SciFiAndTvTalk

Human Target's Mark Valley - Chance Encounter

Mark Valley as Christopher Chance in Human Target. Photo by David Gray and copyright of Fox Television.

MARK Valley is a versatile film and TV actor who is known equally for his comedic, witty turns as he is for his dramatic, weighted performances. He is a familiar face to Fox viewers, having appeared as FBI Agent John Scott on the hit drama Fringe. His additional television credits include a three-year run as Brad Chase on Boston Legal, starring roles on Keen Eddie and Pasadena as well as recurring roles on Once and Again, ER, The 4400 and Swingtown. His film credits include John Schlesinger's The Innocent, The Seige with Denzel Washington, John Frankenheimer's George Wallace, The Next Best Thing with Madonna and Rupert Everett and Shrek III as the voice of Cyclops. Valley also wrote and performed in Walls, Wars and Whiskey, a one-man show about his experiences growing up in upstate New York and serving in the military.

Valley graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and began his acting career while serving overseas in the Army. The Gulf War veteran is a native of Ogdensburg, New York, and these days divides his time between Vancouver and Los Angeles. Currently, he stars as Christopher Chance in the Fox action TV series Human Target. On March 8th, I and other journalists had the pleasure of speaking with the actor on a conference call. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!

When did you realize that you had lightning in a bottle with the chemistry between you and Jackie Earle Haley (Guerrero) and Chi McBride (Winston)? When did they come into the project? I'm sure you got the script first and then they were added.

MARK VALLEY - Yes, I got the script first. I was the first one cast, I know that. I think we all realized that we had something pretty amazing when we were shooting the pilot in downtown Vancouver. I think it was at the very end of the episode. It wasn't the end of shooting, but it was the end of the episode, and rarely are the three of us together in any episode, but in this instance we were. They were getting ready to set up a shot, and we were sitting around in our chairs and started talking, as actors do. Suddenly we just realized, my God, we all come from different places in terms of parts of the country and experience in the industry and so forth, and the three of us just kind of clicked. The thing I liked about Chi and Jackie is that I was just really kind of curious about them and wanted to get to know them better and thought they were both quite interesting. I think the three of us had that same feeling about each other, which is kind of cool and rare as well. And that kind of shows up on the screen and, perhaps, makes the viewer wonder how did these characters meet up, or come together, and what's their history.

I know that you cannot possibly take risk taking and thrill seeking to the extreme that your character of Chance does, but how much of a daredevil do you allow yourself to be in real life? What are some of the more outrageous adventures that you might have taken? Have you ever jumped out of planes for  fun, or any of those things?

MV - Yes, I've done that. I'm a little more now into taking calculated risks. I like to mountain climb, and the better prepared you are, the safer it is. I don't just run out and climb a mountain with a T-shirt on, you know? That would be kind of foolhardy. There are some inherent risks, you know, with mountaineering and stuff, but yes, I generally like to be well-prepared. I had parachuted. I did it in the Army and I also did it trying to get my certification to parachute down in Paris Island. I did it a few times, and that was pretty exciting, but for the most part, I'd say now the biggest risk I take is probably every once in a while I forget to put my seatbelt on. That's about the limit of it these days.

How much has your military training helped you with acting, especially with Human Target?

MV - It's funny, because they lay out all these weapons and talk about the ammunition and its effectiveness and so forth, and you know, we worked with weapons obviously in the Army. It's actually something, though, that you can pick up pretty quickly. The hand-to-hand fighting, I learned a little bit of that in the Army, along with boxing as well as wrestling and those sorts of thing. But I think for the most part it's working as a team under extreme circumstances with a limited amount of time to get something done. That's probably the biggest experience I got from the Army that applies to this job because we're really making a little movie in eight days, and that's an awful lot of work that has to be done. So yes, it's sort of that kind of teamwork and camaraderie that I experienced in the Army that seems to be showing up again here in this show.

So far your character has had cases in Los Angeles, Canada, the Russian Embassy, an airplane and South America. Is there anywhere in particular that you'd like to see Chance travel to?

