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Agents of SHIELD - Season 1 - J. August Richards Interview

29 Apr 2014

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Thanks to Nada for the heads up.
Zap2it: Did you have any idea early on how big your "Agents of SHIELD" role would be?
J. August Richards:
I had no idea, mostly because when you do a pilot you don't know if there are going to be any more episodes, let alone if my character was going to be coming back. I'm just so happy to be all these months later still on the show.

Did you ever find out how long Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen had planned for you to become Deathlok?
I get the sense that they have known for a while, but everything is so secretive with the show that I even had a costume fitting for Deathlok and I didn't know what I was being fit for. They were taking pictures of my body and scanning things and I was thinking to myself, "What is going on?" And then as I was riding home from the costume fitting Maurissa called me, and she said, "I'm sure you're wondering what's going on, and I just wanted to let you know we are turning you into Deathlok." I literally had to pull the car over to the side of the road and have a private celebration. I've said this a lot of times, but it's so true: If you had asked me when I was a little boy what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said a superhero. It was super exciting.

Deathlok is a complicated superhero. I think some people perceive him as a villain, even though that's not what he's trying to be.
Thank you very much! Thank you. I'm actually called the "Gentleman Tweeter" on Twitter because I'm very polite and very kind, but I've never gotten into more fights -- or any fights -- on Twitter until people refer to my character as a villain. Something about that really rubs me wrong, because I know how desperately Mike wants to be a hero, and a hero for his son and a hero for himself, and how good he is. The fact that he's being forced to do these things against his will just really hurts when people call him a villain. But somebody on Twitter coined the perfect phrase, and they said that Mike/Deathlok is the "anti-villain," and I like that as opposed to the anti-hero.

3 comments:

  1. but I've never gotten into more fights -- or any fights -- on Twitter until people refer to my character as a villain.


    Aww I like JAR he seems to really understand the character and its so true Mike isn't a villain, if it wasn't for that controlling eye and that threat to his family he would be one of the good guys.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly. Coulson and Skye understand that and I trhink it is pretty obvious, but several people I know treat him as a bad guy.
    He is a victim of the circumstances, he wanted to be the best he could for his son and that got him into trouble. He wanted to use his powers to help others.
    He was only captured because he went back for Coulson after taking his son to safety. It is nice to see that the actor understands the character that well. I believe we can see it in his eyes when he is portraying Deathlok.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He is a victim of the circumstances


    Yep! That really sums the entire mess up. I really love J. August Richards performance he gave a lot of soul to Gunn in Angel and is doing the same for Mike.

    ReplyDelete

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