Thank you to Mark Brennan at Exit6FilmFest.com for this new interview with Henry Ian Cusick. Ian discusses acting, directing, his indie film ‘dress’ which marked his directorial debut and the current coronavirus lock down the US and world is experiencing right now. Read the article in it’s entirety below:
‘Lost’ star Henry Ian Cusick cutting his directing teeth with short film ‘dress’
Henry Ian Cusick, star of Lost, The 100 and MacGyver, talks to us about making his short film dress, lessons learned both as an actor and a director during the process, and the challenges between directing short film and television series.
Nowhere is completely safe in the middle of a pandemic, but if you had to think of preferred places for this period of isolation, Hawaii might make the list. And if there’s one man that knows about isolation in Hawaii, it’s Lost star Henry Ian Cusick.
When Boris Johnson announced the UK lockdown, it didn’t take long for references to Cusick’s Lost character Desmond Hume to surface as a comparison for how people might spend their own time in isolation. It’s a reference that must have reached Cusick quickly.
“I’ve seen a few memes and few things on Twitter about it. It’s been fun. It’s funny how quick you do get into a routine and it does involve working out. I never would workout as much as I do now, but every morning I do because it’s something to kill time. My family keep urging me to do a reenactment in the house of the whole quarantine episode during the opening of series 2. Maybe I’ll get round to it.”
Despite my encouragement, we must wait in hope that it will be the next home video to take Twitter by storm. However, when it was coronavirus taking the world by storm, eventually taking hold in the US, Cusick was in Atlanta filming the latest series of MacGyver. How quickly did they realise something was very wrong?
“We went back to work in January of 2020 after a big break. I was hearing a lot about Wuhan at the time. There’s a big Chinese community here in Hawaii and there was a Chinese New Year, so I’d been hearing about it. Then as things progressed we had the big spectrum of opinions on set. They ranged from ‘Ah, it’s nothing, forget about it’, to ‘Whoa, just don’t touch me,’ and “Why is that person coughing and not wearing a mask?’ I just thought ‘There’s no way we’re going to finish the season’.
“Then we got a phone call halfway through Episode 20 saying, ‘we’re going to shut down’. We just sort of downed tools and left. I think Grey’s Anatomy was the first one I read that shut down. We all followed very quickly after that. The rumour is we’ll go back and finish the season when we can get the all-clear.”
In the meantime, Cusick has safely reunited with his family on his home island Hawaii, which is the location for the short film that has prompted for our chat – his directorial debut dress.
It’s a poetic and emotional tale of Ben and his two sons as they struggle to cope with the death of his wife Maile. In searching for an appropriate way to grieve, Ben creates drama, confusion and a whole new way of remembering Mom.
“I was just so keen to direct something, having spent time writing pilots, and I had this idea while my wife was away. I was in the kitchen and I could hear the kids coming home and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if I was just standing here cleaning up the kitchen wearing a dress?’.
“Then I thought ‘why would I be wearing a dress and how would it affect them?’ Then it went on, ‘What are the taboos of wearing a dress?’ I can wear a sarong, that’s okay, but I’m not allowed to wear a dress. Why is that? It just snowballed from there.
“I approached my friend Angela Laprete, who was one of the producers on Lost and I said, ‘I have this idea for a film. I’m just going to shoot it at home with me and my kids. It will cost nothing, shoot on a couple of 5D cameras, will you help me out?’ She said, ‘Yes’. Then a month later there’s 35-40 crew in my house, two Red cameras, and we were shooting dress! It was phenomenal.”
Much of the team that Cusick and producer Angela Laprete were able to pull together, including DOP Don King and stunt coordinator Brian L. Keaulana, were also Lost alumni (even the films composer Michael Giacchino). The project also gave a chance for some crew to work a level above where they might normally, an additional incentive when many, if not all, gave their time for free.
One striking sequence early in the film beautifully captured is a funeral at sea. Seeing a scene of such grief play out against a backdrop of what is something of a literal paradise, is a powerful contrast.
“I’ve always been aware that Hawaii, it is sort of paradise. I was aware of doing this beautiful ceremony at sea, which is very common here. Funerals are usually beautiful things because you’re in the sea and it’s usually a sunny day and everyone jumps in the water. That is kind of inherent here in Hawaii.
“Of course, the day we did the funeral scene, it was quite cloudy! I boosted the colours in post, but it was a cold, wet day. We were there all day and it was pretty windy. Usually, Lanikai is completely flat. It’s one of the flattest parts of the island.
Speaking of colour-correction, it was post-production where Cusick learned the most. It was a process that took over a month while staying with friend and editor Mitchell Sinoway.
“Post-production, for me, that was definitely the biggest learning curve. I had to redo my sound because it wasn’t good enough. I found the editing really tricky. Getting one part of the scene right meant another would lag, and just having to balance it all out to make it all work continuously was really quite challenging.
“I remember when I finished filming, one of the crew said to me, ‘Okay, you filmed it, now you’ve got to edit it’. I think he was throwing down the gauntlet in a way, ‘Now we’ll see if you can direct’. That’s when you can make or break a film, when you’re in the editing process. Even with an episode of anything, that’s when magic can happen and when you can change the whole storytelling dynamic.”
Going back to more familiar territory, having worked with numerous directors in the past, how did he find directing himself?
“The pressure from me on myself as an actor, I really enjoyed that. I knew exactly what I wanted for myself, so I didn’t have to spend too much time looking at what I did. I started off looking at the monitor and then it just took too long. My actors head would say, ‘I don’t like the way I did that.’ So I had to stop doing that. I had to trust my DP and my cameraman. I would give myself one maybe two takes and move on.
“Usually, when you’re working on film and TV, you’re going to want to warm up two to maybe three takes. By the third take, you’re usually getting it right. Not in this case. I would rather spend the time on the other actors.
It was having the opportunity to direct other actors for the first time where Cusick felt really at home, with many of the cast first-time actors themselves. The experience also taught him a lot about himself as an actor and how easy (or otherwise) he may have been to direct in the past.
“That’s one of the things that directing has helped me a lot with, because for a little while I would say I couldn’t be directed [laughs]. A guest director coming in to direct me in a TV series would have found it very difficult because I was set in my ways and I knew best. It taught me a lot to listen and respect other people’s views because they’re only trying to help.
“But you have that thing of having to hand over trust to a director. It’s very hard to do that in episodic TV where somebody is coming in and you have to just say, ‘Well, I don’t know who you are. I’m just going to trust you. You just put the camera there and I will do what I do, don’t give me any notes’ [laughs]. So working with actors, I really enjoyed that, and I really felt I could help them. Especially actors who had never acted before.”
