate things, that’s for sure.  It was all at Noah’s "command" as a writer, and I kind of liked that surprise. It’s when you’re not in charge and you don’t really know what’s going to happen that you’re pushed as an actor. You allow yourself to be really, really pushed, challenged and stretched, which are all those things actors want to have.  So your understanding kind of evolves the more you read because, obviously, by the end of episode 10, Lester was far more capable of things that you never would have suspected in episode one.  So you have to just be on the ball and be ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Did you do any specific research about Minnesota or Minnesotans in preparation to play Lester?

MF: No, not specifically. Ideally, I would have loved to have spent some time there prior to the start of filming, because what I definitely didn’t wanted to do was a caricature or something that was just comical or in any way saying, oh, aren’t these people funny.

In a perfect world I would have spent a couple of weeks hanging out in bars or just speaking to people. However, the perfect world doesn’t exist and I wasn’t able to do that, but I worked very hard on the accent because, as I said, I didn’t want it to be like a comedy sketch. I wasn’t playing an accent. I was playing a character that happened to speak like that and to be from that place.

So I listened to a lot of Minnesotans, let’s put it that way. I didn’t, however, go back and watch the Fargo movie, love it as I do, because accent-wise for my research, I wanted it to be actual Minnesotans and not actors playing Minnesotans, just as I wouldn’t expect an actor who wants to play a Minnesotan to study me. They shouldn’t study me, but rather study a Minnesotan.

That was kind of extent of my homework for this.  So rather than thinking about what is it that makes Minnesotans different, specific, or whatever, I think Lester is pretty universal. There are Lesters everywhere in every race, walk of life and country. There are people who are sort of downtrodden, lack confidence and all that, so it was more a case of tapping into those qualities within me, really.

Even though this is a different cast of characters in the TV series as opposed to the film, I do hear a lot of people kind of comparing your character to William H. Macy’s in the film. Did that kind of put some pressure on you because he’s such an amazing actor, but also to distinguish your character from his?

MF: Yes, and, again, the reason I didn’t go back and watch the Fargo movie was because I didn’t really want that in my head, either way. I didn’t want it my head to copy or consciously differ from, because as soon as you try and differ yourself from someone, you’re becoming too conscious of that performance, anyway.

So no, I didn’t feel pressure in that way.  You’re quite right, he’s a brilliant actor and the world doesn’t need another actor doing a Bill Macy impression. I don’t need to be doing that and he doesn’t need me doing that. So I treated it simply as my performance of a different character, albeit with some comparison. There are certain parallels, but I was too busy focusing on what I was doing with my character.  At the risk of protesting too much, it was literally playing my part and how am I going to make it different from Macy’s performance.

I noticed in the first couple episodes that you make Lester seem very small. He seemed to kind of physically shrink. Can you talk a little about that, making the character appear that way onscreen?

MF: I’d love to, and it would make me sound impressive if I could talk about it, but it’s not a particularly conscious thing. I know the way I wanted him to feel and the way I felt when playing him.  A couple of people asked me, “How do you physically shrink?” but I wasn’t aware of doing that.

You always develop a walk and a gait with your character and from there it’s just the way that you carry yourself.  So that’s something I was aware of. Lester’s shoulders were slightly rounded and he doesn’t move his arms and swagger around much when he walks.  He’s very, very contained and, unconsciously, he sort of doesn’t want to be noticed by the world.

Beyond that, I just knew the way I felt when I sort of embodied him and when I was speaking those lines and reacting to people. I’m a big believer in that it’s my job to just react, do you know what I mean, and the way that the world treats Lester gives you a big clue of how to play him. So I wasn’t kind of compartmentalizing and thinking, “OK, now I’m going to this and now I’m going to do that.” It felt like just a holistic thing in that as soon as you are Lester, you just kind of react in that way. It takes you over, really, rather than you making impositions on it. I wish I could speak better about that, but I can’t. I just hope that all made sense, though.

