James Spader’s bald move

SINGAPORE - Emmy Award-winning actor James Spader is perhaps best known for his eccentric roles in films such as Pretty In Pink, Less Than Zero, Sex, Lies And Videotape, Crash, Stargate, Secretary and Lincoln. His most famous television roles are those of the colourful attorney Alan Shore in The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal, for which he won three Emmys and Robert California in the American version The Office. On Oct 6, he debuts in a new TV series, The Blacklist, as Raymond “Red” Reddington, a man wanted by the FBI who gives himself up – but one on condition: He only deals with rookie FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone).

Q: Did you have a lot of time to prepare for the role?

A: I didn’t have very much time to prepare but that was fine. The script for the pilot was so mysterious and enigmatic that I was able … there was a lot of freedom in terms of what I was allowed to do. You don’t really learn a great deal about the man’s past just based on the pilot alone and frankly we’re shooting Episode 5 and we don’t really know a lot about him moving forward. Most of my prep was long conversations about the man and reading the papers and non-fiction books about the world of international crime to get a sense of the world he’s been in living in for a while.

He seemed to be somebody who’s so comfortable in the extremes. Besides just putting himself in dangerous and dire circumstances, he just seems to be very comfortable no matter what comes his way. But at the same token, he relishes it; he takes great delight in the perilous journey that his life has taken.

Q: So you play this criminal genius…

A: Well, he’s certainly a criminal. I don’t know if he’s a genius!

Q: Okay, but the thing is Raymond Reddington – like all your characters you’ve played – doesn’t seem all bad. Even Alan Shore in Boston Legal, or Edward Grey in Secretary, or Graham in Sex, Lies And Videotape. Do you look for such characters to play?

A: I like to look for real dichotomy in a character. I like characters that are very difficult to pigeonhole, that really have a great deal of conflict in their life and in their temperament. This guy is that. He’s definitely a very bad guy! But he seems to have a plan afoot. But he may turn out to be righteous. I don’t know. There’s a strange honesty and truth about him, even though he lives in this very nefarious world, especially when dealing with the young woman Elizabeth Kean. And I’m intrigued by that relationship. And the dichotomy of that relationship with the rest of his life.

Q: And what is the relationship between Elizabeth and Red about?

A: Well, that requires viewing the shows!

Q: Some people say you’re a method actor, but I don’t suppose you committed any crimes in trying to get into the psyche of Red.

A: Its conception is in the script and the rest of it is imagination. Imagination feeds behaviour and I think it’s really that. It’s allowing your imagination to enter that world and explore it for a while. And how that character will face any circumstances. And this guy is certainly someone who finds himself in the most extreme sets of circumstance and moves quite freely and comfortably through his perilous journey. Of course, I’m not going out any conducting any criminal activity, so one has to read about it, and talk about it and get at it from any direction one can, from the confines of the living room.

Q: This villain seems to follow the trend of TV villains taking centrestage like Dexter. Was it deliberate?

A: That’s a very difficult question for me to answer it’s better for the writer to answer that. I don’t have a sense of any of the other shows. I’ve never seen any of them before. I don’t know how this character will relate to those. He’s unique to me and the show felt unique, I like that the show stands alone week to week with these autonomous stories but ultimately the shows are all tied together by this greater serialised that’s unfolding – about the relationships between the characters – over the longer course of the term and that really intrigued me. I like that the show allows you to incrementally discover the relationships and these people’s lives.

Q: How much do you think the industry has transformed since you started?

A: I think the industry used to be much more compartmentalised. I’ve been lucky to have worked at different times in different mediums – in television, in movies, on the stage. But they were always very different mediums and different businesses that were populated by different people and I was lucky to move freely amongst the three. Btu that was not the convention. They’re very different in their processes and therefore the job description is quite different. It was very to compartmentalize them and that’s no longer the case. I’ve been jumping from film to TV to theatre and back. But that’s becoming more the norm. I think that’s partly because of economics as well. The economics of the entertainment industry has contracted, in all aspects of it, whether it’s music or publishing, and I think film, Television and theatre have done the same. People are spreading themselves out a bit more and taking advantage of opportunities in all different mediums.