Working with actors from behind the camera wasn’t the only experience that helped him progress as a director. The nature of short filmmaking, the quick decisions needed when time, funding and circumstances are working against you, helped when it came to keeping his head directing episodes of The 100.
“Yes, it had been something that I had seen in other directors, how they lead. I’ve seen directors kick things over and start shouting and swearing when things go wrong. I’ve seen other directors just improvise and say, ‘Fine we’ll do it this way’. I’ve always admired people who can do that when the shit hits the fan.
“There’s a poem, ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you. But make allowance for their doubting too’. That is just like a great opening line for any director. That did help me a lot, not only as a director but in life.”
I offer that it must be difficult to parachute into a running series as a guest director, when the cast and crew are very much already in the groove of what they’re doing.
“Absolutely. That is very difficult. The director has to win the trust of the crew. Not only the actors but the crew because that’s important. If you lose the trust of the crew, the crew will just ride over you. It’s a machine and I’ve seen directors just get snowballed. They’re still thinking of the last setup and we’re moving onto the next one. It’s a fine balancing act. Keeping the crew happy, keeping the actors happy, getting your vision across.
“Since I’ve directed, I’m a lot more open to that now. I’m listening and I’m thinking, ‘I’m on your side now’. Before I used to be only on the actors side [laughs]. Now I’m listening to the director and asking, ‘What’s your vision? What do you want? Okay, I’m going to help you out as much as I can.’ I’m now trying to be the actor that I would like to direct.”
Looking back at dress now, and the beginning of his journey as a director, what advice would he go back and give himself, or indeed another other filmmaker about to produce their first film?
“Well, I was very fortunate with dress. I had a lot of crew, a lot of help, but one thing I did do was rehearse. I got all the actors to come over to my house. We rehearsed every single scene before we shot it. I knew exactly what I was doing. That I would definitely do again. That saved me a lot of time on the day.
“I think I would have liked to learn more about the camera, and about the shots that I wanted to get. My DP did a great job and I love what he did, but I think we could have gone a little bit cooler, a little bit more experimental. I think when making a short, you can have fun, you can take chances, which you can’t do when doing television.”
“If I were to do another short, I would be a lot more experimental, a lot more avant-garde. Try things that you just to know you wouldn’t be allowed to do in the real world. You might as well go for it.”
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cQE8qf-388c4PcHaYF-_gpKdj6Cm3Ee5sL3NAQhlZ-E_1.jpg300525Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-04-23 21:56:002020-04-24 01:59:46From Exit6FilmFest: New Interview with Ian on dress, directing, the lock down
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/maxresdefault.jpg5761024Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-04-10 17:20:002020-04-10 21:36:02The Gospel Of John
A new episode of MacGyver with Russ Taylor and the entire MacGyver team airs tonight at 8/7c on CBS!
Synopsis: “LOS ANGELES’ POWER GRID IS TAKEN HOSTAGE IN A RANSOMWARE ATTACK RESULTING IN A CITYWIDE BLACKOUT, AND THE TEAM DISCOVERS THAT THE CODE USED WAS WRITTEN BY RILEY YEARS AGO”
Enjoy several preview clips and preview caps under the link at Ian’s official fansite: CusickGallery.net
Don’t miss tonight’s episode, 4.08, ‘Father+Son+Father+Matriarch’ with guest stars Jeri Ryan and Tate Donovan
Check out SpoilerTV’s preview……..we’ve shared one of their preview videos below which features Matty (Meredith Eaton) and Ian as Russ Taylor, but be sure to see them and more, all here at the link! SpoilerTV/MacGyver 4.08Preview
A few caps of our man Russ Taylor below too:
*Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor on Macgyver, Fridays at 8/7c on CBS*
Recent press indicates while most of the world stays at home as much as they can to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus, there have been those remembering and reminiscing of Desmond Hume’s similar situation.
On LOST, Desmond spent 3 years down in the hatch, in a self imposed quarantine of his own. Pushing the button every 108 seconds in order to save the world. Enjoy the three articles below the photo cap and let’s do like Desmond did……stay home, stay safe….let’s save the world!
Desmond’s introduction on the show is one of Lost‘s great reveals. In a subplot from the first season, the characters Locke (Terry O’Quinn) and Boone (Ian Somerhalder) stumble on a hatch door buried in the middle of the jungle of the remote island where their plane crash-landed. The unlikely duo decides to excavate the hatch, but they initially keep it from their fellow survivors. Boone, on his death bed, reveals the hatch’s location to the island’s de facto leader, surgeon Jack (Matthew Fox), and the season finale involves a mission to open it and find out what’s inside.
That final episode ends with tantalizing tease: Jack and Locke peering into the hatch before the credits smash and we realized we’d have to wait a whole summer to learn what was in there.
So what was in there? The opening of the season two premiere introduced us to what seems like a totally unrelated series of events: normal scenes of a man starting his day. However, we quickly learn that this man is actually down there in the hatch—a strange, bunker-like place frozen in a ’70s aesthetic—and that he’s about to be confronted by the survivors of Oceanic 815, after years in isolation. We also learn that stamped on the inside hatch door is a curious word: “Quarantine.”
That means Desmond is under the belief that his bunker home is protecting him from some unknown illness on the island—an illness the survivors might now have. Because this is Lost, it would take us way too long to explain the truth of the matter, and frankly, we’re not even sure we know the answers ourselves. Suffice it to say, Desmond’s story is one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking on the show, and how he came to be on the island—and what becomes of him later—are worth the hours of investment.
What we want to do here instead is take a look at his morning quarantine routine. Because it’s actually a pretty good model for what we should all be doing every morning.
First, Desmond starts his day by hopping out of his bunk, pressing some buttons on a computer (you do not have to do this as you are not trying to “save the world” in your quarantine), and then heads to his record player and puts on some tunes. The song he picks in the season two premiere is “Make Your Own Kind Of Music” by Mama Cass Elliot—the perfect sort of breezy, infectious, and upbeat tune to get you through another day of quarantine. The lyrics are also a little on the nose for self-isolation:
You’re gonna be knowing The loneliest kind of lonely, It may be rough goin’, Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do.
But you’ve gotta make your own music Sing your own special song, Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along.
As the song plays, he washes the previous night’s dishes, and then hops on his exercise bike. We watch his mini fitness routine, which includes pull-ups and sit-ups. Next, he pops into the shower, does a nice little scrub-down, then heads back to the kitchen to make a breakfast smoothie. We’re not entirely sure what’s in this thing; it looks like a combination of protein powder, cherries, and peaches. But he’s doing his best with what he’s got.
