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Tuesday, September 1,
2009
Rock Bottom Interview
By Tim Nydell
How would you get into character before each episode?
Based on what was going on in the script; I’d breakdown the script
and do my homework before I got in – just focus on where the
character was in that part of the story. I’d really take a look at
which characters I was interacting with; which was a big part in it
because I really didn’t interact with everybody – and the few people
that I did was either antagonistic or I saw them as my only friend
so to speak. And then just my imagination; made stuff up.
Can you relate to your character, J.D.?
I think so – I hope that’s his appeal for the viewers as well… that
he seems to be misunderstood. I know he’s painted as the black sheep
and he’s painted kind of negative, but analyzing it… he’s extremely
sensitive about things and at the same time he’s having trouble
dealing with the fakeness that surrounds us in the world… and his
outlet sometimes seems a little extreme, such as the tattoos and
wanting to be left alone or even fighting for what he believes in. I
think in that sense people can relate to feeling like an outsider or
feeling alienated themselves.
It was such a serious show; was it that way on and off the set as
well?
Mostly the opposite; on the set it pretty much was, we kind of
rolled through it quickly because we didn’t have a lot of time – we
couldn’t really afford a lot of screwing around. Definitely off the
set… we would hit the town – we were up in Vancouver so we only had
each other to hang out with; some of the people on the show were
local Canadians so they kind of showed us a lot of their spots. If
we weren’t working; we were pretty much doing something.
So being the outcast on the show didn’t make you an outcast off
the show…
Yeah, thankfully not. [laughs] When we shot the pilot; a lot of the
same people came back for it and my character wasn’t in it that much
in the pilot – so at first I really didn’t know people. And it was
great to be outside of L.A. filming – that kind of helps us focus on
the show and be away from others influences that could get in the
way.
What was your favourite scene to shoot and why?
I like the fighting scene… the very first one where the character
really gets introduced. They were talking about him the entire
episode and you see him… in sort of a great way… I didn’t have a lot
of lines in that; I’ve been talked about for a long time and the
reveal was this embodiment of who this person was. So they did all
the work for me by talking about him for the episode, and I thought
that was good introduction for my character. That was fun, plus it
was the first day of filming. The stuff with Abby is always great;
the jail stuff was pretty fun… I kind of liked all of them. I felt
like I was pretty lucky – it wasn’t just me and a group… it was me
and somebody else… like the little girl.
Fingers were pointing at you pretty early in the series; did you
ever think you could be the killer?
I did, yeah. No one knew who it was, nobody was told who it was… but
we were asked "Well, if it’s you… would you want to know?" – so I
was like "Well, no… not until I needed to" … because it may
influence things in a negative way. But them just asking that kind
of planted that seed… "Why would they ask me that?" It’s gotta be
me, they’re not asking everybody… they just asked me. Early on I had
the feeling that it was possible; I thought I was only up there for
two weeks, but it ended up being a six month thing. But yeah, I
thought it could have been me… then half way through I thought that
maybe it wasn’t me, but I could be there until the end to prove
myself innocent or prove myself useful for the group. And once you
learn that there’s two people… you start putting it together by
trying to figure out who was where at what time. I thought that
maybe it was Abby for a while; then I thought it was Shane and his
buddy Jimmy… but it would change every week. We would get the
scripts before we shoot, and we would just quickly sit down to read
them… to figure out if we were dead or not.
While you were filming your death scene; what did you think J.D.
meant by his last words "It’s all about you, Abby"?
Well, in the script it was written a little bit differently – then
when we were actually filming it on set they gave me a couple more
phrases to say, and that was one of them. So when I was dealing with
it at the time… it kind of felt that it was a little vague on
purpose and misleading, but it was definitely a warning for her.
That’s how I took it. I wasn’t pointing a finger at her; just that
"this is all about you"… this isn’t just random, this has to do with
you.
What did the original script say?