Q: Did you think not knowing the back story of Red was better for your portrayal?

A: I did have a sense of what their relationship was. How that was going to unfold in the series, that I did not know. I had a sense of an endgame and it allowed me to play around with surprising sets of circumstances that arrive from episode to episode and be fluid and flexible, still knowing that I was headed down many roads to get to the same destination – it’s still there in the distance.

A lot of it has been unfolding as we go along and I told the writers, I want to have as much information as I need to be able to do the performance for each of the episodes, but beyond that, I expect to be surprised along the way. That’s the fun of doing TV. In the same way that it’s fun watching a TV series, it’s fun doing it like that. By the same token, if there’s something that needs explanation or clarification to perform that episode, then so be it. I like that. I’m still doing the same thing as I was doing as a little kid – playing pretend. And one of the fun things when you’re kids is that story changes in seconds, and it can veer off and come right back again. TV is like that. It can take a left turn very quickly and come back again and then take another severe right turn. That’s one of the intriguing things about it. So just as long as I may be two or three steps ahead of the viewer. I’m very comfortable.

Q: This show, while it’s a crime drama, seems to also focus on the personal relationship. This that a bigger part of it than the actual crimes?

A: It’s all wrapped up together. There are things that Elizabeth Kean will learn about her life that Raymond Reddington comes from. His life experience relates directly to her life – not just in the past, but more importantly, in the present and her future. Otherwise, I don’t know why he would bring her into his world so dramatically and abruptly. I believe there is a plan afoot but the plan is expansive. And the more expansive it is, the better, because we’re hoping it’s going to take a while to figure it all out. It’ll be a real shame if we figured it out in the first season.

Q: You also debut a new hairstyle. Did you cut your hair because you were going to play Ultron in the new Avengers movie?

A: Nothing to do with that! I didn’t know I was going to play Ultron in the Avengers until long after I cut my hair off. It really had to do with this character. His life is such that he has to move very swiftly and travel light and it’s streamlined and it seems very practical that he could cut his hair off himself – all you need is a pair of clippers – or he could be anywhere in the world and could wander in, sit in a chair and someone could easily keep his hair trimmed.

Also, my hair had been very long prior to that, and I sort of liked the idea that in that first scene when he gives himself up to the FBI, my hair was very long at that point, so one of the first things they did was to take a picture of my in that surveillance photo in the lobby. And I liked that juxtaposition of that photo with the long hair and then to him kneeling in the lobby looking entirely different. That was my hair, we took that picture and then they cut it all off.

Q: How long does it take to film one episode?

A: It takes us anywhere from 8 to 10 days to shoot. Let’s put it this way, over the weekend they were working on the episode that is airing tonight.

Q: Do you think Red is a reformed sinner?

A: I don’t think he’s reformed at all. I think Red is still very active in the conducting of his business. This really all has to do with Elizabeth Kean.

Q: Do you think Sex Lies And Videotape would have the same impact if it was released today?

A: Oh boy. In terms of whether it would have the same impact. I don’t know. The landscape has changed so enormously. Indie films at the time were very different worlds from studio films and Sex, Lies And Videotape was very lucky. It was very early on, it found a way to cross over and become a very popular success that had not happened before. Part of that was brilliant marketing, but I think it was just the right time for that film. It sort of came together. I don’t think I know enough about pop culture to know what the appropriate timing of things is and predict the impact of any piece of entertainment and the resonance it’s going to have. I don’t think anyone can. To a great degree, it’s chaotic dumb luck.

Q; Have you spoken to Joss Whedon about your role Avengers 2? When will start filming?

A: I have spoken to Joss Whedon about it. I went in to take extensive photographs and head and body scans and all kinds of things in preparation to start figuring how I’m going to fit into this character of Ultron.

The Blacklist premieres on Oct 6, at 10pm, first and exclusively on AXN (StarHub TV Ch 511). Subsequent episodes air on Wednesdays at 10pm.