That’s about when things veer off into Lost territory, since we next see Desmond inject himself with some sort of mysterious medicine, and then the hatch door explodes and he’s thrust into action. But don’t worry, he makes sure to change into his work jumpsuit first! As the experts say, the best work-from-home practice is to treat it like you’re going into the office anyway; that includes getting dressed.
It’s a pretty simple scene, and honestly, not one we thought we’d ever need to look to for inspiration. But it’s 2020, the year where absolutely nothing makes sense. So why not let a moment from Lost inform us about the dos and don’ts of quarantined life? Thank you Desmond, for this vital bit of informative pop culture. May we all be as fit as you by the end of this.
A scene from the TV show Lost is being circulated online following Boris Johnson’s speech to the nation in which he put the UK on partial lockdown because of coronavirus.
While addressing the country on Monday night (23 March), Johnson ordered people to “stay at home” and sanctioned one form of exercise a day.
This led many to think of the character Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) in the hit US show centered on plane crash survivors.
Desmond was introduced in the show’s second season as a character residing in a mysterious hatch found in the jungle by two survivors.
The first time he’s ever seen, he’s shown going about his daily routine, which involves listening to some music (in this instance, Mama Cass), showering and exercising.
It’s later revealed he’s been locked away for three years believing to be under quarantine due to a deadly “sickness” on the island.
One person shared a clip of Desmond’s introduction on Twitter, writing: “Me three weeks from now, working from home.”
Another added: “We are Desmond from Lost until May”.
“The longer this isolation/quarantine goes on I reckon I am going to morph into Desmond,” wrote a third.
Writer Lindsey Romain even wrote an article about the character for Nerdist, commenting: “My man Desmond had a quarantine routine before it was cool so i wrote about it.”
Of course we don’t have the added pressure of pushing a button every 108 minutes in the belief it will “save the world”, although one tweeter stated: ”I feel like Desmond on Lost, hunkered down in the hatch, and every 108 minutes I push a button to launch a Google Hangout.”
Lost is available to stream on Amazon Prime and you can follow along with a rewatch podcast.
When we finally saw what was in the hatch at the beginning of the second season of Lost, we met Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick). His sole purpose was to press buttons at proper times. When he wasn’t doing that, he was adhering to a somewhat strict regimen of keeping himself entertained.
He gets pretty good at it, but when newcomers show up and he gets to hand the button-pushing job to someone (anyone) else? This dude is gone baby, gone. He could not have gotten out of the hatch fast enough, because social distancing doesn’t allow him to reunite with his beloved Penny, or “Pennahh.” He gets stuck on the island anyway, and we’re glad — he’s one of the best characters that ever appeared on this series. See you in another life, brother.
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/lost_caps_201_009.jpg6681212Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-03-26 14:48:002020-04-02 15:24:49CoronaVirus: During This Time of Self Quarantine, Desmond Hume Provides Inspiration!
As the Coronavirus spreads into the US and across it, it’s affecting families and businesses all over.
The television/film business has been affected as well and several TV shows recently had to stop current production…..MacGyver was included in those. CBS officially stopped production on Friday, March 13th. At that time, they were shooting episode 20 of the 22 episodes scheduled for season four.
It’s unclear how many episodes will be aired as the season progresses, we’re hoping for as many as they can possibly complete in post production. It’s been a thrilling season so far with Ian’s character Russ Taylor, quickly becoming a fan favorite! Fans needless to say, are hoping for a season five and the cast and crew are too!
Ian tweeted out a video to all the fans about the end of the season’s production and also gave some encouraging words for all of us as we go through the uncertainty of the Coronavirus, during the coming weeks. In his usual way, it was both entertaining and endearing.
We hope everyone will take all the necessary precautions, and stay safe and well. We are all in this together!
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_6134.jpg352828Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-03-24 16:30:002020-03-24 20:33:10MacGyver Season 4 Production Stopped Due To Coronavirus
Guest star Amanda Schull delivers a stellar performance in the episode as the feisty and idealistic doctor Emilia, Russ Taylor’s former love interest whose kidnapping sets the episode’s events in motion.
Henry Ian Cusick, Levy Tran, and Amanda Schull (CBS)
This article contains spoilers for ‘MacGyver’ Season 4 Episode 6 ‘Right + Wrong + Both + Neither’
‘MacGyver’ Season 4’s last episode dropped quite a bomb with the reveal that Matty Webber (Meredith Eaton) might be Titan, the head of Codex, but Episode 6 ‘Right + Wrong + Both + Neither’ quickly resolves that mystery within the first few minutes and moves on to deliver a powerful episode centered around Russ Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick). The character has been a bit of an enigma since he joined the show at the start of the season but Episode 6 finally sheds some light on his motivations.
Guest star Amanda Schull delivers a stellar performance in the episode as the feisty and idealistic doctor Emilia, Russ Taylor’s former love interest whose kidnapping sets the episode’s events in motion. Schull’s chemistry with Cusick was absolutely delightful and the way the episode ends their story is frankly heartbreaking.
It’s a pretty intense episode that involves global politics and a lot of gray morality, especially with Angus “Mac” MacGyver (Lucas Till) finally realizing just how much the Phoenix Foundation’s world has changed in recent times. Even though they’ve always been covert operatives, Mac and his team have never had to make choices as hard as the ones they’re being forced into this season and while they may be the right choices, that doesn’t mean they don’t weigh heavily on Mac’s mind.
Perhaps the most important thing about the episode was that it finally gave us some hints as to why Russ chose to give up his life as a private military contractor and buy the Phoenix Foundation. So far, we’ve had this nagging suspicion that he might actually be a Codex operative but now it seems more likely that Emilia may have influenced Russ to become a better person, or at least try to be.
The final moments of the episode add yet another twist to the season’s mystery with Matty saying “I think she’s back” on an encrypted phone call. Does Matty have an evil twin we didn’t know about? Or is this “she” something else altogether? We’ll just have to wait and see.
‘MacGyver’ Season 4 airs new episodes every Friday at 8/7 c exclusively on CBS.
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_5865-1.jpg462828Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-03-15 22:05:542020-03-16 02:08:52Meaww: ‘MacGyver’ Season 4 Episode 6 Review: Russ Taylor’s past comes out in powerful and heartbreaking story
Thank you to Parade.com for this in depth interview with Ian!
Henry Ian Cusick (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
Season four of MacGyver began with the introduction of former MI6 agent Russ Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick), who recruited the former Phoenix operatives to hunt down a bio weapon that he was responsible for putting in the hands of some seriously bad guys, forcing him to have a come-to-Jesus moment when he realized he needed the team to right his wrong.
Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: CBS)
“He was tapping into the eternal conflict that people have,” Cusick exclusively tells Parade.com. “He was thinking, ‘I’ll make some money out of it,’ but when he realized that a lot of innocent people were going to die, that’s when he had his epiphany and decided he was on the side of doing something wrong. Then once he starts helping MacGyver (Lucas Till), he realizes that he enjoys doing good.”
