“The Constant” has been considered one of the best episodes from LOST, for some it’s THE best. It’s also been ranked as one of the greatest TV episodes ever.
The Hatch adds……”Some have called “The Constant” the greatest TV episode of the millennium.”
Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) and Sonya Walger (Penny) join The Hatch hosts Sammy Roth and Rosalie Murphy to discuss the episode in detail, from how the phone call was filmed to what made their characters’ love so enduring.
Relive The Constant, as Ian and Sonya share their thoughts and relay their memories from shooting this truly unforgettable episode!
Thank you to The Hatch for inviting them both!
*The Hatch theme music by Andy G. Cohen and cover art by Danny Roth.*
https://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EbxOfTzVcAA1F97.jpg371679Team Cusickhttps://www.henryiancusick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_9686-300x57.jpgTeam Cusick2020-07-08 13:30:002020-07-08 17:30:52The Hatch: A LOST PodCast Welcomes Sonya Walger and Henry Ian Cusick
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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The provocative new science fiction horror tale, Chimera, tells the story of a mad scientist who crosses ethical boundaries and enters into a world where science becomes unholy black magic. Henry Ian Cusick (The Passage, The 100, Inhumans) stars as Quint, a scientist who studies the real-life Turritopsis jellyfish in an effort to save his children from their terminal condition.
Directed by first-time filmmaker Maurice Haeems, Chimera resembles a mix of classic “mad scientist” science fiction, horrific body horror tales of the 1980s and beyond, and the visually stunning color-coded sterility of modern day auteurs like Shane Carruth and Nicolas Winding Refn.
While promoting the release of Chimera, Henry Ian Cusick spoke to us about the fascinating pedigree of director Maurice Haeems, starring in a science fiction film with a small budget but big ideas, and what it’s like to shoot a movie and being forced to wait, potentially for years, before it eventually gets released to the public. He also shares some insight into his status as a Latino actor who generally doesn’t get cast in roles which allow him to speak Spanish on screen.
Chimera Strain Exclusive Interview: Actor Henry Ian Cusick on Immortality
Mankind has always tried to find a way to put an end to mortality. Be it with the Fountain of Youth, spiritual enlightenment, or scientific means, it’s been the subject of countless stories. Such is the case with Chimera Strain, the latest sci-fi drama from writer-director Maurice Haeems, which hits VOD and select theaters today!
LRM Online had a chance to discuss the film with its star, Henry Ian Cusick, who plays a scientist named Quint. In the film, he freezes his children as he races to find a cure by using the DNA of an immortal jellyfish. In our discussions, we discuss immortality and taking creative risks on not-so-obvious projects.
Best known for his roles as Desmond Hume on Lost and Marcus Kane on The 100, actor Henry Ian Cusick has a history of playing complex characters on sci-fi/fantasy television series.
His latest is on the vampire drama The Passage, where he plays the role of Dr. Jonas Lear.
The FOX series, which is based on Justin Cronin’s best-selling trilogy of the same name, airs its season finale on Monday. I recently had the chance to speak with Cusick about The Passage and what we can expect from the finale, as well as his work on The 100 and the impact Lost has had on his career.
Originally, Cusick’s role on The Passage was going to be much smaller. “It was a guest role with a possible recurring because I was on another show at the time, and it just so happened that they managed to work it out that I could join that show full time. And I’m really delighted with the way it’s turned out. It’s a very rich and complex character,” Cusick said, adding that he thinks that’s the case for every character on the series.
“They’re all individually very complex, and rich, and diverse, and they all add to the show. We have a really interesting mix in this cast, and also I think we have, in our lead, Saniyya [Sidney], just a phenomenal young talent. It’s a joy to watch her on screen just blossom. She’s just terrific.”
Although much of what we see in Lear’s backstory on the show is a desire to save his wife and find a cure to save mankind, Cusick isn’t convinced Lear’s motives are all good.
