CusickGallery.net: Henry Ian Cusick

http://www.henryiancusick.com/2019/01/26/scifi-vision-exclusive-henry-ian-cusick-talks-the-passage-and-teases-whats-to-come-on-the-100/

by Team Cusick on January 26, 2019 in latest news

SciFi Vision

Published: Monday, 21 January 2019

Tonight the second episode of the new series The Passage airs on FOX. The series follows the secret government facility, Project NOAH, that has found a dangerous virus that scientists think could lead to the cure to every disease, including the outbreak of the Avian flu that is spreading. However, when test subjects turn into monsters, they believe their only chance of success is to give the vaccine to someone younger.

Federal Agent Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is tasked with bringing in young orphan Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney), but changes his mind and decides to protect her instead.

In tonight’s episode, more backstory is revealed about Dr. Jonas Lear, played by Henry Ian Cusick, who discovered the virus. The story delves into why he and Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane), patient zero, went into the Bolivian jungle in the first place.

Cusick recently talked to SciFi Vision about his work on the series, his character’s backstory, and more. He even teased about what is to come on The 100.

SCIFI VISION: Were you familiar with the book series before becoming involved? Did you read it when you got the role?

HENRY IAN CUSICK: No. When I got the role, I was a guest star in this show, with the possibility that I might be recurring. There was never – well I don’t know what the writers had thought, but anyway, I was only going to do this one episode.

So, I hadn’t read the book, but as soon as there was talk of a possibility of coming back as a regular, I read the book. And, you know, I wish I had read the book earlier.
Okay, but you did read the book after. That was going to be my next question.[laughs]
[laughs] Yeah, you know, I said to someone earlier that there’s a great line in the book where Amy Bellafonte talks about her first time seeing Lear, and he’s described as this wild eyed, long haired, great scientist.

Had I read the book, I would have opted to play that a little bit more in the beginning when I first met her. But still, there’s opportunity for me to go down that route, I hope. You’ll just have to watch the other episodes.

Other than the script then, since you hadn’t read the book at that point, was there anywhere else that you pulled inspiration from while creating the character?
You mean just for the pilot?

For the character in general, I guess. I’m not sure how long it was in between filming it.
So, here’s how it was. We shot the pilot, and then there was a break, I believe, and then we got a pickup for the pilot. Then we went in August, I don’t know, around that time, to shoot the rest of it.

I had read the book by then, but even in the book – I don’t know if you’ve read the book, but there isn’t very much for me to go on. There’re bits and pieces. Obviously my relationship with Fanning – in book three, that goes into some depth with Fanning and Lear. But what the writers have very cleverly done, is there’re so many blanks in there, that they’ve kind of filled them in in ways that you’ll find out, especially in my relationship with my wife, Elizabeth (Jennifer Ferrin), and they changed things slightly.

You know, in the book, she’s dying. In our version, she has Alzheimer’s, and I go [to Bolivia] to search for a cure for her.

So, they’ve changed things slightly, but I think in many ways they’ve certainly made Lear a lot richer than anything that was in the book.

But I did use the book as inspiration, as a plot, as markers, to say, you know, “Okay, Tim and I were best friends at Harvard; Elizabeth was part of the group.” You know, things like that.

I know you’ve played scientists before, but did you do any research or talk to any real scientists or anything like that to prepare for the role?
I just went with source material and with the script.

I had a lot of friends in the medical profession. I would ask them certain things, but I didn’t, you know, go to see any microbiologists. I just sort of went with the story and my gut.

When you did decided to take on the role, what was it specifically that stood out to you about the story or character?
What drew me to it, initially, I think, was a scene I was doing in the pilot. I was staring at Fanning, and it struck me quite hard, like, “what an awful predicament.” Here’s my best friend that I took to Bolivia, and here’s what I’ve done with him, and this is what I’m still doing with him. You’ll find out later on how exactly that happened, but here I am, experimenting on my best friend.

And the moment that I was in, I just thought there was a lot of potential storyline there. Is this morally right? Should I just, you know, end his life, or do I carry on experimenting on him?