Was there anything that you added to the Lester character that wasn’t originally scripted for you? You look like a little bit thinner in the frame, but other than that was there anything about this role that you added?

MF: I suppose so because I think there always is, but I don’t even know what is specific and what I could answer to that. My job I feel is to take a good script and somehow make it better, which is every department’s job. It’s the camera department, the design department, etc., to make this script, which is hopefully already very good, even better.

An actor’s job is to put flesh on the bones of a character because even though it’s fantastically written, you don’t just see the script up there on the screen. That would be quite boring. You have to flesh it out, and things like the physicality and placement of the voice can only be done by an actor. I hope I brought a lot to Lester, but as far as specifics, I don’t really know. However, everything that you see on screen, some of that’s Noah and some of it’s me.

Do you think Lester would have remained timid if he hadn’t met Billy Bob Thornton’s character, or do you think that the descent into the dark side was kind of an inevitable shift for you character?

MF: I don’t know. If it had shifted it just would have taken a lot longer. I think meeting Malvo was a hell of a catalyst for Lester, but he still might have ended up picking people off with a gun from the rooftops eventually in 20 years. The fact, though, that he hammered his wife to death within days of meeting Lorne Malvo, no, I don’t think that would have happened.  That would have been repressed, which is what has made him the way he is for his life thus far, the Lester that we first meet, who is almost incapable of showing his true feelings or venting his frustration or anger.  So it’s a good question, but I don’t really know. I think it would have taken a lot longer without Malvo, so, yes, you have to blame him for all the stuff that goes on with Lester.

Of your latest roles in the past few years including Fargo, Sherlock and even to a minor extent in The Hobbit, you had to create a lot of fresh and new stuff out of material that’s already existed. Is that something that sort of attracts you to those types of roles?

MF: I have to say no, it’s not.  Yes, I have done a lot of adaptations of stuff that is already literature, you know, like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is a series of beloved books on television and radio and with Sherlock, The Hobbit and now Fargo, but it’s not a plan I can assure you.  I never kind of wake up and think, “What’s the next adaptation I can be part of?” It’s just purely, and I hope it doesn’t get boring to hear it because I kind of almost bore myself saying it, but it’s just the writing.  If something is well-written, I’m interested, and if something isn’t to my taste, then I’m not.

It’s just an accident, really, the fact that I seem to have been cast in a few of those things that you’re talking about, but, again, that’s not a plan or particular attraction on my part.  It could be based on everything or nothing.  I love doing completely new stuff.  I love doing completely new theater, for instance, he said as he’s about to play Richard III.I’ve spent a long time doing brand new plays and that’s something I dearly love.  So it’s just really what floats my boat at the time and it always comes down to the script, and my initial interest is always in that.

Is there anything that you’ve learned about yourself as an actor having played Lester, a kind of character you’ve never really played before, and a darker character?

MF: I don’t know yet. I think a lot of the time you play parts and there are things that you learn, but you don’t quite know what they are until perhaps years later.  They will sort of filter back into your work years down the road. I remember people at drama school saying that this is not necessarily going to make sense to you now, but in five years the pin might drop or whatever.

At the moment, I’m not quite sure what I’ll take away from this role because I only finished (shooting) a week ago. All I know is that I really enjoyed it.  I loved the job and I have hopes that people will like it, but I don’t know.  It all kind of feeds in in a pretty under the radar way because things aren’t planned in that way or specific in that, well, I’ll do this and then I’ll learn that.

I’ve been living with this character for about five months, so I’ll decompress now for a bit and then I’ll probably get some perspective on it in a year and go, oh, I thought I was good in that bit, and I wasn’t very good in that bit and I like that bit, but I didn’t like that. So I’m sure that it will me inform me in some way and in ways  I don’t quite know yet, if you know what I mean.

Fargo airs Tuesdays @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on the FX Network. As noted above, photo copyright of FX, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Warehouse 13's Jack Kenny Set to Direct At Sci-Fest

Warehouse 13 show runner/executive producer Jack Kenny.

