Thursday 27 September 2012

666 Park Avenue: Terry O'Quinn Discusses His Devilish Character

Debuting Sunday night on ABC, 666 Park Avenue takes place at The Drake, an upscale New York City apartment building owned by Gavin Doran. Gavin hires young couple Jane (Rachael Taylor and Henry (Dave Annable) to manage the apartment and live there, but they have no idea what they’re stepping into. Because Gavin is not just a master manipulator, he’s someone tapping into something very dark and very, dare we say, devilish – making deals with his tenants that have a very steep price.

Playing Gavin is Terry O’Quinn, making his return to ABC after his years playing John Locke on Lost. I spoke to O’Quinn about his role in the supernatural series, what makes Gavin tick and what to make of his relationship with his wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams).

IGN TV: This character looks like a lot of fun to play. And your producers have said that he is certainly “bad,” or at least doesn’t have altruistic intentions. But I know they always say that as an actor, you don’t play a guy as being “evil”. So how do you approach him, and what do you think it is he wants?

Terry O’Quinn: I think it’s hard because everyone sees him as purely evil. Even when I make an effort to be charming or nice, everybody will see it as completely manipulative. But I think the best thing is to just treat it like a piece of music: play it hard when you need to play it hard and soft-pedal it when you can.

IGN: One big question is how he got to be in this position. Is this something you’ve talked with your producers about?

O’Quinn: No, I don’t know anything about how he got to have the power he has -- from the building, with the building. No, that has yet to be answered.

IGN: I guess the one sort of outwardly positive thing you could say going in is he seems to have a good relationship with his wife.

O’Quinn: That’s the one thing. People say, “Well, is he all powerful?” The only vulnerability I see at the moment is his wife. That’s a chink in his armor. You could hurt him through her somehow. I think other things will develop, but, yeah, they seem to have a really good relationship so far. Let’s hope they keep it that way.

IGN: Is it fun for you and Vanessa to play with that rapport and that give and take with each other?

O’Quinn: It’s nice because she’s very sweet, very easy to work with. She’s a real pro. I look forward to getting up and going to work.

IGN: On Lost, that was a show that took a few seasons to say, “There is a definite sci-fi/fantasy element.” This show’s kind of the opposite. In the first episode we see people sucked through walls by a supernatural force. Is it fun for you to do that flip side and be on a show that’s more overtly proclaiming, “Yeah, something otherworldly is going on here”?

O’Quinn: It makes me a little bit nervous that it goes that far that fast, but these are different writers. I know that Lost model was perfect at that time, so I just have to trust these guys and hope that it catches an audience!

IGN: Henry seems to be looking up to Gavin, but he clearly doesn’t have the full picture there. How much are you going to take him under your wing?

O’Quinn: Yeah, my guy is not subtle. When he talks about making it in New York, he doesn’t soft-pedal it at all. He’s very much the Michael Douglas character in Wall Street. He’s like, “Go get it. You have to want it.” It will be interesting to see how well he can play Henry, David’s character, without dragging him away or scaring him off.

666 Park Avenue premieres Sunday, September 30th at 10pm ET/PT on ABC.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.


Source : ign[dot]com

No comments:

Post a Comment