MV - I would like to see Chance go to Paris. We do go to London in one episode. Where else? Africa, I think, would be kind of an interesting place. There are all kinds of places he could do. Somewhere down south, maybe Texas? I'd love to do an episode that is sort of a quasi-Western. That would be interesting. There's Vietnam and all these other places in Asia that he could go, and there are things going on in China. You name it. We could even write an episode that takes place inside a contained area, like the airplane episode, for example. We really didn't go anywhere for that. That all took place inside the fuselage of an airplane, so maybe we'll be doing something like that as well.

What were some of the acting challenges you found first stepping into the role, and how have you seen the Chance character grow and develop in the episodes you've shot so far?

MV - When I first read the script, which is based on a comic book character, there are certain things that comic book characters can get away with that regular actors can't really do, or at least do convincingly. One is to hold a pose for a long period of time, or to look concerned as if you're in a comic book. So there was that. The show sort of had a feel of a comic book, so there was a challenge of trying to find a way to bring a real person into this. It wasn't written in any sort of hyper-reality. I mean, there's kind of a casual thing that can exist in John Steinberg's [series creator/executive producer] writing, so it's not that hard to kind of do it. It's not complete melodrama or anything. That was the biggest challenge. Reading it and enjoying it like it could have been a comic book, and then thinking, "OK, wait a second, this is me now. How am I going to do this?" It's kind of hard to explain, but that was the biggest challenge. And maybe picturing all the other actors who could do better at it and thinking, "OK, so I'm going to do this?"

As far as development, the way I've grown as an actor is that I've become much more comfortable with some of the action and fighting scenes, and the way Chance's relationships with Jackie's and Chi's characters are starting to become a little bit clearer. And with Chance's development, I'd say he's beginning to come to terms with his past. He made a big change in his life about six or eight years prior to the present that we have now on the show. And I think the reality of why he made that choice and the repercussions that it's going to have is starting to come back to him, so essentially his baggage is starting to arrive.

A lot of shows spend their first season throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Do you feel like Human Target has found its groove and, if so, was there a particular moment for you when you felt like it really clicked?

MV - I think when it really clicked for me was probably the episode Rewind, where we didn't have a lot of locations or big set pieces going on. It all took place in an airplane and you got an idea of, OK, very simply, this is something that has to get done in this plane. And it was broken down and all our characters were - well, Chi and I were in the same location shooting as well, which was kind of cool. Then I think it was the second or third episode in, and the pace that we came up with as well as the shorthand that we developed with the crew and the cameras was pretty amazing. We realized, "Oh, wow, this is what we can do. We've really got something here."

Did you have a vision for what you expected the show to be when you first came onboard, and has it lived up to that?

MV - I didn't have that clear a vision of how it would be. I'd been on shows before that have been new, and with this one, not only is it new, but I'm new to this genre, and Chi is kind of new to it as well, and even the show runners are sort of new to this. So I went into it with an open mind and thinking, "This is going to be exciting as to how it's going to come together" And it has been. It is sort of a collaboration in some ways, where everyone's influence is, if not heard, then it's felt and reacted to, and the end product is something that everyone feels a part of.

How do you balance comedy and drama on the show? Particularly in your performance, you always seem to bring the humor to certain scenes where other  people wouldn't, but then it doesn't get too serious, either. How do you guys manage that?

MV - Something I really love to do is find the lighter moments. A lot of it depends on the scene and the person you're working with and where the jokes can come in or seem appropriate. So there are a few elements that come into that. And, of course, there's the way that the scene is written as well. Maybe it's my soap opera background, where there were no jokes at all. It was all complete melodrama and I wanted parts of it to be funny, so I remember searching and combing through the material and saying, "Well, there's this moment or that moment." I was just so hungry for something to be funny, that I developed, perhaps, a perceptive eye for it.

What's it like to play a lead character when you don't have all the pieces of his background? Is that more difficult for you at all?

MV - Well, it's definitely easier to have some of the pieces. It's somewhat of an advantage to have a bit more of an idea because as actors, we create characters and create things in our imagination, but, ultimately, we're interpretive artists and interpreting what the writers have created. Some people will say that doesn't matter. If it's not in the script, it really doesn't exist, so don't make a big deal about it, but I think in television, it's different. Yes, it would be nice to know, but there are two sides to that. It would be nice to know ahead of time because then maybe I could plan a scene or have that in mind if this might have happened before. On the other hand, it's pretty exciting to find it out as you go along with the rest of the viewers. So not only are you working on a show and acting in it, but it's also fun to be experiencing it as a viewer as well and finding out things as they reveal themselves.