Over the years, TV audiences have seen producer/director/writer Jack Kenny work his creative magic on such shows as Caroline in the City, Titus, The Book of Daniel and Warehouse 13. A graduate of New York’s prestigious Julliard School, he is looking forward to revisiting his theatrical roots next month when he takes part in Sci-Fest. The festival, which will be held at The Acme Theater in Los Angeles, will present nine Sci-Fi-themed one act plays, including those based on stories by legendary writers Ray Bradbury and Ursula Le Guin, along with some later-evening comedic entertainment. Kenny’s involvement in Sci-Fest came about thanks to its founder and one of its producers, David Dean Bottrell.

“David is an old friend of mine and someone who I’ve known pretty much since I’ve been in Los Angeles, so at least 20 years, and he’s always been really interested in Science Fiction,” says Kenny. “We’ve talked about a couple of pilot ideas that he’s wanted to pitch, and not too long ago he came to me and said, ‘I want to do this Sci-Fest thing.’

“David really beat the bushes until the last possible second and managed to raise the $80,000 to produce the festival. He’s sort of the [theatrical producer] Joseph Papp of Sci-Fest. I helped as much as I could, as did all of his friends, in getting the word out, and then David asked me if I wanted to direct one of the plays. I said, ‘Sure,’ and he sent me this one act play, Forwarding Address by JP Nickel, who, coincidentally, was one of my writers on Warehouse 13. So I’m directing JP’s one act, which happens to open the first night of Sci-Fest.”

With Forwarding Address, Kenny will be directing a group of five actors, many of whom have prior Sci-Fi connections. “It’s a great cast,” he enthuses, “I’m working with David Blue [Stargate Universe], Julie McNiven [Stargate Universe, Supernatural]. Madison McLaughlin [Supernatural], Angeline-Rose Troy [Ever Last] and Greg Duke [Lake Death]. The play itself is about two couples on New Year’s Eve who are visited by a specter from the future that delivers them a warning. Whether or not they believe the warning and which couple it’s meant for is still in question.

“The story is very sweet, maybe 12 minutes long, and it has humor in it as well as some darkness and tragedy. It’s going to be a fun little romp. Also, it’s not this huge, scary insurmountable piece, so we can take our time with it. The most important thing, once everyone learns their lines, will just be having a good time with it, and I’m sure they will.”

To find out most about Sci-Fest check out - http://www.sci-fest.com/#

Steve Eramo

Warehouse 13 Sneak Peek - "Secret Services" (Syfy US)

(L-R): Mark Deklin (as Ted), Janet Varney (as Elise), Joanne Kelly (as Myka Bering) and Eddie McClintock (as Pete Lattimer) in Warehouse 13's "Secret Services." Photo copyright of Syfy.

In Secret Sevices, next week's all-new episode of Warehouse 13, Myka (Joanne Kelly) and Pete (Eddie McClintock) question their relationship after meeting two Secret Service agents (played by guest-stars Mark Deklin and Janet Varney). Meanwhile, Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) searches through the past to find answers about her sister. Check out a sneak peek below, as Artie (Saul Rubinek) takes Claudia back in time, and then tune in for the entire episode on Monday, April 21st @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy.

 

Face Off Renewed For Seventh Season

Face Off host McKenzie Westmore. Photo copyright of Syfy.

After a bold and extreme season of competition, three artists remain in the fight for the title of season six Face Off champion – George Schminky of Walnut Creek, CA by way of Puerto Rico; Rashaad Santiago of Bronx, NY; and Tyler Green of Litchfield, CT. For their final challenge, they will each create a pair of rival alien races, all of whom will be performing in an electrifying dance performance for world famous music producer and DJ, Rusko. The season 6 finale episode of Face Off airs Tuesday, April 22 at 9PM ET/PT on Syfy.

Syfy also confirms that the critically-acclaimed series will return in July 2014 for a high-stakes seventh season themed “Life and Death.” Each week the contestants will face creative challenges designed to inspire them to explore life, death, rebirth and mortality. Season 7 will also introduce new judge, Lois Burwell, a renowned Academy-Award winning makeup artist known for her work on Lincoln, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse and War of the Worlds.  