I want to say it actually said "Henry"… like dot, dot, dot… But they
didn’t want it to be an answer, because I didn’t even know at that
time that it was him… I assumed it was, in reading it my gut told me
that it was. So, I don’t think it was an answer to her question as
much as it was like the beginning of a sentence… and you’d just
assume that he’s [Henry] there to help. Maybe he got scared and ran
off and doesn’t know what to do. So I can see why they changed it;
it was a little too heavy.
I heard they also cut a lot of footage from your death scene…
You know, not a lot… they basically shot it several times; they had
guts… like sausages really. I was basically holding them; they were
fumbling all over and I was trying to keep them contained. Then we
shot some without that, and that’s what they showed… it got a little
too gory for them.
Is that going to be on the DVD?
I heard it was; I know some of the other peoples cut deaths are
going to be on the DVD, so I think that one might be. But it’s not
gruesome, it’s not like Malcolm… when he gets beheaded; I think
they’re actually going to show the head that they throw in. But mine
doesn’t seem like it’ll change that much; it was a minor kind of
edit I guess. Because even though you can see me… you don’t know
what happened. People didn’t even know if I was dead… or if I got
shot, but it was basically a stabbing of some sort.
How did the producers tell you that you were the next victim?
I was headed home from the grocery store and I got a message earlier
in the day from Karim; Karim was one of the producers, and he was
known as the assassin. He was the guy who pretty much told everybody
who was going to go next. I think I got a message from him earlier
in the day saying something like "Oh, I’ll call you later" – they
were still filming; so I thought he was wanting to go out that night
to do something. Then he finally gets a hold of me and I say "What’s
up?" and he’s like "Ah, we’re still here; we’re going to be here
longer… well, the script comes out tomorrow and you don’t make it".
I didn’t really comprehend what he was saying at first; "What do you
mean I don’t make it?" it didn’t occur to me because I wasn’t
expecting it at all. So it completely took me by surprise; then he
went into how he does it and tells me the scene… and that was it. At
least it wasn’t a text.
Looking back at the show; what are your favourite top three death
scenes?
I liked Matt Barr’s [Sully]; it was very dramatic and slo-mo… by
then they built this great relationship and he almost becomes a
sucker by then… the audience knows who the killer is and he doesn’t;
he just doesn’t understand he feels Henry is messing with him… then
he gets it. That one was different from the rest; there was a little
more emotion involved. I liked the Sheriff’s; I didn’t know what was
going to happen – then he just gets slammed through the window… I
thought it was great. I think that one was done really effectively,
because at first I thought that there was a trip wire and he was
going to get shot. Then the third one, the fire is pretty intense –
a lot of people didn’t even want to watch it after that. So that’s
kind of memorable, but I think those other two are probably best.
And then the father [Richard] gets harpooned, but I liked when they
found him – it was the aftermath of the killing.
So what else are you working on right now?
I’m just auditioning; I did a little spot on "Lie to Me" a couple
weeks ago, and that was it. I’m just auditioning and trying to book
some more roles. I’m doing some writing for short films with
friends, no big series like that one [Harper’s Island] just yet.
You came from doing theatre, right?
Yeah, I did a lot of it in… after Detroit I moved to Chicago and did
a lot of it there… then when I moved here I didn’t think I would do
as much, and I did actually – I’ve done more than I thought I was
going to do, but in Chicago I worked on a lot of student films and
Indie films, and that’s what gave me the idea to try it out here. So
I’ve done quite a bit of theatre; it’s a different sort of feat to
tackle.
Is that something you’re still going to do? Or are you just
pursuing being an actor on television and film?
My pursuit is kind of that focus; just because I’m trying to pay the
rent [laughs]… you don’t really make a lot in theatre unfortunately,
but it definitely still is a love… I love seeing it and going to it…
and working on it. I think I’ll continue doing it, but I don’t know
when, where or how it’ll fit into my life at this point yet.
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