I think that was the first time I thought that this character has a lot of potential. And this was when I was doing the pilot. I had no idea that I was coming back, but I think that was the point where in my mind, I thought, this character could come back, because there’s a lot of potential between these two characters. That was the hook.

So, you knew at the beginning though the backstory between the characters; that was all revealed to you right away? That’s mostly in episode two.
In the pilot, although I hadn’t read the book, I worked with Jamie, and I said, “Jamie, tell me the book.” Jamie had read everything, because Jamie was super well prepared. At that time he told me the backstories, so yeah.

Okay. I have seen the first three, and in episode two, we find out about his wife and why this all started. Throughout the first few episodes, a few times he voices his concerns about the morality of it, but even though he’s upset about it, he doesn’t do anything to stop it. Can you talk about this inner conflict and how that’s going to continue to affect his job at Project NOAH and his relationships with the other scientists?
I think that’s a really good point, but I justified that – you see that when he starts out, his soul objective is to find a cure for his wife. So, he enlists the help of Tim Fanning. Unfortunately, Tim Fanning brings along the military, and you know, once the military are involved – and he’s not very keen on the military, but he’s caught between a rock and hard place. He thinks, “The military have so much money, and if I could just find that cure, then everything would be fine.” It’s not that way, because, you know, the military are going to weaponize anything they find.

I justified it, that rather than take a moral stand and say “This is wrong; I’m out,” he stays in there, because he thinks, “If I could just find the cure, than it will all be worth it.” So, the end sort of justifies the means. He’d rather be part of the project than be thrown out because he’s taking a political and moral stand.

You mentioned how you filmed the pilot, and that there was a break before filming the rest of the season. It sounds like whole experience took place over a long period of time. Were you flying back and forth between Vancouver and Georgia a lot for The 100? It so, was that difficult? Or was this after the fact? I’m not sure exactly what time frame you filmed this in.
You’re right; I was flying back and forth. Not many times, but I flew back a few times. [laughs] That’s a spoiler.

[laughs] Okay, I won’t put that in then.
[laughs] No you can put it in, actually, read into it what you want.

[laughs] Okay, because that’s one question people kept asking me that I’m like, “I can’t actually ask him if he’s still alive!” I’m like, “I’m not going to ask that!”[laughs]
Ask it. Go ahead and ask me; you can ask me anything.

Okay, [laughs] is Kane alive? [laughs] They wanted to know what was going to happen. I don’t think you are allowed to tell me that!
I will say this. On April the 30th, when it returns to the CW, in the very first episode, you will get pretty much everything you – well, a lot of what you need to know about what happens to Marcus Kane. It’s dealt with very early on. You don’t need to wait. So, definitely tune in and check it out.

I asked Mark-Paul this, so I’m going to ask you. This is genre TV, a science fiction vampire show, but different than what’s been on before. Obviously I’ve seen further, but for people just tuning in, can you give them a tease of why this show is different and why they should check it out? 
So, I think what’s special about this show, is the size of it, the epic nature of this show, which is unlike anything else on network, I believe. We’ve seen apocalyptic shows and vampire shows, but we’ve never seen something that has so many different strings.

As you’ve seen from the pilot, you have a beautiful story between Mark-Paul and Saniyya. It’s sort of a father-daughter buddy story, and that really is the heart of the show.

And then, for example, on set I wouldn’t see Mark-Paul. I’d say, “Hey, Mark-Paul, what are you up to?” He’d say, “Oh I’m doing a father daughter movie.” “What are you doing?” He’d say, “I’m doing a vampire movie.” You know, it takes a long time for us to connect with each other, for all the strings of the stories to come together. For example with Vincent Piazza (plays Clark Richards), it took me a long time to get to know his side of the story.

So, what I like most about the show is the different strings to this epic adventure. And there’re so many other strings to it we haven’t even begun to touch upon. We’ve only [taken some from] the first book even though we did jump around a little bit, but there’s so much more story I think that will really surprise people. Also what the writers have really cleverly done, is they’ve added a lot of backstory which isn’t in the book, so you get to know a lot of my backstory. So, yeah, I would say it’s just the epic size. When you have a big ensemble cast, it’s always cool to pick the ones you really want to follow, who you like the best, the storylines. I think really there’s something for everyone.