Face Off is a competition/elimination series exploring the world of special-effects make-up artists and the unlimited imagination that allows them to create amazing works of living art. As a member of the multi-generational family dynasty whose name is synonymous with the make-up effects field, actress McKenzie Westmore brings expertise to her role as host of the series.  Some of SFX world’s most celebrated figures judge the competition – multiple Academy-Award winner Ve Neill (The Hunger Games, Pirates of the Caribbean), industry veteran Glenn Hetrick (CSI: New York, Heroes, Legion), and creature designer Neville Page (Avatar, Prometheus). World-renowned Hollywood makeup artist Michael Westmore (Star Trek) serves as the contestant mentor. 

As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

The Americans Sneak Peek - "Martial Eagle" (FX Network)

(L-R): Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) in "Martial Eagle." Photo copyright of the FX Network.

Next week on an all-new The Americans, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth's (Keri Russell) long-planned mission turns ugly, impacting each of them in different ways. Meanwhile, Stan (Noah Emmerich) digs in deeper at work as his personal life continues to unravel. Take a look at the sneak peek below for Martial Eagle, and then tune in for the entire episode on Wednesday, April 23rd @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on FX.

 

In the Moment: Interview with Warehouse 13's Jack Kenny

Warehouse 13's Jack Kenny.

More times than they care to remember, Warehouse 13 agents Pete Lattimer, Myka Bering, Artie Nielsen, Claudia Donovan and Steve Jinks have risked their lives searching for, bagging, tagging and storing hundreds of historical Artifacts imbued with supernatural attributes and that pose a very serious threat to the human race. While doing so, they have crossed paths with a number of dangerous adversaries looking to use as well as exploit the Artifacts along with the Warehouse to achieve their own selfish goals.

In the show’s season four finale The Truth Hurts, Paracelsus, a brilliant and extremely dangerous 16th century alchemist and former caretaker of Warehouse 9, tricks Pete into turning control of the Warehouse over to him. Ultimately, our heroes have no choice but to leave Warehouse “caretaker in training” Claudia alone to face off against Paracelsus. He proves too powerful, however, even for her, and in the fifth season opener Endless Terror, Pete and Myka must follow Paracelsus back in time to prevent him from altering the timeline. That was a tall order even for them, something that Warehouse 13’s show runner and executive producer Jack Kenny knew only too well.

“There was a great deal to ‘clean up’ after the way we left things last season,” says Kenny, “and although we pretty much cleaned everything up in one episode, I would have rather done it over two or three episodes, especially Myka’s [Joanne Kelly] cancer story. I wish we could have taken a bit more time to really explore that issue, but with us having only six episodes for our fifth and final season, I just couldn’t see us spending three of those episodes on cancer. That’s not what this show is. This isn’t a show about cancer. If it was Brothers & Sisters or something like that, then we could have really gotten into it, but that’s not why people watch Warehouse 13. If you can work something like that into a whole big season, it’s a fascinating way to explore such an issue, but in our case it would have taken up too much [storytelling] real estate. So we just kind of wrapped it up – Myka’s tumor was benign, as you know – and from there we moved on because we had to cover a lot of ground.

Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) in the Warehouse 13 fifth season opener "Endless Terror." Photo copyright of Syfy.

“I’m sure some people are thinking, ‘I was looking forward to a much bigger penultimate fight between Claudia [Allison Scagliotti] and Paracelsus [Anthony Stewart Head],’ but in TV we are always faced with the reality of budgets as well as real estate time. It would have been incredibly expensive to spend half the episode with the two of them fighting in the Warehouse aisles. You have to do CGI [computer-generated image] in order to make something like that look really interesting. Without it, they’re just chasing each other down a bunch of aisles, and the CGI that you did see in those scenes between Claudia and Paracelsus took forever to do. That’s why with the big, big CGI stuff, movies tend to typically do it better because they can spend six months shooting a two-hour movie, whereas we spend 16 days on what’s basically a two-hour movie. Again, in TV you just don’t have the time or the money. So we culminated the fight in the best as well as most interesting way possible, and I’m very pleased with how things turned out.

