By Kenn Gold & Jim Iaccino
Actor Ed Quinn, who stars as Nathan Stark on Eureka, recently participated in a live interview on MediaBlvd’s The Two Doctors radio show, with hosts Kenn Gold and Jim Iaccino, to discuss the season two finale, and other projects he has on-going.
The interview was conducted just before the announcement was made that Eureka would be coming back for a third season. Click the image below to listen to the interview in its entirety.
Jim>It seems that the cast of Eureka plays off of each other nicely, has that been your experience?
Ed> They just did a fantastic job of casting. In which you have great actors like Joe Morton and Sally Richardson and Colin Ferguson, and they’re pushing these roles that really play to our strengths. So it allows the job to really be kind of easy in a sense. You get on the set, you’re having fun when the camera is not rolling, and when it is rolling. There’s an ease to it, and it really kind of comes through. What a good time we have making the show really comes through in the final product.
Kenn>How long have you been wrapped on Season 2?
Ed> I believe we finished on July 22nd, or so, the third week in July. We wrapped and we all had to rush down because we were going to Comic Con. I was going to Comic Con for the first time in San Diego, which was that next weekend. And I literally started a movie the day after I wrapped. I just wrapped that film last weekend. So I haven’t had a break yet. But we’ve been done just a little over a month now. It hasn’t even really set in for me, but it was definitely a challenging season.
Jim>Have you heard anything about a season 3 yet? It seems with the shows ratings, you’re almost assured to get one.
Ed> I think you’re right. There’s absolutely no sure thing in Hollywood, but we are the number one show on the network. And another thing that works in our favor is a lot of big shows are ending. Stargate SG-1 ended this year, Battlestar Galactica will end this year. Dresden Files, I believe, is not coming back. Painkiller Jane is not coming back. I don’t know yet about the fate of Flash Gordon. So we’re doing pretty good and everybody else seems to be leaving. I think they’re stuck with us whether they like us or not. I’ve heard whispers of script orders and stuff like that, so I think we’re going to hear pretty soon here. Because of the pending strike, I think they’re going to need us to jump back in a lot sooner. We normally start late March, and I think we’re going to have to start late January to be able to finish the season before the strike.
Kenn>Are we going to get a cliffhanger ending for season 2?
Ed> Yeah, I guess there’s a bit of a cliffhanger on a couple of the story lines, but it also ties up one big story line that’s been running all season. The finale was a lot of fun. There were a lot of changes that happened on the show this year. A lot of the dynamics and character relationships kind of changed. There had been talk about getting me and Colin Ferguson together a lot this season. And it didn’t quite kind of happen until the finale. So it really kind of becomes a Sheriff Carter/Nathan Stark kind of episode and we’re joined at the hip. It was a blast making it, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for the audience as well.
Kenn>So is Nathan a good guy or does he have a secret agenda? I notice those sort of menacing looks every now and then.
Ed> I think he’s a complex individual. And that’s part of what makes the show so fun. I’ve got to admit; I kind of do that on purpose, so it makes it a lot more interesting. He could be a little more cut and dried, and sort of noble. But a show comes out sometimes with a lot of really well defined characters. But as the show becomes a success, all of the characters kind of start playing for the same real estate. They all become kind of heroic, and the show becomes a bit homogeneous. You kind of have a lot of actors making the same choices, at least I’ve noticed from my favorite shows, when they seem to wane that’s the problem. And we have a brilliant hero in Jack Carter, on Eureka. Colin plays him perfectly. He’s an everyman and he has this great sense of right and wrong and morality, and he has street smarts. And you have Henry Deacon who is the noble idealist, and I’m the brilliant scientist. I try to do something a little different for Nathan Stark to set him apart, because juxtaposed to those characters, it makes him really interesting. I’d never do anything to compromise the character of course, but just to keep it interesting and playing off of those two characters to create tension and to create relationships. And I think the audience really enjoys it. Whether they love Nathan, or they love to hate Nathan, he’s a character that really kind of ups the ante, and ups the attention when he’s on the screen. It’s an amazing set of characters that Andrew Cosby created, and they just work really well together on set. So you have that ability to play with lines and moments, the way I play with Nathan.
