ince The Pretender began in 1996, Michael T. Weiss has gotten to play over 90 different characters all wrapped up in Jarod, the genius who can pretend to be just about anyone. Now for Jarod's latest—and perhaps final—journey, Weiss will do battle with the mysterious Centre one more time in TNT's original film The Pretender: The Island of the Haunted, premiering Monday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). The Island of the Haunted will complete a 21-hour Pretender marathon on TNT that begins Sunday, Dec. 9, at 11 p.m. (ET/PT).
The Chicago native began acting as a child and studied the craft at Second City and the University of Southern California. His films include 2000 Malibu Road, Jeffrey, Freeway and Net Worth. Television series included the soap Days of Our Lives and the 1991 remake of Dark Shadows.
Weiss went on to star as Jarod for four seasons in NBC's The Pretender and in TNT's original movie The Pretender 2001. He currently voices Tarzan in Disney's The Legend of Tarzan animated series and plays a corrupt cop in the movie Bones with Snoop Dogg.
Weiss chatted with Science Fiction Weekly about heroes, his spooky new Pretender movie and turning evil for Bones.
Tell us about The Pretender: The Island of the Haunted.
Weiss: Island of the Haunted will answer more questions than anyone needed to know about The Pretender, and then ask more [laughs]. It's got everything. It's got trips to Scotland. It has Africans. It has ancient monks. It's got it all going on. It's an epic and there're a lot of
really spooky things that go on there. It brings a spiritual, supernatural element to what was always sort of scientific about The Pretender. It has ghosts and things. It's very intense.
Jarod and Miss Parker (Andrea Parker) seldom got to spend much time onscreen during the series. However, in this film they spend most of the movie together.
Weiss: Yes, and without a lot of clothes [laughs]. It's really a pleasure when we get to work together because we never had that much time to work together in the past. It was such a pleasure to hang out because we really are very good friends. It was the middle of winter in Vancouver so we kind of went through the fire together.
And we get to find out something about how the characters feel about each other.
Weiss: I think that what we've been hinting at for almost five years is finally coming to a little bit of a fruition.
The mythology of the series is expanded in this film a lot. How do you feel about some of the plot twists and turns?
Weiss: I think it's a lot of fun. The writers Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle always have a really pretty good handle on what can make things interesting. Their minds are pretty twisted, and now the tale of The Centre goes back centuries. So it's really interesting. It talks about the mythology of where The Centre came from, which is really kind of creepy.
The first movie did pretty well in the ratings for TNT. If this film does well, do you think we can look forward to more Pretender movies?
Weiss: I think we'll probably end up doing some more if the fans are inspired enough to bug TNT. If this one does well I think we need the fans to really keep fighting the good fight. 'Cause the fans are the [reason we did] two more movies.
Has TNT been happy with the ratings the series has been getting?
Weiss: As far as I know they are thrilled. [It seems to be] the all-Pretender network [laughs].
How is making a Pretender movie different than working on the series?
Weiss: Unfortunately, we didn't get to work with the same crew, which was really like our family. But you know what? When I auditioned for Jarod, I never imagined that it would turn into five years of playing this guy and 90 different characters, so I'm thrilled.
How did you get the role of Jarod?
Weiss: I was brought to the network by Steven and Craig. I was the only guy they brought, so they really had a lot of confidence in me, which is very nice. They pushed for me and I got it. I had a movie premiering at Sundance when I got the call and I didn't know that I wanted to go do television. But it turned out to be a good move.
When you saw the script for The Pretender pilot, what did you think?
Weiss: From an acting point of view it had a lot of "Oh, my god, I get to play a different character every week." It's a dream job. It turned out to be the most amazing character, I think, on television because I just got to play so many different people. It was fantastic. I mean, every week it was a different world. Instead of playing the same thing week after week after week, it was always different with different actors, different guest stars, different sets, different clothes and locations. It was so much fun. It was like making a little movie every week. And it was a really good school, too. I think it was my best acting school ever.
In your career, you've had a variety of roles that you've played, from the soaps to Dark Shadows to Jeffrey to Pretender. What made Jarod different than every other role you've played?