“What leaps to mind most about the season premiere is this neat locale where we filmed the alternate Warehouse of the future. It was a facility that tests cars for all types of different things. There were cold rooms where the temperature got down to way below zero, and even this wind tunnel where we shot the scenes with Artie [Saul Rubinek] strapped down in a chair. The interior of this facility was very white and clean, and it had pieces of equipment all over the place, like the huge “danger/caution” iron mechanism dangling over Pete [Eddie McClintock]. The people in charge offered to get that out of our way, and I said, ‘No, please, leave it right there. I’ll use it in the episode.’ There were also red buttons everywhere that were labelled ‘push for emergency,’ which I did ask to be disabled or covered because if Eddie sees a button, he’ll push it,” jokes the executive producer. “He’s just like Pete. In fact, I actually put a line in our finale where Myka asks him why he activates a certain device, and he tells her, ‘I see a button and I’ve got to push it. It’s just who I am.’

“Another wonderful thing about the season premiere was having Tony Head back and being able to spend some time with him. Rebecca Mader [Lisa da Vinci] was a doll and a dream to work with as well. We had Mark Sheppard [Benedict Valda], Lindsay Wagner [Dr. Vanessa Calder] and Rene Auberjonois [Hugo Miller] with us, too. So it was a fun romp, and because we knew these were our final six episodes, it was a very bittersweet summer last year. I loaded up our cast with all kinds of extracurricular work, like learning how to speak Spanish, and how to tap dance, especially Allison. She was already interested in it and had begun taking tap lessons. I told her, ‘You have to be really good because you have this big show-stopping tap number coming up in one of the episodes.’ Allison’s eyes just lit up. She put on her dancing shoes and tapped her heart out all summer learning this routine. If you’re not a hoofer from way back it’s hard to pick it up quickly, but she did. We never used a double for Allison; it’s all her tap dancing in this particular episode yet to come.”

Artie (Saul Rubinek) and Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) in season five's Secret Services. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Although the Warehouse gang managed to retake their home turf and reset the timeline back to normal, their work is far from done. There may only be five more episodes left of the series, but rest assured there are plenty more Artifacts to recover and one or two more diabolical masterminds to be taken care of. Without giving too much away, Kenny graciously hints at what viewers can look forward to in the next few weeks.

“Probably what I remember most about episode two [Secret Services] is Robert Duncan McNeill, who was our director, and guest-star Megan Gallagher,” says Kenny. “She and I went to Julliard together a long time ago. Megan was in my class and we’ve been close friends for over 30 years, so it was great to have her on the set along with our other guest-stars, Mark Declan and Janet Varney, both of whom are fantastic in the episode. Everyone came ready to play, and Robbie McNeill is such a joy as a director and a great deal of fun to work with. He’s also an old friend of mine and it was nice to spend some time with him as well.

“Our third episode this season, which was actually fifth in production order last summer, is our Renaissance faire story [A Faire to Remember]. Our longtime stunt coordinator, Matt Birman, directed it, which was ideal for him because there are lots of stunts. I was in prep to direct our telenovela episode, but I did have time to visit the farm that we found to shoot the episode. It was this amazing property with a huge old-looking barn and tons of open space. We hired 150 extras, had them dress up in Renaissance faire costumes and spent three days on-location. The weather was glorious and everyone had a great time. Ryan Cartwright and Erin Way [from the Syfy series Alphas] are in the episode along with Mary Lou Rosato, who plays the Old Gypsy. She’s someone else I’ve known since Julliard and she’s brilliantly hilarious in this role.

Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) in "Secret Services." Photo copyright of Syfy.