Is the master of disguise aspect of your character from the comic books ever going to make it into the TV series?

MV - Nobody's ruled it out. I know John's attitude was like, let's start off the show where you get to know the central character before we begin dressing him up in disguises. Chance does have an aptitude for languages and my theory with that is he doesn't use it more than is necessary. I mean, he doesn't wear a mustache or glasses or anything if it's not really necessary. or become that other person unless it's absolutely necessary. So that was an adaptation for the TV show, I think, but, again, the disguise aspect hasn't totally been ruled out.

So what's in store for the season finale, and what other guest-stars can we expect to see in the second half of the season?

MV - Well, in the season finale, Baptiste, who is played by Jericho's Lennie James, comes back. His character is Chance's nemesis and is probably the most talented assassin who's still out there working for hire. He and Chance come to blows in an episode called Baptiste and then again in the season finale. Amy Acker shows up and plays a pivotal character from Chance's past in that she was sort of the catalyst for his ultimate transformation into Christopher Chance. Lee Majors is in that episode, too. Armand Assante plays Chance's old boss, and there's a couple of major confrontations there. Emmanuelle Vaugier returns in another episode, too. She plays an FBI agent in Baptiste and Chance, Winston and Guerrero have to figure out a way to enlist her help. Autumn Reeser comes back as well. She sort of has a recurring role on our show. Grace Park is in an episode called Corner Man, and Leonor Varela is in Sanctuary. She's a beautiful and talented Chilean actress who made this one episode look and feel like a movie. She just came in and completely took on this character of an ex-revolutionary who lives in South America and is an ex-lover of Chance's. She was just fabulous.