Russ went one step further then and used his ill-gotten gains to purchase the former Phoenix property and he is currently working on resurrecting the company to its former glory – at least for now. Cusick hints that Russ is a man who gets bored quickly, so who’s to say that he may well change his mind again, and go off and do something else.
That said, on tonight’s episode when Russ’ first love, Emilia (Amanda Schull), is kidnapped by the same rebels he fought during his private military contract days, he takes the Phoenix team to a small, impoverished town to rescue her and rid the town of the rebels for good.
“The episode really goes back into Russ Taylor’s past, where you see Emilia, and it’s about how things may or may not worked out,” he continues. “It’s a flashback episode. Not that far back. I would say maybe five years, you know? It’s fun going back in time. It’s probably not as wacky as the other Russ Taylors you’ve seen. Probably a little bit more military, but there’s always wacky moments with Russ Taylor, and I think, at the heart of it, it’s a good episode.”
Justin Hires, Meredith Eaton, Tristin Mays, Lucas Till, Henry Ian Cusick and Levy Tran (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
How did Russ get his hands on enough money to relaunch Phoenix?
He was a former MI6 agent that went a little bit rogue and started doing some, well, naughty things like selling arms, and that’s how he made a lot of money. Then he took it too far when he traded a bio-weapon that could potentially destroy the world and that’s when he goes to MacGyver and recruits him, saying, “I need some help tracking down this weapon that I sold, because I think I made a big mistake.” So, he has an epiphany and that’s how he becomes the Russ Taylor that you see in MacGyver now.
Russ doesn’t strike me as particularly a team player, but he does seem to be a bit of a genius, just not in the same way as MacGyver. He is great at solving puzzles, though. What are the skills that Russ brings to the team?
That’s a very good question. First of all, it would seem an abundance of money. If you want to set anything up, money is always good. Also, he’s got a can-do attitude. He never really gives up. He’s intelligent. He’s a pattern spotter. He can read people, and, of course, he’s been trained by MI6 in counterespionage and torturing people. So, he’s got a lot of strings to him.
He’s not a team player, but he needs these people to want to work for him. True they were really bored doing what they were doing when Phoenix was disbanded, and they love having these adrenaline careers, but how does he go about earning their respect, because there was that joke in the last episode that pep talks aren’t his thing?
I think there’s a lot of what you see is not all of what you get with Russ Taylor. I think he’s doing a lot. He’s certainly performing a lot of the time for anyone within close proximity. You see in an upcoming episode, which I’m looking forward to, that pretty much he’s not really who he seems. I can give you a hint. He seems very much like an English tough, and he’s not that at all.
Is he going to be obsessed with Codex all season, or will we take a break and have episodes where Codex isn’t part of the story?
Oh, Codex is very heavily featured up until episode 13, but it actually carries on, even now. We’re just shooting episode 20, and Codex is still lingering around. MacGyver‘s a procedural and serialized show now, with Codex being the overall arc, but we will have episodes of the week, so it sort of integrates both. I think it works quite well for the show to have a long-running enemy, and also have this episode of the week feel.
Lucas Till as Angus “Mac” MacGyver, Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: CBS)
We had a shock at the end of last week’s episode, where Matty (Meredith Eaton) looks like she might be Titan, the leader of Codex. Will that be resolved quickly?
When you see the episode, you’ll realize that Matty is, obviously, not a bad guy. She’s always going to be the good guy.
You’ve done several sci-fi shows, like Lost, The 100, and The Passage. This is more action oriented, although some of those have some action. What do you like about this show?
It’s not the action. It’s the comedy, really. The other shows that I’ve been involved with were always sort of existential threats to the world, and I was always angst-y and turmoiled, you know? In some sort of pain. With this show, it’s very freeing. Russ Taylor is a lot of fun to play. He’s like a blast of fresh air for me. He’s larger than life. For me, it’s been a great, fun show to be involved with. I’m really having a great time. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a character before.
Also, the crew has just been terrific. The cast is great. Every single one of them has been welcoming to a new performer to the show. They’ve been so welcoming and so easy to work with, so supportive. They’ve all been terrific and I’m having a great time, to be honest.
Of course, Atlanta’s not Hawaii.
It isn’t, but the thing about Atlanta that I’m enjoying is I’m out here with my wife and my sons, also. One of my sons also lives out there. It’s closer to Europe. One of my other sons lives in New York, and my other son’s in Edinburgh, so it’s easier to see them. Hawaii’s quite remote. I get to go back to Hawaii in summertime, so that’s the best of both, I think.
Lost ended a decade ago, but do fans still want to talk about the finale since so many of them weren’t happy with the ending?
Not really, anymore. Certainly, the people I’ve met have gotten over a lot of dislike of the ending and they just want to celebrate the show. Can you believe it’s been ten years? They want to celebrate the whole experience of Lost a lot more, I think now. We want to talk about it, because it was one of the first shows where people really hit the internet. Now, that’s very common.
Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
At that time, people weren’t doing that, and it really was water cooler TV. I love hearing about people who got to know each other and became really good friends because of the show. That, for me, is one of greatest takeaways about that show.
It’s still great hearing people saying how much they enjoy it. There’s a little bit of animosity about the ending, but I rarely hear that now. They want to celebrate it, because it’s been ten years, and it’s still relevant TV.
MacGyver airs Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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From Exit6FilmFest: New Interview with Ian on dress, directing, the lock down
Thank you to Mark Brennan at Exit6FilmFest.com for this new interview with Henry Ian Cusick. Ian discusses acting, directing, his indie film ‘dress’ which marked his directorial debut and the current coronavirus lock down the US and world is experiencing right now. Read the article in it’s entirety below:
‘Lost’ star Henry Ian Cusick cutting his directing teeth with short film ‘dress’
Henry Ian Cusick, star of Lost, The 100 and MacGyver, talks to us about making his short film dress, lessons learned both as an actor and a director during the process, and the challenges between directing short film and television series.
Nowhere is completely safe in the middle of a pandemic, but if you had to think of preferred places for this period of isolation, Hawaii might make the list. And if there’s one man that knows about isolation in Hawaii, it’s Lost star Henry Ian Cusick.
When Boris Johnson announced the UK lockdown, it didn’t take long for references to Cusick’s Lost character Desmond Hume to surface as a comparison for how people might spend their own time in isolation. It’s a reference that must have reached Cusick quickly.