Well, I’m definitively enjoying it so far.
Oh good, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Thanks. I’m sure I will.

So, is there any room in the show for ad-libbing lines or are they pretty strict with the script?
You know, I’ve worked on LOST, and that was [one where] you could not deviate one jot from the script [laughs], so I know how strict scripts can be. This one we had writers on set, and it really was quite freeing in a way. We could deviate. As long as it meant the same thing as the lines, we could deviate.

And what’s lovely about having these writers, is they were open to suggestions. I think Jamie was really good at ad-libbing some things. And if they were good, they would say, “Yeah, say that.”

Even in the pilot, I think, Liz [Heldens] turned to me, and even though we got the script, she said, “Okay, this time say this” or she’d give me new lines each time.

So, I liked that a lot. I liked the freeness and the ability that we could change things, you know, when you have executives on set.

Was there anything you found particularly challenging?
I guess our time frame was pretty challenging. We were really pushed; we were up against it. For some reason it just seemed you were always – I think there was so much story, so much script, that you were always pushed for time. But challenges like that, that pretty much is common in television. Television works fast, and, you know, I enjoy a challenge anyway. People say “Challenges?” I go, “I want to be shooting, you know, in the Amazon pushing a boat across the jungle.” For me, that would be fun. Not that we did that; I was referencing another movie. [laughs] You know what I mean. The harder it is, the more fun it is for me.

Before you go, I do want to divert for a second. Because I was a huge fan of LOST, I wanted to ask you something about it, but something that was unique and hasn’t been asked, which is pretty hard to come up with. So is there something interesting you can think of that fans haven’t heard a lot about? Maybe a memory that stands out or something?
You know, when I shot LOST, I was so in it. I’ve never had a character that I wake up with in the morning – except in theater, but I’d wake up and I’d think, “I’m Desmond.” You know, I was always Desmond. It was a great gig. It brought me to Hawaii. I still live in Hawaii. It was just one of those [things]. I don’t have any particular story, but I do remember one time being on set and just thinking it just felt so right. It was just a great experience. I just wish I had enjoyed it a lot more when I was doing it. I was so in it that I didn’t really appreciate what I was in. And it’s hard to appreciate sometimes what you’re in. So this time around with The Passage I got to really be in the moment and enjoy it a lot more.

Okay, well, like I said, I’ve seen the first three, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. I want to know what happens –
I think the show, progressively, I think it gets even so much better. I’m very proud of it. I haven’t seen everything. I’ve seen clips and ADR bits, but from the scripts, you know, it gets progressively better. So I hope you enjoy the rest of it.

I’m sure I will. Before you go, is there anything you tease about something coming up?
Which episode do I want to talk about? There’re so many good bits.

I’m going to give a shout out to Jennifer Ferrin, who plays Elizabeth. I really enjoyed working with her. She does a really great job in that role. Most of my stuff has been with Jamie and Elizabeth and I’ve really enjoyed working with those two. I think that for me is probably my favorite stuff I’ve been doing for the show.

Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot

Season 1 Episode 2: You Owe Me a Unicorn

https://www.tvinsider.com/747390/fox-the-passage-vampire-show-review/

Emily Hannemann January 27, 2019 3:00 pm

OPINIONFox

After green-lighting many shows with vampires as sexualized, sultry, sparkly beings, it’s about time network TV showcased some bloodsuckers with teeth.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with the pretty vampire — the formula certainly worked for The CW’s wildly successful Vampire Diaries series and its subsequent spinoffs, and it may be successful yet again with the network’s recently announced pilot for The Lost Boys. 

But there’s not much shared DNA between Stefan and Damon Salvatore and the “Virals” on Fox’s new drama. There has been a distinct lack of scary vampires gracing our screens during primetime, especially on major network and broadcast television. Instead the thrills and chills have been left largely to zombies, serial killers and creepy clowns.

The Passage has changed that.

