alk about debuting with a splash. Not only did Dark Angel--Fox's hip new
series from mastermind James Cameron (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic)
and his producing partner Charles Eglee (Moonlighting, Murder One)--achieve
top-flight ratings for its two-hour premiere last November, it also just
recently nabbed a People's Choice Award for Favorite New Drama Series.
So, what's next? We posed that question and more to actor Michael Weatherly, who
plays Logan, the wheelchair-bound journalist who makes illicit, covert
broadcasts across Seattle in an effort to bring some degree of order to
the chaos in this futuristic world, set about 20 years from today. Weatherly
took a few minutes in between shooting scenes at the show's Vancouver set
to ponder the show's success, his character and working opposite Jessica
Alba's Max, dubbed a "genetically engineered superbabe" by Weatherly.
Did you have a lot of expectations for the series going in, given the
names attached to it?
Weatherly: No. I mean, if anything, I was much more skeptical of any kind of
success--immediate or otherwise. I just sort of thought, what a great
script, what a great, fun concept, and ultimately what a great group of
people to work with--from show runners all the way down to Jessica and the
cast.
Do you know if they plan to continue to have you in the wheelchair?
Weatherly: I know that the show has some plans for Logan getting out of the
wheelchair in some capacity. It is, of course, a somewhat futuristic
scenario, and there are options available. And what writer can resist trying to
do that? But I have no idea when that's going to be, and certainly it's not
something that's going to be airing now.
What do you think the appeal of the series has been? What is it that's
made this show one of the only bona fide hits of this season?
Weatherly: If you look at the other shows that are on this year, I don't think
there's anything like Dark Angel, is there? I was watching it a couple of
weeks ago, and what occurred to me is that this is the show that I would
have been watching a few years ago, when I had time to watch television.
Because I think it's like a candy that's somewhat nutritious. It's like the
candy vitamin C. I don't think it's a show that necessarily confounds
anyone--it's not PBS--but it's certainly entertainment, and there are some
interesting elements to it. Max doesn't use guns and, violent as it is,
it's not a gory violence. I think it stops short of being a weekly morality
tale. But it's not a show that's saying beat up your neighbor, burn the
flag and shoot a friend [laughs]. It's a show that I think, in a subtle
way, asks you to ask yourself for whatever the answers are.
And certainly Max [stands] as a role model. I'm sure that this gets
knocked around by pundits and the like--but I would think that she's a
relatively sincere, straightforward, confident, empowered female figure for
the 21st century. She's not a Doris Day throwback. Logan might be. [laughs]
What else can you tell us about Logan, relative to the other characters on
the show?
Weatherly: He's a little bit of a revolutionary. I've figured out the whole story of
what's going on with everybody. And I know on the Web site they have a whole
world of stuff you can flip through and read about. Then there's [areas]
where you can explore the myth of the show--you can explore Manticore [the
facility where Max was genetically created] and explore Logan's "Eyes Only"
databank files and stuff.
With all of the futuristic excitement flurrying around you, do you
sometimes find it's hard to keep a straight face on the set?
Weatherly: Occasionally, I take it probably more seriously [than I should]. When I
start to crack up a little bit is when I have to explain really tongue
twistery stuff--then it can get a little bit tough.
Do you have a favorite episode?
Weatherly: My favorite show so far has been "Prodigy," in which I got thrown off the
top of a building, and she dove after me, and then we slammed through a
window and landed on a bed [laughs]. And I thought, "You know, I'm a lucky
man to be able to do this for a living. What an odd occupation." Jessica and
I had a fun scene on the bed where we sort of yelled at each other. Another
fun one is "Blah Blah, Woof Woof." We had a huge set built over on these
shipyards, really like a feature-film kind of scenario--just gigantic, with
hundreds of extras. It really creates the illusion of this world that these
characters live in quite convincingly. We had to do some scenes going around
some checkpoints, and Max goes flying across the hundred yards of sky on
some sort of a table and lands on a moving bus and all this stuff. It's
craziness. Really, I guess that's every week. But I happened to be around
the day they were shooting that one. Normally, I'm in my wheelchair in my
office, so I don't see that much action.
What's the toughest aspect to playing Logan?
Weatherly: The demanding part of my job is to try not to make everyone fall asleep or
change the channel while I'm setting up all the expositional crap.
Do you enjoy science fiction?
Weatherly: I guess I do, if I enjoy this. Although I have to say that there's not a
lot of stock-and-trade, beam-me-up-Scotty kind of stuff happening in our particular show.
What is it like playing opposite such a formidable character as Alba's
Max?
Weatherly: The fun is in trying to see how these characters try and reveal their true
selves to each other. No one else knows that Max has this secret of who she
is and where she's from, yet Logan is the only person in her world that she
trusts with that information. In the same way, Logan is this "Eyes Only"
political activist guy, and Max is the only person in his world that he
trusts with that information. So they each hold a secret of the other, and
as they expand that into a deeper understanding of each other, it's fun. Of
course, it can get a little dangerous, a little ornery, because they're both
pretty willful characters, and neither one of them seems to be suffering
from a deficit in intellect.
There's some great banter between Logan and Max in some of those scenes.
Weatherly: Yeah. And of course, she can snap his neck anytime she wanted, so that's
the humming undercurrent of every scene [laughs].
Aside from working opposite Jessica, what's the best thing about being on
Dark Angel?
Weatherly: The crew on this show is just fun--you look forward to going to the set
every day. Like any job, it's the people you work with more than anything
else. And we have a giggle--more than once a day. Sometimes I have to resort
to flipping over backwards in a wheelchair, but there's always fun to be had.
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