“I’ve seen a few memes and few things on Twitter about it. It’s been fun. It’s funny how quick you do get into a routine and it does involve working out. I never would workout as much as I do now, but every morning I do because it’s something to kill time. My family keep urging me to do a reenactment in the house of the whole quarantine episode during the opening of series 2. Maybe I’ll get round to it.”
Despite my encouragement, we must wait in hope that it will be the next home video to take Twitter by storm. However, when it was coronavirus taking the world by storm, eventually taking hold in the US, Cusick was in Atlanta filming the latest series of MacGyver. How quickly did they realise something was very wrong?
“We went back to work in January of 2020 after a big break. I was hearing a lot about Wuhan at the time. There’s a big Chinese community here in Hawaii and there was a Chinese New Year, so I’d been hearing about it. Then as things progressed we had the big spectrum of opinions on set. They ranged from ‘Ah, it’s nothing, forget about it’, to ‘Whoa, just don’t touch me,’ and “Why is that person coughing and not wearing a mask?’ I just thought ‘There’s no way we’re going to finish the season’.
“Then we got a phone call halfway through Episode 20 saying, ‘we’re going to shut down’. We just sort of downed tools and left. I think Grey’s Anatomy was the first one I read that shut down. We all followed very quickly after that. The rumour is we’ll go back and finish the season when we can get the all-clear.”
In the meantime, Cusick has safely reunited with his family on his home island Hawaii, which is the location for the short film that has prompted for our chat – his directorial debut dress.
It’s a poetic and emotional tale of Ben and his two sons as they struggle to cope with the death of his wife Maile. In searching for an appropriate way to grieve, Ben creates drama, confusion and a whole new way of remembering Mom.
“I was just so keen to direct something, having spent time writing pilots, and I had this idea while my wife was away. I was in the kitchen and I could hear the kids coming home and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if I was just standing here cleaning up the kitchen wearing a dress?’.
“Then I thought ‘why would I be wearing a dress and how would it affect them?’ Then it went on, ‘What are the taboos of wearing a dress?’ I can wear a sarong, that’s okay, but I’m not allowed to wear a dress. Why is that? It just snowballed from there.
“I approached my friend Angela Laprete, who was one of the producers on Lost and I said, ‘I have this idea for a film. I’m just going to shoot it at home with me and my kids. It will cost nothing, shoot on a couple of 5D cameras, will you help me out?’ She said, ‘Yes’. Then a month later there’s 35-40 crew in my house, two Red cameras, and we were shooting dress! It was phenomenal.”
Much of the team that Cusick and producer Angela Laprete were able to pull together, including DOP Don King and stunt coordinator Brian L. Keaulana, were also Lost alumni (even the films composer Michael Giacchino). The project also gave a chance for some crew to work a level above where they might normally, an additional incentive when many, if not all, gave their time for free.
One striking sequence early in the film beautifully captured is a funeral at sea. Seeing a scene of such grief play out against a backdrop of what is something of a literal paradise, is a powerful contrast.
“I’ve always been aware that Hawaii, it is sort of paradise. I was aware of doing this beautiful ceremony at sea, which is very common here. Funerals are usually beautiful things because you’re in the sea and it’s usually a sunny day and everyone jumps in the water. That is kind of inherent here in Hawaii.
“Of course, the day we did the funeral scene, it was quite cloudy! I boosted the colours in post, but it was a cold, wet day. We were there all day and it was pretty windy. Usually, Lanikai is completely flat. It’s one of the flattest parts of the island.
Speaking of colour-correction, it was post-production where Cusick learned the most. It was a process that took over a month while staying with friend and editor Mitchell Sinoway.
“Post-production, for me, that was definitely the biggest learning curve. I had to redo my sound because it wasn’t good enough. I found the editing really tricky. Getting one part of the scene right meant another would lag, and just having to balance it all out to make it all work continuously was really quite challenging.
“I remember when I finished filming, one of the crew said to me, ‘Okay, you filmed it, now you’ve got to edit it’. I think he was throwing down the gauntlet in a way, ‘Now we’ll see if you can direct’. That’s when you can make or break a film, when you’re in the editing process. Even with an episode of anything, that’s when magic can happen and when you can change the whole storytelling dynamic.”
Going back to more familiar territory, having worked with numerous directors in the past, how did he find directing himself?
“The pressure from me on myself as an actor, I really enjoyed that. I knew exactly what I wanted for myself, so I didn’t have to spend too much time looking at what I did. I started off looking at the monitor and then it just took too long. My actors head would say, ‘I don’t like the way I did that.’ So I had to stop doing that. I had to trust my DP and my cameraman. I would give myself one maybe two takes and move on.
“Usually, when you’re working on film and TV, you’re going to want to warm up two to maybe three takes. By the third take, you’re usually getting it right. Not in this case. I would rather spend the time on the other actors.
It was having the opportunity to direct other actors for the first time where Cusick felt really at home, with many of the cast first-time actors themselves. The experience also taught him a lot about himself as an actor and how easy (or otherwise) he may have been to direct in the past.
“That’s one of the things that directing has helped me a lot with, because for a little while I would say I couldn’t be directed [laughs]. A guest director coming in to direct me in a TV series would have found it very difficult because I was set in my ways and I knew best. It taught me a lot to listen and respect other people’s views because they’re only trying to help.
“But you have that thing of having to hand over trust to a director. It’s very hard to do that in episodic TV where somebody is coming in and you have to just say, ‘Well, I don’t know who you are. I’m just going to trust you. You just put the camera there and I will do what I do, don’t give me any notes’ [laughs]. So working with actors, I really enjoyed that, and I really felt I could help them. Especially actors who had never acted before.”
Working with actors from behind the camera wasn’t the only experience that helped him progress as a director. The nature of short filmmaking, the quick decisions needed when time, funding and circumstances are working against you, helped when it came to keeping his head directing episodes of The 100.
“Yes, it had been something that I had seen in other directors, how they lead. I’ve seen directors kick things over and start shouting and swearing when things go wrong. I’ve seen other directors just improvise and say, ‘Fine we’ll do it this way’. I’ve always admired people who can do that when the shit hits the fan.
“There’s a poem, ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you. But make allowance for their doubting too’. That is just like a great opening line for any director. That did help me a lot, not only as a director but in life.”
I offer that it must be difficult to parachute into a running series as a guest director, when the cast and crew are very much already in the groove of what they’re doing.
“Absolutely. That is very difficult. The director has to win the trust of the crew. Not only the actors but the crew because that’s important. If you lose the trust of the crew, the crew will just ride over you. It’s a machine and I’ve seen directors just get snowballed. They’re still thinking of the last setup and we’re moving onto the next one. It’s a fine balancing act. Keeping the crew happy, keeping the actors happy, getting your vision across.