‘The Passage’: Henry Ian Cusick on Lear’s Past & the End of Mankind (VIDEO)

A twisted history with one of the main Virals led the doctor to make a very bad choice.

Making Vampires Scary Again

Though scary vampires haven’t been completely alien to TV in recent years (they showed up on FX’s The Strain and in Penny Dreadful), there aren’t many shows that are doing what The Passage is doing with them. Though pretty much everyone in Project Noah is being very careful not to call the test subjects the v-word, it’s clear from the way they’re guzzling blood and chomping on human necks that that’s what they’ve become.

It’s interesting and refreshingly unique that on this program, vampires aren’t necessarily the outcome of a deadly viral outbreak. Rather than emerging in the aftermath of a disease the way zombies have on other programs, the lab coats on The Passage created vampires as an unfortunate side effect to a drug meant to treat all human illness — and now, in an equally unfortunate coincidence, they’re trying to get it functioning enough to combat a deadly disease that’s sweeping through the population at an alarming rate. It’s an interesting commentary in the same vein as Jurassic Park and other science-based flicks that feature protagonists “playing God,” often to a ruinous end.

Playing God

As with many sci-fi and horror shows, this commentary then offers a set of familiar, tricky questions: do scientists have the right to perform deadly experiments and even (accidentally) create new species in order to save what remains of the human race? Is there any justification for performing those tests on children, when data suggests a child might be the key to uncovering a cure? Do the ends justify the means, when the means are atrocious but the ends would otherwise be disastrous? Dr. Jonas Lear (played by Lost alum and The 100 star Henry Ian Cusick) spends time roaming around in these moral labyrinths and visibly grapples with right and wrong… and grapples with the fact that his business partner, Noah’s other founding member, is now sitting in a cage and drinking blood. (If you thought Marcus Kane had it rough on The 100, Jonas Lear might be in an even worse position. Cusick’s morally sound, good-guy-in-a-bad-situation characters can’t catch a break!)

But enough about science. Back to vampires.

A Threat With Brains…and Teeth

At this point, the bloodsuckers on The Passage are so interesting because they’re not yet a threat, but the show is offering more and more evidence that they have the potential to become every bit as deadly as the disease they were created in an attempt to treat. Though vampires with supernatural powers aren’t a new concept, the way the bloodsuckers on The Passage are getting into people’s heads through dreams and thus influencing their decision-making is certainly intriguing. There’s also evidence they may retain some level of reason or even human empathy; one of the vampires chomps on a science lab janitor who was taunting and harassing her, but leaves his co-worker — a kinder, more reasonable dude — unbitten.

In that way, The Passage’s potential catalyst for the apocalypse is perhaps more stimulating than other beings that have caused the downfall of the human race on sci-fi shows. For example, take zombies. While both zombies and vampires have their merits, the concept of a takeover by a new species that can think, reason, influence and infect people provides rich soil for a unique apocalyptic and even post-apocalyptic story to take root. Zombies are relatively slow and easily killed, unless they’re in a big group: we don’t yet know how the vampires on The Passage can be taken out, but we know they’re pretty quick and very manipulative. This isn’t to say one is better than the other — one only need peek at The Walking Dead’s ratings circa Season 4 or 5 to know just how well a good zombie story can resonate — but Fox’s drama has potential non-human antagonists that offer conflict on levels that zombies cannot, and unique thrills for fans of the apocalyptic and horror genres.

The Passage of Time

It will remain to be seen whether The Passage adheres to its source material or chooses to deviate from it — as someone who has not read the book but understands enough to know a textbook adaptation would be a struggle, I agree with those who have said the drama has a steep challenge ahead in terms of how it utilizes Cronin’s novel and one specific time jump in particular. But at this point, based solely on the 90 minutes that have aired to date, the show is doing a good job of finding a human angle amidst the science and the burgeoning end of the world with the developing parent-child relationship between Brad Wolgast and Amy Belafonte (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Saniyya Sidney).

But perhaps most refreshingly, the drama is showing vampires as less something to lust after and more something to fear. For horror fans and fans of genre television, that’s definitely worth sinking one’s teeth into.

The Passage, Mondays, 9/8c, Fox