“Moving on to episode four, I directed it as well as the season premiere and the season/series finale, and each one of them had an incredible experience wrapped around it. With the premiere, it was, for me, just the idea of starting off the season that ends our series. The finale, of course, is a like a movie itself, and with episode four, both the A and B stories were just a blast to do. Our telenovela story has guest-stars Sonia Braga and Paula Garces in it, and I hired a wonderful woman to help our cast learn how to speak Spanish. Actually, they didn’t really learn how to speak Spanish, but rather how to say the Spanish lines as close to a native Spaniard as they could. After that, it was figuring out the costumes, how Eddie’s mustache would move and spin, and just playing out the Spanish scenes. We found this incredible mansion outside Toronto where we shot all the interior telenovela stuff. It was such an amazing ride.

“In the B story, an Artifact creates a doppleganger of Steve [Aaron Ashmore] who is wildly gay. Aaron and I decided we’d take it all the way. The two of us worked on that extensively and Aaron was a real trouper. We shot a lot of those scenes in frat houses, and the scouting for those was an adventure in and of itself,” says the executive producer with a chuckle. “Every moment of shooting this episode was a blast. We had such a great time, and I think Eddie had the best time he’s ever had, speaking Spanish and just really playing it over the top. In fact, I think Eddie had the best summer last year he’s ever had. He’s fantastic in this episode. Of course, Saul Rubinek was just a dream as he dove into the Spanish with every inch of gusto you’d imagine that he would, and he loved every minute of it. 

“Episode five was directed by Mike McMurray, who did a magnificent job. It was another huge episode that included a big jump and run and a big chase. It’s the gang saves the world episode, which we have one of every season, and the build up to that story involves Benedict Valda, who you saw again at the end of the season five premiere. I originally pitched this episode to Mark Stern [former president of original content at Syfy] by saying, ‘I don’t want to make the gang saves the world episode the last episode of the entire series. We’ve done that and there’s nothing we can do that tops previous seasons.’

Artie (Saul Rubinek) and Steve (Aaron Ashmore). Photo copyright of Syfy.

“As for the sixth episode and our season/series finale, I went on to say to Mark, ‘Because we’ve teased that the Warehouse is moving and we’re ending the series anyway, let’s say that there’s a device that records each agents’ most defining moment with the Warehouse.’ So in this story we flash back and see all these different things we’ve never seen before and that define each character. It’s a fun journey down all of their roads and everyone gets a really cool payoff, including Mrs. Fredric [CCH Pounder] and H.G. Wells [Jaime Murray], who has a couple of very neat scenes, one in the 1800s and the other in the present. So we pulled out all the stops and, again, had one hell of a summer last year.”

As Kenny just mentioned, in the show’s finale, Pete, Myka and the rest of their colleagues will reveal to fans his or her most defining moment since joining the Warehouse team. If the executive producer had the chance to experience the effects of such a device, what would his proudest moment or milestone be in his five years working on Warehouse 13?

“It’s so hard to answer that because I’m so proud of everything we did,” he says. “There are certain episodes that stand out to me as incredible episodes that we shot. The noir story [The Big Snag] was, I feel, an incredible achievement on every level – the acting, the costume design, the set design, post-production, the music; everything about that episode was an incredible achievement from every department. I would say the same thing about the upcoming telenovela episode. I think it’s going to end up being a fan favorite because, once again, every department pulled out all the stops, and the same is true about the finale.

CCH Pounder as Mrs. Frederic. Photo copyright of Syfy.

“Honestly, there are so many great moments that I can think of, and a number of them have to do with Eddie, who is probably one of my closest pals on the show, and his character of Pete. There’s the time when Pete died in Artie’s arms, when he made out with H.G. Wells and then she turned the gun on him, when he had both of his legs broken in a reenactment of his car accident when he was drunk and that he told Myka about, and when he regressed to a child. There’s one moment after another that I can recall with Eddie where I just think, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so proud of him and what he’s been able to do,’”

Professionally as well as personally, Kenny is without question a people person, so it is no surprise that there is one thing he will miss most of all with the end of Warehouse 13.  “The people,” says the executive producer. “The scripts and everything else were great fun, but it was such a terrific group of people. I still get e-mails and messages from them saying, ‘We miss you, we miss the show, we miss everyone. Come back and do another show and bring everyone back with you.’ I’m having a finale party on May 17th for as many of the cast, crew and Los Angeles people who can come. There are also probably a dozen or so people from Toronto who are flying down for the party, including our props mistress, our costume designer and two of our camera assistants.