“Since I’ve directed, I’m a lot more open to that now. I’m listening and I’m thinking, ‘I’m on your side now’. Before I used to be only on the actors side [laughs]. Now I’m listening to the director and asking, ‘What’s your vision? What do you want? Okay, I’m going to help you out as much as I can.’ I’m now trying to be the actor that I would like to direct.”
Looking back at dress now, and the beginning of his journey as a director, what advice would he go back and give himself, or indeed another other filmmaker about to produce their first film?
“Well, I was very fortunate with dress. I had a lot of crew, a lot of help, but one thing I did do was rehearse. I got all the actors to come over to my house. We rehearsed every single scene before we shot it. I knew exactly what I was doing. That I would definitely do again. That saved me a lot of time on the day.
“I think I would have liked to learn more about the camera, and about the shots that I wanted to get. My DP did a great job and I love what he did, but I think we could have gone a little bit cooler, a little bit more experimental. I think when making a short, you can have fun, you can take chances, which you can’t do when doing television.”
“If I were to do another short, I would be a lot more experimental, a lot more avant-garde. Try things that you just to know you wouldn’t be allowed to do in the real world. You might as well go for it.”
You can watch dress online here.
You can follow Henry Ian Cusick on Twitter: @HICusick
Article by Mark Brennan for Exit6FilmFest.com
Happy Birthday Ian!
Today, April 17 is Ian’s birthday and family, friends and fans will all be joining in to wish him a very safe, happy and enjoyable day!
To his fans delight, Ian tweeted he will be joining them online TONIGHT, for live tweeting during the MacGyver hour at 8/7c on CBS!
What a gift for the fans!
Tune in, watch, tweet and celebrate with Ian all at the same time! We’ll see you there!
Sneak Peek Video for MacGyver 4.10 ‘Tesla + Bell + Edison +Mac
Henry Ian Cusick on Twitter: @hicusick
CBS/MacGyver
The Gospel Of John
The Gospel of John is a movie worth seeing any time of the year but as Easter Sunday is almost upon us, it seems most appropriate to mention it now.
The movie is unique in that it is a word for word re-telling of John’s gospel, beautifully narrated by Christopher Plummer.
Directed by Philip Saville and filmed in 2003…….Ian gives a very moving and inspirational performance as Jesus Christ.
If you haven’t seen the Gospel of John, there’s no better time than this upcoming Easter weekend.
WATCH THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Read and view more of the film, including a BTS interview with Ian, under the links below at Ian’s official fansite, CusickGallery.net
We thank them for their support of this film and all of Ian’s work!
‘Palm Sunday, Holy Week and The Gospel of John’
‘Henry Ian Cusick: BTS Interview from The Gospel of John (2003)
‘Maundy Thursday & The Last Supper (Gospel of John clips)‘
‘The Gospel of John, The Music: Interview with Composer Jeff Danna’
MacGyver 4.09 ‘Code + Artemis + Nuclear + N3mesis’
A new episode of MacGyver with Russ Taylor and the entire MacGyver team airs tonight at 8/7c on CBS!
Synopsis: “LOS ANGELES’ POWER GRID IS TAKEN HOSTAGE IN A RANSOMWARE ATTACK RESULTING IN A CITYWIDE BLACKOUT, AND THE TEAM DISCOVERS THAT THE CODE USED WAS WRITTEN BY RILEY YEARS AGO”
Enjoy several preview clips and preview caps under the link at Ian’s official fansite: CusickGallery.net
MacGyver stars:
Lucas Till as Angus MacGyver
Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor
Meredith Eaton as Matty Webber
Tristin Mays as Riley Davis
Justin Hires as Wilt Bozer
Levy Tran as Desi Nguyen
MacGyver/CBS.com
It’s MacGyver Day!
Don’t miss tonight’s episode, 4.08, ‘Father+Son+Father+Matriarch’ with guest stars Jeri Ryan and Tate Donovan
Check out SpoilerTV’s preview……..we’ve shared one of their preview videos below which features Matty (Meredith Eaton) and Ian as Russ Taylor, but be sure to see them and more, all here at the link! SpoilerTV/MacGyver 4.08Preview
A few caps of our man Russ Taylor below too:
*Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor on Macgyver, Fridays at 8/7c on CBS*
MacGyver 4.07 ‘Mac+Desi+Riley+Aubrey’ Sneak Peek
Don’t miss tomorrow’s night episode of MacGyver!
Looks to be a good one, here’s a preview peek with Mac, Desi, Bozer and Russ!
Recognize the voice doing the interrogating?
MacGyver airs on CBS 8/7c on Friday nights!
CoronaVirus: During This Time of Self Quarantine, Desmond Hume Provides Inspiration!
Recent press indicates while most of the world stays at home as much as they can to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus, there have been those remembering and reminiscing of Desmond Hume’s similar situation.
On LOST, Desmond spent 3 years down in the hatch, in a self imposed quarantine of his own. Pushing the button every 108 seconds in order to save the world. Enjoy the three articles below the photo cap and let’s do like Desmond did……stay home, stay safe….let’s save the world!
‘What LOST’s Desmond Can Teach Us ABout Quarantine’
by Lindsey Romain at Nerdist.com
Desmond’s introduction on the show is one of Lost‘s great reveals. In a subplot from the first season, the characters Locke (Terry O’Quinn) and Boone (Ian Somerhalder) stumble on a hatch door buried in the middle of the jungle of the remote island where their plane crash-landed. The unlikely duo decides to excavate the hatch, but they initially keep it from their fellow survivors. Boone, on his death bed, reveals the hatch’s location to the island’s de facto leader, surgeon Jack (Matthew Fox), and the season finale involves a mission to open it and find out what’s inside.
That final episode ends with tantalizing tease: Jack and Locke peering into the hatch before the credits smash and we realized we’d have to wait a whole summer to learn what was in there.
ABC/via Giphy
So what was in there? The opening of the season two premiere introduced us to what seems like a totally unrelated series of events: normal scenes of a man starting his day. However, we quickly learn that this man is actually down there in the hatch—a strange, bunker-like place frozen in a ’70s aesthetic—and that he’s about to be confronted by the survivors of Oceanic 815, after years in isolation. We also learn that stamped on the inside hatch door is a curious word: “Quarantine.”
That means Desmond is under the belief that his bunker home is protecting him from some unknown illness on the island—an illness the survivors might now have. Because this is Lost, it would take us way too long to explain the truth of the matter, and frankly, we’re not even sure we know the answers ourselves. Suffice it to say, Desmond’s story is one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking on the show, and how he came to be on the island—and what becomes of him later—are worth the hours of investment.
What we want to do here instead is take a look at his morning quarantine routine. Because it’s actually a pretty good model for what we should all be doing every morning.