Weiss: Well, obviously I got to play all these different characters. But he was also such an innocent, and yet he was so dark and twisted [laughs]. He was raised so dysfunctionally that he became this tragic hero character. And that was so much fun to play because he would be like a little boy sometimes, and then he would be like this dark, malevolent man, and then he could be like a chameleon. So it was all these different aspects to one character that were just brilliant, I think, from a writing point of view. It was so much fun, because I got to be this tough guy in one episode and then discover ice cream in the next.
What's the one profession Jarod never got around to pretending?
Weiss: Well, I think writing for Science Fiction Weekly would have been the most tragic. The most scary of all.
You have no idea. Looking back, what surprised you most about playing Jarod and about the series?
Weiss: What surprised me most was how inspiring the character was to people. I think it really inspired people that no matter how dysfunctional your life was that you could really become heroic and do good things and I think we're seeing a lot of evidence of that now in the world the way it is today. Everybody is questioning their own mettle, and think it's really nice to have played a role model character that did the right thing and did the heroic thing all the time, because if that inspired two people to do a heroic thing in their life, that's pretty fantastic.
Especially now, I feel very happy to be playing a character that does heroic things as opposed to all these people out there that are doing horrific things. It's nice to know that there are people out there who can still do good things. There are real-life heroes and it does rub off on your
personal life when you play one all the time [laughs]. You want to do the right thing.
Are you surprised about how well Pretender has done?
Weiss: It's shocking to me almost every day. It's lovely, but it's still going on. It's like the little engine that could. It's still so popular in so many countries. They're a couple years behind, so now it's huge in China, it's huge in Paris, France, and all these countries you never would
imagine. I get letters from Russia, from what was the Soviet Union. I get letters from parts of Africa. It's wild. It's been wonderful.
In your recent movie, Bones, you play an evil cop. How was it different playing an evil character as opposed to playing a hero?
Weiss: The wonderful thing and the problem with playing Jarod is that Jarod is such a nice man. He's such a good person. He sees the world pretty black and white. For me as an actor a lot of characters aren't so nice. It was fun to play someone who was kind of despicable [laughs]. His energy
level and what he thinks of as important are completely different. So in that way when people go out to see that movie, which I hope they will, they'll see I am nothing like Jarod. Jarod was a character. It's always fun to play another one.
And you're also the voice of Tarzan on the Legend of Tarzan series.
Weiss: I am indeed. That's one of my favorite jobs ever. I'm very proud of those. They're really, really wonderful. And if you have children, they're especially wonderful because you can watch them with your kids and enjoy them. They're just classic animation. They're just really fun and they
have great lessons. They are all really nice little morality tales. I work a lot with the environment and they all have really nice environmental themes. They've done such a fine job and there's a lot of new technology, digital technology, in terms of the artistry in it. It's really amazing because most people don't know that it took over a year and a half to get the first episode animated. And the amount of work and time and money that goes into an episode of a cartoon is astounding. I mean, almost as much as it costs to do a prime-time series. So it's pretty insane. We did 39 of them and we're going to come
out with a sequel to the movie, as well. I imagine I'll be watching those until I'm an old man.
Tell us about your work involving the environment.
Weiss: I call myself an environmental individual. I just try and remind people that the environmental crisis is still going on and we all have to do our part. I'm on the board of directors of the Earth Communications Office, ECO, which has a Web site at www.oneearth.org.
For me the environment is the main issue. I think the way we treat the planet is kind of the way we treat each other. And unfortunately, what's happening in the world right now, the environment is taking a back burner to survival, and it's very sad because we really do all have to protect the environment. The Bush administration has not been wonderful on the environment at all, and obviously their focus is now on the war against terrorism.
We really do all need to take our own part. And that's why I call myself an environmental individual, where I try and do things within my own arena that are really environmentally sound. I drive an electric hybrid car called the Toyota Prius, and I try and use all-natural products around the
house. I try to conserve energy whenever possible, and I try and remind people. I speak a lot on behalf of the environment, and do a lot of activism sort of things. If everybody changed just two or three or four things in their lifetime, we could all make a huge impact environmentally. Whether it be car-pooling or not using Tidy Bowl in your toilet, which kills the fish. And we all don't really need to use bleach all the time. You know, every chemical we use ends up in the rivers and the lakes and the oceans. Everything we flush down the toilet. So I'm always asking people to be very conscientious about what they use in terms of chemicals and things.
What can we look forward to in the future from Michael T. Weiss?
Weiss: Well, hopefully more work and more environmental activism and maybe a little more Pretender.
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