Michael Emerson on Lost, True Blood and replacing Steve Carell?

The always watchable Michael Emerson took some questions from USA Today readers recently.

He was asked about Lost, the possibility of working on True Blood (with his wife Carrie Preston), working with Terry O’Quinn again and a lot more.

Check out the whole article here

from USA Today

Well, I’m sure you’ll be reminded of it for the rest of your life in other ways. The other day I watched The New Man in Charge, and I just thought it was a great wrap-up to the series. What are your thoughts about the epilogue, since you’re the star?

I really like it. I was delighted when I found out I had one of the primary roles in it. I think I was as excited to shoot that as I was to shoot the finale of the series.

Was any part of that epilogue ever included in the series?

No. I think it was conceived separately.

And were you told that was the end? There wasn’t going to be, like, “an epilogue to the epilogue”?

Yeah, they’ve always made that clear. I think we can take them at their word. These writers will never revisit the material, or at least not soon. And you’ll never get the cast together in one place again. But as some people have noted, you might get a couple of cast members together to do something that takes off on a tangent.

I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but Pam needs to know what you honestly thought of the ending.

Honestly, truly, honestly — I thought it was great! I was so pleased and so moving and so humane. And it didn’t rely on cleverness, it relied on soul. And I was especially delighted with the way they ended my character.

Another reader (Kathleen P.) says she saw your name mentioned on a list of possible replacements for Steve Carell on The Office. Has anybody else mentioned that to you?

I’ve seen it mentioned online, but I don’t take it very seriously. No industry person has talked to me. And plus, who wants to follow Steve Carell in that part? The opportunity for failure or embarrassment is so high that even if we lived in an insane universe where I actually got offered such a thing, I don’t know if you’d say yes to that.

A reader named Shaun asks, “Would you consider doing straight comedy for a future role?” I mean, Ben was frightening, but he was also so funny!

Yeah, sometimes I thought I was in a comedy, and I was the only one that knew it. In my stage career I was more often in comedies than not. I think of myself as a comedian. So I would be happy to do something funny, but it would have to be the right thing. I don’t know that I’m a “rat-a-tat-tat” kind of comedian that would thrive in the tight, rhythmic format of situation comedy. I don’t know what it would be. I guess I’ll figure it out as I go.

Many fans want to know if you’ll ever pop up on True Blood.

You know, I’m friendly with Alan Ball, and he always says, “I’ve got to write something for you.” I’m so flattered that a writer as potent as he is should give a moment’s thought to me, so I would do it if it was there. It would have to be the right thing. Certainly it could not be the sinister and manipulative leader of a myterious … It can’t be the vampire Ben Linus.

There’s ongoing buzz that you and Terry O’Quinn would like to do a project together. Is there any update on that? Is Terry the cast member you’ve kept in touch with the most?

I sure do stay in touch with Terry. There are some ideas being batted around in Hollywood where things move slowly and eccentrically, so I don’t know if anything will come from it, but I do know that some serious writers are playing around with ideas.

Whether it will ever see the light of day or not, I’m not sure. It would be a ways off in the future, but I would jump at the chance to do another show with Terry. We get along famously, and he’s about as good a scene partner as an actor will ever have.

What’s your next project?

The next time the public sees me is probably in a PBS series in October called God in America. I play a Puritan. It’s a three-or four-night series. It’s a documentary, but it also has period dramatizations.