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

Lennie James - In The Driver ' s Seat

[caption id="attachment_4307" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Number 147 (Lennie James) and his wife, 21-16 (Renate Stuurman) in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] When some people arrive in a new city or town, one of the first things they do is jump into a taxi. After all, the person behind that wheel knows all there is to know about the local main streets and back roads, right? Nowhere is that perhaps more important than in AMC's six-part miniseries The Prisoner. As a cab driver in The Village, Number 147 is the one to seek out when looking to go from A to B in this exclusive community. There is so much more to him, though, than just his driving skills, as actor Lennie James, who plays 147, explains. "At the start of our story, my character is absolutely content and accepting of the rules of The Village in which he lives," says James. "He is a guy who will gladly tell you what you can and cannot say, where you can and cannot go, and what you can and cannot do. And within the confines of The Village, this man has found complete happiness with his wife [12-16. played by Renate Stuurman] and their child. 147 can't believe how lucky he is to not just love his wife, but have his wife love him and then bless him with a child. "In some ways it was a challenge to play a guy who is so content, but what I enjoyed most about the role was playing someone who really has no knowledge of his potential. 147 has no sense of what he can and cannot do, and from early on in the six episodes, is a man who constantly surprises himself." The original 60s Prisoner series focused on an ex-Secret Service agent (Patrick McGoohan) who wakes up in a remote seaside locale called The Village. His name has been replaced by a number, Six, and those in charge are intent on finding out the truth about why he resigned from his job. This re-imagined version of the program has its own Number Six (Jim Caviezel), who, like his predecessor, has a profound impact on certain villagers that he meets, including James' 147. "Besides 147's wife and child, my character's other main relationship is with Number Six," notes the actor. "When Six arrives in The Village, 147 acts as his guide in more ways than one, and his relationship with Six becomes, literally, life-changing. It changes everything about what he thought his life was and what he comes to realize his life could be. It's all due to the chance meeting, really, of Six getting into 147's taxi as opposed to 135's as it were." Keeping an eye on everyone in The Village, especially Six, is Number Two (Ian McKellen). Like his fellow villagers, he makes use of the local taxis, and at one point calls upon 147's services. "One of the scenes I really enjoyed shooting is one with myself and Ian McKellen, where his character is in the backseat of my character's taxi," recalls James. "The whole thing is played through the rearview mirror, and technically it was tricky because you have to look as if you're not looking at each other. Our two characters communicate exclusively through that mirror and have quite a bit to say to one another. I loved doing that scene, not only because I loved working with Ian, but also because of what was going on in it, which was something worthwhile." The Italianate resort village of Portmerion in Gwynedd on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales served as the setting for the original Prisoner. Going for a very different type of look, the producers of the 2009 remake chose to have James along with the rest of the miniseries' cast and crew shoot in South Africa. "The location was absolutely fantastic for the story, but it did hold some challenges for us as a cast and crew," says the actor. "We filmed all our exteriors in a place called Swakopmund, a turn of the century village where the desert meets the sea in Namibia. As Portmerion was in the original Prisoner, this place was very much an extra character that gave the miniseries a particular type of feel. "Swakopmund is a holiday destination, mostly for Germans, but when we were there it wasn't holiday season, so we were shooting in a sort of ghost town. There were a lot of empty houses and empty streets, all of which certainly added to our head space as far as playing the villagers. Again, though, there were times where everybody just felt like they were a long way from home." How familiar was the actor with Patrick McGoohan's incarnation of The Prisoner before he began working on this version? "I'm not old enough to have seen the series when it was first broadcast, but it was on a loop, it seems, during my childhood," he explains. "So I was very aware of it and must have seen, if not all the episodes, most of them at various times while growing up. [caption id="attachment_4309" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Number 147 finds his life of contentment in The Village turned upside-down. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] "I didn't go back and revisit the series for this production, though, because Bill Gallagher's [miniseries writer] scripts were so specific as well as different and I didn't want to put anything in the way of that." Born in Nottingham, England and having spent many of his younger years in South London, James once dreamt of giving a very different type of performance in front of an audience. "Like most English boys, I wanted to be a rugby player," says the actor. "When I was growing up, rugby wasn't a professional sport, but it was something that I wanted to play at the highest level I could. However, when I realized that I wasn't good enough, and before acting came into my life, I wanted to at least pursue a career that was sports oriented, such as a physiotherapist or occupational therapist. "As far as acting, I actually followed a girl who I really fancied into an audition. She wanted to be an actress and the director said I couldn't stay in the room unless I auditioned.  So I did and I got offered a role." A Raisin in the Sun, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Macbeth are among James' theater credits, while on the big screen he has starred in such films as Outlaw, Sahara, Snatch and Les miserables. On TV, the actor has appeared in several made-for-TV movies as well as guest-starred in shows on both sides of the pond including A Touch of Frost, Cold Feet, Spooks, Lie to Me and Three Rivers. James is probably best known for his regular roles in the British series Out of the Blue and the apocalyptic U.S. drama Jericho. "Out of the Blue was an ensemble cop show and I loved it," he enthuses. "It was one of my first big jobs and the first time I worked with Bill Gallagher. We did two seasons of it and, as I'm going to go on to talk about Jericho, one of the things both shows have in common is that they ended, I think, before their time. I'm guessing that whoever made those decisions, in retrospect, probably wouldn't have done the same thing again. "My character in Out of the Blue was a guy called Bruce Hannaford, who was kind of an uptight detective and a perpetual bachelor who dressed well and had a rather inflated opinion of himself. It was a great part to play in amongst a terrific cast including John Hannah [D.S. Frank Drinkall], Neil Dudgeon [D.C. Marty Brazil] and John Duttine [D. I. Eric Temple]. I had a wonderful time doing the series and made some very good friends along the way. The same can be said for Jericho, which was, again, a gift of a part for me, in amongst some fantastic actors." Of all James' roles, The Prisoner was one of his easiest to have booked. "The part was pretty much offered to me," says the actor. "I met with the people I would be working with just to see whether or not we were on the same page, and we were. As I mentioned, I worked with Bill Gallagher before, so it was one of those really nice audition processes where your prior work is taken into consideration and people are gracious enough to offer you the role and not ask you to jump through too many hoops." With some people in the entertainment industry, making sure they are always in the public eye is the definition of having a successful career. James, however, is among those who prefer to take a more down-to-earth approach to the profession. "For me, it's about the job," he says. "These days there is a generation of actors, some of whom seem to be getting into the business for the perks as opposed to the actual work. I very much enjoy the moments between the director calling, 'Action,' and, 'Cut,' when you're making the [acting] choices. And the actors who I admire and aspire to be like are those who enjoy that, too, and for who fame and celebrity are by-products and not the aim. "I truly love what I do and feel blessed that I've been allowed to continue doing it for the past 20 or so years." Steve Eramo The Prisoner continues tonight, Monday, November 16th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and concludes at the same time on Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for an interview with Jamie Campbell-Bower (11-12). As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