Jim> Is the movie you just wrapped up Sci Fi related?
Ed> No, it’s not. It’s a romantic comedy with Mathew Modine, and the French actress, Michele Laroque. Then this movie is kind of like a Bad News Bears at summer camp. Grayson Russell, the little read haired kid that was so brilliant in Talladega Knights was in this, and David James Elliott from Jag are the two leads in this. It’s a PG, fun, sort of sweet story. I’d finished with the two of those and talked to my agent, and said ‘I’ve played the goofy romantic comedy, and I’m working up here at summer camp for a month with these kids. I need something to sink my teeth into.’ And he said, ‘ How about a SciFi/Horror?’. I said ‘Perfect!’. I’m not going to name names yet, but I’ve had meetings and it’s looking good. It’s sort of an Aliens meets the TV series Carnavale. I love it. It’ll definitely be an R or an NC-17. It’s not a horror movie like Hostel or Saw or anything like that. I’m ready for some guns and some profanity and some monsters, and it’s a really great script. So hopefully that’ll come together in November. Just between us, I love the Sci Fi genre, and it would be a perfect year if it finished with a Sci Fi Horror film.
Jim> Is there a working title for the film?
Ed> Yeah, but I’m not going to say it. I’ll call you guys back and tell you if I get it. I’ll do the press release on your show! You can tell I’m excited about it. There’s a couple of big names in the cast already. It’s funny, I read it, and my agent sort of already knew that after working with seven kids for two months in Big Bear, I’d probably want to do something a little more adult themed. So hopefully it’ll come through. Production is really ramping up right now with the strike coming. And the bad thing is a lot of people are going to be out of work, including myself, next summer. But the good news is there’s a lot of work happening right now. Especially those kind of genre films- they sell, they make money. So if not this one, I’ll definitely look for something like that to end the year.
Kenn> So you think the strike is definitely going to happen? You don’t think things will get resolved before?
Ed> I don’t know. I think the writers are moving up to join the actors. They are really ready for a strike and it sounds like they have a lot of grievances with the reality TV, iTune’s downloads, DVD sales and so on. There’s a lot of stuff out there that a lot of people have been angry about for a long time. Hopefully everyone can resolve it and we can keep working, but we’ll just have to see what happens.
Jim> What has been your funniest moment on Eureka?
Ed> There was a scene in the episode of Primal when there were 200 versions of Nathan Stark running around. I just love Matt Frewer. He is wickedly intelligent and is non-stop hysterical. He said we should do one of the classic B movie scenes where we look at each other, then look back out at them. The first time we tried to do it, we just lost it in hysterics, and it became almost a game of chicken. He’s literally trembling looking at me because he’s about to start laughing and I’m thinking of the worst things possible. We’re in the background and didn’t know what was going on. There were 55 extras dressed like me. All of a sudden, we hear ‘Can you hold on a second?’ from back in media village. Rick Maguire gets up and walks all the way across the ballroom, and stares at me, and stares at Matt, and goes ‘Really?’. And then turns around and walks off just furious because he’s been sitting there on the monitor watching Matt and I be four year olds. Then the principal came in and we got chastised. That’s the kind of stuff we do all day long. It’s a great cast and a great set and we have a ton of fun.
Kenn> How was it filming on the new set?
Ed> It was great! It’s just so user friendly, and it may look good on camera. I really liked the old Global Dynamics, it was just a nightmare to shoot on. This one, you can do walk and talk, one corridor leads into another. It’s built for filming. Everything is pre-lit and ready to go, and you can do all kinds of amazing shots and camera work. It really makes filming easy. Most of the finale takes place in there, and it was hard shoots and hard days, but the set really just made all the difference in the world. It’s like the twelfth man, to use a football analogy. You don’t really appreciate it till it’s a pain in the butt, and that set allowed us to accomplish a lot more than we could have this year.