“At the time, we knew we were doing something special and that this type of situation doesn’t come along that often. Warehouse 13 was one of those rare times when you had to just really pay attention and be in the moment, because you didn’t want to miss a single second of it.”

Steve Eramo

Warehouse 13 airs Monday nights @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy. As noted above, all Warehouse 13 photos are copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Tyrant Sneak Peek (FX Network)

Tyrant - Pictured: (L-R) Nasser Faris as Khaled, Alice Krige as Amira, Ashraf Barhom as Jamal, Moran Atias as Leila, Adam Rayner as Barry, Anne Winters as Emma, Jennifer Finnegan as Molly, Noah Silver as Sammy. Photo copyright of FX.

Gaining power, surrendering control. Tyrant's rule begins this summer only on the FX Network. Check out the sneak peek below for a little teaser of what's to come!

 

 

The Strain Sneak Peek (FX Network)

This summer, you won't be able to look away. Check out the sneak peek below for The Strain. Coming soon only on the FX Network!

 

Fargo Sneak Peek - "The Rooster Prince" (FX Network)

Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) and Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) in Fargo's "The Rooster Prince." Photo copyright of FX.

In next week's all-new Fargo, Molly (Allison Tolman) begins to suspect that Lester (Martin Freeman) is involved with the murders, but her new boss points her in a different direction. Meanwhile, Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) investigates the blackmail plot against a man known as the Supermarket King. Check out the sneak peek below for The Rooster King and then make sure to tune in for the entire episode on Tuesday, April 22nd @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on FX.

 

Merlin's Eoin Macken Stars in "The Night Shift" Premiering in May on NBC

 Eoin Macken of NBC's The Night Shift. Photo copyright of NBC.

Welcome to The Night Shift, where the toughest and craziest cases always seem to come through the door. Every shift is a fight between the heroic efforts of saving lives and the hard truths of running an underfunded hospital.

At San Antonio Memorial, the men and women who work the night shift are an irreverent and special breed, particularly adrenaline junkie TC Callahan (Eoin Macken, Merlin). After three grueling tours of duty in Afghanistan, TC is about to learn that his toughest battles will be fought right here at home.

He and his irreverent team of late-night docs, including his best friend Topher (Ken Leung, Lost) and protégé Drew (Brendan Fehr, Roswell), know how to let off steam with the casual prank or two, but when lives are at stake, they are all business.

New night shift boss - and TC's ex-girlfriend - Dr. Jordan Alexander (Jill Flint, The Good Wife) struggles to keep everyone in check, but TC doesn't make it easy. Paul (Robert Bailey Jr., Coraline) is fresh out of medical school and still adjusting to the rigors of an emergency room. Krista (Jeananne Goossen, Alcatraz), also a new intern, has something to prove, while Kenny (JR Lemon, Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas) is a seasoned nurse who keeps the doctors focused and isn't afraid to break a few rules to get the job done.

Meanwhile, Landry de la Cruz (Daniella Alonso, Revolution), the lone psychiatrist on the night shift, finds she has to tend to her colleagues as much as she cares for the patients on the ward.

Unfortunately, the night shift is now under new senior management and boss Michael Ragosa (Freddy Rodriguez, Six Feet Under) has to balance the real-world pressures of cutting costs while battling the stigma that he is more interested in saving money than helping people.

But TC has never met a rule he couldn't break or a person he won't fight. If Ragosa wants a war... he'll get one. The Night Shift premieres Tuesday, May 27th @ 10:00 p.m. EST on NBC.

As noted above, photo copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplciating of anu kind. Thanks!