AMC ' s The Prisoner Debuts In November

[caption id="attachment_3983" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Two totally opposite numbers - Six (Jim Caviezel) and Two (Ian McKellen) in AMC's The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] A man wakes up in a mysterious place where people have numbers instead of names, and all traces of his former life are renounced as delusions. Welcome to The Village, the setting of AMC's second original miniseries television event, The Prisoner, premiering Sunday, November 15th from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. EST/PST. The six-part miniseries airs over three consecutive nights, with two episodes each evening beginning at 8 p.m. EST/PST. AMC's reinterpretation of the 1960s cult classic by Patrick McGoohan tells the story of one man's desperate quest to find his way back to his former life and reclaim his freedom. A co-production of AMC, ITV Productions and Granada, The Prisoner combines a wide range of genres, from Espionage to Sci-Fi, into an adrenaline pumping, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will ultimately make you question what you think is real. Forty years ago, McGoohan's original 1967 series - a riff on Cold War politics - changed the scope of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Now, AMC's re-imagining explores and questions contemporary issues of power and control; family and love; privacy and security. What is the value and the price of freedom? Who is watching and controlling whom? What is love? Reflecting the same verve, complexity and uniquely disturbing commentary of the original, The Prisoner is an investigation into modern alienation, the corruption of power, rights of the individual, and the mysteries of the human condition. [caption id="attachment_3986" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Village's iconic penny-farthing bicycle logo - an homage to the original Prisoner TV series. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] The Prisoner follows a man (Jim Caviezel) who resigns from his job and wakes up to find himself inexplicably trapped in a strange and surreal place, The Village, with no memory of how he arrived. As he frantically explores his new environment, he discovers that Village residents are identified by number, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Called by the number Six, the man is driven by the desperate need and desire to know what The Village is, why he is there, and who controls it. Is he being brainwashed or debriefed? Most importantly, Six needs to find a way to escape and return to his previous life. The Village is controlled by one man - the sinister and charismatic Two (Ian McKellen), who goes to extreme measures to convince Six that there is no other place but The Village. In order to hold onto his identity, Six engages Two in a battle of wits and challenges the oppressive nature of The Village. When he befriends a doctor, 313 (Ruth Wilson), and a taxicab driver, 147 (Lennie James), Six must fight the temptation to assimilate the hidden truth behind The Village, and in doing so, Six must also confront some dark truths about himself. [caption id="attachment_3990" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Number Two takes a little stroll through The Village. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] "With great affection and respect for the original The Prisoner, AMC set out to re-imagine McGoohan's brilliantly captivating story with the goal of creating a landmark television event," said Charlie Collier, president of GM and AMC. "Just like our other originals which explore, among other themes, the mystery of human behavior, The Prisoner not only entertains, but also addresses larger life questions and asked whether we, as humans, can ever be truly free." Shot on location in Swakopmund, Nambia and South Africa, The Prisoner stars Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ, The Thin Red Line) in the title role of Six, a part that was originally made famous when played by McGoohan; two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code) as Two; Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited, Mansfield Park) as 4-15; Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre, Capturing Mary) in the role of 313; Lennie James (Jericho) as 147; Rachael Blake (Lantana, Tom White) as M2, the wife of Two, and Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) as 11-12, the son of Two. [caption id="attachment_3991" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Six finds himself in a sticky situation. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC"][/caption] The Prisoner debut will be complemented by a variety of exclusive material available on AMC's extensive Prisoner blog, www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner. Fans can watch the original 1960s series, which aired from 1967-1968, in full-screen, and check out episode re-caps, a photo gallery, trivia quiz, talk forum, and behind-the-scenes, making-of-video diaries. AMC co-produced The Prisoner with UK producer Granada and ITV Productions. Granada International will distribute the series worldwide. Trevor Hopkins (Dracula, Poirot) is producer, and Michele Buck (Sex Traffic), Damien Timmer (Housewife 49) and Rebecca Keane (Lost in Austen) are executive producers for ITV. The miniseries is written by Bill Gallagher (Conviction, Clocking Off, Lark Rise To Candleford) and directed by Nick Hurran (It's A Boy Girl Thing, Little Black Book). As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada  and AMC TV, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!