“I was of the same opinion, initially, that he was acting from good intentions. But as you [look] closer, I’m a bit suspect about his motives. Yes, he said he wanted to save his wife, and he wanted to do good for mankind. Yet, he’s a scientist; he must have been aware of his place in history, and he must have known what his legacy would have been. So there’s a bit of ego there, and there’s selfishness,” Cusick explained.
“He’s had many opportunities to end it. He could have killed Fanning very early on, and yet he chose to experiment on him, saying that, ‘if I can just find a cure, then I can cure my wife.’ So he’s always been tempted by this carrot of finding the cure, and he justifies it every time. And I’ve said this before, but if history were to judge him, whichever side wins, [he] would come out the worst.”
“He has an ego, [and it] just got the better of him, I think, and that was his downfall. I think he’s aware of that, and that’s where he is. He’s in a terrible place of guilt. He’s aware that he is the root of all of this and possibly thinking, what I just said, how will history judge him? It must be an awful place to be for him, so he’s riddled with guilt and remorse and the what ifs.”
Cusick also spoke a bit about the show overall, which, as anyone who’s been watching knows, actually has a heartfelt story.
“At the heart of the show, it’s a really positive message. The dark and the light. And the heart of the show, the relationship between Amy and Brad, which is a beautiful love — a father-daughter, second chance relationship for Brad and for Amy. It’s a very positive one. I think when we get to the end of the show, what you’ll see, everyone makes a decision. And ultimately we’re trying to survive. It has many things. It’s a post-apocalyptic survival show. It’s a vampire show. It’s relationships, a show with deep relationships with father-daughter. It has, which I really love this storyline, the doomed sort of bizarre love story between Richards and Babcock. And the unfinished business between Fanning and Lear — they’re linked in some sort of eternal hate because somebody loved somebody’s wife.”
“There’s all these different vignettes to it. Lacy gets a message from God: she’s got to save Amy. So everyone’s got their own agenda, their own mission, and they’re all very different. But the ultimate one is the survival of the generation.”
The show explores survival and the way people might react when faced with the worst of circumstances. Cusick currently lives in Hawaii, and he recalled a recent incident where people didn’t react in an expected way.
“We had a little incident here in Hawaii where, on a Saturday morning at eight o’clock, we all were given [a warning.] Phones and sirens and alarms went off saying, there’s a missile alert imminent. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. And the way people reacted is not the way — not everyone did the thing where you pack up your things and head to find cover. A lot of people decided just to sit and look at the sea. I wasn’t here at the time. I was in Vancouver. But my wife phoned me with tears, saying ‘is this real?’ and trying to find out on the internet,” Cusick recalled.
Even his own family didn’t react in the expected ways. “Annie, my wife, said she was walking around the house with half packets of Oreos. Meanwhile, my oldest son soaked all the towels. My other son was looking for a particular white shirt. So we don’t know how we’ll react in these circumstances, and that I thought was really interesting. We all think we know what we’d do. I can imagine the audience saying, ‘Well, why don’t they do this?’ We don’t really know what we’ll do at any given moment.”
As for what exactly we can expect from the two-hour season finale of The Passage, Cusick was able to offer up a few hints that should make fans excited — and possibly a bit nervous.
“I have to say, it’s terrific. There are episodes nine and ten, so even though it’s a two-parter, they’re both separate episodes,” he noted. “It’s epic. It’s really sweeping and beautiful. I can’t wait for the audience to watch and get their feedback because I think they’ve done a terrific job.”
“The show has gone by so quickly, but we’ve gotten to know a lot of characters, and sadly we will lose some people that we love, I think. So there are gonna be deaths. It’s a high-stakes show. There’s always going to be deaths. There’s going to be a lot of deaths by episode ten,” Cusick hinted. “If you’ve read the books, you know what’s coming.”