First, Desmond starts his day by hopping out of his bunk, pressing some buttons on a computer (you do not have to do this as you are not trying to “save the world” in your quarantine), and then heads to his record player and puts on some tunes. The song he picks in the season two premiere is “Make Your Own Kind Of Music” by Mama Cass Elliot—the perfect sort of breezy, infectious, and upbeat tune to get you through another day of quarantine. The lyrics are also a little on the nose for self-isolation:
You’re gonna be knowing
The loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin’,
Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do.
But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song,
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along.
As the song plays, he washes the previous night’s dishes, and then hops on his exercise bike. We watch his mini fitness routine, which includes pull-ups and sit-ups. Next, he pops into the shower, does a nice little scrub-down, then heads back to the kitchen to make a breakfast smoothie. We’re not entirely sure what’s in this thing; it looks like a combination of protein powder, cherries, and peaches. But he’s doing his best with what he’s got.
That’s about when things veer off into Lost territory, since we next see Desmond inject himself with some sort of mysterious medicine, and then the hatch door explodes and he’s thrust into action. But don’t worry, he makes sure to change into his work jumpsuit first! As the experts say, the best work-from-home practice is to treat it like you’re going into the office anyway; that includes getting dressed.
It’s a pretty simple scene, and honestly, not one we thought we’d ever need to look to for inspiration. But it’s 2020, the year where absolutely nothing makes sense. So why not let a moment from Lost inform us about the dos and don’ts of quarantined life? Thank you Desmond, for this vital bit of informative pop culture. May we all be as fit as you by the end of this.
‘CoronaVirus: Scene From TV Show LOST Resurfaces as UK Goes Into Lockdown’
By Jacob Stolworthy Independent.co.uk
A scene from the TV show Lost is being circulated online following Boris Johnson’s speech to the nation in which he put the UK on partial lockdown because of coronavirus.
While addressing the country on Monday night (23 March), Johnson ordered people to “stay at home” and sanctioned one form of exercise a day.
This led many to think of the character Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) in the hit US show centered on plane crash survivors.
Desmond was introduced in the show’s second season as a character residing in a mysterious hatch found in the jungle by two survivors.
The first time he’s ever seen, he’s shown going about his daily routine, which involves listening to some music (in this instance, Mama Cass), showering and exercising.
It’s later revealed he’s been locked away for three years believing to be under quarantine due to a deadly “sickness” on the island.
One person shared a clip of Desmond’s introduction on Twitter, writing: “Me three weeks from now, working from home.”
Another added: “We are Desmond from Lost until May”.
“The longer this isolation/quarantine goes on I reckon I am going to morph into Desmond,” wrote a third.
Writer Lindsey Romain even wrote an article about the character for Nerdist, commenting: “My man Desmond had a quarantine routine before it was cool so i wrote about it.”
Of course we don’t have the added pressure of pushing a button every 108 minutes in the belief it will “save the world”, although one tweeter stated: ”I feel like Desmond on Lost, hunkered down in the hatch, and every 108 minutes I push a button to launch a Google Hangout.”
Lost is available to stream on Amazon Prime and you can follow along with a rewatch podcast.
Find a ranking of every single episode here.
‘9 Genre Characters Who Really ‘Got’ Social Distancing’
By Brian Silliman at syfy.com
Desmond — Lost
When we finally saw what was in the hatch at the beginning of the second season of Lost, we met Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick). His sole purpose was to press buttons at proper times. When he wasn’t doing that, he was adhering to a somewhat strict regimen of keeping himself entertained.
He gets pretty good at it, but when newcomers show up and he gets to hand the button-pushing job to someone (anyone) else? This dude is gone baby, gone. He could not have gotten out of the hatch fast enough, because social distancing doesn’t allow him to reunite with his beloved Penny, or “Pennahh.” He gets stuck on the island anyway, and we’re glad — he’s one of the best characters that ever appeared on this series. See you in another life, brother.
MacGyver Season 4 Production Stopped Due To Coronavirus
As the Coronavirus spreads into the US and across it, it’s affecting families and businesses all over.
The television/film business has been affected as well and several TV shows recently had to stop current production…..MacGyver was included in those. CBS officially stopped production on Friday, March 13th. At that time, they were shooting episode 20 of the 22 episodes scheduled for season four.
It’s unclear how many episodes will be aired as the season progresses, we’re hoping for as many as they can possibly complete in post production. It’s been a thrilling season so far with Ian’s character Russ Taylor, quickly becoming a fan favorite! Fans needless to say, are hoping for a season five and the cast and crew are too!
Ian tweeted out a video to all the fans about the end of the season’s production and also gave some encouraging words for all of us as we go through the uncertainty of the Coronavirus, during the coming weeks. In his usual way, it was both entertaining and endearing.
We hope everyone will take all the necessary precautions, and stay safe and well. We are all in this together!
Meaww: ‘MacGyver’ Season 4 Episode 6 Review: Russ Taylor’s past comes out in powerful and heartbreaking story
Guest star Amanda Schull delivers a stellar performance in the episode as the feisty and idealistic doctor Emilia, Russ Taylor’s former love interest whose kidnapping sets the episode’s events in motion.
Henry Ian Cusick, Levy Tran, and Amanda Schull (CBS)
This article contains spoilers for ‘MacGyver’ Season 4 Episode 6 ‘Right + Wrong + Both + Neither’
‘MacGyver’ Season 4’s last episode dropped quite a bomb with the reveal that Matty Webber (Meredith Eaton) might be Titan, the head of Codex, but Episode 6 ‘Right + Wrong + Both + Neither’ quickly resolves that mystery within the first few minutes and moves on to deliver a powerful episode centered around Russ Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick). The character has been a bit of an enigma since he joined the show at the start of the season but Episode 6 finally sheds some light on his motivations.
Guest star Amanda Schull delivers a stellar performance in the episode as the feisty and idealistic doctor Emilia, Russ Taylor’s former love interest whose kidnapping sets the episode’s events in motion. Schull’s chemistry with Cusick was absolutely delightful and the way the episode ends their story is frankly heartbreaking.
It’s a pretty intense episode that involves global politics and a lot of gray morality, especially with Angus “Mac” MacGyver (Lucas Till) finally realizing just how much the Phoenix Foundation’s world has changed in recent times. Even though they’ve always been covert operatives, Mac and his team have never had to make choices as hard as the ones they’re being forced into this season and while they may be the right choices, that doesn’t mean they don’t weigh heavily on Mac’s mind.
Perhaps the most important thing about the episode was that it finally gave us some hints as to why Russ chose to give up his life as a private military contractor and buy the Phoenix Foundation. So far, we’ve had this nagging suspicion that he might actually be a Codex operative but now it seems more likely that Emilia may have influenced Russ to become a better person, or at least try to be.
The final moments of the episode add yet another twist to the season’s mystery with Matty saying “I think she’s back” on an encrypted phone call. Does Matty have an evil twin we didn’t know about? Or is this “she” something else altogether? We’ll just have to wait and see.
‘MacGyver’ Season 4 airs new episodes every Friday at 8/7 c exclusively on CBS.
By Remus Noronha
Parade.Com Interview: ‘Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick on Joining MacGyver and Going from Bad to Good’
Thank you to Parade.com for this in depth interview with Ian!
Henry Ian Cusick (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
Season four of MacGyver began with the introduction of former MI6 agent Russ Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick), who recruited the former Phoenix operatives to hunt down a bio weapon that he was responsible for putting in the hands of some seriously bad guys, forcing him to have a come-to-Jesus moment when he realized he needed the team to right his wrong.
Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: CBS)
“He was tapping into the eternal conflict that people have,” Cusick exclusively tells Parade.com. “He was thinking, ‘I’ll make some money out of it,’ but when he realized that a lot of innocent people were going to die, that’s when he had his epiphany and decided he was on the side of doing something wrong. Then once he starts helping MacGyver (Lucas Till), he realizes that he enjoys doing good.”
Russ went one step further then and used his ill-gotten gains to purchase the former Phoenix property and he is currently working on resurrecting the company to its former glory – at least for now. Cusick hints that Russ is a man who gets bored quickly, so who’s to say that he may well change his mind again, and go off and do something else.
That said, on tonight’s episode when Russ’ first love, Emilia (Amanda Schull), is kidnapped by the same rebels he fought during his private military contract days, he takes the Phoenix team to a small, impoverished town to rescue her and rid the town of the rebels for good.
“The episode really goes back into Russ Taylor’s past, where you see Emilia, and it’s about how things may or may not worked out,” he continues. “It’s a flashback episode. Not that far back. I would say maybe five years, you know? It’s fun going back in time. It’s probably not as wacky as the other Russ Taylors you’ve seen. Probably a little bit more military, but there’s always wacky moments with Russ Taylor, and I think, at the heart of it, it’s a good episode.”
Justin Hires, Meredith Eaton, Tristin Mays, Lucas Till, Henry Ian Cusick and Levy Tran (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
How did Russ get his hands on enough money to relaunch Phoenix?
He was a former MI6 agent that went a little bit rogue and started doing some, well, naughty things like selling arms, and that’s how he made a lot of money. Then he took it too far when he traded a bio-weapon that could potentially destroy the world and that’s when he goes to MacGyver and recruits him, saying, “I need some help tracking down this weapon that I sold, because I think I made a big mistake.” So, he has an epiphany and that’s how he becomes the Russ Taylor that you see in MacGyver now.
Russ doesn’t strike me as particularly a team player, but he does seem to be a bit of a genius, just not in the same way as MacGyver. He is great at solving puzzles, though. What are the skills that Russ brings to the team?
That’s a very good question. First of all, it would seem an abundance of money. If you want to set anything up, money is always good. Also, he’s got a can-do attitude. He never really gives up. He’s intelligent. He’s a pattern spotter. He can read people, and, of course, he’s been trained by MI6 in counterespionage and torturing people. So, he’s got a lot of strings to him.
He’s not a team player, but he needs these people to want to work for him. True they were really bored doing what they were doing when Phoenix was disbanded, and they love having these adrenaline careers, but how does he go about earning their respect, because there was that joke in the last episode that pep talks aren’t his thing?
I think there’s a lot of what you see is not all of what you get with Russ Taylor. I think he’s doing a lot. He’s certainly performing a lot of the time for anyone within close proximity. You see in an upcoming episode, which I’m looking forward to, that pretty much he’s not really who he seems. I can give you a hint. He seems very much like an English tough, and he’s not that at all.
Is he going to be obsessed with Codex all season, or will we take a break and have episodes where Codex isn’t part of the story?
Oh, Codex is very heavily featured up until episode 13, but it actually carries on, even now. We’re just shooting episode 20, and Codex is still lingering around. MacGyver‘s a procedural and serialized show now, with Codex being the overall arc, but we will have episodes of the week, so it sort of integrates both. I think it works quite well for the show to have a long-running enemy, and also have this episode of the week feel.
Lucas Till as Angus “Mac” MacGyver, Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: CBS)
We had a shock at the end of last week’s episode, where Matty (Meredith Eaton) looks like she might be Titan, the leader of Codex. Will that be resolved quickly?
When you see the episode, you’ll realize that Matty is, obviously, not a bad guy. She’s always going to be the good guy.
You’ve done several sci-fi shows, like Lost, The 100, and The Passage. This is more action oriented, although some of those have some action. What do you like about this show?
It’s not the action. It’s the comedy, really. The other shows that I’ve been involved with were always sort of existential threats to the world, and I was always angst-y and turmoiled, you know? In some sort of pain. With this show, it’s very freeing. Russ Taylor is a lot of fun to play. He’s like a blast of fresh air for me. He’s larger than life. For me, it’s been a great, fun show to be involved with. I’m really having a great time. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a character before.
Also, the crew has just been terrific. The cast is great. Every single one of them has been welcoming to a new performer to the show. They’ve been so welcoming and so easy to work with, so supportive. They’ve all been terrific and I’m having a great time, to be honest.
Of course, Atlanta’s not Hawaii.
It isn’t, but the thing about Atlanta that I’m enjoying is I’m out here with my wife and my sons, also. One of my sons also lives out there. It’s closer to Europe. One of my other sons lives in New York, and my other son’s in Edinburgh, so it’s easier to see them. Hawaii’s quite remote. I get to go back to Hawaii in summertime, so that’s the best of both, I think.
Lost ended a decade ago, but do fans still want to talk about the finale since so many of them weren’t happy with the ending?
Not really, anymore. Certainly, the people I’ve met have gotten over a lot of dislike of the ending and they just want to celebrate the show. Can you believe it’s been ten years? They want to celebrate the whole experience of Lost a lot more, I think now. We want to talk about it, because it was one of the first shows where people really hit the internet. Now, that’s very common.
Henry Ian Cusick as Russ Taylor (Photo: Mark Hill/CBS)
At that time, people weren’t doing that, and it really was water cooler TV. I love hearing about people who got to know each other and became really good friends because of the show. That, for me, is one of greatest takeaways about that show.
It’s still great hearing people saying how much they enjoy it. There’s a little bit of animosity about the ending, but I rarely hear that now. They want to celebrate it, because it’s been ten years, and it’s still relevant TV.
MacGyver airs Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Interview by: PAULETTE COHN