“Besides that, what’s it going to have? It’s going to have heartfelt moments. It’s going to have people coming to terms with what they’ve done. It’s going to have people making decisions on what they should do to survive all of this. It’s frantic. It’s panic and it’s mayhem. And yet, very touching as well. It’s very beautiful.”
Cusick couldn’t say much as far as what we can expect, but he did say we’d have answers quickly once the show returns for the new season. He hinted that viewers would “find out exactly what happens to Kane” during the first half of the season premiere episode.
“There’s a whole new world, and it’s… I don’t want to give too much away. Tune in on April 30th, and you’ll find out,” he confirmed.
Finally, Cusick took the time to reflect on his most iconic role — the role of Desmond Hume on Lost.
“So Lost, for me, changed my life completely and utterly. It brought me to Hawaii, where I still live. It introduced me to an American audience on television, on one of the biggest shows. We’re still talking about it. It’s still regarded as one of the biggest genre shows in the last 20-30 years. So I really owe my career to it,” Cusick shared.
“A whole new generation is watching the show now, and I still get people talking to me about it. So I think I will always be remembered as Desmond, and I’ll gladly take it. It was just such a dream role.”
That role was yet another one that started out as something much smaller. Cusick said the role of Desmond was “out of the blue” and was “a three-episode arc that turned into a life-changing role for me. So I owe a huge thank you to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and Jack Bender for that gift.”
And if you’ve followed all three of these shows — Lost, The 100, and now, The Passage, you’ve probably noticed some similarities. That’s something Cusick appreciates, but it’s not necessarily intentional.
“All of the shows like that are connected. And I find that interesting as well, as to how did that happen? That I’ve been in shows that all have similar themes. I often wonder about that, why that happened,” he said. “I’m just speaking to the universe, and it’s responding, I guess.”
—
Don’t miss the two-hour season finale of The Passage, airing this Monday, March 11th at 8/7c on FOX.
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Ian and Jamie McShane appeared on Fox 5 Atlanta’s Good Day Atlanta morning show and talked with host Paul Millikan about The Passage! If you missed it, you can watch the interview below and don’t miss The Passage on Monday nights at 9/8c on Fox!
Henry Ian Cusick & Jamie McShane talk ‘The Passage’
ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) – The new FOX series “The Passage” features a large ensemble cast of television veterans, including actors Henry Ian Cusick (“Lost”) and Jamie McShane (“Bosch”). And because the show films right here in Atlanta, Good Day Atlanta’s Paul Milliken got a chance to sit down with the actors on the set and learn a little more about their experiences working on the project.
Cusick stars as Dr. Jonas Lear, who travels to Bolivia to search for a mysterious miracle cure and ends up infecting his best friend with a vampire virus. McShane plays that best friend, which means he ends up spending much of the show locked up in a small cell.
For some actors, it might be a little challenging spending so much time confined in a tiny space, but as McShane joked to Paul, “In New York, that’s a two-bedroom!”
Meanwhile, Cusick says he’s having a great experience filming in Atlanta for the first time: “I’m blown away by Atlanta,” he says. “I didn’t realize it was such a cool little city. I had no idea it was as cool as it is. It’s really funky and I’ve really enjoyed…hanging out at Ponce, the Beltline. It’s just a really cool city.”
Click the video player below to check out more of Paul’s chat with Henry Ian Cusick and Jamie McShane
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When the TV sensation Lost blew up over a decade ago, one of its stars kind of missed the whole must-see TV hullabaloo that surrounded the one-hour drama.
“Because I lived in Hawaii we were sort of cut off from the rest of the world,” said Henry Ian Cusick, who played Desmond Hume on Lost and is in Vancouver shooting the CW sci-fi drama series The 100.
“It was my first show in the States, so I just assumed that this is how it was for all of the shows. I didn’t really know I was kind of asleep in many ways.”
Now Cusick, a native of Peru who calls Oahu, Hawaii, home, says he is much more mindful of how he navigates the show biz world he inhabits as a network TV star…..
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